City Council - Regular Meeting

Order if you will join in salute to our nation's flag. Ready, begin. Roll call and declaration of conflicts of interest, please.

Council Member Abram. Here and none. Vice Mayor Moniz. Here and none. Council Member Phillips.

Here and none.

Mayor Bublec.

Here and none. Approval of agenda as posted or amended. So moved. Second. Motion and second. Will you call the roll, please?

Council Member Abram. Yes. Vice Mayor Moniz. Yes. Council Member Phillips.

Yes.

Mayor Bublec.

Yes. Council is with a 4-0. All right. Big moment here. Turlock Police Department, Animal Services. Adoptable pet right here. Adoptable, adorable. All right, who do we have? Oh, we got pickpocketing. Uh-oh. Where's the police?

Oh my goodness, he's cute.

Good evening. Hi. So tonight I have with me Flash. Though his name might sound fast, it's really not. But he is really good at chewing toys. So Flash has come to us with a very, very sad story. His owner was arrested in June of 425 for an animal cruelty case. So Flash was awarded to us since last January. He's been in the shelter for over a year now. He's about seven years old. He's a Staffordshire Terrier. He knows how to sit, shake, speak. He loves to find a couch to go sleep on. So he's going to be a sponsored adoption. So we're hoping to find him a soft place to live. He deserves it.

All right, Flash, anything to say? Okay, he's going to get it. Somebody will want him. Joseph, get a close-up of Flash. Oh, wow. All right, Sean, he's yours. All right, now we're going to do proclamations. Come on, Amanda.

Call up your peeps.

He's like, thanks.

In honor of National Night Out 2026, whereas the National Association of Town Watch is sponsoring a unique nationwide crime, drug and violence prevention program on August 4th, 2026, entitled National Night Out. And whereas the 43rd Annual National Night Out provides a unique opportunity for the City of Turlock to join forces with thousands of other communities across the country in promoting cooperative police community crime prevention efforts, and whereas the City of Turlock plays a vital role in assisting the Turlock Police Department through joint crime, drug, and violence prevention efforts in the City of Turlock, and is supporting National Night Out 2026 locally, And whereas it is essential that all residents of the City of Turlock be aware of the importance of crime prevention programs and the impact that their participation can have on reducing crime, drugs, and violence in the City of Turlock, and police community partnerships, neighborhood safety, awareness, and cooperation are important themes of National Night Out program. Therefore, on behalf of the Mayor, Council, and all of our residents, we do hereby call upon all residents of the City of Turlock to join the city of Turlock and the National Association of Town Watch in supporting the 43rd annual National Night Out on August 4th, 2026.

Yes. Hello, everyone. My name is Melanie Suffolk. I'm the crime prevention specialist at the Turlock Police Department. Thank you all for being here. Thank you to the community for participating in National Night Out each year. There are several community events across the city. One is at Columbia Park, and we encourage you all to attend. The Turlock Recreation Department hosts that, and they do a wonderful job. There will be booths, bounce houses, food, a lot of information, crime prevention strategies and neighborhood watch strategies. And that really is the goal of the event is for us to get that information out to the community and to build positive relationships with community members of all ages. So National Night Out is just one of the ways that we do that, and we appreciate the opportunity.

Thank you, guys. We look forward to everyone being out here, right? We'll be doing ride-alongs, so we want to make sure everybody knows to come out to National Night Out to your neighborhood. Thank you, guys. I appreciate it.

You want a picture?

All right. Consent calendar. At this time, we will open public comment on the consent calendar. This is your opportunity to comment on any item on the consent calendar and an item that council could remove for you separately. If you're requesting that item be pulled, please state the item number and briefly explain your request. All right. You going to facilitate this?

All right, we'll begin with five speakers who have submitted blue cards. We have no blue cards submitted. We have no one online remotely. Would anyone from the audience like to speak regarding consent calendar? Seeing none, Mayor.

All right, with that, motion to approve the consent calendar as written.

Second.

Motion is second.

Will you call the roll, please? Council Member Abram. Yes. Vice Mayor Monette. Yes. Council Member Phillips. Yes. Mayor Bublec.

