City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, I'll call this regularly scheduled meeting to order. If you'll join in the salute to our nation's flag. Ready, begin. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, we'll do roll call and declaration of conflicts of interest, but let's start with Do we have an attorney present? Welcome. Thank you. Council member Abram, uh, hear and none. Council member Bixel, here none. Vice Mayor Monz, here none. Council member Phillips, here none. Mayor Black,

hearing none. All right. Approval of agenda as posted or amended. So moved. Second. Motion is second. Call the role, please. Council member Abram. Yes. Council member Bixel, yes. Vice Mayor Monz, yes. Council member Phillips, yes. Mayor Bublack, yes. Passes on a 5-0. And now, uh, Chief, if you'll join me, fire that. And I believe we need somebody up here. The retiree. Look at he's got too big a smile. So wrong. just try and tone it down a little bit.

All right. It is uh my honor, but also sad to uh to be able to uh honor your retirement as the division chief, Michael Harkson. Uh you began your service here with the city of Turlock firefighter trainee on June 7th, 2004 and rose through the ranks to firefighter, fire engineer, fire captain, fire battalion chief, and division chief. And you were honored as firefighter of the year in 20 2006, I believe. And you played a vital role in maintaining and standardizing the department's apparatus fleet, overseeing the acquisition of two fire engines, three light fleet vehicles, and establishing a memorandum of understanding with the city of Modesto for fleet maintenance and repair. You faithfully served the city of Turlock and its citizens for 22 years with professionalism, integrity, and dedication. You honorably retire this position as division chief on August 7th, but you plan on taking a little time off between there, huh? That's not right. So wrong. Fishing. The city council wishes to express a sincere appreciation to division chief Michael Harkson for his exemplary service, leadership, and commitment to the city of Turlock. So therefore, I Amy Bublack as the mayor and the and our city council on behalf of our community, we do hereby wish you the best in your retirement and hope that you'll come back for 960s.

I support you.

So welld deserved. Um, first of all, uh, congratulations to Chief Harkson. It's been an absolute pleasure to work with you, to know you professionally, to know you personally. Um, I'm honored to call you a colleague. You've been my right-hand man in doing so many things, and I could not have asked for a better operations chief and someone more dedicated in service to uh, our community and the fire service and the citizens that we serve. And I'm very grateful for what you did. I'm very grateful for your friendship. Um, we're going to miss you a lot. Um, I support the idea of bringing you back at some point. That's good for everybody. So, thank you for your service. We appreciate you and you'll be you'll be greatly missed. Thank you. Thank you very much.

First of all, thank you very much. It's been an absolute privilege and an honor to uh serve as a firefighter for the city of Troll. Um, a lot of people often thank us out in the public and my response to them is it's a truly a privilege to serve uh and serve with a servant's heart and to be able to offer have the opportunity to do that here in the city of Turlock. I'm a country boy from northern Merced County. Um, so for me, Troll is my town and for be able to to provide my career and and serve my whole career here with the city of Troll has been an absolute privilege. uh to start as an engineer in a fire department with four stations and work on engine companies um that had a lot of older individuals in the organization that time and there was two of us on each fire engine. So a total of of nine people on duty at a time. To see what the department has become uh in my tenure here has been very very awesome. And then even with the resource and boundary drop uh that has played and to the level of service that um my engagement as a chief officer has parlayed and ultimately uh yields the greatest service that I think that the city of Troll could could come to realize with in fire protection right now. So, um, with that, I definitely want to, uh, thank the city council. Um, I want to thank, uh, all of the directors and employees and everybody else that I have, uh, come to develop some very great working relationships with and with the councils over the past years and supporting the fire department through through funding and through the purchase of new fire engines of things that were definitely definitely uh, connected to the things that I help held as in in my court. And and lastly and mostly importantly, uh I want to thank my wife and my two boys um for basically uh supporting me throughout this career um as from from a kid coming out of a going into the fire service and kind of leaving the family farm and and leaving that industry to coming and and embracing a firefighter lifestyle. It's not a job. It's not a career. It is a whole lifestyle. Um it is a big change.

Um looking back, I was kind of doing some math. I there's there's seven years that I did not spend at home with my family through the course of my time. There's seven years that I didn't I was not home with my family. And granted, that's scattered over 22 years, but you look back and it's those missed opportunities. The schedule did afford times to to be able to do things within with our family that we normally wouldn't have, but it it is a pretty big gap. So, but at the end of the day, thank you to the city of Troll for offering me this opportunity to serve in this capacity and I look forward to my retirement. All right. Now, we have the public participation. And this is a time set aside for uh matters that are not on tonight's agenda and within the subject matter. I do have some cards filled out here. We will start with Glenda if you're ready.

