City - Regular Meeting

Ladies and gentlemen, before we start our meeting this evening, I'd like to make a request that if you have an electronic device, please put it on silent or turn it off. Thank you very much. The name is better. Good evening everyone. and I'd like to welcome you this evening to the Los Battle City Council uh meeting for the month of February for the uh date of February 18th, 2025. At this time, I'd like to invite Pastor Hammond from Bethl Church forward to give us the invocation. Would you all please rise? Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the freedoms that we enjoy

as Americans to gather in this place to conduct the business of our city. We acknowledge you in the center of our city's government tonight. We ask your blessing upon tonight's meeting. We ask that you grant your wisdom and direction to our elected officials as they would have the courage to make the right decisions for every citizen of Los Panos. We thank you that you help us to display the love toward one another that you displayed toward us. May we also strive to live in unity and at peace with one another as we wart toward a better lost panos. I ask your blessings upon our elected officials and upon the leadership and staff of our city. We speak health to their bodies, peace and provision to their families, clarity to their minds, and the strength to do what is right in the sight of God and the people of our city. Open our eyes to see the many things that we have in common instead of only seeing the few things that divide us. As we look forward to the possibilities that lie ahead for us in this year, lead us down the path of righteousness for your name's sake. May you receive all the praise and all of the glory and all the honor forever and ever in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Thank you, Pastor Hammond. And Chief Raina, would you lead us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Chief. And at this time we'll have roll call by our city clerk Malan Perez here. Chavez here. Lewis here. Amil we have a quorum. Thank you. And at this point we're going to consider the approval of the agenda. But before we do that, I'm going to um inform council that we are going to pull item 17, which is close session, and schedule it at a later agenda date. So, could I have a motion uh to approve the agenda for this evening?

Yeah, would like to make a motion to approve the agenda as submitted. We have a motion by Chavez and a second by Perez. All in favor? I I thank you. Motion carried.

Excuse me. And now we have some presentations. This is one of the highlights of our council meeting is when we recognize our employees for the great job that they do and the task that they uh endure every day. And this evening we have a sec certificate of recognition for Joshua Schultz. Did I say that right? Such I'm sorry. Thank you, Joshua Such, police officer with the Losanos Police Department. in recognition of your outstanding performance and dedicated service to the city of Los Banos for being named employee of the month for January 2026. Congratulations, Joshua. Would you like to have my Thank you very

Now, a special award for our finance department and director Mareno aka Moreno. Our finance department keeps this city going and it's really important that we know exactly how much money we have, how much money we can spend now and for the future to keep this city going. So, I'm I'm so proud of this department and the job that they've been doing for our city. Outstanding work. And so, I will be presenting this award to the department and all of the staff involved. And this is the finance department in recognition of your outstanding performance and dedicated service to the city of Losanos and for receiving for the 11th consecutive year the government finance officers association certificate of achievement for the excellence in financial reporting for the f for the fiscal year 2324. And thank you all and congratulations for the service that you've GIVEN US. I ALSO WANT TO THANK STAFF for their dedication and and welcoming me me um this year and just being really supportive of the department and holding it together and um providing the citizens of Laspanos uh great reporting and financial reporting that you could always come and and ask questions. you can always come and and let us know what what you want to know about the city in terms of money and we're here to help you and staff has been great um to work with. So, thank you

I'd like to add that we have a great police department here in the city of Los Banos. I'm very proud of them and the work that they do day in and day out. How they protect our citizens here in Los Banos and make us feel safe. And again, thank you to our finance department and the job well done. Okay. Now, uh item number six, uh new employee introduction and I'm going to turn that over to our city manager, Neuron.

Good evening, Mayor Proms and City Council. Um, as we have done in the past, um, this is going to be our new traditions when we have new employees and new promotional promotions. I like to bring the employees forwards and introduce those to council as well as to member of the public. So, um, tonight um, while we're already on the subject of police department, um, why don't we have Chief Raina, um, to go ahead and introduce the, um, police department, uh, staff. Good evening, uh, Mayor Prom and Council. Uh, it is my honor this evening to introduce, uh, two of our newest employees. Uh, they are community services officers, um, Lordis Vega and Jonathan Montes. Uh, so they recently started with us. Uh, both are assigned to jail operations at the police department. Okay.

And next we has our public work department. So uh public work director William Bay.

Uh I'm not I'm not sure how many are here tonight. We have uh two new employees and two promotions. The new employees are Carlos Garcia, Utilities Maintenance One. Is Carlos here? I don't see him here. Uh, Carlos Fernandez, uh, maintenance mechanic one. Uh, Janelle Kershman is a promotion uh to admin coordinator from uh, admin assistant. I don't think I don't think she's here tonight. and Adriana Vieiraa also uh promotion from admin assistant to admin coordinator.

All right, have a speech. Congratulations. Thank you,

Mayor Prom. Those are all just a few employees and on a monthly basis, we'll continue to bring them forward. Um and congratulation to our uh promotional employee as well as we continue to bring talent from outside um to help make our team whole. We also want to create mobility within the organization to allow for the continuous growth and success planning between the department. So again congratulation on the promotions. Thank you uh for the introductions and thank you for the new staff and the pro uh people who were members of our city who were promoted for coming this evening. Okay, moving on to item number seven, Merced College semiconductor grant presentation. Uh and I will turn that over to uh director Soua Elms. Thank you, Miss uh Miss uh Madame Pro Tim. Um so tonight we have a presentation um from Merced College President uh Vatitali is here and we're honored um to have his presence here for this presentation. an exciting topic about semiconductors and um a study a grant that Merced College received um and how that will potentially benefit our community. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to President Vatitali.

Thank you so much. I've got a a handout. Can I pass that off? Thank you, Lucy. There's extras for whoever. Uh so we'll start off with a little pop quiz. How many of you know what a semiconductor is or microchip or micro semiconductors? Tiny thing.

Yeah. Um so in in our phones and our microphones and our computers and our cars literally in everything that is running some type of electrical unit has microchips in them. Some of them have thousands of microchips in them. And that's what I'm here to talk to you about today. I've learned way more about it than I wanted to or thought I would ever know. Uh, and now my job is the to convey all of that to this wonderful community and why Los Banos is so important as a part of this process. So, for those of you I haven't met, I'm Chris Vatelli, president of Merced College. I'm in my 10th year as president. Some of you I have not had the pleasure of working with, but I do look forward to getting to know you better. um worked with Mayor Promp Lewis and uh Mayor Amabil and others. A former student body president by the way, your mayor of uh Merrced Merced College. Uh but as many of you know, Merced College has been here in the Los Benos community uh for almost 55 years now and we're very very proud of the presence that we have. Our campus as it um exists right now is on land that was donated uh by the Anderson family, 125 acres, and we've occupied about 20 acres of it. So, we have a tremendous opportunity uh to grow that campus. We'll be using some of the funds that this community supported uh through measure P back in 2024 to grow that campus. Right now, as a bit of an update and leeway into this presentation, uh we will be expanding our A program. Uh we'll be expanding our allied health programs uh at the Losanos campus with our measure P bond dollars. Uh we most recently put in a child development center and brought back the child development program to that campus. And then we'll also be expanding some of our manufacturing. Uh so some of you may know we have a welding facility that we rent here. So we'll be building a brick and mortar welding facility.

