City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone, and welcome. Welcome to the regular meeting of the Arvin City Council, successor agency to the Arvin Community Redevelopment Agency, Arvin Housing Authority, and the Arvin Public Financing Authority. Today is Tuesday, August the 25th, 2026, and I call this meeting to order at 6.01. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance and remain standing for a moment of silence.

Roll call, please. Council Member Tarver.

Present.

Council Member Horton.

Here.

Council Member Reyes indicated she is on her way. She should be here shortly. Mayor Pro Tem Perez.

Here.

Mayor Calderon.

Here. Here. We will now commence with the first agenda. Agenda item one is approval to the agenda as to form. Staff, are there any changes to the agenda?

Madam Mayor, members of council, two changes tonight. Staff is pulling agenda item four, B as in boy, which discusses the operating hours of the city parks. The reason we're pulling this ordinance is that we need to do a little more research. We realized that both Arvin Little League and Arvin Soccer League are extremely important to the residents and the citizens and the kids of Arvin. And in January of 2025, 26, excuse me, your council approved an agreement with Arvin Little League allowing them full access to the park for free. They're not going to have to pay for lights, and they'll have full access for whatever hours. So this ordinance must be amended to reflect that. We also encourage the Arvin Soccer League to also enter into what's called a licensing agreement with the city so the Arvin Soccer League can also benefit from free park services going forward.

Thank you so much for that. And the other item?

The other item is a discussion on procurement. It's item 5A. Staff is still getting additional information, and we want to present the entire presentation at once.

Great. Thank you for that. Do we have a motion?

Motion.

Do we have a second?

Second.

Motion by Mr. Horton, seconded by Vice Mayor Perez. Roll call, please.

Yes, and for the record, Council Member Reyes has arrived. Roll call, Council Member Tarver.

Yes.

Council Member Horton.

Yes.

Council Member Reyes. Yes. Mayor Pro Temperez. Yes. Mayor Calderon. Yes. Motion carries 5-0.

Great. We will now continue to item two on the agenda, public comments. This is an opportunity for members of the public to comment on any item not appearing on the regular agenda. Because of restrictions contained in California law, the City Council may not discuss or take action on any item not on the agenda, but may briefly respond to statements made or ask questions for clarification. The City Council may request a brief response from staff if there's any need for clarifications for questions raised during public comment that may request that the matter be placed on a future agenda. Individual speakers are limited to two minutes and speakers that need translation services are limited to four minutes. Comments shall be directed to the City Council, not to City staff or members of the audience. Public comments are an opportunity to provide input into the City Council and is not intended to be a dialogue a debate, and question and answer session. To ensure orderly conduct of the meeting, speakers are expected to remain respectful and courteous. So with that, Madam Clerk, are there any speaker cards for public comments at this time?

Yes, Madam Mayor, we have Amalia Ojeda. Amalia Ojeda? She's removing it. Okay, since it was removed, she no longer wants to.

Any other speaker cards, ma'am?

Eliana Gracia? Okay, also wait. Okay, and Maria Rojas? Okay, all right.

Okay, are there any other comments from the public? You can come up without a public comment card.

Two minutes. Good afternoon, Mayor and council members and our residents. I know the item has been reviewed or moved to further review, but I still wanted to take the time to read something that's really been in my heart. It says... I'm here tonight to speak about the proposed change to the hours of our parks. I have to say, it is very sad to see this recommendation make it all the way to the agenda for approval. And my question remains, when decisions are being made and plans are being put together, are the citizens of Arvin being thought of or we're just an afterthought? Just two meetings ago, you applauded the Arvin Little League and recognized their achievements and the way they represented our city at the state level. You took the time to encourage them to continue dreaming and believe in for a brighter future. Yet, here we are, the agenda item. On a Tuesday evening, trying to understand why the city is considering taking away access to some of the only recreational spaces our children and family have left. To be active, to socialize, to grow in character, build relationships that will shape them into the great adults and citizens one day Arvin will see. These parks go beyond baseball, soccer, and football. These are the parks I see that where young adults play basketball, families gather together, build relationships, and unplug from the mundane things of life. This is not just about changing park hours. You're affecting lives, opportunities, and potential futures. I understand the city has budgets to manage and difficult decisions to make, but I respectfully ask you to consider other solutions. Solutions that do not come at the expense of our children, our families, and our community. I will leave you with this. As Martha Luther King Jr. said, our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter. And I continue to this day not to be silent because our children matter, our families matter, and our people of Arvin matter. Thank you.

Any other comments from the public?

Good evening, mayor and council members. I'm here because I was at the meeting we had two weeks ago. I was really disappointed. There were a lot of people here to speak, and this is why you have public comment. And yet, one lady spoke in Spanish, and then I spoke in English, and then the mayor started speaking, returning comments. what they were talking about in Spanish. We are paying a lot of money to have a certified translator here. I feel we should keep it English and let her translate to the community that you have nice speakers for them. Also, Mayor, you did say you were going to stop people from speaking because you had a lot of things on closed session. I've never in all the meetings I've attended heard of the mayor stopping public comments. And we were here to speak about the regular buses, not the dial-a-right. We were here for the regular buses, and you kept on talking about dial-a-right, which we know we have to have. Thank you. Thank you so much for your comment.

