City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay. I'd like to call our meeting to order. This is the regular city council meeting, Tuesday, 01/20/2026. Roll call, please. Vice mayor Reid.

Here.

Council member Pratton.

Here.

Council member Sandhu. Here. Council member Farmer.

Here.

Mayor Rodriguez. Here. Okay. We're gonna go ahead and have a silent prayer and then the flag salute. At this time, I'd like to just kinda recognize we had a member of our community who actually served on our commission on aging who did a lot of service for the city of Galt.

She has passed away. Phyllis Johnson. And so if you're inclined, maybe think about her and and her service here. Okay. Madam clerk, the replay statement.

This meeting of the Galt City Council is recorded with closed captioning. The recording will be cable cast on Metro Cable channel fourteen, the local government affairs channel on the Comcast and DIRECTV U verse cable systems. The recording will also be video streamed at metro14live.sackcounty.gov. Today's meeting replaced Friday, January 23 at 9AM and Saturday, January 24 at 9AM on metro cable channel fourteen. Once posted, the recording of this meeting can be viewed on demand at youtube.com/metrocablefourteen.

Thank you. Do we have any we have the agenda approval additions and or deletions. Any anyone? Okay. And the next item is presentations. I don't see any listed. Okay. Let's go ahead and go to public comment.

Under government code section five four nine five four point three, members of the public may address the city council on non agenda items. The public comment section is for the city council to receive comments. Except for brief responses to questions, no discussion or action may be taken on any item that is not listed on the agenda. Please limit comments to a maximum of five minutes. Consistent with the city council procedural guidelines, the mayor reserves the right to shorten the time limit for speakers to ensure the efficient and timely completion of all city business on the agenda. Ken Lee.

Good evening council members. I'm Ken Lee, still living at Gott Place, I think. Oh, I'd like to bring up C Street headed westbound on the right hand side corner. The corner space is only 12 feet in-depth. Longer wheels stick out into the flow of traffic.

It impedes the safe flow down C Street eastbound when you have to cross over the midline. And so the simple fix is turn that space into two motorcycle parking spaces. And this will satisfy the new corner sunshine law. Pink's cheap. The east side driveway behind the flea market is designated a one way out.

They still have vehicles entering the wrong way throughout the day. This impedes the traffic flow of multiple vehicles going the right way. The simple fix is to paint the pavement. Do not enter. Ask city staff first. They see cars going in the wrong way throughout the day. I like to bring up Del Monte Canneries have closed. The Chinese canneries in the 1900 were the number one independent cannery, not the third as listed in the history books. We were not behind Del Monte and Libbey. The two companies got the farmers to not sell fruit and produce to the Chinese canneries.

So we had to take General Bidrow's ranch in Chico. And we took the Wolfskill Ranch in Winters, which is the oldest ranch in California. And we had to take ranch in Red Bluff to raise cattle. Del Monte ended up taking over the seven Chinese canneries for pennies on the dollar. They were under the name Pacific Canning Company. Now Pacific Coast Canning and Lodi is acquiring the Defunct Del Monte part of their business. So thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Lee. No more comments. Alright. Alright. Item e, reports by city council members on regional boards, commissions, and committees. Mister vice mayor.

The only one that I had was the CGA meeting at the beginning of the month where we went over approval of financial statements, some policy discussions, and then we discussed the Sierra To Sea watershed bank project and some other groundwater monitoring issues. That's it.

Thank you. Mister Pratton.

Nothing to discuss.

Mister Sandhu.

Nothing to report tonight.

Mister Farmer.

Nothing officially to report. Just wanted to mention that I attended the ceremony in offer in honor of officer Ton, and I wanted to thank the police department for a very nice ceremony both at the at the railroad railroad site and also at the at the memorial. So thank you.

I attended two SACOG meetings between our two meetings. December 18 pretty much was just a year end review, a little recap of things. And then January 15, although I did not attend in person, I did attend virtually so that I could make the Kevin Tawn events. And in that meeting, new leadership was established. Mr.

Suen, Darren Suen from Elk Grove, had been the president of SACOG for last year. And so there was a lot of fond farewells for him to vacate the president's or the chair seat. And Jill Gialdo from Rockland is now the chair. And pretty much that was just a planning session for the upcoming year. All right. Information Consent Calendar. It is recommended the Items one through 12 be acted on simultaneously unless a separate discussion and or action is requested by a council member. This council, anyone want to pull any items?

