City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

it having reached the hour of 5 30 p.m i am calling the june 23rd 2026 modesto city council meeting to order and ask the city clerk to call the role council member ricky currently not in attendance council member bavaro president vice mayor william here council member wright here council member scutia brayton here council member alvarez here and mayors wallen here

Will everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by the invocation from Pastor Emily Moreno, College Avenue, United Church of Christ.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, City Council, and community gathered here today. While I pray in the name of Christ, I honor the diversity of beliefs in this room and invite those here assembled to take a posture of grounding and reflection in the name of the holy that each holds dear. So let us pray. Divine presence, creator of all things, we come before you with gratitude for the opportunity to gather in service to the people of Modesto. We ask for your wisdom to guide our city leaders in every discussion, decision, and responsibility before them today. Grant them discernment as they seek what is right, patience to listen well, and the courage to act with continued integrity and honor. May the people of this city be at the forefront of their minds and hearts in all decisions today. Bless the residents, families, neighborhoods, businesses, and community organizations of Modesto. May the city be strengthened by unity, justice, dignity, opportunity, compassion, and an abundance of care, especially for the most vulnerable among us. For you have called not for some, but for all to have life and life abundant. So would this meeting be one that brings life, revitalization, and your renewing power to this city? So may all that is said and done in this time honor and dignify you. So in the name of all that is good, true, and beautiful, may it be so. Amen. Amen. Thank you.

Does the city clerk have any announcements?

Yes, Mayor. Just a reminder, public comment is three minutes. There's speaker cards at the entrance of the chambers. In addition, written public comment was received and that was forwarded to the council.

Thank you. Do any of the council members have any conflicts of interest? Next on the agenda is acknowledgements and presentations. First is a proclamation declaring June 2026 as Disability Rights Month. And I will read the proclamation. Each July, we celebrate Disability Rights Month, which honors the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, ADA, signed into law on July 26, 1990. The ADA expanded opportunities for individuals with disabilities by prohibiting discrimination and improving access to employment, transportation, public services, and accommodations. Congressman Tony Coelho, who represented Modesto as California's 15th district representative, was diagnosed with epilepsy and experienced discrimination throughout his life. Advocating for his community, he sponsored the ADA, illustrating Modesto's commitment to creating accessible spaces and speaking up to make change. According to the CDC, approximately 70 million adults in the United States reported having a disability. Whether it is visible or invisible, mobility or cognitive, vision or hearing, learning or sensory, developmental or acquired, people with disabilities are a part of every community. Communities thrive when residents appreciate each other's unique capabilities and support each other in everyday life. By removing access barriers, we make our community a place where everyone is valued. Now, therefore, I, Suze Wallen, Mayor, do hereby proclaim July 2026 as Disability Rights Month in the City of Modesto and urge residents to recognize the countless contributions made by our disabled residents Celebrate diversity and work to eliminate discriminatory barriers to create a community for everyone. Dated this 23rd day of June, 2026. Accepting this proclamation will be Heather Stiegel, Executive Director of DRAIL, which is Disability Resources Agency for Independent Living. Welcome.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, council members, city staff, and community members. My name is Heather Stegall. I am the Executive Director for DRAIL, that's Disability Resources Agency for Independent Living, and I am honored to accept this proclamation on behalf of our disabled community. Thank you to the City of Modesto for recognizing July 2026 as Disability Rights Month. This proclamation is meaningful because Disability Rights Month is not only about celebrating progress, it is also about remembering the people with disabilities, advocates, families, caregivers, and community partners who continue to fight for access, inclusion, independence, and equal opportunity. Disability rights are civil rights. This time of year is especially important for the disability community. The anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, also known as the ADA, is coming up on July 26. The ADA is a landmark civil rights law that helps protect people with disabilities from discrimination and supports equal access and employment, public services, transportation, businesses and community life. We also recently recognized the anniversary of the Olmstead decision on June 22nd. Olmstead is an important Supreme Court decision that affirmed the right of people with disabilities to receive services in the most integrated setting appropriate instead of being unnecessarily isolated or institutionalized. Together, the ADA and Olmstead remind us that accessibility is not extra. Inclusion is not optional. Community living is a right. At DRAIL, we believe people with disabilities should have the right to live safely in their homes, participate in their communities, access services, use public spaces, work, learn, advocate, and make decisions about their own lives. We also recognize the accessibility benefits everyone. When our city is more accessible, older adults, families, veterans, people with temporary injuries, caregivers, and the whole community benefit. As we recognize Disability Rights Month, we encourage our community to continue working together to remove barriers, listen to disabled voices, and build a Modesto where everyone has the opportunity to belong and thrive. On behalf of DRAIL and the people that we serve, thank you again to the City of Modesto for this proclamation and for recognizing the importance of disability rights in our community. Thank you so much.

You're welcome. Are there any comments from Council Members? Council Member Scootie Brayton?

Thank you, Mayor. This is particularly personal to me because one of my loved ones, my son, has multiple diagnosis and multiple disabilities. And I do feel that my family and he have experienced a lovely embrace from our Modesto family, our Modesto community. It is an inclusive community that does really pay attention and has that sensitivity and heart for their community members with disabilities. We have the awesome spot that's being developed and that's gonna be an awesome park that really affords the entire family to enjoy a recreational space where they did not have one before. And I'm just really looking forward to that being developed. Another wonderful space that accommodates our community members who have special needs is the Miracle League and the baseball activity that they have. My family has really enjoyed taking our son there and just the laughter and the smiles on all those players face just makes it so worthwhile. So Modesto is just a lovely place that really embraces all its community members, especially those with disabilities, and are we perfect? No, but we are working towards, again, doing what we can just to make Modesto inclusive, and my family definitely has benefited from it, and we are grateful for this recognition for this sector of our community. Thank you. Thank you for being here, and thank you for representing that very special group of people.

Thank you. Vice Mayor Williams?

Thank you, Mayor. Just 30 days ago exactly, April the 23rd, I had the privilege of representing my colleagues here on the council for your 40th anniversary at the Veterans Hall, 3500 Coffee Road, and you had so many people from not just Stanislaus County, but Northern California and upward. And so congratulations to that and for that and then also this proclamation tonight. And thank you for all you do to bring other groups together as it was already spoken by my colleague, Councilwoman Scudia Brayton, to collaborate, celebrate, and help those individuals who are in need of your services. So thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Williams. You have been a continued support to DRAIL and you always show up for our events. So I wanted to acknowledge that. So thank you.

I represent all of us when I come.

And I appreciate it. I wanted to acknowledge he's always there.

That's great. Council Member Bavaro.

Thank you, Mayor. Autism is medically and legally recognized as a developmental disability. And I am proud that the City of Modesto is one of the cities, actually the first cities that our police department and fire department have become certified awareness of autism and has helped tremendously with the police and the fire departments in understanding that particular disability. Thank you, Mayor.

You're welcome. Any other comments? All right. Seeing none at this time, I will bring the proclamation down and present it. Thank you.

Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you so much. Appreciate you so much. Thank you for being here. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

All right. Next is a proclamation declaring July 2026 as National Parks and Recreation Month. And I will read the proclamation. The city of Modesto boasts 75 parks, featuring various greenery, sports environments, and over 1,200 acres of parks and trails. Today, we recognize Modesto's commitment to parks and recreation and celebrate the principles upon which it was established. The impact of parks and recreation can be felt everywhere as it continuously supports economic vitality, social equity and well-being. Parks attract new residents, increase property values and boost local tourism. They provide accessible spaces and programs for people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities. They are gathering places that bring diverse groups together and create a sense of unity while reducing isolation. By providing gathering places and promoting active lifestyles, the physical health of our residents is supported. Parks and recreation programs encourage healthy and lively communities and serve as therapeutic services to improve mental health. The 2026 theme is the power of. Celebrating the many ways parks and recreation enable what connects everyone, play, community, nature, belonging, and well-being. Investing in Parks and Recreation is an investment in the future and leaves a positive footprint for generations to come. Now therefore, I, Suze Wallenmayer, do hereby proclaim July 2026 as Parks and Recreation Month in the City of Modesto. I encourage all residents to visit and feel the power of our parks and celebrate with friends and family, dated today. Receiving and accepting the proclamation is Nina Phillips from Parks, Recreation and Neighborhoods. Welcome.

Mayor, if I may.

Sure.