We're looking to add automotive technology uh as well as uh computer science and cyber security. We feel that the semiconductor industry is also an area over the next decade that could really transform not only how we train students in this area but also uh the west um the west side of this county, the entire Los Manos community. And I want to talk to you about what we've been working on over the last nine months. And hopefully this will plant some seeds and that we can continue the conversations and discuss with you all about what we can do to maybe bring a semiconductor technician program to the Losanos campus. Aha, I think I went too far. See, at my board meetings, I always say, "My goodness, people don't know how to use a clicker." And here I am clicking back and forth.

Semiconductor. Yeah, there you go. There you go. All the microchips in here. That's right.

Um, so let me tell you a little bit about what we're doing. We have a small grant. It's $55,000 to explore building a semiconductor technician program. Um you may remember during CO that we had a short supply of automobiles for example or many of our um appliances even in our homes. And the reason wasn't because we're not manufacturing cars in the United States. Uh we actually have manufacturing plants. It wasn't because we didn't have access to some of the basic components within a vehicle. Uh, but it was more because we did not have access to the microchips that all of our cars need to run these days. Because microchips are so light in weight and easily to transport, they're actually manufactured and shipped to sometimes up to seven countries before they make it into the final product of our phones or our computers or our cars. And the reason we had such a backlog in 2000 and 20, excuse me, 2020 and 2021 was because our dependence of microchip manufacturing in countries like Taiwan. Since that happened, we recognize that it's a security issue for the United States and a supply and demand issue and that the United States government has to invest in an industry to make sure that never happens to us again. And so over the last 5 years, uh the US government has been putting billions of dollars into ensuring that the full supply chain uh can happen right here in the United States. And Phoenix is one of those areas that it's happening and they're growing. And of course just in our backyard, the Silicon Valley. And over the next 5 to 6 years, it's estimated

that we'll need over 115,000 skilled technicians in the semiconductor industry. For every engineer that they need in the semiconductor industry, they they um estimate that we'll need four to six uh technicians to complement the industry and what we do. We believe that being so close to the Silicon Valley and with our unemployment rate here in the um in this county that we have an opportunity to build a local workforce in a a cluster, an industry cluster here in the Los Panos community. So, we applied for the grant through North Valley Thrive and essentially uh we were given $50,000. I promise I'm hitting the clicker, Stacy.

I'm sorry. The That's okay. Can I just tell you uh when to click to the next one? Is that easier? Yeah, no problem. Um and so we believe that um if we can develop a road map and that actually takes all of us uh that we can uh do a couple things. One uh we can build some strategic partnerships with those who are manufacturing in the Silicon Valley. We can build a curriculum that really focuses on the right areas of micro electronics. And we think with the excess land that we have at the Los Vanos campus, we could actually do a p public private partnership to attract some of that industry to the county to get us started. So, next slide. So, what we did was we got a $50,000 grant through North Valley Thrive. The first few months we've been uh first few months we're looking at the economic landscape studying exactly what it means to be involved in the education and certification of semiconductor technicians um and making some industry context not only in the Silicon Valley but also in Phoenix. We've been working with our partners at Arizona State University that has an almost $900 million grant to build out the semiconductor industry and seeking partnerships even in the Silicon Valley to maybe look at what a public private partnership might look like. Um, we're in the process of finishing the economic study, uh, looking at what the curriculum would would be if we were to advance into this industry and create a roadmap of working with the city and the county possibly to build an industry cluster. So when we finish the workforce study, we'd like to meet with city leaders and sit down and talk about what the semiconductor industry is and where we might fit into that in Merced County, particularly here in Losanos. Uh we'll continue to finalize partner outreach

and hopefully come with a plan with a couple partners who might want to partner with the city of Losanos and the county of Merrced to build out either a small testing facility, packaging facility, or fabrication facility. And we'll have um what we believe is at least a basic outline for curricula on a semiconductor technician u program. the California jobs first funds um are still available and we think that if we create a good enough road mapap that maybe together us and the city of Losanos and the county of Merrced could go after up to $2 million to begin this process. Next slide. So, as you know, our campus is right on Highway 142 and we think we have some compelling ways to go together and build this partnership out. Uh, as you can see, we occupy a small piece of about 130 acres total. Uh, the back side of our campus is 18 120 acres that we lease out for farming right now, but we do plan to develop it. And then we have another 100, you know, excuse me, another another 80 acres that sits out on Balta Road. Uh, with the city's help, we think we could attract some industry over here, make them an economic uh, package that would benefit them. uh and then together with industry uh grow what we believe would be a profitable industry for this community but also uh um a good training uh certificate program for those who want to get into a high-skll high demand um career. Keeping in mind to as well that there are many of your residents here in Losanos that commute over to the Silicon Valley for similar jobs as this and that we would also be able to train them for relevant jobs if they were to continue to commute and come back to the Los Panos community. So our value proposition is that we have growing enrollments at the Los Banos campus. We serve over 3,000 students now. Uh we've

got um the comprehensive campus. We have a great partner in the city of Los Banos. um we're close to the Silicon Valley where these industries are growing aggressively and they're looking for um a good place to plant and build their business and could there be no there couldn't be a better place than the west side of Merced County here in Los Banos and that we could uh use our land and leverage um the Losanos campus for a public private partnership to begin to build that. We believe momentum starts here, especially for the semiconductor industry. Uh we just wanted to give you a snapshot of what we're working on. Uh we we um are um very proud to have a presence in this amazing community. Uh we do believe that we should be building up industry clusters together. We're doing something similar in Merced right now on the Merced campus. We're growing our A technology and robotics program and building hopefully an industry cluster that will attract small businesses that can grow and scale. Uh in that industry we're building a um a through a public private partnership a business incubator on our campus there and we're going to attract hopefully companies all over the world that will come and grow their company for agrobotics. We think we can do the same thing right here in Laspanos. So with that that concludes the presentation. happy to answer any questions that you might have or ideas or thoughts on how we can grow this industry together.

Well, thank you so much for the presentation. Are there any questions from council? Well, well, I'm really happy to hear about this and and certainly it helps to bring Los Angeles to the 21st century, which is well needed. Um, and this is how we're going to be able to get livable wages, livable wage jobs in our community for people who live here futuristically. So, thank you so much for applying for this grant and I'm glad to see that it's here in Los B. Thank you and look forward to continuing the discussions with you all and your your new city manager. We'll make that happen soon. So, thanks so much for having me tonight. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, we're now on item number eight, Mid Valley disposal presentation and announcement of recycler of the year. And I will turn this over to director VI for presentation.