Yes. Passes with a 4-0. more paper here okay final reading at this time I will open the public comment and ask the city clerk to facilitate public comment and each speaker will have three minutes this is for a final reading right we have no blue cards at this time we have no one online but anyone from the audience like to speak regarding final readings item 7a seeing that mayor All right. Then will you?

Move to approve 7A.

Thank you. Second. Motion to second. Call the roll, please.

Council Member Abram. Yes. Vice Mayor Moniz. Yes. Council Member Phillips. Yes. Mayor Black.

Yes. Passes on 4-0. There are no public hearings. Action items. The first is the fiscal year staffing level budget amendment for the Stanislaus Regional Water Authority operations. You are not Director Fisher. You knew that, though, right?

You got an upgrade.

Appreciate that. Welcome. You can do the budget for both of us and the SRWA, does that make sense?

Thank you all to remember our Mayor and Council Members. So the item before you is a request for a budget amendment for the operations of the SRWA. So we'll walk through the actions and what this looks like. This was originally proposed during the budget process as an item of topic, but as explained during that process, additional steps need to be taken to get to a point where we are today to ask for the formal request. So we'll go through the agenda as we identified. So the SRWA operations agreement, what that means, and the proposed changes on what that's going to look like. So for the SRWA, we have an operations agreement with the city of Turlock. This was executed back in 2022. The operations agreement identifies multiple positions overall that are gonna be funded, and it could be to operate the overall structure of the plant. So you can see here the list of the overall positions. You have, they range from a plant manager to technicians to instrument and controls, and different levels of operators to operate the plant itself. The current proposal that we're discussing today, this was approved by the SRWA Board back in June 18th with a unanimous vote of 3-0 to approve to move forward to amend this overall. So we have two reclassifications. One is an SSA, which we call a Staff Services Assistant. TO PROPOSE WHETHER IT BE AN ASSISTANT OR A TECHNICIAN. SO IT'S NOT AN ADDITIONAL BODY WHATSOEVER. IT'S ACTUALLY JUST GIVING LEVERAGE OVERALL TO BE ABLE TO SHIFT TO A DIFFERENT POSITION AS DUTIES ARE CHANGED. SO THE NEXT PROPOSAL FOR RECLASSIFICATION IS TO TAKE ONE OF THE ONES AND RECLASSIFY IT TO A SENIOR. THE ADDITIONAL IS AN ACTUAL NEW BODY, SO A NEW FTE FOR AN INSTRUMENTAL TECHNICIAN NUMBER TWO. So some of the benefits overall for the operators, strengthen assessment planning or succession planning, create career paths. A lot of it really just goes down to how the overall operations come down to. The senior position itself is one of the highest levels that we can get to. It's also the hardest to fill overall. So the more we can structure that, the better off we'll be to be able to maintain staffing levels and not go to OTS contract, which is temporary staffing. So again, reduces the risk of operations. AND CREATES LONGEVITY OVERALL. THE SSA OR THE SAF SERVICES, AGAIN, TAKING ON THE NEW DUTIES OF THAT INDIVIDUAL OR THAT POSITION, MORE FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATIVE DUTIES THAT NEED TO BE DONE, PROCUREMENT AND ACTUAL MANAGED PROJECT OVERALL. SO GIVING SOME FLEXIBILITY IN THAT POSITION OVERALL MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE TO TAKE ON ADDITIONAL DUTIES AND WORKING WITHIN THE SCOPE OF THE JOB DESCRIPTION. FOR THE INSTRUMENTAL CONTROL TO IMPROVE PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE, INCREASE RESPONSIVENESS TO ISSUES AT THE PLANT, REDUCE RELAYANCE ON OUTSIDE CONTRACTS, IMPROVE RELIABILITY OF THE TREATMENT AND OPERATION OVERALL SYSTEM OVERALL, AND SUPPORT SYSTEMS SUCH AS SCADA. There is a fiscal impact overall. You can see that outlined in which each step will take and what that cost looks like for this fiscal year. But given the proposed structure and what the plan is operating how, with the senior being reclassified, what that does is remove us from having to use that temporary contracts. So we're actually proposing doing an administrative contract amendment, our budget amendment to reduce contract services for $150,000 to offset this cost. So although there is a fiscal impact to doing this action, it's going to be mitigated through that transfer, so there will be no additional funds or budget being requested at this time. So obviously we'll build into our budget for next year, but again, it removes us from having to use that contract services line item, so it's just administrative transfer in between. Very straightforward. It's really just small overall. Again, the main thing to understand is we did have to go to the board first to get approval for that amendment for that contract, which allows us to take action that we can do today. And they did approve it three to zero.