I was accepting this proclamation today and give my heartfelt thanks to her who went above and beyond the call of duty on the day of June 10th, which happened to be one of the hottest days of the year. Nina was driving up Tully Road by Davis High School when a woman on a bicycle was struck by a car. The woman was laying on hot pavement and Nina parked her car to block her from other traffic. She signaled to other individuals to call 911, who arrived shortly thereafter. But Nina truly went above and beyond call of duty to help one of our residents, and I just want to thank her for doing that.

Hi. Can we hear from you, Nina? Hi. Or from your friend, your little buddy?

This is Jacob.

Hi, Jacob. Hi. Hello.

I want to thank you guys for recognizing me for that. I try to go above and beyond for anybody that I see that needs my help or any help at all. especially in situations like that, they feel alone because they're hurt. They don't know what's going on sometimes. And I want to be there as much as I can for our community. So I try and do the best I can with any help that I can give people in the time of need at all.

We appreciate you very much. At this time are there any comments from council members?

Vice Mayor Williams. Thank you. And what is that young man's name?

This is Jacob.

Hi, Jacob.

Thank you.

All right. We truly appreciate you. And you set a beautiful example for everyone, I'm sure, that observed the situation and you made it safer for this person and just did what we do in the City of Modesto and do all that we can to help people. When you're out on the streets, that's what we're there for. So really appreciate you doing that. Alright, thank you for being here again this evening and I know I do we have some special visitors that need to be introduced as well. All right Welcome Yeah Welcome will somebody please introduce our special guests Hi

Hi, council, city manager. This is Mac and Maggie, who are our magpies. And then this is Finn, who's making his debut. This is our water safety mascot.

Finn, welcome. Oh, this is perfect. All right, we will come down and give you the proclamation.

Maggie, you're right here. That's enough to it.

All right, are we ready?

And one, two, three.

One, two, three.

All right. Next is a proclamation declaring July 4th, 2026 as America's 250th birthday. I will read the proclamation. The United States of America was founded 250 years ago when the Declaration of Independence was signed. In a move that lit the flame of liberty, the founding fathers took a risk and championed freedom, establishing this great nation that we know and love today. The founding fathers fundamentally believed in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, values which the city of Modesto proudly embodies. Though we have evolved immensely in those 250 years, those core values remain our foundation and continuously guide us through change. This special occasion offers an opportunity to reflect upon our nation's founding, trials and obstacles, preservation and responsibility to uphold liberty for our future generations. Soon, the next generations will shape history and continue the American legacy. As the people of the United States of America and city of Modesto continue to innovate, inspire and grow, may we continue to embody the true American spirit. Now, therefore, I, Suze Wallenmayer, do hereby proclaim July 4th, 2026 as America's 250th birthday in the city of Modesto. I encourage all residents to celebrate safely and promote the values of the United States of America. And I have two proclamations today. Accepting will be Ethan Hunt, Representative for Congressman Tom McClintock, and Tammy Dunbar, Representative for Congressman Adam Gray. Welcome.

Good evening, Mayor Zwollin and members of the City Council. I'm going to keep my remarks brief tonight. I just had all four wisdom teeth removed, so it's a little bit difficult for me to talk tonight. My jaw hurts a little bit. But on behalf of the Congressman, I just want to thank the city for this proclamation. And it's really just an honor to to accept this. And it's just a testament to the people of the city of Modesto for the pride that we show here for not only where we come from, but also our nation and the not only just pride, but also the gratitude that the people of this city have towards this nation and all the freedoms that we enjoy. So on behalf of the Congressman, I just want to say thank you for this proclamation, and it's an honor to accept this tonight.

All right, you're welcome. Thank you for being here this evening. And then Tammy.

The city of Modesto has always strived to do more, be more, and achieve more for its citizens, embodying the spirit of our Constitution's preamble that calls for us to continually form a more perfect union. On behalf of the United States Congress and your representative Adam Gray, thank you City of Mezesto for this honor and on the occasion of our, see if I can do this, semi-quincentennial, let freedom ring.

Thank you very much. Do we have any comments from council members this evening? Vice Mayor Williams.

Absolutely. The 250-year celebration in conjunction with the City of Modesto and Modesto Kiwanis is going to take place at 930. It's a one-mile route. We have three Grand Marshals. There are three Grand Marshals. One of them is J.S. West. The other is... Farm Bureau, and last but not least, Sutter Health, and when you put all of those together, it equals Water Wealth Contentment Health, and that is the theme for this year, celebrating America's birthday, downtown, July 4th, on Saturday, and yes, Tammy, let freedom ring.

All right, Council Member Bavaro. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the representatives that are here tonight. And I would also like to take this opportunity to personally thank Congressman Adam Gray for his assistance in securing federal funds for Station One Fire Department. Greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

All right. Any other comments? Council Member Alvarez.

Thank you Ethan and Tammy for coming out representing Congressman McClintock's office and Congressman Adam Gray's office. I as well, like my colleague Council Member Bovar, want to highlight the federal dollars that Congressman Gray was able to fight for to stand up our Modesto Police Department real-time crime center. It was approximately, I believe, a little north of a million dollars to set up that technology room where you see all the screens and each camera connected around the city to those screens. And so I just want to tip my hat to the Congressman. Thank you.

All right. That's it. Hearing everyone, I'll bring the proclamations down for you to accept them. Thank you again for being here this evening, both of you.

Should we flank her? Yeah.

She's helping out. We just did federal, not state for this. Thank you once again. Thanks for being here. Thanks, Mary. All right, next is item four. Consider approving the appointment of Kevin Cosgrove for appointment to fill the Creekside Golf Club representative seat on the City of Modesto Golf Course Advisory Committee for a four-year term ending December 31st, 2029. Does council have any questions of staff? Seeing none, I'll open item four up to the public. Any members of the public that would like to speak on this item? Seeing none, I'll close public comments. Any comments from council members? Seeing none, at this time, I have a resolution approving the appointment of Kevin Cosgrove for appointment to the Golf Courses Advisory Committee to fill the Creekside Golf Club representative seat for term ending December 31st, 2029. Do I have a motion? All right. I have a motion from Vice Mayor Williams, a second from Council Member Alvarez. And will the clerk please call the roll for this item?

Council Member Rickey. Aye. Council Member Bavaro. Aye. Vice Mayor Williams. Aye. Council Member Wright. Aye. Council Member Skoutia-Breaton. Aye. Council Member Alvarez. Aye. And Mayor Zwollin.

Aye. Carries unanimously. Next on the agenda is public comment. Public comment tonight is in person only. Zoom remains available for viewing and for wordly translation. Thank you for joining us. The city council meetings are a place where everyone is encouraged to share insights, listen, and participate in the decision making process that benefits our community. To ensure a fair and respectful environment, the mayor is responsible for maintaining order and decorum as outlined in the city charter and the rules of decorum posted at the entrance of the chamber. I ask that we are all respectful of all members of the public, presenters, and council members. Anyone who disrupts the meeting may be asked to leave. Appreciate your cooperation as we discuss key issues and make decisions that affect our city We will now open public comment for items not on tonight's agenda not on the council agenda and each person has three minutes to speak It looks like I have one two three 3, 4 for public comment currently. All right. First is Barry Jackson. Welcome.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I just wanted to come back and revisit since the game happened. I came, I think, in February, let you know that it was the, I think, the 11th game between the Beyer kids and the police department. It began that many years ago when I was the BSU advisor at Beyer for about five years. And just another way to connect teenagers and the police, because there's just the obvious need for that. So the police department's always been very responsive. Lieutenant Felton Payne has been my contact there. The chief has, I think, played twice, and he's also been a spectator a few times. He watched this time. And this year, for whatever reason, was kind of, I thought, the most fun. The boys kind of crushed them a few years, and then they came back and beat us a few times. But anyway, it was very close. They beat us this year. But it's great. Afterwards, they have lunch. The police department brings pizza for the kids that play. They play in front of the student body, so we probably had 400 or 500 kids watching them, which is kind of about average, I guess, every time. And it's really a good opportunity for everybody to kind of experience that moment. That doesn't really happen too often. So as a long-term member of My family's been here on both sides since right after World War I. So I'm very committed to kind of loving Modesto and knowing we have to always strive to be more perfect. And I just wanted to give kudos to the chief and the players and Lieutenant Payne and They have a good conversation with the kids over lunch with pizza after the game. And so anyway, it's all good. And as far as I know, we'll be continuing even though I'm not a buyer anymore, but the kids promised me to keep doing that. So we will one way or the other, we'll keep doing it. So anyway, thank you.