Mayor Rodriguez, I would like to pull the item number f seven.

Okay. Any others? Okay. Seeing none. I'm supposed to read this. Right? Or are you

Either one. You can but we do have public comment.

Oh, I'm sorry. Public comment.

Perry Wenzel on item F12.

Is this on? Yeah. On item number 12, I like the idea, the Microsoft platform for the desktops, etcetera. But what was unclear to me was, are we buying two fifty licenses? That's my first question. And does that make sense? I mean, maybe there's two fifty users that would use Excel or Word or whatever else. Or did we get to the two fifty? Because that's what you need to get in on this contract. The other question like I use three sixty five myself at home, and it's just the baby version.

But it didn't seem explicit that you could use it on your tablet, on your phone, on your laptop, and on your desktop. So those are things that just came out as I was reading. It's a very tedious, you know, 20 page contract. Anyway, those are my comments on that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Wenzel. No more comments? Okay.

Madam Mayor, can I may can I say something about that item since it was brought up for comment?

Yeah. Yes.

Yeah. Mister Moore, would you mind clarifying the questions that mister Wenzel had?

Yes. Yeah. There's there's some language in there about minimums and the 250 count, but we're actually less than that. At at the end of the contract, there's other language how we can get in under the two fifty. So what we're actually getting is 220 licenses for most city users, which includes all the applications.

And that's how many basically, how many email users we have. And then we're getting 10 additional, which are the Office desktop only users. And that's for employees like cashiers that work at the Agora Aquatic Center that don't need email and don't have email addresses. So the numbers are 220 plus 10, so 230 total.

Okay. So we don't there's no such thing as, like, a package price where you buy, like, bulk licenses and bundles or something?

It is. Yeah. In fact, we're getting the the contract pricing from Riverside County. Pretty much all cities across the state use that same contract and get the that pricing. And so yeah. As far as the number of users, that's based on our current user usage, sorry, our current one plus a small amount of growth to hold us over.

And those is this a yearly thing we have to do every year, is this just whenever they have, like, new additions or updates or something?

It's it's an annual, and then this is a three year contract. So that's it's annual subscription. Okay.

But the staff report did say that you'll get they'll get the updates regularly now and not have to pay for them separately.

Right. Alright. Thank you, Ronnie.

Mhmm. Anything

else? Okay. Tina, just because I'm having a throat issue, I think I'm gonna let you read them. Sure.

Receive and file warrants for period ending 01/07/2026. Minutes of the regular meeting of 12/16/2025. Authorize the city manager to execute an easement release agreement with Parker Industrial Center. Go up to the top here. Approval of final map and subdivision improvement agreement for Liberty Ranch Village 3.

Approval of final map and subdivision improvement agreement for Liberty Ranch Village 4. Approve land dedication and fee title from Richmond American Homes of Maryland, Inc. Approval of side letter agreement with the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local thirty nine regarding the use of security cameras and fleet telematic systems, capital to capital program, introduce an ordinance repealing and replacing chapter 15.28 of the Galt Municipal Code relating to buildings and construction and adopting the 2025 edition of the California Fire Code, treasurer's report for period ending November 2025, and the Microsoft enterprise agreement.

Thank you. Roll call. Motion. Oh, I'm

So moved. Second.

I knew it was gonna happen. Okay. So moved by, council member Farmer and seconded by vice mayor Reid.

Roll call. Vice mayor Reid. Aye. Council member Pratton.

Aye.

Council Member Sandhu. Aye. Council Member Farmer.

Aye.

Mayor Rodriguez.

Aye. Passes five zero. Okay. So now item seven. The second reading and adoption of the ordinance amending section two point one two point zero two zero relating to council salaries and benefits. Mister Sandhu.

Just miss miss mayor. Thank you. Give me the opportunity. This agenda item was we, as every council member discussed in the last council meeting. I was not agree. I say no. So is in in in a short as a matter of principle, I will not vote in the favor of increasing the council compensation. And that's it. Thank you.

Okay. Any anyone else? Or I'll entertain a motion.

So moved. I'll second that.