Thank you. My name is Glenda Hawky and I've come to talk about the National Day of Prayer. Um, our nation has a rich history of prayer. This year we'll celebrate our 250th birthday and we'll also celebrate 75 years of the National Day of Prayer. In 1887, after weeks of no agreement working on the Constitution, Benjamin Franklin suggested prayer. In part, he stated, "In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, we were sensible of danger. We had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard and they were graciously answered. Have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance? He also stated, "The longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?" We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this, and I also believe that without his concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel. We shall be divided by our little partial local interests. Our projects will be confounded and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword to a future age. To me, it seems like we're in a pretty similar place today. As early as 1775, the Continental Congress declared a day of prayer to seek God's guidance and protection as they sought independence from Britain. In 52, President Harry S. Truman signed the National Day of Prayer into law. And in 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed into law the designation of the first Thursday in May as the annual

observance. Our theme this year is seeking him in all generations. 1st Chronicles 16:24. We'll be celebrating in Turlock on May 7th at Compass Point Church, which is at 2006 East Towalami Road, hosted by Four Seasons Christian Fellowship with an hour of prayer for our nation, our state, and our city. It will be held from noon to 1:00 p.m. Everyone is welcome. Our nation desperately needs God's help today. As we acknowledge our need for his guidance, we know he will hear our prayers. We hope that you can join us. And I do have flyers out on the table for anyone that's interested. Thank you.

Um Jeff, I'm reading this condensed letter for a concerned Turlock citizen. The unedited letter can be viewed on Facebook. Save Turlock. esteemed members of the council. This letter is to express my deep concern regarding an individual who has announced intentions to run for mayor. Over the years, she has exhibited a pattern of behavior that, in my opinion, has caused significant harm within our community. It is my belief that she and a small group of supporters continued to spread division, hostility, and fear throughout Turlock. One of her most vocal supporters does not reside in our city, yet attempts to influence local affairs. I firmly believe neither she nor her associates embody the integrity or values that Turlock deserves in its leadership. This group frequently instigates conflict while portraying themselves as victims. It would be easier for them to name those they have not threatened, defamed, or harmed than to account for the extensive list of people they have targeted or betrayed. Stanchas County Board of Supervisors awarded this individual the veteran of the year recognition for district 2 in 2024, which includes the city of Turlock. There remained many unanswered questions regarding her military service, including whether she served active duty or the reserves and whether she completed overseas deployments. Candidates for public office should be transparent about their backgrounds, especially when invoking veteran or disability status as part of their public identity. I believe these questions should be answered before such honors are accepted or promoted publicly. I'm troubled by the decision of this individual to remain on the St. County Veterans Board. While these concerns continue, her continual involvement creates unnecessary controversy and places other public officials in a difficult position. Public service requires putting the welfare of the community ahead of personal interest. I'm also disturbed by

the tone and content of her Facebook page, Turlock Exposed, which she is the administrator. It contains alleged illegal recordings, aggressive videos, and defamatory commentary that damage our community's reputation. These posts often manic and hostile warrant concerned, and at times a welfare check. I strongly urge residents to disengage from this page and refuse participation in its negativity. Those contributing to this page are in effect pouring gasoline on the fire and appearing to enjoy watching it burn. The community is speaking and the sentiment is clear. This behavior is both unwelcomed and unacceptable. I'm generally concerned for the safety of anyone targeted by this group and recommend additional security measures at public meetings as those of individuals regard everyone as fair game. I encourage others to exercise precaution avoiding financial transactions or private interactions with these individuals. These comments reflect my personal opinions protected under the first amendment of the United States Constitution. Respectfully, Janet Doe, would you like a copy of this?

I think we have them. They consent to us. Thank you, Ramon.

Good evening, council members, madame mayor, and the general public. In response to hearing the lawsuit brought by Governor Nuome regarding housing, I think the idea is the reason why housing shortage in California is bad because of various zoning laws, various the red tape and regulations that makes building houses impossible. But we can show the governor that we can do it. We can definitely start building mixed use uh zoning which I've explained a couple meetings ago having housing and businesses at the same area. And I've been to Liverour where they have town houses that are nearby small businesses and also Santa Clara where in Satana row by the mall where there are shops and restaurants on the first floor and apartments on the second floor and also at the same city I went to MicroEnter and there's also housing on on the second floor on top of MicroEnter and I thought if Santa Clara and Livermore and other cities can do it so can Turlock. lock because Turlock is growing. We have a lot of potential to grow and one of the main reasons instead of relying just on single family homes is uh using all the above combined of making housing close to businesses so people don't have to drive far away and they can spend their money here locally while we can grow the economy. People can stay here. they don't have to drive and also we can boost more jobs so we can bring in more businesses here in Turlock so people can move from other areas to make Turlock their home as well as Turlockers to stay at home without having to move elsewhere. So I consider to look forward to making

the zonings for housing a little bit more open and more flexible so we can show the governor that we can do it without having to be stuck in various red tapes and regulations. And trust me, I know that housing issue is really really uh really hot but confusing at the same time because so many red tape. But I can see Turlock having numerous homes and businesses at the same area together. I can one example that empty plot by the university right by your apartments. That could be a good place for having shops at the first floor and apartments on the second and third and fourth floor. And also I'm on a Vista crossings where there's Hobby Lobby in the bowling alley. We can build numerous apartments, town houses, complex, duplexes, whatever you want, as well as businesses, shops, and we can see that you're all can have that potential. Thank you,