Thank you. And next is Danielle Moorhart.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council Members. My name is Danielle Morgar from the Office of Assemblyman Juan Alaniz, here to provide a legislative update. I'm happy to report that Assemblyman Alaniz's Assembly Bill 2085 is currently awaiting a signature from the Governor. AB 2085 requires that commercial weighing and measuring devices be positioned so both parties in a transaction can clearly see the results. The bill will also strengthen transparency requirements for point-of-sale pricing systems. This is Assemblyman Alanis' first bill to be sent to the governor for a signature, and he currently has 11 additional bills advancing through the legislative process. I'd also like to invite the community for next Monday, June 29th, we are hosting a community blood drive. We are partnering with our local Red Cross, American Red Cross, and the Royal Neighbors. This is at the Stanislaus Foundation of Stanislaus County at 3500 Coffee Road in Modesto from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. We do ask that you please sign up online. You can go onto the American Red Cross website. If you may not be able to donate, you may know somebody who can. It's very helpful within our community and does save lives. As always, if you have any questions, concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to our office. Thank you. Thank you.

Next is Yesenia.

Good evening, mayor and city council members. My name is Yesenia Rodriguez. I am a Modesto resident homeowner, small business owner, a vendor, a pop-up market organizer, and a foster parent. I am here today because my pop-up market was recently shut down by code enforcement. We were advised that the City of Modesto does not currently have a permitting process for pop-up markets on private commercial property, and that as a result, these events are not permitted. I am respectfully asking for your help to finding a solution for nearly three years. Our markets have brought together local families, small businesses, food vendors, crafters and entrepreneurs. But what started as a small community gathering has become a place where people connect, support one another and grow. Some vendors who started at our market have gone to open storefronts and food trucks. For many others, these markets help provide extra income to support their families. Before organizing these events, I visited the planning department and viewed the information provided to me. Based on that information, I understood that a special event permit requirement did not apply to my market because it was held on private property. I did not meet the listed criteria. I moved forward in good faith, believing I was operating appropriately. I take responsibility for not fully understanding the municipal code. However, I believe there's a larger issue. There appears to be no clear pathway for organizers who genuinely want to comply and do things the right way. I am not here to complain. I am here to collaborate. So many surrounding cities including Riverbank, Turlock, Houston, Oakdale, Escalon have found ways to support community events and work alongside organizers like myself. These events bring positive activity, These events bring positive activities to commercial areas, support small businesses, and strengthen community connections. Our markets have been attended by families, seniors, law enforcement officers, firefighters, paramedics, county employees, city staff, and people from all walks of life. They are not flea markets. These are organized community events that promote entrepreneurship, opportunity, and community pride. In response to these challenges, I'm already taking action. I am hosting free workshop to help vendors and new vendors to understand business licensing, permits, insurance requirements, food handler certificate, and tax obligation. My goal is to help vendors and new vendors become compliant and operate responsibly. I understand. I understand the challenging municipal code is lengthy process that can take months or even years while those decisions have exceeded your time.

Sorry. Okay. Well, thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Derek Castle.

Good evening, Mayor, council members, city staff, Derrick Castle Park Avenue. Last week I was walking with my seven-year-old granddaughter when we came across a deep, dangerous hole in the sidewalk. I showed her how to use the Go Modesto app and so she used the app, took a photo and sent it off. I can't tell you how thrilled she was when, less than two hours later, city workers turned up to start to fix the problem. Thank you, City of Modesto, for allowing a seven-year-old to have such a positive experience of taking civic responsibility. I've also had dozens and dozens of similar positive experiences. such as when I presented a detailed proposal to Parks and Rec to convert the unused dilapidated tennis courts at Grisaida into pickleball courts. City staff were immediately enthusiastic about the plans and could not have been more helpful in facilitating that volunteer project, which is now enjoyed by well over 100 players every week. When I presented the plan to convert a large part of the Church of the Brethren campus into transitional bridge housing for families, the city set up what's called a permits express meeting between planning, fire and building departments. At that meeting, staff reviewed the building plans that I'd drawn up, suggested a few improvements and that same day issued a permit. Within a few short weeks, we were able to move families off the streets and into the new bedrooms on the campus. I was blown away by how helpful the city staff were. The city's doing a great job in so many areas, but of course we're not perfect. As a Christian and especially as a human, I can't ignore the plight of those folk who I regularly encounter sleeping on cardboard in our alley. It's my moral obligation to keep reminding you that over two and a half long years ago, you promised to provide a large number of bridge housing tiny cabins for our unsheltered folk on the streets. But the majority of that $3 million is still there, just sitting in the bank. Look, don't get me wrong, our housing staff is doing wonderful work with emergency shelters, permanent supportive housing, affordable housing, HopeWorks, ADUs, but we're still badly lacking in the number of transitional bridge housing tiny cabins that we desperately need for folk living on the streets. My seven-year-old granddaughter was really excited to help make a difference in the community by using the Go Modesto app. I just wish that I could also use the Go Modesto app to get bridge housing cabins for folks sleeping in the alleys around Modesto. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else wishing to speak under public comment for items not on tonight's agenda? All right.

Mayor, City Council, On behalf of the students from Modesto High School Auto Shop class, I'd like to thank you all for attending the June 11th Little Rider Police Car Reveal at Modesto PD. The kids felt very proud of the work that they have done and accomplished and it was a very educational moment for myself along with the students and all those involved. We'd like to thank the Stanislaus Community Foundation for funding the project, Modesto Police Department for providing the police car, and the City of Modesto for getting behind and supporting us with this also. We'd like to thank the Kiwanis for allowing the police car to be at the graffiti show on June 13th. The students did attend to give demonstrations to the public of what they've done and how the car can operate and that gave them more of a sense of pride of what they accomplished because now they understand and have learned that there are other things they can learn skillfully if they do pursue to go to our community college and the auto tech industry for trade education. So it was a very fulfilling moment for these students. I'm very proud, along with Tina Tatio and Betty Santos, for working with these students and getting this accomplished. And we're looking forward to the next project with these students because there's more interest by new and future students to get involved with the next project. I just want to give you a gratitude of thanks for attending and giving that support to these students. Thank you.

You're welcome. Next. Anyone else for public comment for items not on the agenda, please step forward. Oh, excuse me.

Please step up to the microphone. Sorry. I don't know what item nine is. This is my first time here in a long time. I want to do a public comment, but I came from my job, so I don't know how.

So regarding item nine out, Allison, can you double check on consent item nine just to clarify if that's the one.

So I want to talk about the vendor, but yeah, I didn't know that was yeah, the pop up vendor.

Okay. And which item? Oh, it's just for public comment. I wasn't sure if we had that on. Yeah, I wasn't sure how this works. Okay, sure.

Yes, please.

We're happy to hear from you.

Sorry about that. Okay. Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. My name is Pansy Plata, and before I begin, I want to make it clear that I'm speaking for myself and only myself. While I wasn't born in Modesto, I was raised here, and I proudly call this my home. My dad worked as an electrician, my brother owns a handyman business, and my mom owned antique stores. I was raised through hardworking people who taught me that if you want something, you work hard. Today I work as an administrator during the day, but at night I'm trying to build a small food business called Kamai Street Bites with the goal of one day opening a restaurant here in Modesto. I already have my business license, seller's permit, and insurance because I want to do things the right way. My frustration is not with the rules. I support food safety regulations. My frustration is that I'm trying to find a legal pathway to grow. I cannot afford a food truck, and opening a restaurant requires a major financial investment before I even know if my business can succeed. Part of the reason I'm here is because I recently experienced an event being canceled due to issues that were responsibility of the organizer. I did my part. I obtained my permits, insurance, and researched what was required of me as a vendor. I believe that if I was expected to do my homework and follow the rules, the event itself had done the same. The experience is why I believe accountability should exist on both sides. Vendors should follow the rules, but organizers should also understand requirements and obtain approvals before advertising events and collecting vendor fees. I'm simply asking for clarity, communication, and a realistic pathway for hardworking people who are trying to follow the rules and build something in this community. I love Modesta, and one day I hope to open my restaurant here and get back to the city that helped to raise me. Thank you for your time.

You're welcome. Thank you. Anyone else with public comments for items not on tonight's agenda?

Good afternoon, Mayor, city members, and council members. My name is Jennifer Green-Yunez, and I am a business owner here in the city of Modesto. I'm also a pop-up vendor. That is one of the businesses I own. And I just want to make a brief statement really quick. Pop ups are not just small businesses trying to survive their economic drivers that bring shoppers, foot traffic and outside spending to our community. When pop ups operate in partnership with shopping centers, they activate underused spaces, increase customer flow to nearby storefronts and create a more vibrant commercial environment. These events also support local nonprofits, many of which rely on vendor markets for fundraising through booth fees, shared revenue events, and community partnerships. I'm also our government relations chair for the Stanislaus-Sicino Chamber of Commerce, and I would like to invite not just our representatives out here who are the event coordinators, but anybody on the council who would like to bridge that gap and have further communication on this subject. Thank you. Thank you.