Moved by councilman Farmer and seconded by councilman Pratton. Roll call. Vice mayor Reid.

Aye. Council member Pratton.

Aye.

Council member Sandhu. No. Council member Farmer?

Aye.

Mayor Rodriguez?

Aye. Passes a four one vote. We don't it doesn't look like we have scheduled matters for a notice of public hearing. Nothing else on the regular calendar. No communication? None. City clerk's report? Nothing. Comments by staff?

We have one from Interim Director of Public Works, Trung Trinh.

Good evening. Good evening, council members. I just kinda wanna get ahead. Know, we reported last meeting. Councilman Reed asked about the the Collins property out there at Marengo with the the the power pole, smut pole. And last time we reported, I believe I I think I said March or April. And so it's roughly kind of the same timeline. We did confirm that the property did go through. It did sell. So that was a huge hurdle. So that happened. And there's a potential if they the coordination with SMUD goes there could be some advance. But basically, the schedule right now is still March to April before they have that poll move.

That that it for staff reports?

That's it for staff comments.

Alright. Wow. Moving along. See that, mister Farmer. I'm just kidding.

I just never mind. Okay. So comments by city council members and future agenda items. Mister Vice Mayor.

So thank you, Trung, for that information. It still just boggles my mind how it's gonna be another three months for them to move three wires to a telephone pole that already exists in the front yard of a property. So and that's what's holding up all of the construction on the entire street of Marengo. That's what's holding up them instituting that turn signal. That's what's holding up them opening up all the lanes.

And all of that, it just boggles my mind on how it's taking that long when they're probably gonna end up just demolishing those two properties as it is, and then the and then they're going to not use those power lines. So that's that's the only reason I keep bringing it up is just because it just I don't understand how it takes that long to do what they have to do. So I'll just leave it at that.

Sounds like an email needs to be sent to our, county representative, mister Hume.

Sounds like a representative.

Yeah. Fantastic. Could he could talk to Smud.

Yeah. Well, there's that. And then, I wanted to promote another event that's coming up. It's same as last year. I know Horizon Church puts on what they call the Night to Shine in coordination with the Tim Tebow Foundation.

It's a very basically, it's a prom night for individuals with disabilities that were unable to have a prom or whatever. And so they deck out all of Galt High, and they have 200 honored guests that come and basically have a prom night at Galt High. And that's coming up on the thirteenth, and I know that they're still looking for what they call buddies. Every single person that attends there has to have what they call a buddy, a person to be with them for the rest of the night. And they have 200 honored guests that are on the invitation, and they have at least 40 more people on the waiting list.

So last time I checked, they were just about a 175 buddies, so they're still looking for plenty, and they'll take up to 240. So that's on, February 13 at Galt High from six to 10PM. So if anybody out there is thinking that it's a great idea, I've put it all over social media. We're trying to get as many people. Go to horizonweb.org, the church's website, and they'll have plenty of information there for you to sign up. And I think that's all I got.

Great. Thank you. Mister Patton.

I just wanted to thank police chief for the officer time Memorial. It was very nice. I did attend that. I did attend the planning commission meeting and wanted to congratulate our new Commissioner Johnson is now our new chairperson. So good luck to her. That's all I have.

Mister Sandhu.

Thank you. Thank you for the staff, their hard work, and thank you for the public comment. The public comment is important. And also thank you for anybody come to this meeting. And thank you, that's all.

Mr. Farmer.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Yeah, want to thank the people that came to the meeting, although it's very short. Thank you for coming. If you had to pick one, this is the one to come to. Still make it home and watch your favorite television or whatever you're doing after this. I wanted to say in regards to your comment about the night to shine. It is a great event. I went last year for the first time. I plan on going this year again. It's it's really cool. Tell you what, those kids, they know how to they know how to enjoy themselves. It's pretty entertaining. So I wanted to just mention something of it. I know it was mentioned by the mayor earlier about miss Johnson who had passed away. And it's very tragic, you know.

As as all of you know, she was a very frequent attendee of our of our council meetings. And I think, you know, the thing about Phyllis is if you if you didn't know her very well, she comes off, you know, she seems very abrasive, very, you know, vocal. But if you ever really talked to her and and and had any conversation with her, you know that she was a very accomplished person in her life. She did a lot of stuff, and she was very knowledgeable on a lot of stuff. And what I would say is that, you know, there's a lot of people in this town that like to, for lack of a better word, a lot of people like to complain and say they don't like, you know, how the city's doing this or that or how they would do better, a lot of people online.