Any other comments?

Hello.

I have a comment. How come you guys haven't thought of getting the $3 million that's in Kern Cog right now to fix the roads? Why destroy transportation? Also, in July, Kern Cog came out with a plan, like a 120-page plan on transportation, which was positive stuff, just like when the grand jury report came out. And I heard that now they want another one from the same place, Night Guard. That's going to cost the city like anywhere from $30,000 to $60,000. Do we have that much money to blow stuff like this? That's my comment right there.

Thank you for your comment. Any other comments?

I know that the agenda item for the parks was removed, but I hope that if it gets added in the future that you take into consideration that many of us are working. I get off at work at 5 o'clock. I work in Bakersfield. I get here like at 6. If the park closes at 6, how does that allow me to take my children to the park? How does that allow for our communities? And supposedly the item said that it was to prevent vandalism. I see the parks. I live close to the parks. I see that there are teenagers playing basketball. That's keeping them out of trouble. And the parks in Bakersville close at 10 p.m. Our Hart Park closes at 10 p.m. Why are we going to close earlier? If the vandalism is a concern, let's put more lighting. Our parks are dark. And then they don't, that's what allows for the vandalism. But this will take away from us providing an activity for our children to do. We already don't have where our children can hang out or go somewhere. They don't have, let's say they're going to go get something and they go get coffee at Starbucks and they need to go hang out at the park or something. But if we close these parks, how is that going to prevent our youth from getting in trouble? That is my concern as a citizen.

Thank you so much for your comment. Any other comments? Yes. Any other comments? Seeing none, we will move on to item three, the consent agenda items. Are there any comments from the public regarding the consent items? Seeing none, are there any questions from the council regarding the consent agenda? Seeing none, do we have a motion to approve the consent items?

Motion.

There's a motion by Mr. Horton. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Mr. Tarver. Roll call, please. Council Member Tarver?

Yes. Council Member Horton? Yes. Council Member Reyes? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Perez? Yes. Mayor Calderon? Yes. Motion carries, 5-0.

Great. We will now continue to public hearing item 4A. And before we begin, Council, are there any ex parte communications that you'd like to report? And as a reminder, ex parte communication refers to receiving any information from a party outside of these official proceedings. Anything to report? Seeing none, staff, please provide your report on this item.

Thank you. This is the second reading. of the conflict of interest code, and I will read from the staff report. The Political Reform Act requires each city to review its conflict of interest code biannually, every two years, and notify the city council as to whether or not the code needs to be amended. A conflict of interest code tells public officials, governmental employees, and consultants what financial interest they must disclose on their statement of economic interests, form 700. The City Council is the code reviewing body for city agencies. The completed biannual notice must be submitted to the City Council no later than October 1st. The reason we're asking for the change in the code is strictly tonight because we are changing, modifying the people who are responsible for reporting under the code. Specifically, we are deleting positions that no longer exist in the city and adding those that do. The first change is the city manager slash finance director. That position no longer exists, so the code has just changed to the city manager. We are removing the emergency services deputy chief. That position no longer exists. We are adding the finance director as that position now exists, and we are also eliminating the human and community resources manager because that position currently does not exist. I'll open for any questions on that.

Thank you so much. We'll now open it to questions from the council. Are there any questions from the council at this time?

No. No.

Seeing no questions from the council, we'll now open the public hearing. This is an opportunity for the public. Are there any comments from the public on this item? Seeing none, we will now close the public hearing. And do we have a motion from the council?

Motion.

Motioned by Mr. Perez. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Mr. Tarver. Roll call, please.

Council Member Tarver? Yes. Council Member Horton? Yes. Council Member Reyes? Yes. Mayor Potemperes?

Yes.

Mayor Calderon? Yes. Motion carries 5-0.

Great. Saying that we amended the agenda to remove item 4B and we also removed item 5A, we will now move on to the item on the agenda that regards to the discussion regarding the Human Resources Department. This is a discussion item. Staff, please provide your report.

Thank you. Madam Mayor, members of council, if you'll recall, direction was provided at the last council meeting to bring this up as a discussion item, specifically two things. Number one, to discuss how the HR department currently is run, and number two, if the city manager could post the position for human resources manager on the city website so potential applicants could apply. That has been done. We have received two applicants so far in the past, I think, 10 days, and neither one of them have public sector experience, just as I anticipated. Dr. Juanita and Dr. Justin are here from our human resources firm, and they will discuss more about the services that they currently provide.