Is there anyone else on public comment?

Hi. My name is Michelle Strange, and I also organize pop-up vendor events. And I would like some clarification on when we actually need the permits. and because there is specific stipulations on the website when you're looking for the permits so when you read it it is quite confusing as to when you need a permit and is there a way that the permit process can be streamlined because it's really really challenging to plan events ahead of time in response to the time that the city needs for all the appropriate permitting because we do want to be compliant But we also do, like the others are saying, these pop-ups are a pipeline to better business in your city. So it is in your best interest to support small business pop-ups when it really does make the city exciting, fun to, you know, just drive around and see, but inclusive and, you know, whimsical, right, is really what I would like is that there's more opportunity that we say, you know, two months before the event that we can actually get a permit because it's, I believe, a 90-day process and there's a significant paper. I've never done it myself because, again, the stipulations are unclear as to when you actually need the permit. But so that's what I would like is that the council itself put on future agenda a way to solve this for us because we do want to build our businesses and eventually get brick and mortars and not be in pop-ups because It is really not fun to set up and break down. The goal eventually is to be in a business place. But like this person over here said, you know, it's really hard to create clientele. So it does give you an opportunity to build your clientele before you go into a brick and mortar. And you're able to sustain your business for a lot longer when you have the opportunity to build your business at a pop-up vendor event. So thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else under public comment? Welcome.

Good evening, Madam Mayor. Emerson Drake, longtime Modesto resident. Council members, ladies and gentlemen. I was at a Modesto Irrigation District meeting when another member of the audience challenged Bob Probos, the board president, whether he actually lived inside the district. Let's just say there was a few raised voices and shouted the guy down, so it got quiet, let's just put it that way, but no answers. So I waited after the meeting and I went up and talked to Mr. Probos. And I tell you what, I got a short dissertation on how to qualify as being This is where I live without really having to live there. I mean, political laws are always interesting. They seldom help the people. They're usually written by politicians and lawyers. There's no advantage to either of those, no offense. But what it reminded me of is a little bit of forethought makes things go so easy. And recently when we saw The donations were made by an out of Modesto individual, Bill Lyons, and when I pulled the 410s, or 460s, excuse me, Anyway, when I pulled the donation records, it was interesting to see how those that he donated to, he donated at the very beginning of their cycle. See, we're not protected anymore. We've got the Levine Act. That says within a year, it doesn't matter how much money they give you. We had the 10-cup rules here in Modesto. Time is now to clean up politics, but those don't count anymore. But when you see the donations across the board, And you look at the time frames of them, it gets to be pretty obvious that a man that doesn't live in Modesto, a developer, who has his own LLC development, has plotted or planned, however you want to say it, to be able to influence the city council. Now, people always say, well, you can give me the money you want. That doesn't guarantee you anything. No, I'll go along with that. There are no guarantees. But I was here, of course, when George Petrolakis, if you got the $1,000 from him, as Dave Geer knew quite well, all of a sudden you went the way that George said. Now, when we see the numbers that are involved, with one exception, one of the largest donations, or second largest donation in Modesto's history, Phenos' guy was the only larger one. People have to wonder. You can't take donations that size, bend over backwards to help a guy, and expect nobody to think about it. To throw his properties that he just recently bought a few years ago as a way to, oh, you can make money now. You donate it. I'm not gonna try to extend my time, but I'm gonna remind you every time it comes up, those Bill Lyons donations do not make you look good. Thank you very much.

All right, anyone else under public comment for items not on the agenda? All right. Seeing none, next, oh, all right. Sorry.

ALL RIGHT.

HELLO. HELLO, CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS, MAYOR, VICE MAYOR. MY NAME IS ELIZABETH PORTIO AND I AM A MEMBER OF THE MODESTO POP-UP COMMUNITY AND I JUST WANTED TO MAKE A QUICK STATEMENT ON WHY I SUPPORT THE POP-UP COMMUNITY. I WOULD LIKE TO RESPECTFULLY HIGHLIGHT THE VALUE AND IMPORTANCE OF SMALL BUSINESS POP-UP EVENTS WITHIN OUR COMMUNITY. FOR MANY INDIVIDUALS, THE PATH TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP DOES NOT BEGIN WITH THE STOREFRONT BUT WITH MAYBE A MODEST SETUP AT A LOCAL MARKET. or community gathering. These events provide a critical entry point for residents who are working to establish themselves and contribute to our local economy. Pop-up events create meaningful opportunities for individuals from all walks of life, whether it is a family-run venture, a home-based entrepreneur, or someone taking their first step towards financial independence. They offer a practical and accessible way to develop skills, build customer relationships, and grow a business in a sustainable manner. In addition to their economic benefits, these events also strengthen community relations. They bring residents together in shared public spaces, foster engagement, and promote a sense of pride in supporting local talent. This type of interaction is essential to maintaining a vibrant, inclusive, and connected city. Supporting these initiatives doesn't require extensive resources, but rather thoughtful consideration, such as streamlining permanent processes, maintaining reasonable fees, and ensuring access to appropriate public spaces. These actions can make a meaningful difference for those working to build something of their own. Ultimately, small business pop-up events represent opportunity, initiative, and community spirit. By supporting them, the City of Modesto invests not only in economic development, but in the people who are striving to grow and succeed within our community. Thank you for your consideration.

You're welcome. Anyone else at this time? All right. Oh, please.

My name is Karen Conrado. I live in the Modesto area.

I do have your card for the item number 20. I do have your blue card, but it's for that item, so I save it for the time. Anyone else for items not on tonight's agenda? All right. Next on the agenda is consent items. An item may be removed from consent and discussed at the request of a member of the public or council member. Is there anyone on the council that would like a consent item removed for further discussion?

Yes, I would like consent item number six.

All right. Item six is pulled. Is there anyone else in the public that would like an item removed from consent for further discussion or comment?

Item 16 for questions.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

Will the city clerk please read the consent items?

Item 5, consider approving the minutes for the June 9, 2026 council meeting. Item 6, those removed from consent. Item 7, consider accepting the cash handling internal controls testing report dated March 26, 2026. Item 8, consider accepting the homelessness performance audit report dated April 3, 2026. Item 9, consider accepting the fiscal year 2026-2027 internal audit work plan. Item 10, consider referring the appeal of the Entertainment Commission decision regarding the business entertainment permit for the vault nightclub to a hearing examiner pursuant to Modesto Municipal Code Section 4-1.418. Item 11, consider approving an agreement with the Salvation Army to provide operating support for the Access Center Emergency Shelter in an amount not to exceed $486,000. Item 12, consider approving the purchase of four fleet additions and three fleet replacements in a total amount not to exceed $2,553,227. item 13 consider accepting an informational report for the april 2026 accounts payable payment register and void report item 14 consider approving the community serve the community special event and program grants for grant funding of 4 700 for events and programs plans in the second half of fiscal year 2025-2026 Item 15, consider approving the agreement for on-call mechanical and refrigeration services to Champion Industrial Contractors Incorporated out of Modesto, California for a total amount not to exceed $2,109,797 over five years. And item 16 was removed from consent.

All right, may I have a motion to approve the consent calendar as read?

So moved. Second.

Moved by Council Member Wright, second by Council Member Rickey. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Rickey? Aye. Council Member Bavaro? Aye. Vice Mayor Williams? Aye. Council Member Wright. Aye. Council Member Scudia-Breton. Aye. Council Member Alvarez. Aye. And Mayor Zwollin.

Aye. Carries unanimously. Next will be Consent Item 6, Consider Final Adoption of Ordinance 3815-C.S. Amending Section 3-2.1401.1 of Article 14 of Chapter 2 of Title 3 of the Modesto Municipal Code relating to speed limits. And we will have a staff report. Welcome.