Mil. Good evening. Milt Treeweiler comments on the Turlock fire chief. It's very bad for us residents of Turlock to have a Modesto fire chief replace the Turlock fire chief. Let's look at the facts. Did you know that there's a lack of consistency and stability in the leadership with the Modesto fire chief in charge? There were four different deputy fire chiefs assigned to Turlock and three different uh Modesto fire chiefs in Modesto over the past four years. Was this good for us Turlock residents and our firefighters? No, it was not. It was a danger to all of us who live here in Turlock. We residents of Turlock are getting cheated by the vote of the mayor and our two council members. With Modesto in charge, our Turlock firefighters had no say in the decisions that were being made by Modesto on how the fire department operates as a department and how Turlock is running its own fire department tactically. Several times the Modesto fire chief called out uh Turlock firet trucks to Modesto leaving just one firet truck to cover all of Turlock for two or three hours at a time. At one instance, the Modesto uh pulled all of the Turlock fire trucks out from Turlock at one time. This is never would have happened if we had our own fire chief. what you uh what if you were the one who had an emergency and someone else had a fire during this time, you may have lost a loved one. Turlock is also losing the man we train here in Turlock because Modesto hires them. When we lose these firefighters to Modesto, it puts a strain on our Turlock firefighters because it makes the Turlock fire department short-handed. It costs more money for Turlock because our

city has to pay overtime to fill the positions for our firefighters to be fully staffed. With Modesto in charge, we have no control over the costs and how we operate here in Turlock. We want someone who can represent Turlock's best interest. Yes, having our own fire chief is the only way this will happen. The residents of Turlock don't want the Modesto Chief of Police to be the chief of police for Turlock. Nor do the residents of Turlock want the fire chief of Modesto to be the fire chief for Turlock. These fire service agreements between the city of Modesto and the city of Turlock are a disaster for all of us at Turlock residents. We want our own fire chief here in Turlock. Thank you,

Vilma.

Hello. Good evening. My name is Vilma. Um I am actually a student at Santa State and I'm pursuing my masters in public administration and so one of our assignments is actually to join the city council meeting. So this is my first time. I'm very excited. Thank you. Um I actually do have a question. Sorry it's a more of common question. Um but my question in regards to the council is what are some ways um and inspiration for youth and young adults to want to make local change um in this area especially for the city of Turlock? Thank you. So, unfortunately, we can't answer now. Um, at the end of the meeting, which probably shouldn't be that long. We have our our comments, so hopefully you can wait for that. Okay. Um, I don't have any more cards. Justin, did you have some?

Good evening, Turlock Council and residents. Justin Farcus representing the office of Assemblyman Juan Alanise. I hope all of you had fulfilled weekends with love our neighbors taking place over the previous weekend. Um our office was hard at work. We attended uh Love Turlock and Love Modesto last weekend and as well as the previous weekend um took part in Love Patterson. So really uh got an opportunity to give back here to the community that we're grateful to represent. Getting into uh what's happening in Sacramento, there's five bills here that I want to highlight for you folks. All of which are currently in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. Assembly Bill 1814 establishes minimum training requirements for peace officer training and identifying impaired drivers. California has some of the most lax laws in terms of uh driving while intoxicated. Uh Assembly Bill 2328 raises sentences for hit and runs resulting in severe bodily injury by one year. Uh, Assembly Bill 1612 in the similar realm of public safety establishes a statewide process to destroy evidence like narcotics, which I'm sure um the mayor and Chief Hedin can tell you plenty about. That's been quite a uh confusing area here in our state now that we don't have any incinerators left. Um, so handling that type of evidence has been uh difficult for our local um enforcement and a larger law uh law enforcement agencies. Uh the LA Nope, one more. Um AB1 1765 was actually given to us by uh Councilwoman uh in series. Um and this bill would expand disabled veterans license plate program from 8,000 to 10,000lb vehicles. Um definitely a positive opportunity for our disabled veterans in our community. That bill's in this appropriations committee. And assembly bill 2282. This is um really a landmark bill for our office. This bill um will allow for um emergency stabilization services to be provided in the city of Patterson by

Delporto Healthcare District, which is going to be um an enormous uh fee if we're able to get it passed and signed by the governor as they don't expect their first acute center to be uh fully built out until about 2045. Um that bill also in the assembly appropriations committee. With that, my uh final update here. This will be she had her first meeting here. This will be my last meeting representing the office of Assemblyman Alanise. I've uh taken a position um in a different office with the uh state legislature and I will be starting over there on Monday. Uh so hopefully um you folks don't miss me too much here in Turlock. I still anticipate to be um involved in other ways. Uh and I can also tell you that you'll still be very well represented by one of the other individuals who works for the assemblymen. So that thank you guys and um most of you have my number if you need me personally happy to give it to you.

Justin, what was the bill number on the destruction of evidence? That bill is AB1612. Thank you. Thank you. You'll be missed. Anyone else who did not fill out? Yes. Come on.