So any questions?

Questions? Okay. At this time, I will open the public comment and ask the city clerk to facilitate public comment. Each speaker will be given three minutes.

I have no blue cards. I have no one online. Would anyone from the audience like to speak regarding this item, action item 9A? And I do not see anyone, Mayor.

All right. If that's the case, seeing no further public comment, I will close public comment. Bring it back.

Motion to approve 9A. Second.

Motion and a second. Call the roll, please.

Council Member Abrams. Yes. Vice Mayor Moniz. Yes. Council Member Phillips. Yes. Mayor Vivlock.

Yes. Thank you. Thank you. This time is the open general public participation and we asked the clerk to facilitate the public comment This is the opportunity for members of the public to address the City Council on matters that are not on tonight's agenda But are within the council subject matter jurisdiction Each speaker will have up to three minutes and the total time allotted for general public participation is 30 minutes Okay, we will speak start with the first five speaker cards that I have the first person is Linda white Linda white if you'd like to come to lectern and

And all kinds of drugs. And we're bringing alcohol and pedicure, private facilities, we're bringing it for the little kids around. I know the wire that came out, and they were just holding it in the men's bathroom, in the scallops. And the dogs were there, they scattered. Kind of a suggestion, I don't know if this is a good thing, but those officers in there, as a regular person, walking people, I think this is getting really bad. And the security guard there, she's good, but when the other security guards come there, they don't, when she's there, they go away from the team. So when she goes away, they come, and it's getting really, really bad. Because they patrol and everything else, they're letting people pass out, All the stress going around. And there's even, that's like, he's involved in asking men for sex inside the casket. So it is a big old crime scene. What kind of crime is going on in that casket center? And the people inside the husband's house are trying. So they're on keys and asking the person to help them. Because it's killing women. I could see all these people... So I just wanted to say that.

Have you reported it to police yet?

Yeah, I reported it to police. Okay. But the police said they can't do anything until they see it.

Okay. Understood. Thank you.

And I even want to do the ruling that has an office inside there. They have to see it. Okay. And they're even having big dogs in there, and we don't allow dogs in there, but the big dogs ride the bus, which is not allowed, and the big dogs get inside the office. So thank you.

Thank you. Will you pause the clock for a second? Thank you. You break it, George.

I'm always breaking things. Just got to turn it off and on again sometimes.

Wow.

You're amazing.

OK.

Sorry. Lucky to have you.

OK. Our next speaker is Candice Bills. Candice, if you can come to lectern.