Thank you, Mayor, members of the City Council, Toby Wells, Director of Engineering Services. So item six is the final adoption of the ordinance to basically update 95 roadway segments across the city for the speed limits. So just a little bit of background on how speed limits are set. uh, within the state of California. So unfortunately, uh, state law is very rigid in terms of what it takes to set a speed limit that is legally able to be enforced by radar or laser mechanisms. So the way this California vehicle code is set up, uh, we are required to do an engineering traffic survey or study, uh, every five, seven or 14 years, depending on the roadway. So once a roadway has been in place for a period of time, that study is required. That study looks at everything from the land use, the roadway configuration, what types of activity, accident rates, and ultimately one of the biggest drivers of what sets the speed limits is what's referred to as the 85th percentile. So that is the 85th percentile is what the average reasonable driver is expected to be driving on any roadway. So that ultimately sets the configuration for what the law would allow to be an enforceable speed limit. So we did that study across, like I mentioned, 95 segments. Those are now reflected in what was adopted by council, and this is a second reading. to adopt those speed limits. Again, these aren't arbitrary. The last thing that we as engineers want to do is raise speed limits. Unfortunately, the data and the law is required in order for us to have those as legally enforceable. The last thing we want to do is have a speed limit in place that can't be enforced and would fail in a court of law because it wasn't done properly. So again, there are a number of segments of roadways that do increase slightly. We've used every ounce of engineering judgment and consistency with the law to keep those as low as possible. So we recognize that challenge. However, there were a couple of segments that were required to go up. Notably, as the council received some comments regarding Pelindale, I will note there are two segments of Pelindale that were referenced. The first segment of Pelindale is not changing. That is between Sisk and Dale. That roadway was adopted as a 50 mile an hour roadway in 2024. That is not changing. The segment that is changing is from Dale to McHenry. That existing speed limit is 50 miles an hour.

is being adjusted to 55 miles per hour happy to answer any questions all right thank you for your report any questions from council members i do have a question okay nick can i please have the docs over there um i i do understand toby that the city the city is really constrained

Thank you. Thank you very much.

I do understand that the city is very constrained by law and doesn't arbitrarily, nilly-willy decide to increase speed limits or decrease them. But as you referenced, I have received multiple concerns from constituents about the increase in Pallandale and that roadway, that section of Pallandale. I understand it's an expressway and with an expressway comes the desire and the structure to quickly move a large amount of traffic through a roadway and that's what Pallandale does. But I want to better understand the basis for our recommendation to increase that particular segment of Pallandale from 50 to 55. The concerns from the constituents didn't start just because this was put on the agenda. Since being elected, I've received a lot of complaints. Complaints because of the magnitude of traffic and the speed they come. Many people have to go into Pelindale, turn onto Pelindale, and they've struggled with the amount of traffic and the speed they're coming at in order to make a turn onto Pelindale. I've attempted my best to explain to them how expressways work and how they function. But the concerns continue happening. So specific to what we are recommending in terms of I understand that based on the study that measures the speed at or below which 85 percentile of the drivers are safely driving, which is the 85 percentile you referred to, I understand that, well, I have some questions in regards to that. So let me just ask, I have five questions. Do I ask you one at a time or do you want me to ask them all?

Whatever is easiest.

I'll go ahead and ask them all. So my first question is, what was the measure of the 85th percentile speed on Pelindale? And what I'm trying to understand is if the proposed increase was driven solely by prevailing speeds. I wanna understand how much higher were the actual driving speeds than what is currently posted. So right now it's currently 50. So what were the 85 percentile? Two, what was the safety factors considered on, THIS PARTICULAR SEGMENT. I KNOW THAT THE STUDY WAS DONE ON EACH OF THE 95 SEGMENTS. SO ON THIS PARTICULAR STUDY WERE SAFETY FACTORS SUCH AS COLLISION HISTORY ON PELLENDALE, PEDESTRIAN ACTIVITY, BICYCLE TRAFFIC, COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT, NEARBY SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, PARKS, AND SENIOR FACILITIES, AND THE MOVEMENT, ACTUALLY, OF GOING IN AND OUT OF PELLENDALE. I know that all of those safety factors are applicable to that segment. There's a lot of everything that I just mentioned there. My third question is besides Pelindale, is there any other roadway in the city of Modesto that currently is or is being proposed to have a speed limit at 55 miles per hour? I didn't see any in the material that was provided. What are the collision trends on Pelindale? I know that I have witnessed and I have heard several, but I really would be interested to know what they are and how that factored into this study. And lastly, I did a little bit of research to see if there was any exemption or any ability to take the data from these studies and not recommend or not implement the data that was substantiated by the 85th percentile. And per California Vehicle Code section 22349, California law now permits engineers to consider conditions not readily apparent to drivers and certain safety factors when recommending speed limits. In some circumstances, an engineer may recommend a speed limit lower than the pure 85th percentile results. So my question is IS THE CITY OF MODESTO WILLING TO EXPLORE THIS PARTICULAR SEGMENT FURTHER TO JUSTIFY PERHAPS A LOWER SPEED LIMIT THAN 55 TO MAINTAIN IT AT 50 OR HAVE IT DEFINITELY LOWER THAN 55? It's interesting that this has come up at the time it did. I went to Lowe's. I'm planting a garden in my backyard this last weekend when it was 99 degrees. And I locked my purse in my car, and I wasn't able to get in. My keys, my phone, everything was my purse and my car. So myself and my nine-year-old son had a walk home on Palindale. We jaywalked across the street because the intersections were too far to the left and to the right. It's legal to jaywalk in California now, so I wasn't breaking any laws. But I told my nine-year-old son, run for your life quickly and do it fast. And we both just jetted across Palindale. And we made it safely. But even though, despite the fact we were walking on the sidewalk, that traffic, despite the fact that it was going, the legal speed limit was going fast. And I could feel the air just whoosh. WHOOSH of the cars going through my hair. And it was alarming to my son, and we were inches away from that traffic. And that was at the flow of traffic going at the speed limit. I could only imagine having it be at yet even a higher level, a higher speed limit. That would be really frightening. So I would be more than happy to repeat any question if you didn't note them.

That was actually six questions, I think, on the last one.

I wrote down, I think I got seven. Well, there was subsets. We got it. Just to clarify.

Yeah, so the first question was on the 85th percentile. So for this segment of Pelindell, So just verifying so this segment of Palindale the 85th percentile was 60 miles per hour so the vehicle code that you cited and when your later questions about Reducing it by five miles an hour. The city has already taken that advantage. So Without the information and using that engineering judgment, it would be set at 60 miles an hour So we took that vehicle code exception and I've already applied it to be able to recommend the 55 miles per hour So that'll answer two of you.

What was what were their speed limits? Oh

The current speed limit is 50 miles per hour. No, the ones that were captured in the 85th percentile? The 85th percentile speed is 60 miles per hour.

Okay, so you used the code to bring it down to 55? Correct. Could you have used the code to bring it down to 50?

No, you're only allowed in five mile per hour increments. The way it works is you round to the nearest five miles per hour. So in this case, because it was 60, there's no rounding, so you can go down by five miles per hour, but that's as far as you can go under that vehicle code section that you referenced.

Okay.

Your question number two was on the safety factors. Yes, all of those factors are incorporated into that overall analysis, and the accident rate for this segment was less than the current statewide average. That is one of the criteria. If the roadway segment is above the statewide average, then you can apply other factors to see if you can justify moving that speed limit down.

For this segment, go ahead. I'll note down my questions to what you're saying. Please continue.

In terms of other streets with a 55 mile per hour within the city limits, I don't know that information off the top of my head. I'd have to research it. It's likely the only one, Clause would be the only one that would have the potential for being in that roadway, but I don't believe so. I believe it's a 45 or a 50. But again, as you mentioned in your description, an expressway is specifically designed for higher speeds. It is a roadway that is not anticipated to have pedestrians in those segments, because the intersections and the access to expressways are specifically limited by design. So of the roadways in town, it is the roadway that would be expected to have the highest speed.

So it's the only one that will be at 55 miles per hour?

Again, I'd have to verify. I don't know that off the top of my head, but I believe that's the case.

Okay, thank you.

In terms of collision trends, again, we looked at that segment, and the accident rate is again below the statewide average. I referenced the vehicle code section that we did take. And last thing is again about pedestrians and one thing I will note. We are looking at the corridor of Pelhamdale for a number of issues, one of which is the segment that was mentioned in the comments today about the access and the turning movements from both the two roadways there west of Dale that have left in and left out. that is designed ultimately as an expressway, those movements would be proposed to be eliminated with a concrete median there that would prohibit those movements for safety purposes. So that is something that is currently being designed. Okay. If I've missed anything, please clarify.

Thank you for answering my questions. Based on what you said, you acknowledge the fact that there is room for improvement in terms of safety calming measures for Palindale. You referenced the concrete medium. What other, if we are forced, if our hands are forced to increase that, speed limit to 55, what other calming measures can we put in place on that segment to have it be more safe?