Thank you so much. Mrs. Webb, welcome. Happy to have you here.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. We appreciate the opportunity to be here just to share with you what we've been doing over this last year of the contract that we've had with the city. When we were first engaged with the city, you asked for remote HR services, which we provided in addition to coming to the city to handle some projects that the city was in desperate need of, including things like putting the personnel files into electronic format so that those were accessible remotely. Many of the compliance issues we discovered when we did the original site review, are in the process of being corrected, which has saved the city considerable fines and penalties if you were to be audited. From our research that we did on when we first came to the city, it could have been anywhere from about $35,000 to $2.5 million would be the fines and penalties that we identified that were compliance issues for you. And so we've worked diligently to improve that so that those fines and penalties are no longer present for you. We're still in that process. We're still contacting people that we need to get documentation from. Some of you will be contacted in that regard as well. We've done a lot of remote consulting whenever we needed it. We have since now, at the start of the second year of the contract, as requested by the city, have started being on site more regularly. We are typically here up to about 12 hours a week in person, providing services as employees might need them. So we are available to employees as needed. We have done major work in the area of leaves of absence compliance. You were out of compliance in many regards related to leaves of absence, and so we're working diligently to get you into compliance, making sure that employees are provided the necessary paperwork that is required by law to give them when they're on a leave of absence. We did provide training. Some of you attended that training earlier. this year, and that was compliance-related training. And so we're still working at ensuring that all of the employees that are required, as well as council members that are required to obtain that training, have done so, and so that's part of it. Let's see, what else have we done? Oh, we provided some newly, there were new state requirements that indicated we had to have new updated emergency contact for employees so that if they wanted to designate someone to be contacted if they were detained or arrested, and so we have begun doing that for the employees as well. We've been doing new hire packets and processes, termination packets so that when someone leaves the city, they are being provided all of the necessary paperwork. We've been addressing employee and citizen concerns as those come in. recruiting, onboarding, offboarding, helping with retirements, all of those kinds of functions is what we have been doing over this past year and hope to continue doing going forward. In addition, we've also done, in addition to the contract, we've also been performing investigation services for the city into several investigation issues that have occurred.

Okay. Okay, thank you. Is that presentation complete? Yes. Yes? Okay. Are there any questions? Are there any comments at this time? This is a discussion. So the council, would you like to ask any questions of Ms. Webb, her colleague in the HR department here in our city?

This year, have you facilitated the sexual harassment and workplace violence training?

Correct, we did.

But that's at an additional cost, correct?

Correct. The training was outside of the remote agreement contract, yes.

Approximately what's the cost?

That was eight months ago. I don't remember off the top of my head. I think I couldn't even give you a ballpark. I don't recall. I'd have to look at invoicing to see that number.

Currently, you said you could come to the city 12 hours a week. That's approximately like a day and a half.

Basically, it's two six-hour days is what we're able to provide, correct?

Is there any way that maybe instead of two days, you can make it three days?

Not at the present time with the staff that has been approved in the contract.

You're saying it's a budget issue?

Pardon?

Pardon? budgetary reasons.

Correct, correct.

Any other comments? Are there any other questions or comments from the council? Seeing none, are there any comments from the public? There are comments from the public? Okay, absolutely. We'll allow for you to come up for your comments. Time. Go ahead.

You guys are here two days a month?

You would address the council.

They're here two days a week? Is there any way, instead of paying $120,000 a year, have people here that will be at least four or five days a week to handle the employee conflicts?

Thank you for your comment. Any other comments?

Hi, good afternoon, board members and mayor. Yes, quick questions. I kind of heard that they're trying... To the mic.

It's being translated in real time, so if you could speak in the mic so you can be translated right here. Yes, my apologies. And address the council, yeah.

Yes. First question is, how much are you guys paying for this service? Second question is, is travel time included in the service? And also, the sexual harassment, all the training that they need to give to employees... Is that only done through them or are you guys looking to outsource it through different people that offer those type of trainings?

Thank you so much for those questions. And I know that those questions will be answered as we move on to the following item, which is actual contract itself that can answer those specific questions. So with that, are there any other comments from the public? Seeing none, we will now move on to action item. This is action item 6A, consideration and direction regarding a resolution to be considered at the League of California Cities annual conference and expo 2026 general assembly on september 25th 2026 and just know i know that there are those of you that did have questions specifically about the contract you'll see on the agenda that that is an item that's going to be coming up later in the agenda so if you had specific questions about that contract please stay for that discussion Resolution here is a resolution of the General Assembly of the League of California Cities calling for a working group to consider a state constitutional amendment or other forms of initiative to ensure final local authority over housing and land use decisions. Staff recommends that the council consider the resolution and determine the city's position so that the voting delegate can represent the city's position for the resolution at the General Assembly. Staff, could you please provide your report on this item?

All right, so I'm looking at the recommendation from the League of California Cities. There is one resolution submitted by the city of Murrieta that talks about a resolution of the General Assembly of the League of California Cities of which Arvin and about 400 other cities in California are part of, calling for a working group to consider a state constitutional amendment or other form of initiative to ensure final local authority over housing and land use decisions. Basically, what has happened is that in the opinion of the League of California Cities is that the state is trying to take away local control over housing, how you actually do your housing. And the league wants to form a working group so they can come up with ideas and go back to the, eventually the voters, to be a constitutional amendment on how cities should be able to control housing. That should be best done at a local level and not at the state level. And so that's why we're asking tonight for the opinion of the council to vote in favor of this.

Thank you. For context, the California League of Cities, do you want to share who that association is?