Uh good evening uh Mayor Prom and council members. Uh the presentation is going to be given by Billy Hansen tonight from Mid Valley Disposal. Do we want to do the clicker? It's working. I think we got I think we got change the batteries. Hi Council and Mayor Pro 10. Billy Hansen with Mid Valley Disposal. I'm here actually tonight to do a warm handoff to Marissa Corlejo. She is our recycling program specialist and she's going to be giving you your annual updates every year moving forward. So I wanted to give her a warm introduction and allow her to make her presentation tonight. So, thank you.

Thank you, Billy. All right, let's see if the clicker works. Um, good evening, uh, Mayor Prom and city council members. Um, thank you for having me tonight. My name is Marissa Corlejo, the recycling program specialist here with Mid Valley Disposal. I'm fairly new to Mid Valley. I am a year in. Um, however, I'm not new to the waste reduction um, industry. um waste collection industry. Um I'm just excited to be here tonight. So hopefully you'll be seeing more than me moving forward. Um and I do look forward to continue uh to working alongside with the city and advancing recycling and compliance efforts. And so before I do get into this real quick, I did just want to recognize our team who's here with us tonight. So you guys all know Billy Hansen who is our senior uh recycling programs manager and then we have Teresa Orosco who is one of our recycling coordinators, Rick Ry who is our operations manager and then we have Fedrico Via Gomez who is our route supervisor. All right, let's see. Click. There we go. So, here at Mid Valley Disposal, uh we prioritize, uh proactive community- based engagement, uh through the consistent participation in community events. And not only do at Mid Valley enjoy these events, we have a lot of fun at these events, but this is an opportunity for the community to ask questions um and also learn about recycling. Um and I did just kind of want to list some of the community events that we were uh part of this uh the past year in 2025, which Earth Day was really fun, really hot, but really fun. Uh we had career day at Lisa's learn um a lot preschool which I believe one of our trucks was able to make it out there. Correct. And that was super fun for the kids. So they love that. Um I personally attended by National Backpack Giveaway. Um it was a lot of fun. They have um music, food, you name it, they have it. Water fights. Um and again we got a lot of attendees who actually come to our booth and ask us a

lot of questions about recycling which is amazing. Um we did trunk or treat, Veterans Day parade, the Christmas parade. My son was actually on the float this year and he fell asleep throughout the entire parade. Um, so he missed it. Um, and then we did a Murf tour for our homeschool group and that was um, actually led by Teresa Otto School, our recycling coordinator. All right. So, beyond inerson community engagement and meeting customers where they are, for example, uh, visiting businessto business, we also expand our educational reach through direct mailers. as one of our targeted outreach efforts. So, um this in 2025, we did 313 sites visits. Um and then we did 53,515 educational flyers that were distributed either by mail or in person engagement. Um and then all of our tier 1 and tier 2 food gener uh generators were identified and provided education, which was great. And then here we have our route review results. So, uh we have a three-stream visual here that identifies a percentage of contamination found during our route reviews per each commodity. Um and it shows how many containers were audited and how many of those containers were actually contaminated. Um and this is actually literally done by lid flipping. So our team is literally out there prior to the drivers on route. They try to beat the drivers out there before the sun comes out and they lid flip. Um so our percentages looks like I guess we'll start with recycle. We have a 16% for contamination. Out of um 648 carts, 102 of those were contaminated. And of course this is usually the single-use plastics like plastic bags. Um we also have the trash which was a total container of 661 audited and out of those um out of that number 36 were contaminated. Um which brings us now to

organics which is the total container 634 and the contaminated uh containers were 11 giving us a 2% uh contamination which is really really really great. Um it shows a lot of improvement here in the city. And then for our next slide, I'm going to go ahead and bring up our operations team and they can go ahead um and elaborate more on our cleanup events.

Good evening, uh Mayor Promp, city council and sue staff. Rick Ry, operation manager for midv disposal. Uh these numbers that you see up here do not include our shred event that we also have four times a year and does not include the HHW that we have two times a year during the spring and fall events. I'm going to go and pass it over to Feder Rico which will go ahead and talk about the totals for this year.

Hello everybody, my name is Rico. Uh so for the four events that we've had here in Los Banos, which is at the uh fairgrounds in front of the fairgrounds, uh total trash per pounds was uh 268,000. Uh total organics was pulled was 13,60. Uh total e-waste was 2,700 lb. Uh total metal was 85,000 with 80 lbs. And then total tires uh 512, which is great because we don't get to see it on the side of the road or out on the back roads. And also I want to include that um residents of uh city loss panels do have four times a year they can give four free pickups up to six items and those numbers right there do not reflect that as well. Okay so yes if you have ever been to our annual events our cleanups please if not come by check us out. I know Mr. Chavez has been there a few times so you can see that we do pride ourselves in making sure we get residents in and out as quickly as possible. Thank you. All right. So, let's see. Oh, clicker stopped working. Can we get into the next slide? Thank you. All right. So, um tonight we want to recognize our recycler of the year. Um, and if you guys want to come down here, we have Italia Coffee and Bistro. And as they come up, I just wanted to say a few words and just give them the recognition that they deserve. So, I'm honored to recognize a business that truly exemplifies community partnership um, and what we can achieve together. So, when Italy Coffee and Bistro first opened, we worked closely together to ensure their waste collection system aligned with SP 1383 requirements. Without hesitation, their team took immediate action in implementing a

three-stream system and prioritizing compliance from the start. Over the past year, that commitment has grown into a strong working relationship built on communication, collaboration, and shared goal of waste diversion. As a family-owned business, they have not only embraced proper recycling and organic practices, but have also set a positive example within our community. It's truly inspire inspiring to see what can be accomplished when local businesses and service providers work together towards a common purpose. So, please join me in congratulating our 2025 recycler of the year, Italia Coffee and Besro. Did you want to say a few words? Thank you guys so much for having us here. And I really want to thank Mid Valley Disposal, especially Marissa and Teresa, which uh they work really close with us. Uh they came in there and like you know told us guys like plain and simple, this goes here, this goes there. So we try to implement that as much as we could and we just want to thank everybody and thank you for the award. We really appreciate it.

Thank you so much. You guys want to take a picture? Yeah, we can go that way. They worked hard. They They did all the work.

Okay,

I can get the logo from here. I have a wide angle here. Okay. Ready? One, two, three. Nice. Thank you.

And this summarizes our 2025 update for 2026. So, thank you so much for your presentation. Um, I'm really excited that we have a Los Banos business that's been chosen as recycler of the year and we hope to see you at the annual uh Christmas uh event in uh where is it? Down in Kinga.

Uh it just really touches my heart to see that we have someone in our community that has met the standard. Uh, I do have one other question and I'll I'll also ask my other council members uh if they have any. Uh, for the pickup four times a year for residents, I understand it's up to six items. That would be at their personal residence. Yes. Okay. So, um, would you would you mind coming forward, sir?