Hi. Good evening, mayor and city council members. My name is Jacqueline Valenuela and I'm a student and part of this community. I also serve as the secretary for family advocacy and resources alliance. I am here today to invite you and our community to join us to our upcoming event for children and families including those with disabilities. We will have luch libre local local performers and they're from localmies and groups along with raffles and free goodies. It's a fun and welcoming space for everyone and we would love to see you there. The events will be on April 30th at Central Station Bar and Grill from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. And our annual Turlock Single Deo will be on May 2nd from 10:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. on First Street. At this event, we will have the honor of having the Mexican Council speak and offer resources to those in our community. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? Come on up, Mary. Oops. I'm sorry. Yeah, go ahead. I'll come Good evening. I'm Mary Jackson. Um, I have a couple questions. I'm hoping that our recording equipment is better. I talked to Chief Hampton about it and he said you guys are ordering new things or new equipment um to be in um compliance with the new law that we're going to be able to zoom, which is a huge benefit for so many people um including me. Number two, I was curious when the fire admin contract is coming back to the council to be voted on. And I is it going to be made public? It has to be made public public so we can review it. Um and what Mr. Teler talked about um it sounds like what we called Chief's disease. When I worked in Sacramento, the CHP was actually doing this something similar. If we've had seven people being moved up to chiefs, they make more money. And that usually your retirement at least in teaching is the last three years. So obviously if you're a teacher, you want to become an administrator or you want to go to a higher paying district, which happens a lot or they try to and now I think people have figured it out. So it doesn't happen as often as it used to um if you're mindful of your budgets. But when I was there in 2004 to 2006, uh, Senator Gloria Romero called out chief's disease and the CHP and showed how much millions of dollars was being put into people's pensions. And if that's what's happening locally, it needs to stop because just if those numbers are accurate of what Mr. Tri Treeweiler said, in five years we've had seven chiefs. That's padding your retirement. It's plain and simple. Patting your retirement. And so the good news is that

there's a state I think personnel board that reviews pensions and so they try to stop them from doing this. We it happens with superintendent. It's happening locally right now with county superintendents across our region as well as um local school superintendents, you know, and the thing is it's on the backs of our grandchildren. We're not going to deal with it, but our grandchildren are. So I really think you need to revisit that decision. Um, I hope and I know you expect we'll have a lively discussion about the contract. Um, and I think people are paying attention whether or not letters are printed in the local paper. The information is getting out on social media. So, I would really behoove you to listen to the people who come up and speak. Um, and if it's accurate that there are seven, and I will verify that, then you have your own local version of Chief's disease. And I'll leave you with this. I've got Gloria Romero. I interviewed her because she was the number two in the Senate. She said she would never drink publicly because she would be pulled over by the CHP when she questioned. And it was really damning to think that. But if you really think about how much money that you're playing with in the state of California, it's a lot of money. And again, our grandchildren are the ones that going to be paying for it. Thank you.

Anyone else? Come on up. Hello everybody. Try to be a little bit more calm today. Excuse me for a couple weeks ago. Kind of lost my temper. I didn't appreciate getting disrespected while I was in my time. So, I had to assert my rights. So, forgive me if I offended anyone, but that kind of stuff shouldn't be happening where we're where we're we're getting errupted during our time. Moving on from that, uh, I'm here for the same reason again. This is now my fifth time here, mayor, regarding the same issue, and there's still no resolution. Since the last meeting that I was here, I'd mentioned this. No action that I know of has been taken. I followed up with a development head. She's not here today or oh, she is here today. Adrien Werner. Um, I got hung up on. I called, I spoke to four different members of the building and safety team. They said, "We're going to pass along." No one got back to me. I followed up on three different emails. I CC both of you on those emails. So, since the last meeting, I've sent three emails have been unanswered. I got hung up on I sent three emails following up with you guys CC and all I not even answering my 11. I just had a simple question. Who's responsible for enforcing California building code in the city of Turlock? That's all I want to know. Who is responsible for enforcing California building code in the city of Turlock? Because every city is different and this the way the city of Turlock is structured, it has its own building development department. So if there's a California building code violation, the city of Turlock is responsible for enforcing that. Now people in the building in the in the de development department want to get clever because they want to protect the developers in the HOA and they say, "Oh, this is not a permanent item. We came and we looked and we realized it's not a permanent item, so we're not involved." So they're going to they're going to see a repair that's a very poor quality repair that affects 25 members of the community that have 25 homes there and it's it doesn't require permit. So they can make

horrible repairs and you have to live with it basically is what it is. And it shouldn't be like that. Whether you own a home or you're a tenant, you should have equal rights. And when you're not enforcing the rights, you're discriminating. And I told you guys that. And this is an audit. And I work with Housing Urban Development. And I told you guys that. And you guys are losing millions of dollars because you're pushing me out instead of bringing me in knowing that I'm good for the community. I'm a school teacher and I'm a building official with the housing urban development. You guys are pushing me and disrespecting me. If this is a process investigation that takes a year or two years or whatever, then you can tell me on the side say, "Mike, this is going to take some time. We're working on it. Just be patient." No one's done that. I feel like I've been getting played by saying it was a permanent now. Now we're just avoiding you completely and no one's getting back to me. It's very disrespectful and I'm really concerned. This is how people get treated. It's not about me. This is about how my community community gets treated. And if someone needs help from the community, they should be able to go if they're doing bad repairs at their home or their neighbor's home, they see something, they should be able to come to the community and say, "Hey, we're having these issues." and someone say we'll be there right there within 24 to 40 hours as the as the the website says we'll send inspector there right away but because we're not an owner we can't get a permit sorry we're not touching it then who who enfor comes and does poor quality work at our homes who's one enforces that I like to know so I can speak with that person we have a meeting we get we get some uh solutions anyone else okay we'll close public comment move on to uh there are no uh updates from city manager reports consent calendar. Uh, is there anyone wishing to speak on any of the item right now?

I'd like to have uh item 8N pulled for discussion and I'll talk at the time it's pulled. Thank you. Can you just tell us now?