Sure. As I mentioned earlier, the League of California Cities is a representative of almost all the cities in the state, over 400 cities that joined together and are representative. We're broken up into districts. We have boards of directors. I believe Mayor Calderon is on one of the boards. I'm personally on one. On one of the advisory committees for two years, I was on the revenue and taxation committee. So I got the heads up on all budget and taxation issues for the state. This year I was on the local governments and labor committee. Again, labor policies. League of Cities is the working group where all the cities get together and figure out how we can be best advocates for the state so we can have a unified voice. Sometimes we all don't agree. the majority of the time we do, and this is how cities are protected in state stuff. For example, in the past, the League of California Cities was successful in preventing billions of dollars taken away from cities via what's called subventions or other budgetary things, because once the League knows about what goes on, we advocate, we have power, and we make sure that the cities get their fair share.

Right, that cities... have local control.

Correct.

And so this resolution here is that as it relates to housing and land use.

Yes, that is correct.

Are there any comments at this time or questions from the council?

Is this new this year? Because I have never seen it before.

Correct. A lot of times what happens is that each year at the league, which I know a lot of you have already attended, There's an opportunity for the league delegates to vote on issues that they feel that should be taken to the state level. Normally, in a lot of years, there are no issues. This year, we have one that the city of Murrieta and a lot of other cities feel is important enough for the league to consider as a whole. And that's what will be discussed at the convention.

And currently, the mayor is a voting delegate.

Correct.

Correct?

Mm-hmm.

The position is whatever the council decides we want the position to be, that's the position that's represented, not the position of the mayor, but the position of the council is the position that's taken for consideration in the assembly for this resolution. It's what the council decides. And here it's for us to consider whether we agree with the position that any housing land use, any legislation and or constitutional amendments that are being proposed, that we have local control.

madam mayor if i can just add to that the packet does have letters of concurrence that can be used as an example but if the council did decide to be supportive of this resolution it would direct staff to draft a letter and submit it and have the mayor sign on behalf of the city and that would be your action related to this tonight

Is there a motion to approve? Yes. And use that sample letter that we would all support local control as it relates to housing and land use? Go ahead, Mr. Carver.

You know, I think it's very important that on the local level, we decide what we do with our land. Just like in the beginning of the agenda, anything within the jurisdiction of the Arvin City Council, we can speak up on. It doesn't make sense to take that kind of thing out of our hands. So definitely we should be in support of this letter. It makes sense.

So we have a motion?

I'll motion.

Do we have a second?

Second.

Motion did by Mr. Tarver, seconded by Mr. Perez. Can we call the roll, please?

Council Member Tarver? Yes. Council Member Horton? Yes. Council Member Reyes? Yes. Mayor Pro Temperez?

Yes.

Mayor Calderon? Yes. Motion carries 5-0.

Thank you. We will now move on to approval of the Second Amendment to the Professional Service Agreement with J-Web Consulting. and DBA-INC for Human Resources Support Services. This is item 6B on the agenda, and staff recommends that we approve the second amendment to this professional service agreement. Staff, will you please provide your report on this item?

Thank you. Dr. Webb and Justin have already discussed the service they provide. However, the staff report indicates that J-Web Consulting has provided the City of Arvin with human resources support services as of July 15, 2025. The City Council approved the first amendment to their professional services, extending the contract through June 2026. The City Manager recommends the Council approve the second amendment to the PSA, to further amend the agreement to provide a combination of on-site services and remote services for a total of up to 50 service hours per month and a not-to-exceed amount of $120,000 and the term expiring June 30, 2027. They have also elected to not enforce a 5% increase, which could have been on the first contract. My thoughts on this, as I mentioned before, staff, council directed staff to post a potential position for an in-house human resources manager on the web. I did that. So far, we have received two applicants, none that was even close to being qualified. Also, even if I have a human resources manager, I will still need some sort of support because there's a lot of issues that especially a junior HR manager couldn't answer. They'd have to go to a professional to get guidance. Dr. Webb's firm has provided those services in a fantastic manner, and I strongly recommend the contract be renewed.

Thank you very much for your presentation. Are there any comments from the public at this point? Please, two minutes at the mic.

Listening to the city manager speak, ideally, I think, as a city, it would be nice to have an in-house human resources. When I hear him say that they don't have the qualifications when it comes to municipality, I think that we could always train somebody. He says that even if we hire somebody in-house, that we would have to, they would still have to seek further, you know, resource to get verification because of the issues the city might have. I don't know. I think this is where these attorneys come into play. You know, if they have any questions, we do have attorneys, correct, contracted by the city. This is where they would call and say, hey, this is what's going on. So I think that for now, due to the way our budget is and our deficit, I understand this is the most economical part, but I would love to see as a resident for the city employees, for them to have an in-house human resource, the actual relationship part of having somebody that they feel they can go to. And just for functioning, to running a city, not just a city manager or finance director, but an essential part of human resources. I just think it's essential. So I would love to see that in the future, that we do hire somebody to have local just to address every issue that happens every day, not just twice a week. So my thoughts, we could always train somebody, just like other companies do.

Thank you for your comment. Are there any other comments?

My concern is with this. Yes, for the meantime, we're going to go this route, but in the future to really promote hiring someone in-house, especially because we're only getting 50 hours from this company, the max a month, and we're going to pay $120,000 a year. And that does not include any mileage or travel that they're going to bill us. According to the contract, it says that they're billing us mileage and travel in addition to the 120. I don't get paid to go to work. Why are we gonna be paying additional mileage for them to report to the city of Arvin? That's why we need someone in-house, somebody that will know our city, that will know our needs, that will be on call, especially with anything that we may have with our human resource or our staffing that we have in our city.