Come on down, Rick. So, with that being said, would they have they need to contact um uh the company to be able to set up appointment to take care of that that uh pickup? Yes, Miss Lewis. So, they usually contact the office and they'll schedule a day for them to go and get service. So, they'll let them know to place their items out on a particular day and then we'll go by and pick them up for them. Okay. And is there a limitation? Up to six items. Up to six items. But you know when I say limitations is there specifics of picked the fish tanks, refrigerators, mattresses, couches. So your typical items that you would typically bring to a cleanup.

All right. Thank you very much. Are there questions of any of the other council members? Yeah, I got a question, but I got a comment first. I want to thank Rick and your crew for the job you guys do with the recycling events. You guys were pretty quick. This last one I was like, man, this line is long. But then it moved on really quickly. So, you know, you guys were really hustling. So, you know, great job and thank you again. And then I just do have one quick question. I know on it on the trash it talked about uh in the regular trash can there's 38 contaminated containers. What what contaminates a regular trash? I'm just curious to what that is.

So, um our organic stream is basically specifically for organic. So, sometimes we find food scraps or yard waste inside the trash container or we find cardboard which essentially goes into the recycling cart. And so then those are the type of items that we find in a trash bin that otherwise would go into a separate stream. Gotcha. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Just a quick question for me. Um so up to four times um residents are able to call in and that's no additional charge for them. And then if they want to call you guys back after that, are they able to they you know like decide to pay? Correct. Yeah. Yes, because you guys have like render bin and stuff like that,

correct? We do offer render bands, rolloffs, um just kind of you know exactly what the customer's needs are. Okay, awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Job well done. Thank you so much. Thank you for the presentation. Thank you. Have a good night.

Okay,

now we're going to move forward to item nine, which is the public forum. Members of the public may address the city council members on any item of public interest that is within the jurisdiction of the city council including agenda and non-aggenda items. No action will be taken on non-aggenda items. Speakers are limited to fiveminute presentations. Detailed guidelines are posted on the council chamberformational tape. All written comments received will be read by the city clerk during the public forum, emailed to the city council, and added as supplement to the agenda packet on the on the uh city's website. So, do we have anyone who would like to come forward and speak during the public forum? All right, I guess I'll kick things off. Evening, Mayor Prom, Council, City of Losanos. My name is Carth Prasad here on behalf of Congressman Adam Gray. And it's my absolute pleasure to share with you that earlier this month, Congressman Gray was able to secure over $16 million in direct funding for projects throughout our district through the recently passed appropriations package, which includes funding for 15 projects after a very competitive application process. Information for the projects funded can be um and the amount appropriated can be found on our website, gray.house.gov. And in a time like now when the federal government is um very hesitant to fund any projects, um we're very proud to have uh helped fund some very critical infrastructure projects throughout our district. Next opportunity to apply for community project funding is this spring. Our office will begin um accepting applications once the applications the appropriations committee has released their guidelines on the process. Uh which will happen usually in March, but we'll be letting

everyone know uh once they've actually released the guidelines and we know what we're working with. We'd be happy to assist the city of Los Banos secure funding for community projects as we were able to secure funding for all 15 projects that we submitted. Um, and I mean we got to keep that momentum going and uh get as much as much as possible for our community and we're more than happy to help the state to do so. In addition to all that, Representative Gray signed on to a letter with Representatives Costa, Valido, and Fong asking Governor Nuomo to modernize the operations of California's water systems. The congressman co-led the Feed Our Veterans Act, which ensures veterans would again be exempt from having to meet SNAP work requirements to receive benefits. The SNAP online access act to direct the USDA to make SNAP online purchasing program permanent. And he's also co-led the precise act, a bill that would make loans more available for precision agriculture technology um on farms. In addition to that, uh he's co-sponsored HR2598, the IDEA full funding act, which is a biccameal bill that enforces full funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Act and uh is a co-sponsor on the Farm and Family Relief Act. It has been a very very busy new year for us and I can guarantee it's only going to get busier. Um with that said, um anyone knows anyone uh in the community who's got some issues with the federal government and I'm sure there are plenty, don't hesitate to send them our way. Okay, we're in Mercer, 602 West 20th Street. And give us a call, check out our website, and we'll be happy to assist them any way we can. Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else? Oh boy, I'm up here again. Uh, hi, my name is Javier Powell. Uh I'm here again uh representing the Milicanin Museum Society. Uh we have an event coming up which is next week uh next Wednesday. It is our 8th annual Charles Sawyer lecture series. Uh I said a bit about it I believe at the last meeting or the meeting before that. It's about how the world wars and cold war um even up to the Korean Vietnam wars affected Laspanos and um our military involvement in those. It starts at 5:30 with a wine and cheese reception and it will have an exhibit of our uh World War II and World War I fundraising posters, which if you've not seen them before, we have quite a few. A lot of them are actually in our archives, and you have to kind of pull them out a little bit to see them, but they're really cool. Um, at 6:20, our lineup of speakers will begin speaking, and that includes Paul Leler, who was born and raised in Laspanos. Paul has obtained celebrity status in the valley for his chronicling and distribution of veteran stories and and his part in spearheading the central valley honor flights. Mike Hughes, which many of you know, Vietnam veteran and retired chief of police of Laspanos. Hughes is the current commander of the V a feder Viet veterans and federal wars post 2487 in Laspanos and has held that post for the last 11 years. Paul Serner, a Laspano's high school class of 1970 graduate. Retired Air Force fighter pilot uh with over 30 years of experience. Seter has over 2,400 hours flying and 250 combat hours pilot piloting the stealth bomber fighter. Colonel Seter served several years in the Pentagon and was present during the 9/11 attack. Tim McNed College professor

and retired high school teacher. under his leadership. His students wrote firsthand accounts of local veterans experiences in civil wars in a series of books that we sell at the museum. Uh that's our lineup. We expect to end at 7:30. We're not quite sure if full end of that time. Uh it'll be at the Ted Felasco Art Center, which is the old uh Catholic church here downtown. And I hope to see you all there. Have a great day.