Hi, I'm going to apologize first. I'm not good at public speaking. But good evening. I'm here to put a few things on the record that are definitely needed. My first question here in clarification is regarding the Public Records Act, Government Code Section 7920. I put in a request for a five-year span for four addresses, and I received eight reports for one address alone. I'm just curious as to why I was U.S. stripped the other three addresses. from the reports, why I'm not able to see them, if it's a public records request and I'm requesting. It just feels like there's something being hidden from me, and I'd like to know what it is. I'd also like to wonder how you guys are allowing a city inspector, Enrique Delgado, to close out an inspection report when he didn't even look at item two on his own compliance notice. There was a mini split that had mold in it, and it was in a bedroom, and it was closed off from him, and he refused to go in the bedroom. I asked him if he wanted to look behind my baseboards. He said no. I asked him if he wanted to look under the sink. He said no. Okay, but you didn't even look at the mini-split, so how are you closing out your case? If you had gone in and looked at the mini-split, you would have seen that there are stains on that ceiling that did not go painted by the landlord, and so you would have been forced then to cite the landlord, but you didn't. He didn't. And then when the reports, he cites a report from a mold inspector, I guess, but he's not even licensed in anything, not even with the state of California, with a construction or anything like that, and the HEPA filter, I had a HEPA filter running, so I scrubbed the air. I cleaned it. Those reports are false, and you guys are allowing that to be one of the deciding factors when you don't even know who this Shane person is from the company, and he's not even registered. His most recent licensing is from 2016, and it doesn't even share the same name. And then you hold landlords, you're allowing landlords to, you know, bypass deadlines and you're holding tenants to strict deadlines. I was, my clock, you guys ran the clock on me, but my landlord was allowed to be four days late with absolutely no penalty. The good old boys club. I tell you, you guys are holding status quo here with that. And I'm just curious, is that what you guys are hiding from me? Is that why I can't see the other reports? Because it'll tell me what I need to know and what's happening? Because if this is what you guys are doing to me as a cancer patient that just wants to survive a mold-filled home in your city, what are you doing to the rest of your tenants? What are you doing to the rest of the city? I mean, are you guys ignoring them like you're ignoring me? Are you guys going to step in and find out what's going on with your building inspectors, or are you just going to turn a blind eye? I'd really like to know. You ran the clock on me, wanted to charge me $150, said there was no fee waiver. You're pricing out low-income people and then allowing landlords to get away with it with no penalties. Lovely.

Ma'am, I will tell you that we will get your address, and I will follow up with the reports, and also I'll take a look at the report that was done at your home.

The next speaker is Sean Sheridan. Sean Sheridan, please come to the lectern.

All right. I came to City Hall on February 9th. exactly two months after Building Permit 25-1123 was issued. At the development services counter, before I even spoke, an unfamiliar employee approached and said, Mr. Sheridan, we are not able to answer any of your questions. I learned it was Sheila Machedo, ordered by her supervisor, Kim Hammock. Recognizing a security guard behind me, Ms. Machedo told him he needs to speak with Nicole or Kelly. The guard escorted me upstairs where I spoke with City Clerk Nicole Feis, then left the building. Soon after, Ms. Hammack contacted me saying that the Development Services Director and Building Inspector would like to meet with me. That meeting, which included Ms. Hammack and a city paralegal, lasted more than an hour. I pointed out aspects of the undeniable invalidity of the permit and begged for the stairs leading to my mom's apartment not to be built like the adjacent set the day before. For the first time in my life, I suddenly cried in that meeting uncontrollably, overwhelmed by the corruption in the room. Code enforcement professionals pretended that both an invalid permit and an unapproved build were workable. The stairs were then built as a mirror image. On February 10th, the day after those experiences, I attended the City Council meeting. To appoint Gary Hampton as interim city manager, this council voted to waive the conflict of interest regarding his daughter, Nicole Feis. On February 28th, Mr. Hampton and I spoke for more than two hours on site where he summarized the stairs and permit situation as a mess. He then stepped into the shade and said, I feel the need to tell you that the city clerk is my daughter. I asked why, and he answered that she was permanent, he was temporary, and if he made tough decisions, it may impact her and he didn't want her to suffer. He abdicated his authority and willfully forced me into a totally unnecessary appeal process, an appeal where the administrative record was subsequently manipulated by that same city clerk. That waived conflict of interest directly and adversely impacted me and my mother. I am submitting a copy of this speech for the administrative record.

Next speaker is Karina Mendoza.

GOOD EVENING, EVERYONE AND COUNCIL MEMBERS. I JUST WANTED TO SHARE THAT WE ARE NEAR THE END OF SUMMER RATING. SO THE END IS NEAR. WE ARE TIRED BECAUSE WE'VE BEEN BUSY. LAST DAY TO SUBMIT ALL SUMMER RATING Either logs or raffle tickets, everything you need to do is Friday by 11.59 p.m. if you do it on the Beanstack app. 5 o'clock if you do the paper log, because after that we are closed. Today we had our Diggory Dinosaur program. We had 91 people show up to this program. So that's where we capped it at because we were getting a little too close for the little fire code in that room. So we capped it at 91. And let's see. Next month we are taking a break from our story time and wiggle worms. during our breaks that is a good time for us to plan regroup and plan for the next session we are moving our wiggle warmers program from fridays at 10 and 11 to tuesdays at 10 and 11 just because we're getting such a large turnout we have better staffing tuesday mornings than we do friday mornings They're averaging 60 plus per session, and we have minimal staffing, so it's a good problem to have, but we're switching it to Tuesdays when we have more staff to support the needs of all the families that come visit us. And that's all I got for this month. Thank you.