Anyone else? Okay, I'm closing public comment. Move to approve consent calendar. Midas minus item in second. Have a motion to second. Call the role, please. Council member Abram. Yes. Council member Bixel. Yes. Vice Mayor Monz. Yes. Council member Phillips. Yes. Mayor Back. Yes. Passes on a 5-0. Item in Nora. Or is it M. Mary? Which one was it? Melt in Nora. Okay. Human relations. Acting fire division chief. Did you want to speak to that, sir? I I can. Yes. Good evening, mayor, council, staff, members of the public.

So, the item before you for your consideration is to bring uh retired assistant chief Tim Tun back as a retired annuitant to support uh the work that uh was being done by division chief Mike Harkson. This is a transitional role um intended to fill the gap until the position is permanently filled in house. So I I have three goals that I'm looking at for the fulfillment of this position. Number one is continuity of operations. Uh number two is to do some uh uh development of our uh upcoming battalion chiefs and and hopefully newly promoted division chief into that position and number three is to make sure that we are remaining connected to the line and the work that they are doing. So uh Tim is coming in short term. He has tremendous depth of knowledge and experience that he brings to the table in his service as an assistant chief for the city of Modesto. He oversaw the contract out with uh Stannis Los Consolidated. And one of the things that I really admired and respected about him in that role is he was a very strong advocate for the needs of Stannislas Consolidated while being employed uh by the city of Modesto. And so that's that's the heart and the passion that I'm looking to bring to the table right now. Um Mike leaves some big shoes to fill. Uh we have a lot of big lifts and things that we are trying to accomplish uh within the department. Uh some some big initiatives are looking to move forward. Uh I don't want to lose traction on those things. So uh this is intended to be a short-term assignment. I'm estimating that it'll be complete uh in in early August when we make the full transition back to our newly appointed division chief from an internal recruitment.

Thank you. Any questions chief? Open it to the public. Milt and we will answer any questions after we close it.

Okay, Milt Treeweiler, this is exactly what I was just speaking of. Did you know there was a lack of consistency and stability and leadership with Modesto fire chief in charge? There were four different deputy fire chiefs assigned to Turlock. Now it's five. This is another fire chief for the city of Turlock. Turlock citizens. That's what's happening here with Modesto in charge. It's not working. We are getting the short stick of this. We are not getting the service we deserve here in Turlock. They've made excuses over and over again. I know this is not for retirement purposes. This is because these are people that they can get. But if we have our own fire chief, we're not going to be running into these type of issues. And that's just the way it is, folks. I want you to understand that. You know, I was born here in Turlock and I've been coming to these council meetings for 13 years. And this kind of stuff should not be happening in Turlock. We need our own fire chief. Our fire chiefs and our police of chief and our our fire chief, our chief of police, but also our firefighters. I have three minutes to speak. I have three minutes to speak on discussion. That is in the agenda. You read it. It's there.

The timer just went off. Sir, I give him two more. I didn't I didn't see it. No, it wasn't purposeful. Please could proceed. Okay, let's go.

So, um, so we know how hard it is, how much that they have to put up with as a fireman and as a police officer. We have a good relationship with our police department. We do not have a good relationship at least this the people here in control do not have a good relationship with the fire department. These people really suffer. We just heard the chief I mean the person who retired. Actually that person could have been been our fire chief possibly. I don't know. I'm just saying it's a possibility. He's here and he's retiring. Why did we let him retire? Why didn't we just assign him as the chief of police at Turlock? That would have been a good answer to this problem. These people put their lives on the line. I understand that in the past firefighters actually more firefighters were killed in action than police officers. I don't know if that's still true, but I know with 911 we lost a lot of first responders, whether they were fire or police. This is not necessary to serve our best interests in Turlock. We need to have our own fire chief here in Turlock. It's not an hard thing to do. It's just a matter of will and a matter of being reasonable and doing what's best for the citizens of Turlock. Thank you very much.

Anyone else? Come on up, Ron.

Good evening. Good evening. hate to be a bugger. Oh, welcome to our new city attorney. And I guess you're taking over city manager. There's a coup going on here. I I know. I'm I'm just kidding. Fake news. Yeah. Yeah. Fake fake news. I'm doing fake news. Yeah. Um, I thought the uh item was about um a temporary um position

and uh I I I don't think we force people who want to retire to take on another job for three, four, five years. So I'm not quite sure what those comments had to do about this particular consent item. So that's all I wanted to say. Anyone else? Okay, we'll close public comment. Bring it back with sir. Anything you want to comment to that?

Um, you know, I'll just reiterate what I said. This is a transitional position. Um, our intentions are to permanently fill the division chief with an internal recruitment. Um, I want to maintain continuity of operations. I want to maintain a connection to the line. Um, and I want to ensure that we're doing development of our future battalion chiefs and future division chief in position. And I can think of no one better than retired chief teaching to do that for us. Director Dammy, real quick, um, do we spend more money on an annuant or less? Um, we spend less money on an annuitant. It's just their base salary. We don't pay any benefits. So, we're saving money

on a retired annuitant. Yes. Thank you. Okay. All right. Move to approve. Second. Motion to second. Call the role, please. Council member Abram, yes. Council member Bixel, yes. Vice Mayor Monz, yes. Council member Phillips, yes. Mayor Back, yes. Passes on a 5-0. No final readings, no public hearings, action item accepting the city of Turlock strategic communications plan.