Thank you. Okay. Good evening everyone. Um, I wanted to uh speak on uh my name is Blanch Georgia and I live in the downtown area. So, as we grow, um, I'd like for us to take a look at designing our city with green corridors for wildlife. Since we do have a lot of wildlife in our general areas, as we keep growing and refine our finite area that we're going to grow into, and we've called that the green belt, if we could possibly think about incorporating the green quarters to allow animals to have access um back and forth as they migrate um safely instead of getting ran over um by our roads. So, just want to start putting that out there um for our dream. Um I do also want to talk about um just very briefly. I don't want to run out of time, but you guys are looking at some funding going on and um I want to encourage the any amount for our code enforcement officers. for years after years, uh, they have proven to really help our community. Not only that, they are also partly responsible, and I might be speaking out, but they are part of the police department's uh, code enforcement, animal control division. So, anything that can help them help

their jobs because a lot of times when they spot something that needs a cleanup, um, usually what happens is that there are animals living in that area that needs to be cleaned up. And, um, without code enforcement doing that kind of work, we would have so many more obstacles to obtain feral cats and to help them out. So I just want to add that. Um but as we grow we have been um I would like to talk about um people that cannot socialize their dogs. I have a quick example. Um, I received some messages and a phone call from an individual that had a dog for about five years. And because of their illness and because of a lot of things, this person has not taken their dog out of their backyard. It's now a little aggressive. uh they're hoping to go ahead and to work with the dog or someone to work with the dog before they actually even give it away, move away and give it away. That's their plans. It's a sad fact that happens way too often. And we can go ahead and start working on helping um our citizens socialize their dogs. And one re way to do that is to expand another dog park. That way um people can take their dogs out when they're younger and they meet all the criteria to be at the dog park. What's also so great about the dog park besides socializing is um that we could help educate them whether or not the dog park

has some placards or some cute things placarded around fences that talk about the different breeds of dogs. That way if we educate the public on the different kinds of breeds, they're more apt to stay away from a breed that is not for them. And so um so I just wanted to touch on a few bases of that. Thank you. Thank you.

Is there anyone else that would like to speak at the public forum? I don't see anyone coming forward. So I will close the public forum at this uh well before I close it, I'd like to check with our city clerk to see if there were any comments received online. Not. Thank you. So, we'll close the public forum and move to item 10, consideration of the approval of the consent agenda. The items on the consent agenda are considered to be routine and will be voted on in one motion unless removed from the consent agenda by a council member. And at this time, I will turn it over to our city clerk, Melanie.

Items on the consent agenda are as follows. warrant numbers 256051 through 256246 in the amount of 1,890, $1526. Minutes for the January 21st, 2026 city council meeting in Losanis successor agency meeting. City council meeting minutes for February 4th, 2026. City Council resolution number 7046 authorizing the Losanis Fire Department to apply for the Sanwaqen Valley Air Pollution Control Control District Emergency Vehicle Replacement Grant Program for the replacement of a non-carb compliant type 1 fire engine. City Council resolution number 7047 accepting the transportation development act funds financial statement for the years ended June 30, 2023 and 2022 as prepared by Price Paging Company, Merced County Association of Government's Auditors. City Council resolution number 7048 accepting the Transportation Development Act funds financial statement for the years ended June 30, 2024 and 2023 as prepared by Price Paging Company, Merced County Associations of Governments Auditors. City Council resolution number 7049, terminating the construction contract with TBS contractors for the construction of the flow meter replacement project. City council resolution number 7050 accepting public improvements for South Point at Regency Park phase 11A for Stonefield Homes, Inc. City Council resolution number 7051,

approving the agreement with Nasaman LLP for California State Advocacy Services and authorizing the city manager or designate to execute all necessary documents regarding the same city council resolution number 7052 approving the agreement with Nasaman LLP to address compliance with the chromium ium six maximum contaminant level and authorizing the city manager or designate to execute all necessary documents regarding the same and the items are to be approved as submitted. Okay.

Thank you very much. Um to the council is there any item that would uh you'd like to pull for either discussion or and or a separate vote? Okay. Not seeing that. Um, yes, if I may, may may I protend? Um, just for item 10 I and 10J, if u staff can provide a little bit of context for both of those items just for transparency for the public. Absolutely. That be okay.

Yeah. So, specifically for item 10 I and 10J. This is in regards to Nosman LLP contract. So, as you're aware, we have brought on Nosman's LNLP to assist with our chromium 6 situation for quite some time now. They have been successful in assisting us leveraging and lobbying for various legislations to protect the cities from possible lawsuits in regards to the new u maximum contaminant level in regard to chrome 6. Um their track records on these kind of work has proven to be very successful. Um so as we are evaluating knowing that chrome 6 projects and our compliant program are taking place and we are finding some success and and some study regards to pilot program on new treatment facility. Um we realize that we do need additional funding from the states and from the federal government that is in a form of state revolving fund. So staff um recommend the council to continue to allow us to engage with Nosman's to continue this work because state revolving funds are a massive funding program that required a lot of work that is including environmental works the application itself but the end result is a massive grant programs that can be coming in in the form of 30 to$40 million to assist us in chromium 6 treatments and as we evaluating the chromium 6 and our relationship with no nauseins um we've also come to realize that there are a lot pieces of legislative that being drafted up at Sacramento that are going to be impacting Lasandis. Um we as a city need to take a stance on a lot of these and continue to advocate for our resident and businesses to bring some of that legislation back um and provide council the context on whether to support or propose um some of those legislations. Uh so Nosman's has a branch um that's specifically dealing with lobbying activity. So that's what item 10i is to allow us to engage with nausemen's people that are at Sacramento's on the ground to be able to provide a regular update. In this case we are monthly updates on legislative that are being discussed in Sacramento. Additionally uh

following up on those pieces of legislations is funding opportunity. we can start lobbying on on behalf of the cities through this firm to start going through congressional direct spendings, looking at earmark funds, looking at uh potential funding for massive projects like our regional projects with Colorado, right? We know that we have some seed funding to allow for the initial study to get the projects on uh uh um shovel ready, but will needs the funding for constructions as well as you know things like our wastewater treatment plants. you know, our water quality will remains uh needed work as well as our pioneer road project that will also have funding gaps. So, this is an opportunity for us to engage our legislator, our elected official at Sacramento to uh uh funnel some of that funding back to Laspaners and that's why those two items uh 10i and 10J are going hand inand together and we feel the need that that that's required. Well, thank you very much for the update and um certainly th those two items together are extremely important to the city of Losanos and uh to help us uh receive funding in the future, to apply for funding in the future and to deal with our uh chromium 6 issue uh that um the state of California has lowered the um parts per billion from 50 down to 10. And that's that's a big jump. So we have a hurdle that we have to cross to to meet these standards for the state of California. So with that being said, I'll entertain a motion to approve the um consent agenda as submitted.

Uh Mayor Pro would like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda as submitted. No second. We have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda. All in favor signify by saying I.

I. And the motion has carried. Thank you. We'll move on to item number 11. Consideration of adoption of ordinance number 1214 approving a development agreement related to the development known as villages 5 uh Roslin M. Simmons um revocable trust UT UTD. Uh we had the first reading of this uh at our last meeting. This is the second reading and adoption as we move forward. So I will turn this over to director Susa Evans.