Definitely a loaded question. Ultimately we believe the roadway to be safe. The speeds are safe for the roadway and what's indicated by the 85th percentile is that is what the traveling public and the assumption is the reasonable and safe driver is driving in a safe speed. Generally speaking the accidents that you see are normally at intersections. We don't normally see accidents, you know, in mid blocks unless where there's intersections, right, where we just mentioned those crossings. So from a large level expressway designs, that roadway is safe. Speed is one of the challenges, and we'll reference the SS4A, right, the Safe Streets for All, million dollar grant we just completed. This council adopted. We are now going after grants. That roadway of Pelindale that you're mentioning was not anywhere near the top of any priority list as identified in the SS4A. So again, from a prioritizing of where our efforts are traffic calming, Pelindale would not be on the top of that list because there are a number of other roadways that are much higher priority as identified in the SS4A.

My last question has to do with your reference to the state average with collisions. You said it didn't even come close to the state average for collisions. What is the data for Pelindale for collisions?

So the data, it depends on one, the volume of traffic, right? So it's measured in basically miles traveled. I'll see if I can look it up. I don't have it off the top of my head. So I'll see if I can pull that information up and I'll provide it for you. I know that it is below the statewide average. Therefore, it's not a factor. But I'll get you the exact number.

Okay, so do you see any other recourse that any concerned individual can have that feels very strongly that increasing the speed limit in that segment of the roadway is hazard to our community in that area? Is there any other avenue that we have to not increase the speed limit for Pallandale, for that segment?

Based on my engineering judgment, I would not recommend changing that speed limit other than what has been recommended based on the study. If we were to not adopt the study as proposed and as adopted for the second reading, that segment would be unenforceable for any radar activities by our police department. And to the point of what is helpful for keeping people driving the speed limit is additional enforcement. So if you take that tool away, that you're not able to enforce the speed limits there, then you...

So they can enforce the speed limits, just not without, not with radar. Radar is just one tool.

Radar is the most effective tool because the only other tool is for an officer to be pacing a vehicle. Again, if that speed limit is not following an engineering traffic study, when they go to, they have the ability to fight that ticket and they would win. Because anyone who's able to use that is information that is not accurately set.

Okay, thank you for answering my questions.

All right, Council Member Wright.

Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, I've had some questions. I know that the accidents that's happened, it's at the intersections. I've had one of my insurers were killed there at Tully and Pelvedale several years ago, and because somebody ran a red light. Do we have any plans on doing any roundabouts at those major intersections to help relieve the accident issues and also even to do more speed calming down?

So on this segment of an expressway on Pellandale for the six-lane facility from basically Sisk to McHenry, there are no roundabout plans there. Generally speaking, the limitation of roundabouts really kind of the limit currently is about four lanes, meaning two lanes in each direction. So with a six-lane facility, roundabouts become not feasible. So for that segment, not the case. As you get east of McHenry, as the roadway moves to a four-lane facility, there are roundabouts proposed east of McHenry, but not between McHenry and CISC.

Thank you.

All right, any other questions? Vice Mayor Williams, questions?

Yes. What would it take for the calling measure to actually beautify the center medium? Wouldn't that help? Because right now it looks like the Autobahn, right? I mean, it's just, it looks like a raceway. But if there were some shrubs of some sort in the middle, in the medium, and some on the sides, it would kind of be a beautification project. But at the same time, in my mind, and maybe not in anybody else's, but in my mind, I think that would help do some of the calming on the roads.

As I mentioned, the concept that we're working on for the concrete median does include landscaping. So we hope to be able to present those concepts of what is being proposed later this summer.

Yeah, and I'll also note that the council did authorize $2 million of Measure H dollars to look at landscaping improvements along Palindale that will actually help mitigate some of that traffic. Think Sylvan and when you're thinking of that type of stuff. So I believe, Toby, if I'm wrong, that study's nearing completion, and then once that happens, then obviously we'll be making recommendations to council to make that a reality. Yeah, there'll be...

public outreach as part of that plan that has the landscaping components and also has the median that would help limit some of the traffic issues. So it is multi-pronged in that approach that is well underway and nearing completion.

Thank you. One last question from me. So we've been approving these speed limits for five years, as long as I've been on the council, and a procedure is followed that seems standard. because when I was first elected, I kind of asked you all these questions plus a lot more. It was very interesting to see how it's done. Was everything followed in this particular study? You said there were 75? 95.

95. 95 roadway segments. So as I mentioned, because every study has a life expectancy, right, and it has a specific timeframe, once that expires or is nearing expiry, we have to do a new study. So we follow the same process, a very technical, legal process. But the biggest thing is making sure we're consistent with most recent state law. So as we all know, the state of California likes to pass new laws. And for many years, and Jose can point to this, really the pendulum had shifted towards trying to avoid speed traps, meaning there was a really shift where speed limits continued to go up. Finally, really in the last couple years that we've seen the trend start to go the other direction, where there's starting to be more tools that were implemented as part of this where safety corridors can now be identified, where we're able to, and you saw in these results, we're able to drop the speed limit on a number of streets that we didn't have that tool in the years past. So state law is finally starting to move in the right direction to help us have more tools to set these speed limits to where we would like them to be. Again, last thing any engineer wants to do is come and say, yes, we want to raise the speed limits. That's not what we're doing. We just have to be consistent with state law. To your point, yes, we have followed everything very methodically. This one versus last one, it was just updating for the most current state laws and also reflecting what we did with the SS4A.

All right, thank you. Any other questions from council members? All right, item number six, I will open it up to the public. Any members of the public that would like to speak on this item?

Yes, I need clarification on something. being that I don't have all of the documents in front of me that you have, I have limited information and so my questions are from the standpoint of having limited information. By the way, I'm Kevin McLarty, District 1. Am I correct in inferring that these speed limits have been approved by a study and that the Pelindale interchange speed limits are regulated by a grant, some sort of a grant. I heard the mentioning of a grant. And am I to understand that if you do not approve the recommended speed limit from the study that then the grant is no longer available to you. So really you don't have a choice in this matter that you basically have to approve this as a council. Am I correct in that inference? That's what I picked up from listening to this. And if I'm wrong in my inference, let me know. But if that's correct, That's a pretty sad scenario that you really don't have a choice. And personally, I would agree with Council Member Escucha-Bratton that I believe that that's too fast for Pelindale. I live in that part of town. I live in District 1. I know how difficult it is to make a right-hand turn onto Pelindale off of Bluebird. And also, your visibility is not very good there either, because you've got parked cars. And it's sometimes hard to see beyond those parked cars to see if there are cars coming in your lane. And those cars already are going 60, 65, 70 miles an hour with the speed limit as it is now. And if you raise it, they're going to be going even faster. So you've got to remember that there is the legal speed limit, there's also the implied speed limit. And that implied speed limit is that margin within which people go beyond the speed limit of 5, 10, 15 miles beyond the speed limit. You've got to take that into consideration, too. Because when the speed limit is now 50, you've got people going 65, 70 now within that margin. So if you make it 55, now they're going to be going close to 80. And I don't know. I certainly do hope that you do have some choice and discretion on this matter. Thank you.

Thank you. To clarify the difference between what we're voting on tonight and the Safe Streets for All grant.

Yes. Thank you, Mayor. So as you mentioned, the Safe Streets for All grant was that study is completely separate from the speed limits that are being discussed this evening. So there was no grant funds involved in setting the speed limits. The interconnectivity between the two is that the SS4A did identify the safety corridors that were able to implement this the speed limits for but there it is independent from the action that's being taken this evening and to answer councilmember scudier-brayton's question uh this the accident rate for this segment is 0.97 um was the statewide average the rate for this roadway was 0.96 so just under the statewide average thank you

All right. And also for references, everything that was referred to tonight on the agenda online?

Correct. All of the data, all of the traffic study is in the full package from last meeting, the 6-9-2026. The traffic study for all this data is all there. And if anyone who looks at it and looks at the methodology, Once deeper dive, that's where I would recommend folks go to the attachment for the 6-9 agenda. For the 6-23 agenda, because it's a second reading, it was a more simplified version, but the full report is in the 6-9-26 agenda package.

Thank you. Any other public comments on item six? Seeing none, any comments from council? Councilmember Rickey.

Thanks, Mayor. I mean, nobody wants to raise the speed limit on Pelindale to 55. But if we don't follow the state law, we aren't going to be able to enforce the speed limit at all. So I think that we should do what we got to do. We've got a lot of other streets that we're lowering speed limits that are definitely going to make Modesto safer. And so I don't know that we can do everything due to the way the laws are written here.