Mr. Sims, you got people here. Good evening, mayor, council, city staff, and members of the public. Before you tonight is the draft city of Turlock strategic communications plan prepared by Slate Communications. Staff is asking council to approve a resolution to accept the plan. Currently, the city does not have a formal strategic communications plan in place. This plan establishes a clear and consistent framework for how the city communicates with residents, businesses, and stakeholders. It's designed to improve how we share information, ensure transparency, and strengthen communication and engagement across the community. In February 2024, staff issued an informal request for qualifications, and Slate Communications was selected based on their extensive experience working with public agencies. Slate brings over 100 years of combined experience and has completed more than 100 communications related projects for cities and organizations nationwide. Work on the plan began in July August 2024 and the draft is before you tonight for approval. As part of the process, Slate Communications conducted a comprehensive review that included stakeholder staff and community interviews, community workshops, review of existing communication tools and digital assets, evaluation of branding and messaging consistency, uh a full SWAT analysis and identification of improvement areas. This was a thorough and data-informed process to ensure the plan reflects both organizational needs and community expectations. The plan serves as a guiding document for the entire organization. At this time, I'd like to introduce our consultant, Miss Kim Newcomer, the CEO of Slate Communications. She'll provide a brief overview of the plan and highlight some of the key findings and recommendations.

Welcome back,

Anthony. Thank you very much. I can make this taller. Uh mayor and council, thank you for having me here today. Um I'm just going to review briefly what we did to form this plan and some of the outcomes. I'm happy to answer any questions either along the way or at the end. Um but I believe you have a copy of the full plan with you. So if you really want to dig into the details, you should have that um in front of you. Anthony already went over this process, but I just want to say that I think the most important thing we did was come out here and spend a few days in Turlock and actually talk to people. Um, one of the things about our firm that I'm most proud of is that we work with cities, counties, local governments across the country, which gives us a really good understanding of baseline communications, but there's nothing like actually getting to know a community and talking to people, talking to staff, talking to council members. Um, so we did spend some time out here in addition to all the research and data that we did. And what that did was kind of um give us a foundation from which to work. And so we had five big key takeaways. Um, one is that residents really do speak positively about the city and have deep roots and pride in the community. You can see that tonight. Everyone is here because they like Turlock. They have a love for this community. They want it to be better. Um, and that actually is really different than a lot of places. A lot of places you see a little bit more apathy, but with here the sense of community is palpable. Um, and I think that is something that we really wanted to try and capture in this plan. At the time we really realized that you could segment your communications better. Um really talking to everybody about the same things and saying the same things. Um your business community is may be interested in some things while your residents may be interested in others and really really need to understand the preferences of our audiences if you will so that we can better cater information to them. Communication efforts should include both traditional and non-traditional communications tools. Um, okay. So, really what that means is unfortunately we have to do all the things, right? So, that means we're online, we're on

social, we're doing print, we're doing uh in-person communication. Everybody's styles are a little bit different and you do have a wide range of demographics and interests here in Turlock and we really want to make sure that we're at least meeting everybody at some place where they are. Creating consistency in communication, methods, timing, and distribution will increase reliability and credibility. Um, a big kudos to the communications team and and the mayor for implementing your monthly message. People start to expect communications at a certain time, which is a really good habit. We want them to hold us accountable to saying, "Hey, you send this out the first of every month. I'm looking for it. I'm waiting for it. I want this information." And doing that more and more and more increase the level of trust and reliability and that's something we really want to encourage. And then finally, developing response standards and guidelines will make interactions more effective and efficient for staff and residents. Um, what we heard when we were here is that sometimes you are in an interaction and it's wonderful and I get my follow-up and I talked to this person and I called Anthony and he told me this and it was wonderful, but then I had a different interaction with someone else. what we really want to do is kind of set a standard of how do we respond to our residents and really hold everybody accountable after that. So where we start with these communications plan is this first high level. I'm not going to read this to you. Don't panic. Um but really we wanted to set a vision for the program and then set some plans for the goals themselves. Um you're going to see some buzzwords on here, but I think they're actually important, right? Transparency. How do you make decisions and why? Um community engagement. How do we connect with the people not only in this room, but those folks that couldn't make it here tonight? Accessibility. So, this means both translation and ADA compliance. Um, leveraging technology. That's something that I know you're working on. We even heard it here tonight. Um, but how do we do that even better? And then finally, strengthening this brand identity.