Give me a comment. Any other comments?

Our city manager was a city manager and finance director, so that tells you a lot right there. If you did two things and not having no help from a finance director, give this in-house HR person a chance also.

Thank you for your comment. Are there any other comments from the public?

I agree with my fellow city managers. Could you address the council and speak into the mic?

It's being translated and recorded live.

I agree with the people from Arvin. We are paying them $120 plus the five increase that they're now asking for for this follow year. They're getting paid to come out here for only 50 hours. Isn't that part of a job is to be trained and to be learned? So why can't we hire somebody that's going to be here on site so that we can help them and best support Arvin City?

Thank you for your comment. Any other comments from the public?

Hello, good evening. I'm also in agreeance that $120,000 a year for outside services is a lot. I don't fully know what folks in that make, but I think that we would... probably save some money and train somebody in-house and have somebody here five days a week for our staff, for the employees. I think that would be money better spent. So consider that, please.

Thank you so much for your comment. Any other comments from the public? Seeing none, are there any comments or questions from the council?

You got anything?

Yes, I do. I agree with the residents. I think the city will benefit more from an in-house HR to cultivate those relationships and to build up that morale and to be here on site every day to assist and to ensure that we're compliant. It's not saying that this company is not having us being compliant, but I do think it's important to have somebody here five days a week and we need to maximize our money at this point. And 120 to be here two days a week, six hours a day, I don't think that's sufficient to build that rapport with the staff.

Thank you for your comment. Are there any other comments from the council?

Yeah, I agree with Council Member Reyes. I feel like that we directed the city manager to post this position. You know, you gave it two weeks and you're telling us there's no qualified candidates. I think, you know, It may be posted somewhere else other than just our website. And I think if we amend this contract right now, it's going to lock us in for a whole other year. And I just think we need to try harder to find someone that's qualified or somebody that's trainable.

Thank you so much for your comment. So for clarity, because I think accuracy matters, facts matter. perhaps you can share with us, you have posted the position. That's what was requested is that that position is posted and it's posted until filled. And that the ideal for everyone is that we have a in-house HR professional who's experienced in municipal HR, which is very unique to corporate HR work. And so my understanding is that position has been posted. Is that correct?

It's been posted. And the reason I have Dr. Webb's firm here is because in 2025, it was also posted for an extended period of time. And again, there were no qualified applicants.

Can you share with us the risk and the cost associated with having an HR individual who is not experienced in municipal HR, in the HR world of municipal government?

Madam Mayor. Yes. Before he goes into that, can I have...

Absolutely. Please, Mr. Tarver.

Okay. So let me say this. Truth to power. How many of you heard her say that you were in jeopardy from $35,000 to $3 million because of the job not being done correctly and being out of compliance? Does that sound a little risky to you all? And I get what you're saying about the in-house. Because when I was mayor here, you worked for Cohane, didn't you? She owned it and you worked for her. Okay. They provided services to us then. But although I don't remember it being as expensive. You guys weren't doing as much. But reality is... you got to understand that's a very unique position to have in-house because what happens, what happens, this is what happens is you make friends and that creates problems. And that person that is in that position should be a neutral person for every employee, just like the council, legal counsel, for the city council needs to be a neutral person that is looking at the best interest of the city. That's how it works best. It can't be a buddy-buddy situation. And we also have to look at the best interest of the city in making these decisions. Now, if you all are good with putting an in-house person in there, that you want to train and take the risk of those liabilities coming back? I don't know about that. I don't get that. And I want to do the best thing for the city, of course. But at this point in time, I can't trust from what I've seen happen before when there was an in-house person. And I don't know, is that the first one ever that the city's had? Because I don't remember you guys being in-house.

Second, before we had a combination position titled administrative services director that also handed HR. So this person supposedly did community development and HR. And that existed from like 2017 to 2020. Yeah.

Well, again, you know, folks, I wish we could have somebody over there that was here. But I don't know at this time that the city is ready for that. You know, you have other examples, okay? Not only in HR. Look at what happened out there at the sewer farm. Look at that mess we're in out there where the state came down on us. We're still under it. It's not any fun, is it? Because we had to hold everything up. So that's my comments. But I do hear you. Go ahead.

Thank you so much, Mr. Tarver. The question was, for clarity purposes, a statement was made regarding the contract. It's a contract, and so perhaps the attorney could speak to this, about the power that we have to enter and also decide to terminate a contract. Could you speak to that? Yes.

yes so it doesn't lock us in with every obligation for one year we actually have multiple ways that we can terminate and it's been our policy to structure your form agreements in that way to make it easy if the council or if the city manager decides that the services being provided are not Up to par. So we aren't locked in. And so this is really just allowing for more time to possibly reconsider something at a later date.

Thank you so much for that clarity.

Yeah, thank you for that clarification. And just to add to what Tyra was saying, that his concern about leaving us open to litigation or whatever, you know what, we're open to it now. And I'm not saying it's anybody's fault at all. We're experiencing that right now. And I think this frivolous spending has to stop. I mean, you guys have seen our budget. You were here with our, through the whole budget workshops. It just needs to stop. We need to find somebody in-house to take care of what's going on. That's my opinion.