Thank you. Any other comments from council members regarding item six? All right, go ahead.

Indeed, our hands are constrained on this issue, and it's just very unfortunate. But for reasons that I articulated, I do share the concerns of many people that live there and don't like it, don't support it, and therefore will not be in support of raising the Pelindale speed to 55.

All right, any other comments? Seeing none, I have a motion approving final adoption of Ordinance 3815-C.S amending Section 3-2.1401.1 of Article 14 of Chapter 2 of Title III of the Modesto Municipal Code relating to speed limits. Do I have a motion? So moved. Move by Council Member Wright. Second. Second by Council Member Rickey.

And will the clerk please call the roll for this item? Council Member Rickey. Aye. Council Member Bavaro. Aye. Vice Mayor Williams. Aye. Council Member Wright. Aye. Council Member Skoutia-Breaton. No. Council Member Alvarez. Aye. And Mayor Zwollin. Aye. Carries 6-1.

All right. Next is item 16, consent item 16. Consider approving an engineering services agreement with HDR Engineering Incorporated of Sacramento, California for an agreement total not to exceed $546,500 for the flood risk reduction feasibility study scoping project. And we will have a staff report. Welcome.

Mayor, council members, public, I'll keep this brief. So this item, basically we received a FEMA grant last year that we accepted.

This grant will pay for- Can you please speak into the microphone? I'm sorry. Thank you.

Yeah, so we received a FEMA grant that will cover about 75% of this $546,500 flood risk reduction study. So what this project's gonna do is basically we're asking tonight to hire HDR engineering to do a flood risk reduction feasibility study on the Tuolumne River Basically, we'll span the area pretty much to the extensive of the urbanized area along Tawanta River. It'll identify some of the risks we have to the areas of floodplain, some of the risks we have, and then suggest some mitigations that we could not have to implement, but that we could pursue that might reduce the risk of such flooding. And so in a nutshell, this study is gonna set us up for potentially getting some additional grants. One of the things we're looking at is we have a Sutter treatment plant right on the floodplain. We plan to relocate that plant. We're doing a Sutter relocation master plan right now. It's very expensive to relocate these plants. This feasibility study, in addition to identifying risks to homes and other assets in an area, will also set us up potentially to get future grants that might help us pay to move that center plant. So one of the things we're looking forward to is getting a feasibility study that'll set us up for future grants. So anyway, and I'm available for any questions.

All right, thank you. Any questions from council members? Council Member Wright.

Thank you. So I'm sure we put this out for bid to other engineering firms, correct? Yes, we did. And there's specialized engineering firms that handle this type of issues, or all engineering groups would be able to take care of this.

Yeah, so I failed to mention, we did put this out for a public bid. We did, which any interested party could bid on this project. It's pretty specialized, but we did get four proposals on this, and based on the selection, we selected HDR as being the best firm to do it. HDR has done previous flood studies on the Tuolumne River, so I think that might have given them a bit of an edge, but it was publicly advertised, and yeah.

And did we get any bids from any local engineering firms?

I do not believe so, no. Thank you. I can get that information for the staff report.

But we took the best bid, the lowest bid, correct?

Not always the lowest bid, but we did have a limit of what we could do. So the scope of work was based upon the amount of money we have available on this. The bids did actually come in a little bit under that, which was good. But as far as the... Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I couldn't remember what you were saying, but yeah.

All right, any other questions regarding item 16 from council? Seeing none, I'll open this item to the public.

So I guess I'm a little confused as to how the study is actually done. I mean, do they go out there in boats and Do they take soil samples or how how how do they physically do the study. How long does it take. What is the overall objective of the study. I mean is it to I take it that Well, maybe I don't want to put words in your mouth, so I'm not going to even say that. Are you hoping that it will reduce the possibility of flooding on streets like Santa Cruz Avenue? That's the street that has been impacted by floods in the past. I mean, what is the overall objective that you're seeking here? What caused you to, what precipitated the need for this study? And what is your overall objective? And how will the study be done physically? How long does it take? I'm just curious about the whole process. Thank you.

Thank you. Please.

So I believe this study will take about, probably about a year, I'm guessing. I don't know exactly, I don't have the scope in front of me, or the timeline, but probably about a year. There is a timeline on the grant, so we have to abide by the grant provisions. So probably about a year. So the whole point of this risk assessment is to look at what our risks are from a flood. Now not urban flooding where a street somewhere just floods. This is flooding that comes directly from the Tuolumne River. You get too much water in the river and it floods the banks. So Santa Cruz might be in that realm, but I don't believe that that is impacted by the river. That might be more urban storm drainage flooding related. So the idea is that this study we'll look at, it's a feasibility study, so we're not abiding by anything, we're not obligated to do anything, but it'll look at what are the risks of that floodplain area. It'll look at the whole, what's the impact, where the flood hits, what's at risk, and then it'll suggest some recommendations for how we might be able to mitigate that. One we know of is, say, there's a low-lying mobile home park, which happens to be in the county. One of the mitigations might be, well, relocate that mobile home park somewhere else. You can't raise the bank to relocate it. That wouldn't be something for us to do, but maybe the county could take that recommendation and do that. And then having the feasibility study, they might be eligible to get some grants to do that. And like I said, for us, our big asset on the river is the primary treatment plant. And we know that there is a flood risk and we're planning to move it. So one of the outcomes we're expecting is that the feasibility's gonna say, feasibility may say, oh, build a wall around it or something like that. probably not going to happen. It's probably not going to be feasible. But relocating the plant may be something that is very feasible. And so whatever the outcome is of feasibility study, we're going to be able to use that to get some clarity as to what the risks are and what some of the recommendations are. And then from there, We can take that and parlay that into potentially future grant funding, either us or if it's a county area. And we can use this feasibility study as a stepping stone to maybe get future grant funding to maybe implement some of those mitigations.

Thank you. Any other public comments? Thank you.

Yep.

Good evening, Emerson Drake again. It's tough to do those questions in a series and have to come back and put them in context, isn't it? Trust me, I felt that. A couple of easy questions, actually. I'm wondering, while we were deciding what firm to go with, how many in-person face-to-face meetings did we have? Just out of curiosity. And secondly, the wastewater fund. Sounds like we're almost going to... I've got to keep looking in the right direction. Sounds like we're almost going to use it all. How do we replenish that, and who replenishes it? Thank you very much for your time.

All right. Please respond. Thank you.

So in regard to selecting the firms, what we look at when we look at a consulting services, we look at the merits of the scope, the experience of the firms. We don't necessarily go with the lowest bidder. As in, based on the merits of the scope the proposal the experience of that you know there's a whole criteria we go through we select consultant based upon that and then we can go back and look at the relevant costs you know if the one we selected is twice as much as the other we may question that but we basically select based upon the merits of the scope of the experience of the firm in regard to The second question, sorry, was?

The water fund and the first question. The wastewater fund, right. The first question was about face-to-face meetings.

Oh, face-to-face meetings. In this, sometimes during the selection process, we may call firms in to have a face-to-face meeting with them. Generally, that's not the case, but sometimes if it's close, we may say, okay, let's bring the top two firms in the scoring, and we'll interview them further on. In this case, we didn't feel the need to do that, and so there was no, quote, face-to-face meetings in terms of the selection. It was just based upon their proposals.

All right, and then about the flood.

Regarding the funding, so some people say, oh, flood, why don't we use the stormwater fund? Well, the stormwater fund is really for urban stormwater management. We felt that, now remember, this effort is 75% covered by a grant. We do have, at least 75%, we have a 20-25% match And because the bids did come in under what we thought, it actually could maybe cover even more. And so the remainder of it, we're using the wastewater fund primarily because the Sutter Treatment Plant is our biggest, most important asset on the river, and we felt the benefits of doing this risk study as it pertains to The treatment plant, it was the best fit to use the wastewater funds to at least front the cost, and then again, we get reimbursed 75% by the grant.

Thank you.

I'm sorry, I just didn't hear the answer to that second question.

Okay. So were you not able to hear through the microphone, are you saying, literally, or you did not get your question answered? Okay, so please clarify.

I'm sorry. My question was how do we replenish the wastewater fund and who replenishes it? That's all.

Okay. The wastewater fund is funded through wastewater rates.

So basically the citizens are paying for your exploratory deal. Okay, just it's all I ask. I don't know why we had to walk around it, but thank you very much Madam Mayor. You took care of me the first time. Thank you.