Next speaker is Abigail Pendleton.

Good evening. My name is Abby Pendleton. I'm here on behalf of Assemblymember Juan Alaniz. The state legislature is on summer recess still. We'll be going back next week, but here are some bills that passed right before we adjourned for the summer. So AB 387, this requires a local sports facility with a permanent sports infrastructure to maintain an AED. AB 1572 requires youth sports officials to undergo yearly background checks and certifications before being cleared to officiate games. And then AB 1612 would authorize local law enforcement agencies to hand over dangerous illegal drugs to the California DOJ. and would authorize the DOJ to contract with a third party to safely dispose of those drugs. So those bills will be considered in the Senate as early as next week. And then also if any Turlock resident needs help with a state agency like Employment Development Department, DMV, Franchise Tax Board, Consumer Affairs, any agency like that, our office is always available to help out. So thank you.

Okay, we have no remote speakers online, so I will go back to our audience. If anyone would like to speak on public comment, please come forward to the lectern. I'm sorry, do you want to?

I heard that the audience could hear me when I was saying.

Sure, go ahead. I'M LINDA WHITE. I SIT AT THE TRANSIT CENTER AND I SEE DRUGS COMING IN, FENTANYL AND ALL THAT. I'M HERE TO TALK ABOUT THE TRANSIT CENTER, ABOUT THE FENTANYL, METHADONE AND ALL THAT, ALL THE DRUGS THAT ARE BEING SOLD AT THAT PLACE AND USING AND SMOKING IN THE BATHROOM AND THE ALCOHOL AND ALL THIS STUFF THAT'S GOING IN WHERE THERE'S LITTLE KIDS AROUND. I'm asking somebody for some help because I'm afraid these kids are going to get hurt. And these guys are in it, and they have security there, and they also have the safety officers. Their hands are tied. So I'm here to ask for some help some way or some way to get these criminals off this bus stop because these people are getting on the bus. They're high as a kite. They're drunk, they're high, and they're getting on the bus. And also these big dogs with these drug addicts. No, I don't need that. And these he-she's are asking for sex to these other guys inside the transit when these little kids are around. I'm asking, please, God, do something because it's too much. It's too much to see. So thank you.

Is there anyone further that would like to make a comment? Seeing no further.

Okay. We'll close public comment and move on to city manager reports and updates. Have you been doing anything?

Good evening, Council. It's been a whirlwind. I've really enjoyed my time. I've been meeting with various staff and learning our employees and some of our Turlock operations. Externally, I've been meeting with the school superintendent, some major business employers, the chamber leaders, the Hispanic Chamber, and some small business owners. And I'll continue to get around and out in the community and keep moving.

Awesome. All right. Council Member comments, announcements, and future items. Council Member Abram.

Just to piggyback on the National Night Out, I hope if you don't have something going on in your neighborhood that you will go out to one of the events because it is a great time to come together as a community, especially if your neighborhood is doing something. And then thank you to our Turlock librarian for coming on a regular basis and telling us about all the good that's happening at the library. It's a wonderful place. Thank you for your work.