Thank you, Mayor Perim. Um so yes, just as you said, uh this item was, um at the last city council, there was a public hearing which was on February 4th and the city council at that meeting approved final development number 2024-01 for villages 6 subdivision. This is for 30 units within the Stone Creek area plan. And then waved the first reading and introduced ordinance number 1214 for a development agreement between the city of Lasanis and the Dunley Trust as well as the Simon Trust. Um, so staff is asking that the city council today would consider waving the second reading and adopting ordinance number 1214 authorizing the mayor to execute a development agreement for the development known as the villages six subdivision. And I'm keeping it short and sweet. And if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

Thank you. Are there any questions? No. Okay. Well, I will entertain a motion. Yeah, I'd like to make a uh motion to wave the second uh reading of ordinance 1214. Thank you. And do I have a second? I'll second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Okay, that motion has passed and now we need to um uh introduce the adoption of the ordinance.

Yes, I'd like to uh to make a motion to adopt the ordinance as submitted as read by title. Okay, we have a motion to adopt. Do we have a second? I'll second. Okay, and this calls for a uh roll call, please. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Motion has passed by a majority. Thank you very much. Moving on to item number 12, mid uh midyear budget review and approval of a resolution to amend the fisc year 2526 budget. And I will turn this over to Director Marino. Tonight, I'm sorry. I will be presenting the midyear budget review for fiscal year 2526. This review provides an updated look at the city's overall financial condition and highlights the adjustments needed to ensure we remain on track for the remainder of the fiscal year. provides the council with a mid-year in-depth review of the city's overall financial condition. The purpose of this review is three key areas. First, it evaluates the city's financial condition at the halfway point for our fiscal year. Second, it reviews the economic assumptions used to project our general fund year-end position. And third, it outlines the proposed budget adjustments across all funds as detailed in exhibit A of the staff report. centers on the economic assumptions used to project the general fund year-end financial position. Starting with the general fund revenues, they're trending higher than originally budgeted. Based on updated year-end projections, we anticipate an overall increase of 1.33 million. The largest contributors to this are property tax of 640,000 sales tax of 345,000 property tax in lie of VLF vehicle license fee 188,000 moderate moderate increases in charges for service and other revenues totaling the 1.33 million.

On the expenditure side, updated forecasts and RMA insurance adjustments resulted in a net decrease of 276,849 of expenditures. Most departments are trending below budget, including community ser community and economic development, fire, building, recreation and maintenance, public works, engineering, police and code enforcement is the only major area showing an increase primarily due to operational needs. The total um savings in expenditures is 276. I'm sorry. What happened? Clicker is not working. Did it freeze? Okay. Okay. 276,849. Okay. Combining the revenue increases and expenditure savings, the general fund is projected to close the fiscal year with an operating surplus of approximately $84,000. As you might remember or might not remember, we were in a deficit last year of 87,000 that we were going to use for one-time projects. So, with this in with this increase of 1.6 six with reduced expenditures, increased revenues, we're actually in a positive. We're actually in a surplus of 804,000. Next, I'll summarize the impact of other funds as outlined in exhibit A across special revenues, capital projects, enterprise funds, and internal service funds. Measure H, it has a net pos net positive impact of 885,000 with increased revenues and reduction in appropriations for the solar lighting project. Measure P is an increase of 306,000 reflecting higher revenues and funding for vehicle cameras.

Park development impact fees increase of 100, sorry, 1.27 million tied to updated revenue forecasts and reduced project appropriations. the water fund increase of 2.3 million with adjustments for the water master plan chrome 6 compliance and meter change out projects. One of the processes that we went through with the departments was to making sure that they could deliver and execute and I've been talking about this since last budget cycle, right? Deliver and execute. What can you deliver and what can you execute? So, if you can't deliver it in this fiscal year, then let's take it off of books. Let's remove the appropriations and let's appropriate it next year. And so we went through a really robust um and thorough um review of what that what that meant for each of the departments. Solid waste, the largest adjustment is 6.6 million and uh this is also a reduction in appropriations. Overall, these adjustments ensure each fund reflects the most accurate financial picture heading into the second half of the fiscal year. With this said, we are asking council to adopt the resolution amending the fiscal year 202526 budget to incorporate the revenue and expenditure changes identified in exhibit A of the midyear staff report. Staff recommends that the city adopt the resolution to amend the budget. And overall with the increased revenues and the reduced appropriations, we're talking about about 17 million.

Is that it? That's it. Thank you very much. Okay. Uh are there any questions of staff regarding the midyear budget report? No.

Yeah. You want to add anything to this or all good here? Mayor and council, I think I'd be remiss to to not thank our staff for this because this is a very very detailed process that we went. Uh we looked at every project that was budgeted in this fiscal year and like Minnie said, we look at the deliverability of them. Uh this project that are removed from this budget right now, it's not that we are not going to do them is that we are going to put them into a realistic timeline so that it does not tied up our expenditure and our forecasting for the next fiscal year. we're putting them on a schedule knowing understanding when's environmental work need to be done design need to be done um and then start programming those when the project is we all call it shovel ready so and that's why this reduction are being seen and I think one of the pretty big reduction that you've seen there is about $6 million and that is in our solid waste for the landfill that project I can assure you is continue to move forward but as you can imagine the um regulatory agency that we have to work with either from the waterboard and car cycles need to jump through the proper process um to get those approved prior to us breaking grounds and that's why that project construction will be facing it back into the next fiscal year. Um overall I think we're very happy to see because um we have seen a bunch of other agency that's seeing a dipped in their sales tax um as well as in their property tax where we are seeing a modest increase. Um, I think a lot of the initiatives that we are working together with the community, things like the shop locals are starting to take roots and we want to thank our community for continue to really um, have that trust for us uh, and know that that we're going to be providing a good stewardships in the city funds and start delivering some of those tax dollars back to the taxpayer.

Thank you, Neran. That glad you made that point. Wanted to make sure people didn't take away that, oh, they're not going to do all this stuff. They taking it off. No, like like Neron said, it's still going to get done. is just being appropriated approp where it should be.

I I think that was very clear with our uh financial director that uh things that aren't being completed within the fiscal year uh our staff is looking at the budget and taking that money out so that u if if possible put it in the next fiscal year budget so we can move forward rather than u just letting money sit there and it's not being spent. Um when I was working uh with the county of Santa Clair, there was an old adage, if you don't use it, you lose it. So, it's good that um we're our staff is now working more efficiently to make sure that when they are asking for money that it is money that they're going to be able to use within that fiscy year budget. Okay. Um Council Member Perez, do you have any questions?

Uh no, I think you're on a great job um explaining it to me earlier. So, yeah. No, no questions for me. Okay, thank you very much. And thank you for the presentation. Okay, and with that, uh, I will entertain a Wait a minute. Let's see. I will entertain a motion to adopt, uh, this resolution as submitted. I'll make a motion to adopt the resolution as submitted. Okay, we have a motion. And do we have a second? Second. Okay, with that, uh, all in favor signify by saying I.

I. And the motion has passed. Thank you very much. Okay. Now we will move on to item 13 which is our department report. And we will start with um the community economic development department director Stacy Souza L.