So, at the end of the day, what are we trying to to do? What this plan does is lay out five priorities. It's really about providing open, timely, accessible communication. Right? It's really wonderful to get information, but when you get it three months later, it's not quite as valuable. Um, we're really trying to work on how do we resource this so people are getting information when they need it. Um, and it is still timely and accessible. Uh, robust public participation and civic engagement. Um, I I'm going to say it 10 more times in this presentation. This community is engaged. It's ready to be involved and to work on solutions together. How do we harness this in the most positive way possible? and also set expectations so that folks know when they um are asked for information that feedback's being used in the process and when it's not right because some decisions are just made and we need to be clear about those expectations. Um develop a cohesive brand framework. One of the things we realized was that you actually did have a lot of brands out there from the city to the uh fire department, police department, transit. How do we actually make all of those work together and support each other? And then finally, expand or not finally expanding partnerships and then utilizing technology. And that's a little bit just of a different wording than we talked about before. So how this plan is structured is we took each of these priorities and we put together recommended strategies and then actually tactics. So it gets pretty granular. Again, I'm not going to read every slide to you, but I'll just highlight a couple of um key pieces of each of these. Open, timely, and accessible communication. Um, two really important things that I think we should highlight in this one is that standardization, like we talked about before, standardization and consistency. And then also, we realized that there wasn't an actual emergency communications plan in place. You know, heaven forbid that you actually need it, but we wanted to make sure that we have some actual tools in our toolkit. I'll talk a little bit about that to help you be prepared for all of these types of incidents.

Public participation and civic engagement. Um, again, one of the things that is really important and I think what Turlock does well and we want to build on is personal connection. So, how can we create more informal opportunities for you to have conversations, discussions, listen to your residents, have residents ask you questions in a way that's not as intimidating as a podium. No one likes a podium. Well, some people can do a podium, but it's intimidating. And so we really want to make sure that um in all of this effort we're creating those opportunities for humanto human connection. Um and there's other strategies in here as well. Um you know how do we sh you know share information earlier and more often really meet community members where they are whether that's online or off and really trying to build those relationships. This I spoke quickly about this brand framework. There's some recommendations in this plan about how do we pull all of those city brands together so that folks know where their tax dollars are going and what they're being spent on. And then also it's an opportunity for some storytelling. Um I will say your economic development department does a great job of storytelling. We want to expand that into other city services and other um segments partnerships. What a amazing opportunity to have CSU Standaw right here. and how do we actually continue to welcome young people and students into city government? Oh, there she is. So wonderful to have you here and I think it's absolutely amazing. How do we get more people like you involved in our government? Because being involved in the government being means being involved involved in the community. And then finally, this idea of technology. Um I hate to tell you, but we did recommend redesigning and streamlining the website. We know that's a huge lift. Um, but I think there's an real opportunity there. Um, you have a mobile app that a lot of folks know about, but maybe even have on their phone, but they're not actually using.

So, we want to take the tools that we have and we've already invested in and put time, energy, and effort into making them usable and poss. Hi, I'm Kim. I'm a CEO of Slate Communications. Prior to starting Slate about 13 years ago, I actually was in-house at the city of Fort Collins. I was their communications director for six years. Um, I hated nothing more than getting a big fat plan that I couldn't fund, I couldn't resource, and I couldn't do. Um, and so one of the commitments we made when we first started working with Anthony was a really honest assessment of what are the things you can do no cost, what can you do low cost, and what's going to take some money. Um, and those are decisions uh that you can make, but at least we're being honest about what that what that will take to accomplish some of these things. We also wanted to make sure that we gave you what we call toolkit items. So whether that is um you can hear see here like a process map if you will for how do you spread internal information, whether that is other pieces that are brand guidelines, um you know, media tips, how do we do all of those things? So, there's some really like tangible deliverables in this plan that I think are really helpful, particularly as you're spinning up a department and a program. I think that's about as fast as I can do that. So, I am happy to answer any questions and um yeah, pleased to do that now.

Questions? Um, thank you so much for coming and and presenting this. And this will become a question, but I just want to start with I'm really appreciative of the granularity and the perspective that like, you know, communication is not just what we put out on social media, but it starts with how we answer the phone and how we handle those interactions and, you know, through the whole gamut. So, thank you for that perspective and bringing that complete package to us. My question is a little bit more for director Sims. um you know in the latter parts of this report there's the high priority and how long that'll take medium priority how long that'll take etc. Um I'm just curious if you could elaborate a little bit more on like do you see that working with the staff that we have and knowing that yes we are having a new website come out I think June July maybe hopefully. Um so I'm just curious you know if you could speak a little bit to the implementation of that

page page 43.

Yeah definitely. Uh so what what's good about this plan is that it comes with an implementation plan and as Kim had stated you know it shows each action that we can do along the way and what the budget cost is for there. Um you know with the opportunity of a PIO coming on this is an excellent tool for that PIO to take on and then also for other departments to kind of use as a guideline as we're pushing information out there. So we're really just looking at this impleation implementation plan you know ongoing or continue doing high priority and then media priority because each one will you know implement within seven to 12 months upon plan adoption different strategies that we can do and and I'd like to say some of these that we actually started doing and so be doing more video work or working with more departments getting more information out there so yeah we'd be using this as the implementation plan other questions okay open it to the public close public comment I I want to just mention that we we keep talking about what it looks like for our customer service and uh I know that we've assigned it to uh human resources in the past and I think it needs to be like train the trainer kind of thing and it shouldn't be a oneandone because a lot of times people will bite into uh the the people around you that perhaps have been here longer and they have a different uh way of doing it. So, it's training people to understand that you want to sound the same when you do this, not to be monotone, but to get the the right results everywhere. So, I appreciate you uh going through this. We do have some of the things we already have talked about. We the website, things of that nature. Um we're we're moving along. So, it's not like we're just we heard you and we didn't do anything. So,

yeah, I know, right? What's the will? to approve and I'll second and I'll just say a comment for our city administration. You know, with seeing that there is an implement implementation plan built in, I think it would be great to put it on the calendar 6 8 12 months down the road to see what have we checked off and and you know because this plan is only as good as what comes of it. So, and I think I have a second. So, yeah. Motion in second. Call the role, please. Council member Abram. Yes. Council member Bixel. Yes. Vice Mayor Monz. Yes. Council member Phillips. Yes. Mayor Black. Yes. And pass us on a 5-0. Thank you for coming again. Thank you, director.