Okay. It must be the fire department's week for kudos. I don't know. So I had a structure fire yesterday on Sodaquiston High. Thank you for all the support. Last week I had a major structure fire at the Trail of Transfer station, and I have to read my notes. So every one of our fire engines in the city was tied up on this fire. Chief Serpa, if I misquote anything, please correct me. MST brought in two additional engines, two additional quints, a battalion chief, and a medic. It took three hours to get that fire under control, an additional six hours to get everything done before the last fire engine left. It was a nine-hour project, very large fire. MST sent another engine to handle the rest of the calls for service that were remaining in the city. So a job well done. Great job from the Modesto administration. I really appreciate you guys. Thank you, because all of that went down in my district. Ms. Lucchese, Dr. Murphy, I don't know if it's possible if we're able to provide a public update on what's going on with some of the repetitive public comments that keep coming through. But I take great offense to somebody coming in and putting words in the mouth of somebody else that's not here anymore and then attacking the credibility of our city clerk. And I don't know if we're able to provide an update as to what has transpired so the public knows what's going on because anybody can get up in public comment and say pretty much whatever they want. That doesn't mean it's true. So if there's anything that we can put out there, I would appreciate that at a meeting or two. Thank you.

Who's talking in the back? I don't know. Okay. And I would ask our city attorney, city manager, if we can just like explain to people that we ethically, the council electives aren't in charge of PRAs. So many times people feel compelled to send it to us. It's unethical for us to be a part of that process because if you're asking for something from us, it should come through them and not us being able to be accused of trying to slip it under the rug or whatever the case is. So I would love for, the public to understand that this is not our thing. PRAs go through staff, not through us. And then I would hope that everyone does look at attending a National Night Out. It's an amazing opportunity. It's exactly why law enforcement finally gets its moment to be perceived in a positive light. People just don't appreciate what everybody does on a day-to-day basis. But if we're working together, neighborhood and the public safety, then you find that things get done better and you're there, you know what's going on. So I hope that everyone looks into that. And we have some closed session. Did you want to speak to it? Hold on.

No, I don't want to speak to the closed session, but I want to address the Deputy Mayor's comment. I've been in this business for over 23 years, and I can tell you that your city clerk is one of the most ethical people that I've ever worked for. So I don't need another meeting. to make that statement. So I will answer the questions for when the lady brought up. I'll look at the PRAs, and we'll be back in touch with you. Thank you.

Appreciate that.

And we will go in closed session to... Madam Clerk?

Yes, we have 13A, threat to public services of facilities, California Government Code 54957A, consultation with City Attorney Katie Lucchesi, and B, conference with legal counsel, existing litigation, and present to California Government Code 5495691. two cases, Turlock Gospel Mission versus City of Turlock, and the People of the State of California versus the City of Turlock. At this time, are there any members of the public who wish to comment on an item on the closed session? We will open public comment. Please come forward.

If you come up to the mic, because if they can't hear it, then we're going to hear them talking.

I'm just going to address the fire at the Soderquist and High Street. You know, it's not the first time it's already had a fire, and it's been displaced for, like, a couple of years. I'm just wondering why the owner doesn't have to do anything with that. Like, it's been abandoned, and that's a harbor for anyone who doesn't have anyone to stay, you know? So, I mean, it's no fault of anyone's around here. I'm just wondering, like, why is the owner not made to – do something with the property or deconstruct a bit. So it's just open law and not a fire hazard for the residents around it. And I'm speaking for a community. I don't live on that street. I live in that huge block. So I'm talking for everyone around. You know, there's a lot of houses really close to there. And I mean, I just don't understand why the owner is not accountable for like cleaning it up. So it's not, you know, a dangerous place. Thank you for your time.

Is there anyone further that wants to speak regarding the closed session item 13A or 13B? Please come forward.

Good evening, Julie Fox. You know, I don't like to be up here, but I really don't like it when you call our citizens liars. They could be telling the truth. How dare you? How unprofessional? I'm shocked. But also, I wonder if I get called a liar as I leave. I'm sorry?

Ms. Fox, this is regarding the two items that are on closed session.

Oh, I can only talk about that? Yes, please. Okay. Okay.

Is there a time that we can talk about the legal cases, or is that not on the agenda anymore? I don't know. We just had public comment.

Oh, and it should have been there?

Yes, ma'am.

I appreciate it. Thank you.

Is there any additional comments regarding 13A or 13B with our two closed session items? Seeing none there.

Okay. Then we will adjourn to our closed session, and should we have an announcement from that, we would record out. Thank you, and be safe. Are we going to do it?

We have anything to report out?

Nothing to report out.

Thank you guys. Sorry. Mary knows.

You know.

I know you don't like strawberry.