Thank you again, Mayor Proen. Um, so I do, um, just want to let the planning commission know, excuse me, the city council know that the planning commission will be attending the planning commission academy in March. Um, it's the second week of March. Um, but this is um due to the council's um direction to make sure that our planning commission um attends this training yearly and they've invested in that training and that education to our planning commission on a yearly basis. So, we thank you for that. Um, so they will be attending that 3-day um academy that's um put on by the uh League of California Cities. Um, and hopefully we will learn um some new housing laws, I'm sure, that are on um the brink of um being implemented. Um but as well as um you know, nuts and bolts of planning um squa um and all of the things that are helpful to make a planning commission nurse successful. Um so that concludes my report. And where where is it going to be held this year?

In Anaheim, California. Okay. Thank you. Okay. And we'll move on to our financial director, Minnie Moreno.

Again, good evening. Um I just wanted to update council. Um we are uh in the process of um scheduling the kickoff meeting for the PBID audit. Um so we just wanted to let you know we're just waiting for dates from the uh PE from the downtown association. We're also going to be bringing the specialized audit to you next, uh, council, uh, meeting. And so, um, we're going to be delivering those two audits hopefully shortly. Um, and then we also wanted to remind customers, uh, we started doing shut offs based on our SB998. We did our first shut off a couple weeks ago. We're still working with customers. We want to encourage customers that have big bills that haven't been paid to come in, make payment arrangements, to set up um those payment arrangements if they have any hardships, if they have any medical issues that they that our staff is ready and available to help uh with setting those up. Um we have set up uh over 120 payment plans um helping 120 families uh where we normally only had 10 payment plans. um before. And so we are working uh very uh my staff, our staff is working very diligently to make sure we're giving all the opportunities to those homes that need that that extra help. And so we do encourage you um we we will be uh doing the second round next week. So uh we encourage our our citizens to come and and our customers to come and and have those conversations with us before they get shut off. and that way we can help them set up those payment plans. And that's it.

Okay. Thank you very much. And our next department is our fire chief, Paul Tua. Good evening. Uh I got uh one event coming up, the uh sound the alarm, which I know you really like that one every year. So we're able to flyers out. Um so that'll be on March 14th from 9 to 2. So we'll have a big bigger turnout this year. And um I think we're doing it a little bit earlier than than last time. So that's all I have. Okay. Thank you very much, Chief. And our next department is the human resources department, director Isabelle Carlos.

Yes. Good evening, U Madame Mayor Prom and members of the city council. So business as usual in the human resources department in the last couple of weeks and uh we are currently working on uh 13 recruitments to fill 17 vacancies. Um, I've also been making rounds with the various city department heads to learn more about their operations and to learn how I can best support their needs, um, their personnel and and risk needs. And I've been meeting some of the teams as well and that's been nice. Uh, that concludes my report and happy to answer any questions. Any questions?

Okay, thank you so much. And our next department is parks and recreation director Joe Hyde.

Thank you. Um so we are currently in the process of judging the awards for the Arbor Day celebration. Um Arbor Day is um we celebrate it every first Friday of March. Um this year it'll be March 6th at Citrus 2 Park which is at 4:15 Second Street. Um and that's uh at 400 p.m. Um that park is kind of on the way to Lena Flaskco Elementary for those um not aware. Uh we are also registering uh for some of our bigger programs. Uh we have T-ball which usually fills up so please register um soon for that. We also have indoor soccer and some other programs going on. Uh and then the park staff has also been installing some uh solar lights uh near playgrounds within the parks including Vineyards uh Vineyard B and Citrus 2. And that concludes my report. Thank you very much. And our next uh report is uh our police department from Chief Ray Rea. Hello again, Mayor Pro Tim and Council. Um, first item, police vehicles. They take forever to come in. We ordered them and and it's not just us. So, with that being said, um, we ordered our patrol vehicles last year and they just came in. So, we took a delivery of five of them. Um, they are currently being decaled and they will be off to the outfitter. Then you should see them out on the road soon. Um, we're very particular about our cars. We try to maintain them. We try to take very good care of them. Uh we work very closely with public works. They do a fantastic job and the expectation is to take care of them so that they are ready to serve the public at a moment's notice. Um we have a maintenance one um potential candidate in backgrounds. We're trying to fill that position. Um we have seven still in the police academy. They're all doing well. The first group will be graduating on March 27th and shortly after I will bring them here to introduce you to them. Um, shout

out to uh, dispatcher Elizabeth Martinez who will be graduate graduating from the core corrections academy tomorrow. Uh, we send uh, we send our CSOS as the two that you just met. They will be going to the corrections academy, but we also send our dispatchers as well uh because they also serve as matrons. And so, um, uh, the training expectation, the bar is always high. And so, Liz will be graduating tomorrow. She did a fantastic job. And then the last item, um, we continue to work with organizations such as Snip Bus. And so, they will be in town tomorrow. They're doing two events, uh, this month. And, um, so we use, uh, essentially like a waiting list to fill fill those, um, those appointments. And so this all goes towards our efforts to uh lower the number of unwanted cats and animals that come into our community and we all hear about Blanch talked about. So that's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next department on the list is public works with director William Vine.

Uh good evening again uh Mayor Proim and council members. Quick report. We were making some pretty good progress on some uh a lot of the projects uh the basin project, the pickle ball courts, um Pioneer Road Ortic. We're making really good progress on all them and then the rain started and then it stops for a day or two, but then it starts again and it looks like it's going to be raining for about another week um at least. So, those are going to all be delayed a little bit just because of the rain. It's hard to get out there and work in the mud. But as soon as it's dry enough to get back out there, we'll be uh back out there getting all those projects done. Excuse me. Uh I just wanted to thank Mid Valley Disposal, everybody. They all left, but I just wanted to thank them for for uh their presence here tonight and their presentation and getting a lot of their their employees involved. They do a great job. And I wanted to remind everybody about those. There's there's technically eight times you can get rid of unwanted garbage, uh unwanted appliances, mattresses, couches, anything like that. You have four cleanup events, and we space those out. One each quarter of the year. So, we try to get one right after Christmas. So, you have all that wrapping, maybe an old tree, something like that you can get rid of. Then, one in the spring, one in the summer, and one in the fall. Um, plus the four, and a lot of people don't utilize that services. There's four pickups. they'll come to your house and you can set an old couch out out by the curb and they'll come and pick it up at no charge. You can do that four times um throughout the year. So, there's there's really no reason for anybody to be dumping garbage on the side of the road or in an alley or, you know, behind in a vacant lot somewhere. There's really no reason for that. There's plenty of opportunities and you shouldn't have to haul your stuff to the dump either because of all of those events. So, I just want to make everybody aware and kind of enforce that that those four pickups are available. And that concludes my report.