All right. Um, this is council member comments, announcements, and future items. Council member.

Yes. Um, thank you, Velma, for coming and giving a question to the panel. And if I remember your question right, it was about engaging youth and in the community and and things. Um, our advice to them, right? Okay. Um so I would just say to youth that find find your niche and find where you can give because um when you connect with people you realize that that edict of love your neighbor we are all neighbors and and we all have something to give to our community. So um thank you for that question. I hope you can uh disseminate some of that. And then I wanted to say um welcome to Miss Lucasy. um you bring a wealth of knowledge from municipal law and I think you're going to be um a great asset to all of our directors and by extension um you'll really benefit all of our residents. So, welcome and I'm so glad you're here.

I will kind of piggy back on what Cassie said on the welcome and then back um you know, love Turlock that went on Saturday. It was great to see so many youth out there. I know I I'm sure some of them are doing it for extra credit or, you know, teams who are there to get brownie points, but it's wonderful to see, you know, young people be involved, be excited about it, and um it's just a great way to develop community and and um it's always fun. Um next,

Belma, I will answer your question. um show up and be involved because it's one thing to sit at home and watch a city council meeting on TV, but when I look out here and I see all you warriors sitting out in the audience, it's an awesome thing, right? And so you can you can show up and you don't have to say anything and you don't have to participate and sometimes, you know, our city council meetings are really boring and then sometimes they're really nutty crazy. It just you never know what you're going to get when you get here. But being involved and showing up, that's that's half the battle. And and I hope it it motivates you to want to be involved more whether it's serving the community or doing more or whatever your whatever your thing is. And I like the word niche because we all have one. Katie, welcome. We're so glad you're here. Um and I I really appreciate the communication with you and Mr. Petrolacus because I'm I am under the very big impression that it's been a pretty smooth transition and and handoff thus far. And and my hats off to both of you guys, both strong, great attorneys. We're glad you're here. Thank you.

And then just to um answer Velma's question as far as the youth in our town, um I would say get get active. Um if you don't if you know the youth some youth don't feel um confident enough to um be able to do something. Um you know, ask around, get involved. Um I'm I'm a professional athlete, so I'm all about fitness and health. So, if they can get involved in any kind of sports, it's only going to help them um mentally, physically, and to be able to communicate and work with um other youth as well. Um Katie, congratulations on being here. Um I look forward to working with you. And um the 30-year anniversary of Yonens, I think it's appropriate for you to talk about that. So, I'll leave that to you.

What do you want me to talk about? So, Velma, uh, I I came here for college and, uh, I found so many new passions that I had never thought about. So, I I got involved, uh, created the the first, it was, uh, Good Neighbor Day, so Love Turlock became that later. Uh, I was on the art commission. Um, there's so many different ways to get involved and find new things. Don't go with what your norm is, like, oh, I'm comfortable here. Find new things because you're going to find new friends. Um there's there's much to do out there, whether it's churches, sports, or even just different uh popups. You'll find what you need. And uh I wanted to talk about Love Turlock being an exceptional event. I think that you could make another just another day. A group of you see a need and go and fill it. Definitely don't have to do it once a year, you know, just if you see a need, join a group of people and try and help out somebody who needs that. Um, I as I drive by Monav Vista and Walnut and I see the opportunity for so many people to to perhaps have their own place or move here to Turlock, I think, okay, what now with my app for Turlock, how do they know instantly how they can get online and take care of what what's going on in the city of Turlock? How do we like how do we get a QR code on everybody's door so they know how to to identify with us immediately what's going on? I hope that we can come up with something u Mr. Sims so that they the first day they move in they are like okay good I'm I'm a part of that or Belma you can go door to door and let them know um I I would like um you to talk about the HCD if you wouldn't mind real quick.

Thank you mayor. Yeah I just want to give a quick update. Um we did receive a letter from HC from HCD regarding um violation for our housing element. Uh quick update. We did within that letter have a response per time period. We did respond to them in a timely manner and I had to report today that the housing amendment is actually posted to the city's website. It is part of the publishing process as far as comments. It will be out on the website for 7 days and we do project to submit the housing amendment after that factor on May 7th. So staff is working very due diligent to get back to HS have the meetings and keep communication to get this project completed. That's that concludes

and economic summit was a a great turnout. Uh a lot of people new people there super cool. Uh Yonan's had their event 30 years. We had the re uh reincarnation. I was uh I had to stand exactly where Mayor Andre had stood 30 years previous. So that was kind of an honor for me. Um lots lots of good things going on. And what was you want me to talk about? Yet. I got it. Okay. You got it. Now we have close session. Do we have public employee appointment California government code 54957B1 title city manager discussion only. All right, we will report out should there be something. Drive safely and we'll see you in a couple weeks.

And we are live. We're back from close session. There's nothing to uh report out, so we are in adjournment.