Mrs. Webb, would you like to respond to any of these comments? Provide clarity.

I just wanted to provide a little bit of clarity because I heard maybe a misstatement in some of the citizens' remarks. We have foregone the 5% increase that was initially included. So we are, in essence, taking a 5% cut in pay this year. Secondly, as the city attorney indicated, there is a 30-day termination clause, so either side could at any time terminate the contract, so we are not locked in for a year. And as Tim Tarver indicated, I'm very familiar with the city. I've been here for many years working with the city in various capacities. While we were doing the personnel file reviews, found an investigation that I had done in 2010 So that's how far back my services go with the city of Arvin. So I'm very familiar with them. I have the municipal experience as well as Dr. Hebert. And so I think we can provide those services. We have recruited on several occasions for the HR director position and have not found anyone qualified. We've gone through the interview process, we've recruited, we've interviewed them, and they just do not have the qualifications that are necessary to support a city so that there isn't the liability and the litigation concerns that might occur. We are very much in favor of finding you someone to be here on site. We would prefer that for you. We know that that's the best opportunity, but we also know that it's a very hard position to fill And there are other cities currently here in the local valley that are struggling with the same process of trying to fill an HR director role for their city. So I just wanted to give that clarification.

Ms. Webb, you had mentioned in your presentation that you have been working diligently with your colleague to ensure that we're compliant and that we are not faced with over $2 million in penalties. Could you share with us, because we know that that work continues, how close are we to ensuring that we are fully compliant so that our city is not at risk?

We're very close. When we started, we were extremely out of compliance. Right now, we're down to like three employees and then the city council members that will need to be in compliance. And so we're extremely close to getting that completed. So that will help on that one issue where we potentially face those exorbitant fines if you were to be audited by any of the agencies, federal agencies that can do that.

Yeah. I participated in your trainings, and I want to say they were excellent. Thank you. And so it was great to have you here in person and have you lead those trainings. Can I ask, in terms of a question about clearly everyone knows we're going through very difficult financial times. We, as a council, have addressed the spending issue by cutting $1 million in spending from our budget. That's 10% of our budget. And we also voted unanimously to give voters the option of Measure H on the ballot this year, that 1% sales tax. to address the revenue issue. Could you share with us, in terms of costs, the cost savings associated with mitigating the risks that the city was facing by working with you, providing these consulting services?

Well, I mean, those risks, like you said, are phenomenal, the $2.5 million potential risks as compared to the fees that you're paying us. Obviously, we have staff that have to be paid. There's payroll costs for my staff, those kinds of things that have to be considered in the contract that I provided for you. But if we can do the services for you that we have been performing and continue to perform, we can help mitigate those risks to the best possible way. With regard to having staff feel like they have access to us, they have access. I received at least four different phone calls from staff today. Today's Tuesday. We're not even normally here on Tuesdays. Weekends, nights, no matter what shift the staff might be on, they have access to us. So there's no shortage of them being able to reach an HR professional if they have a need or a concern. And so that is available to them as well. you're working to modernize our system and ensure that our files are not electronic how close are we there to completing that project right the current employees now have all been at least scanned in and now we're getting those organized electronically but all of that process is done as far as the current employee files the previous employee those that have left the city at this point that is not a priority unless the council would like us to do that but i don't feel that that's a necessity. That's something that's just historical knowledge. But the current employees at least are all scanned in and accessible electronically to those who have the limited access to those files.

Great. As it relates to law enforcement, you are HR and providing HR across the board. Are there... What do you see as the challenges as it relates to providing HR to law enforcement? And do you need additional support? And is it something we should be considering in this contract?

When you say additional support, I mean, we provide the same services to the police department as we do any other department in the city. So we're available to them anytime they need assistance or help. We advise, we consult with the city manager and even legal counsel when there's a question or an issue, whether it's police department, maintenance department, transportation department. It doesn't matter what the department is. We provide those same level of services to all departments.

Your team has the capacity for both.

Correct.

Okay. Those are my questions. Are there any other comments or questions? Go ahead, Mr. Tarver.

So where do you see the bulk of... your work being driven from? Is it in training or is it employee issues?

Yeah, the training has been very limited. Those were a couple of scheduled classes that we did. Yes, there potentially should be some additional training like for your supervisors and managers, but that's a specialty if you want it. That's not a necessity. Handling the employee issues, dealing with those concerns that continually come up, is more of where we spend our time and our energy, yes.

So if you don't have employee issues, your time is very... Our time is, I'm sorry? Is limited, I mean like...

Correct, yes.

Less dollars.

Correct.

So it sounds like to me somebody better straighten up, either on the employee side or the management side. I would say probably both. Is that how that works?

Yes.

Okay. All right. We got it. Thank you.

You're welcome. Thank you so much, Ms. Webb, for the clarity. Okay.

One more question. Where did you post the position?

The position is on the City of Arvin website and via a service we use called NeoGov. It is posted to the government website. Jobs.com website, which is really the premier place for people that want to get a government job.

The only one that I currently see that it's posted three weeks ago is the finance director and the humans resource manager that's posted there. That was since 2025 when it was posted July 14 of 2025.