But as we know, not a lot of people show up to our meetings. But she showed up. You know, she showed up and she said what she wanted to say and you know, and she cared about what was going on. And she took time out of her evenings to come to our meetings. And, you know, and I always appreciated that she was very you know, she just told you what she thought. You know, she didn't beat her on the bush. She just got straight to the point. And I always respect people that are like that. And she served her community, the Commission on Aging, as was mentioned. She actually served many roles in her lifetime similar.

And so I applaud her for the time that she spent serving her community, the time she spent here at our meetings. And I always appreciated the comments. She would always come up to the dais you know, and have kind words, know, support, you know, thanks for doing that, or I appreciate you doing this. And, you know, she was always very flattering, so I always appreciated that. The meetings won't be the same without her. So that's it.

Thank you. Just a couple of things. I I too attended the Kevin Tawn ceremony and also the unveiling of the street name, which was pretty fascinating. And also to learn and I don't know why I didn't realize this, but that it was going to connect to A Street. So it is a major street for for Galt and and will be.

And it was really nice. And it is always every year, I've attended almost every single one of the wreath the wreath displays ceremony. And it's just fascinating at how supportive his parents have been through this whole this I mean, thirteen years. Right? Thirteen years that they just support Galt.

Almost makes me wish they'd move here. But just fascinating. They already sacrificed one of the most ultimate sacrifices for the city of Galt, and then they still show up and are a support to for that community of families that have lost law enforcement loved ones. It's pretty fascinating to see people like that. The ceremony's always very, very good and appropriate.

So I did appreciate that. I did have an opportunity to attend the Veterans of Galt Group on Saturday morning. Apparently, the, chamber and the city had teamed up to gift the veterans new hats. So if you see veterans walking around with these fancy hats, please comment and thank them for their service. They they really seem to really enjoy it.

They like they like getting a little bit of recognition, especially those who are older, I'm sure, walked around for years without any recognition just because people didn't know who they were. So hopefully people will see them walking around town and can thank them for their service and what they all do. And to piggyback a little bit off of Mr. Farmer's comments about Phyllis Johnson, I actually was thinking, you know, a lot of times she actually sat up here with staff. And, you know, it was pretty fascinating.

She embedded herself in this community and the service that she gave. And it's always such a loss when the community loses members of their of the community. But with the active members who are actively engaged in serving the community, it seems to be a little bit of a harder pill to swallow. So I hope well wishes and condolences to her, for any the family, and to all the friends and family that loved her. And if there's nothing else

I had one more thing I forgot. I'm sorry, if you would allow me.

Sure.

I just wanted to say to I wanna thank Public Works and and also Parks and Rec because I know you guys kinda both have a hand in this. In regards to the litter abatement and also the work that your team does with picking up trash and stuff in town. On two separate occasions this last week, I had a customer come into our my place of business that was they came for the swap meet, actually. And when they were talking about how they'd never been to Gault before, they go, you know, you guys have a really clean city. It's like, I just it's really clean.

How do you and I was like, really? And I I thanked him for saying that. And then two days later, I had met someone at my house that came to purchase something that I was selling. And they said they they actually got into town a little bit earlier than when I got home. They said, so we just went driving around Galt. Never been to Galt before. And they said, you know, you guys got a really clean city. Two times within two, three days, somebody that's never been to Galt before and not from here compliment us on that. So I just wanna say it matters. So thank you.

Again, not to piggyback, but I did remember this morning I left my house early and all of the school traffic and came down Carillon. And here are, I believe, parks and rec workers out there. And they had to have been freezing because not only was it cold, it was wet as well. And they're out there trying to do landscaping and everything. And I just thought, you know, on a hot day I would stop and give them a Coke or a bottle of water. What do you give them? Hot cocoa. Hot cocoa? Or a hand warmer or something. But, yeah, they are definitely troopers out there.

But so please, yeah, thank all of staff in every department, because there's a lot going on in town, and it's very appreciated. So with that, I will go ahead and close this meeting at 06:26.