Well, thank you very much. And and that is important. Um um it it's certainly a cost savings to the public not to have to pay for dumping fees to take advantage of the four personal site pickups at their resident. Uh mayor, yes, I want to ask. Uh, Bill, you guys uh you guys got plans on uh hitting up the roads, right, with the the rain? I know it's going on and stuff, but I just I get asked a lot, so that's why I just For which one? I'm sorry. On road road repair. Yeah, you got stuff planned for that, correct?

Yeah, we Well, they they're out doing potholes yesterday and today and and the material we used to fill potholes, you can do it in the rain as long as it's not flooded. Um but you can place that stuff even when it's raining. So, you'll see them out there. If it's not raining too hard, they'll be filling potholes and all of that. Um, we've got plans for some some minor pavement repairs um throughout the city when the weather improves. Um, we've got some plans to pave the canal trail, repave the the canal trail to kind of uh upgrade that a little bit. So, yeah, we've got all of that stuff in the works. They're out doing concrete uh on a weekly basis, make doing some concrete repairs, things like that. Sidewalks, um curb and gutter, driveway approaches. They're constantly doing some repairs. Thank you. Thank you.

Councilman Perez, do you have any questions? No, no questions. Okay. All right. Thank you. Um, so our next uh staff will be our city attorney, uh, Mary Lerner. Thank you, Mayor Council. Just a reminder that I'm at the Parma conference next week, Tuesday through Friday, but I will be available by phone and email throughout that time.

Thank you very much. And last, but not least, our city manager, uh, Nuran Ben. Thank you, Mayor Proemp. Um, so I've attended the technical review boards with um, MCAG staff today. Um, and then of course, as you all know, tomorrow there is a governing board meeting for MCAG. One of the item on the agenda is the Measure V implementation plan. That is the regional measure V. Um, I did a report on this last time, but I just want to remind everybody to tune in on that because we are requesting for additional funding for the city of Losanes. Um, right now on the agenda, that is an additional $1.6 6 million toward 165 and vineyards uh roundabout project. So that will bring the total measure V contributions um to just over $3.5 million for that um as well as the developer contributions as we just adopted as part of North Point paired with all of our um impact fee will help deliver that projects through constructions and completion. So we very much look forward for this opportunity. Um, also in addition to the measure v, um, William and I will also do a presentation to the governing boards in regards to Pioneer Road. Um, we provide this update the city council last meeting. Um, so this same presentation will be provided to the governing board. Uh, also tomorrow to reassure them on all progress as well as a commitment to timely delivery of those project. As Willie mentioned, um, the Ortikalidium pioneer project is almost completed. That in itself is a massive chunks um that we are taking out from our federal funds earmark fund um to get those delivered first reserving our halfsent sale tax measure v regional for other component that may not be qualified for federal funds. So we got a lot of planned project coming up and u very much uh excited and appreciate our team for uh for their work and help implementing those projects. Thank you.

Thank you. And um this is certainly a positive for our community to have an update on the progress of the various pro um uh projects that are going on with our roads through MCAG so that they know that we are uh working on those projects and and getting them done. So thank you uh Director VI and to our city manager and look forward to seeing you tomorrow at the meeting. Okay. So, now we'll move on to item 16, which is uh um our council member reporting time. And I will start off with council member uh Marcus Chavez.

Um yeah, I don't have very much tonight, but I got to say welcome back, Joe. You know, missed you and uh man, no park stuff, but uh that's why you're building it up and stocking it up for all this time, but uh yeah, you're you're well funded. So, welcome back, Minnie. Thank you again. I see the uh you know sales tax has gone up which support local I'm sure everybody's efforts here it's uh seems to be working which is which is awesome and uh oh going back to Joe real quick I got that from Dustin as far as that arbor day on that contest there you guys are expecting close to a thousand drawings you're going to have to judge next week that's that's quite a bit

several judges Yep. Definitely. Anyways, that's all I got for tonight, but thanks to entire staff. Thank you for what you do. And Lucy Mistio, welcome back, too. Okay. And so with that, I'll I'll move on to Council Member Mitsy Perez.

Uh, I don't have anything to report. Um, but I do want to thank the staff for um all the great work you do. Um, I always think your presentations are very thorough and very informative and I think um, they're very important in keeping the committee well informed. So, I just want to uh, thank everyone for doing a great job and keeping the city running great and very proud to be working here. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. So, I'll move on to myself. Um just a a couple of things. Um on um September uh September, I'm sorry, February 20th, we have our ribbon cutting for a Sutter Health uh the new clinic that's going to be opening up on L Street, L Street, uh across the street from um DMV. and that will be from 1 to 2:00 p.m. And so for the public, if you'd like to attend, please come out to that ribbon cutting. It it just seems like um maybe about a month or two ago that we were doing groundbreaking for this event. So, I want to applaud Sutter for moving so quickly to open up this clinic and hopefully it will take some more weight off of the ER room so that patients will have a place to go uh other than the old um uh Enterprise building on I Street. So, congratulations to Sutter on that. And on the 28th, the Boys and Girls uh club will have an open house uh at the College Greens Recreational um facility on again on the 28th of this month from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. So, we'd like to invite the public out uh to come to that uh meet and greet uh for the Boys and Girls Clubs. And um hopefully at someday we might have a Boys and Girls Club here in Los Banos to service our children. Um tomorrow I will be attending the uh MCAG meeting for the mayor and also we have our airboard meeting tomorrow uh at uh the main office in in Fresno. Uh this past week I attended the um school board meeting and made a presentation about

the 2027 kids calendar which is sponsored through the air district and um I guess for lack of words it seemed like uh maybe there was a surprise there uh of the board members but a a good surprise because I wanted to encourage them to uh have our children uh present their drawing drawings about issues regarding pollution and how we can uh have better air within our central valley. Um since I've been on the on the airboard, we've never had any children from Los Banos uh submit any drawings for this. So I'm hoping that this will make a difference uh and that uh this contest is from uh K through 12. I will be finding out uh Joe at at our meeting tomorrow whether or not they just have to come from the schools or can children perhaps pick up a flyer because they sent me a lot of flyers in Spanish and English and if so I will leave some at the community center so that uh it's another venue for children to participate in this uh first place which is the cover of the calendar the award is $500 and for each additional calendar month and there are 13 because it goes from January to January. Uh the children whose um uh drawings are selected for those calendar months get $100 each. So there is an incentive for our children to participate. So um I have calendars. I'll be dropping them off at some of our department heads so that they can have them and uh leave some applications with you as well. So, I want to get the word out as much as possible because I want to see our Los Banos children participate in this. And this is not just for elementary school. It's from K through 12. Uh so, it's it's something to look forward to. And uh $500 is a lot

of money for a child to get or even $100. So, um it's it's a wonderful opportunity and I'm glad that the airboard sponsors this each year uh for children to have a an opportunity to express their concern about air pollution and how um we can do things better uh here in the Sanwaqin Valley. And with that being said, I have nothing else further and uh the time is now 7:25 and I will adjourn the meeting for this evening and thank you all for allowing me to serve.