I'll direct your point. You said three weeks ago. As I mentioned, we hadn't had this discussion three weeks ago. The council directed me to post it. It's been posted.

Correct, fellow council member Susie Reyes. I just saw that myself. I leave you with this, Arvin residents. Why can't the city lean on county to offer comments?

I'm so sorry. The comment period had already ended, and so we're not taking any more public comments at this time. No comments at all? Not at this time.

Can I still say what I just need to ask you, fellow mayor?

Go ahead. Can you explain how that works?

Yes. So normally whenever we have an item that is being presented, there's a certain period that the mayor will call for public comment. And that's the time where anybody in the public can do questions or whatever that you would like to address. It's directed directly to city council. And then once that period is over, that was it for that specific discussion item. So if we have another item that comes up and you would like to speak on it, you're going to be given the opportunity to do so. But once public comment ends for a certain item, it ends.

Thank you for that. Thank you. But thank you. Public. Was she able to come up again without whenever there is whenever there was just a question more towards them?

Sure. So just for clarification, whenever an item involves a consultant or even you'll see some public hearings that involve an applicant for like a land use. or maybe they're looking for certain entitlements, they're entitled and they're not part of the public comment. So they are outside of that. They're actually considered staff or like an appellant instead of it being a public comment from just general residents or anyone that's interested in seeing the meeting.

Thank you. Seeing no more comments and or questions from the council, Do we have a motion to approve the second amendment to the professional service agreement with web consultant as recommended by staff?

Got a motion.

Do we have a second?

Second.

Roll call, please. Oh, motioned by Mr. Perez, seconded by Mr. Tarver. Roll call, please.

Council Member Tarver? Yes. Council Member Horton?

No.

Council Member Reyes? No. Mayor Pro Temperez?

Yes.

Mayor Calderon? Yes. Motion carries, 3-2.

Thank you. We will now be moving on to item seven, which is council comments. And we will begin with Mr. Tarver. Mr. Tarver, you have the floor.

Well, first of all, let me thank you for all of your participation. You know, you pretty much can say whatever you want. And Because the question should always, you should always be able to question the question. Always. And feel fine about it. You know, as long as you're considerate and you're respectful to us, you get the same thing back. You know, treat people the way you want to be treated. We're nobody special up here. We can make mistakes. And I'll be the first to say that. Because we're humans. But the other part of this is you best believe that we're trying the best we can. We're not sitting up here watching the paint dry on the fence. We want to do the best thing for the people of this community. And that's how it should be all the time. I mean, that was a hard decision to make on that item there. But again, like I explained it to you, in the way I felt, and I can do the same thing tomorrow and look you in the face and tell you I was honest about why I did what I did. But again, keep coming, keep asking, and participate. And as far as the little league goes, let me say this. You ought to know that's not going to happen that way. It's not going to happen that way. But the other part of this is those kids are not only our kids. How many school districts do we have here? How many schools? How many of those kids go through those schools? Why isn't there any participation there? Why isn't there any participation through Bear Mountain Parks and Recreations, which gets your tax dollars? You tell me that. But right now you're looking at five people that are willing to have dialogue with you. We're easy. But where's the rest of them? Are you going to those meetings and saying the same thing? Huh? Are you? You should be. Because what's important in these times is that we all pull together and work in the right direction. And when they separate you and divide you, that's when you lose. Look, $5 a gallon gas, guys. None of us created that. But we're sure in this thing, battling it.

Why can't we do the same thing for this city?

When we look at each other. Huh? It's okay to forgive. It's okay to forgive, but that doesn't mean you have to ever forget, right? That's how you get along. Okay? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Tarver. Mr. Horton.

Yeah, I'd just like to thank all of you guys for coming out tonight and spending your Tuesday with us. This is your city. And your opinions matter, and we're here listening to it. We might not always go our way. Obviously, we just saw that. But still, you need to come and give your opinion. And like I said, this is your city, and I applaud you. Thank you to staff for all the hard work you're doing. And we've got to work together to stop it. Like I said before, all this frivolous spending has to stop. That's my comment. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Horton. Mrs. Reyes.

I want to take the time to thank everyone for being here tonight and continue to support the city of Arvin. I know sometimes that we don't agree on certain issues, but I believe that we all have one main goal. and that's to make the city of Marvin better and stronger. And I appreciate everyone that has come up here to the podium and expressed their concerns because everybody's concerns are valid. And I do applaud you guys for coming up here and speaking your mind, because at the end of the day, your voices need to be heard. And this is your city. And we all we all trying our best up here. We really are. And sometimes, like I said, those decisions could be harsh. But at the end of the day, we're just trying to make the city better and stronger for everyone here. Thank you.

Mr. Vice Mayor Perez.

Again, it's the same thing, right? Thank you guys for showing up. Thank you for coming. Thanks, staff. And on the same issues, the parks, we're not going to, I mean, I'm in that issue of the little league and the soccer league and for the kids. It's like, we're going to figure it out. And, I mean, that's all I got to say.

Thank you, Mr. Perez. We know these are very difficult times. They're challenging times. And, you know, we have had months and months where we have examined every single line item in our budget. And we went and we governed from a place of responsibility. We were all looking at the same information. And we're committed to transparency, which is why these meetings are streamed live in English and in Spanish. The agenda and all of the materials are uploaded onto the website with those recordings. You'll see the minutes there, which is the decisions that we made and how we voted. And in addition to that, we have a translator because we want to be fully accessible because we know that 90% of our community is Spanish-speaking. We want you all to be a part of the decision-making process. We know that we govern from a place of inclusion when we listen as an act of love, when we're here, and when we act together in a unified way. That's how we're going to get through this together, in unity. That's how we're going to prosper. Arvin is our home. Arvin is our home. We're all here. And we're all here. You see us sitting up here? We're here to represent, and we can only do that effectively when you participate. So thank you for participating. Thank you. I want to say that as we continue moving forward and take action on the budget that we approved, our fiscal year started July 1st, which is why we had to take action today. on these deep cuts prior to that. And it is very painful. None of us ran to be here in this position to cut city services because cutting city services means laying people off. Public servants are city staff who are behind the scenes and they're public servants day in and day out. I know that We've said time and time again that we want this to be temporary, these cuts, that they're temporary. And we can pull together through this. I know, I know that these are painful times and that our finances are also a reflection of our community, that we all live here. And so just know that we're going to continue to be here, to be open. If you have any questions, if you want to follow up, you know where City Hall is, please, I'm open. You can come in if you want to have an appointment. We also, you know, I know often it could be intimidating coming out here or coming into City Hall, which is why once a month we do Coffee with the Mayor on the second Tuesday at 10 a.m. You're all welcome to come to Coffee with the Mayor if you have time. I just want you to know that I know there's a lot of noise sometimes online. And it could be distracting. And things could spread. And that misinformation often, it creates not just the divisiveness, but it also creates fear and anxiety in our community. So I ask you, If you hear anything at all, please verify it. You'll recall that a couple of weeks ago, it was running on social media that ICE was here, that ICE was over on Meyer and Haven Drive by Camel Market, and people were freaking out that ICE was back. And it was not true, but it quickly spread. And that is dangerous. It's dangerous. Imagine. Because we know what's happening out there and we know we're a community of immigrants. Someone could have had, God forbid, you know, a heart attack because of that or an accident trying to flee that place. So I ask, please. verify verify and let's be responsible let's be responsible to one another and i i know that as it relates to the issue with the parks there's a reason why you know i go live and i invite everyone to come i want you to be here which is why i send reminders about this meeting but i also want you to know that we all voted for that agreement with the arvin little league to make sure that the Arvin Little League could always count on Kavakovich Park and not pay to use that park. Because we know that you're a nonprofit, that you're volunteers, you're coaches, that you're out there and you do it as an act of love. And it's such a massive benefit to our kids. It keeps them fit. It keeps them off their tablets. They're out there developing confidence. They're learning about how to be team players with one another. And it's so beautiful to be out there in that park and to enjoy that sport. Same goes for our soccer league. They're at Smotherman Park. And many of our kids play both sports, know that they're there, and we want to make sure that both the soccer league and the little league are treated the same. They're both nonprofits. And the volunteers are our parents who work full time, and then they come and coach. So you know that count on us. We're absolutely in support of both. But I will say this. Yes. I know when you see things in the city, you come to city council and you make that assumption that because it's in the city, it's within our jurisdiction. But you need to know that there is a special district. It's the Bear Mountain Parks and Recreation District. And a portion of our property taxes, all of our property taxes, go to that special district for parks and for recreation. And that swimming pool, our swimming pool, that historic place that many of us learned how to swim there, which is a life skill, it's there in DiGiorgio Park. That belongs to the Bear Mountain Parks and Recreation District. And so, yes, the question is, how can we all work in partnership with one another? Both the city, I know we have extended that letter saying we're here. Count on the City Council, all five of us, unanimously, we signed on to that letter saying, count on us to be in partnership with you. We are committed to saving our pool, whatever it takes creatively. Please don't cover it with concrete, but there are ideas of building a batting cage. There's plenty of other spaces where we could build batting cages, but let's work to see how we can save that pool so that our kids, even if we're not in a majorly affluent community, could also learn how to swim and cool off in the summer but also learn that very critical life skill save their life and someone else's and so i really look forward to and i'm going to just extend this invitation again that we're here and open to meet at any time with the members of the bear mountain parks and recreation district to work together and to leverage each other's resources so with that i just want to say thank you again thank you miss webb and your colleague thank you for being here with us and getting us through these times and for working to make sure that we're compliant and that we're not facing those massive fees that we cannot afford those penalties. And just thank you again for your time. We look forward to seeing you back here at the next council meeting. We know we're here the second and the fourth Tuesday at six. With that, we're going to now go into closed session. And so in closed session, the meeting is still on. It's going to be silent when we're in closed session. We have two items in closed session. Madam Attorney, would you like to read those two items, please?

Yes, thank you, Madam Mayor. The first is conference with legal counsel regarding anticipated litigation. Those are three separate cases. And the second is conference with labor negotiators with SCIU and APOA.

Wonderful. Thank you so much. We will now go into closed session. If there's any reportable actions, we will come out to report those. Thank you and good night.