All right, any other members of the public that want to comment on item 16, consent item 16? Seeing none, any comments from council members? Seeing none, I have a resolution approving an engineering services agreement with HDR Engineering Incorporated of Sacramento, California for the flood risk reduction feasibility study scoping project for a total agreement amount not to exceed $546,500 and authorizing the city manager or his designee to execute the agreement. Do I have a motion? So moved.

Moved by Councilmember Wright.

I'll second it. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Rickey. Aye. Council Member Bavaro. Aye. Vice Mayor Williams. Aye. Council Member Wright. Aye. Council Member Scudia-Breton. Aye. Council Member Alvarez. Aye. And Mayor Zwollin.

Aye. Carries unanimously. We will take a five-minute break. Let's resume at seven, six-minute break, 7.15. Thank you. All right, we are returning to the city council meeting. Next on the agenda is council comments and report. Do any council members have any comments or reports?

Council member Rickey. Thanks, Mayor. It's that time again. We're going to talk a little bit more about Stanislaus Animal Services. No agency in the history of agencies has ever needed a performance audit more than Stanislaus Animal Services. No one knows exactly what they do. We do know what they don't do. We also know that they have no problem submitting an annual budget that secures raises, but also cuts services. This is what bad government looks like. Hundreds have complained at their meetings. SOS's response is to refuse to move a muscle to fix their challenges. Their priority is government first. They know they are in violation of the Hayden Act, but they don't care. SOSA has been given multiple options to fix their challenges, but they stand still. The message I have for Animal Services is we're not going away and we're not going to stop until you fulfill your responsibility to this community. On another subject, we had a very successful graffiti parade this year. But the graffiti parade needs to launch at 8 p.m. Starting at 5 p.m., the hottest time of the day in the summer, is foolish. Classic car owners don't want their cars overheating. Parade goers don't want to suffer every year in the heat. If we want to help our city's culture to grow and flourish, we have to put our events in the best possible position to succeed. Changing the starting time is common sense. Why aren't we doing this on a Saturday night? So we can attract more tourists. These are simple changes that will dramatically increase attendance and economic impact. And finally, AI is coming and we need economic development programs that create jobs that are AI proof. Entrepreneurial jobs like standalone family businesses can survive the coming corporate layoffs. Modesto can do simple things to make starting a business easier. The more work we do now to create the infrastructure of entrepreneurialism, the easier we will be able to adjust to the changes in our economy. We can create a public community kitchen for people to launch restaurants and food products. We can build a marketplace as part of the upcoming courthouse development to house local businesses. And we can find ways to support entrepreneurial events like the pop-up events we heard so much about today that we all know are rapidly approaching. There are so many ways we can encourage people to start their own businesses, and I'm hopeful Modesto can lead. Thank you, Mayor.

Vice Mayor Williams.

Thank you, Mayor. I'll start with the parade. Of course, we have no control over the heat, which is the sun and the day. And I am thankful for the North Modesto Kiwanis for putting this on. It takes usually about 100 people to make this possible for our community. It was successful. There were light on cars this year due to the heat, which we have nothing to do about. We can't do anything about it. They don't do it on the first Friday of the month because there is already a car show in the shoot at that time. But Saturday and Sunday, we want to thank the Motown Classics, Tammy, Sherry, and Betty, and 14 other individuals for helping. park cars at MJC for the Saturday event and Sunday was park your own. So it worked out very nice. Wednesday we had a Park and Shine and Legends of the Cruise and I wanted to congratulate each and every one of them but beyond that I wanted to congratulate personally Jennifer Mullings who has been a wonderful asset to the cruising and car culture and works there at the car museum and we appreciate her service. The other day the veterans, Women's Veterans Gala, their second one happened on June 13th on a Saturday. They had veteran women from all over California. They actually even had a World War II veteran female who didn't look older than 80, but she was a lot older than that. So we definitely wanted to rally around people who have served in the armed forces, particularly women, and they did a good job with that. In Riverbank, close to the 108 Topeka and Santa Fe, the infrastructure improvement project that was led by the county, but yet People coming into Modesto, going out of Modesto can now have a safer route. We were talking about safety just a little while ago. Scotty Douglas, ladies and gentlemen, went through Leadership Modesto class. Best class ever, right, Scotty? Leadership Modesto, congratulations to you for completing that. Also, the year before that was Steven, our finance director, chair or director, Christensen was his last name. Then also, Tomorrow's the last day to enter into the Modesto July Parade, the 250th celebration. If you want to do that, you go to www.modestojulyparade.com. That's all one word, www.modestojulyparade, all one word. And you can get all of the information. And while we're on the 4th of July, since we're not going to have a meeting prior to that, You have to be safe and sane should be safe and sane when it comes to fireworks Sky one will be out there watching you sky one can zoom in on your address on your Your license plate and they will catch you if you're doing illegal fireworks. It's not good for the city of Modesto So just know you could get up to a ten thousand dollar fine if you are a repetitive individual who just keeps doing so. Sky One is up in the air watching you. Also, Gary West, I went to his celebration of life service. He is a part of JS West Company. That company has been around since, well, has been around 117 years. He was definitely a patriarch for JS West. They had a wonderful celebration of life service for him just the other day ron immersion's service so some of you may not even know still that ron immersion passed away his services on june 28th 2026 it's a sunday it's at 11 o'clock and um last but not least happy belated father's day to all of you fathers out there that's it mayor i went as fast as i could okay uh council member alvarez

Thank you, Mayor. I want to talk about the pop-up events that the members of the public brought up earlier today during public comment. I think being creative in this space will be prudent for the city's economic development. I sit on the Economic Development Committee and I think what we need to do as a city as a whole is be an environment that's conducive to economic development and a pathway to entrepreneurship. And I think this is a perfect opportunity to do just that. So I'd like to raise a few creative ideas Basically, the City of Modesto should create a more flexible framework for pop-up events in our city, specifically building a separate, lightweight permitting track designed for small, low-risk activations. This would help reduce barriers for local entrepreneurs, artists, and community groups while still maintaining safety and accountability. Within that structure, cities often create other, you know, compared to a simple quick comparative analysis, I discovered that cities often create a micro permit tier for smaller events. Something that's fast, simple, and affordable that doesn't require going through the full special events process. Additionally, a key best practice I discovered is designating specific areas where pop-ups are pre-approved or allowed with minimal friction. This allows us to concentrate activity in spaces that are well-suited for this sort of pop-up events and easier to manage. A few of those locations could be the downtown corridor, rotating folks in different specific designated zones where pop-ups are allowed during certain times the month whether it be weekly or bi-weekly during you know certain times in the evening i think that'd be creative and something that we can possibly do other examples including include under using underused parking lots like the osh orchard supply hardware parking lot and the toys r us parking lot i think this is kind of a no-brainer it's just a matter of setting that vision as a council Those are heavily underused buildings, but those parking lots are prime locations for pop-up events on a scheduled basis. And I think those can be activated temporarily without extensive case-by-case review. This approach would help activate underutilized spaces, as I just discussed, and also support local economic activity. and also reduces administrative burden on staff while maintaining clear guardrails. Additionally, I want to switch gears here a little bit. I had the pleasure of touring District 2 with Congressman Adam Gray last Sunday. We had a couple of stops on our schedule, on our calendar, that included Saigon Sandwich in West Modesto. on I Street. We met with Mary and her husband, the owners of Saigon Sandwich, who have been there since the 80s. And we discussed economic development, some of the issues that they're experiencing, and also crime. Homeless blight left around the front of her store, and also vandalism in front of her store and on her dumpster cinderblock wall. And so she requested, and the Congressman and I just were all ears, hoping to find some solutions to those problems, but also highlight some of the work that we're doing to mitigate just that. And I think we can utilize our mobile cameras that are equipped with AC. so that way they don't burn out in the peak summer. And we can use those as a deterrent. And I think that's a simple creative, again, simple practical creative solutions that we can do to prevent and deter crime, especially for our businesses, our local mom and pop shops. Second, we met with the owners of on Paradise Road. They have been operating for about 30 years as well. I remember being a kid. My parents owned a business right across the street on Paradise Road. I used to walk over to get little paletas and little candies with my siblings and then run across Paradise Road back to my parents' business. So I remember just growing up with that family, and so full circle, I was able to tour their carniceria with the congressman. And again, we discussed homeless folks with mental health disorders in front of their store, basically disrupting business, antagonizing and assaulting their customers throughout the day. So I sent that over to the city manager and the city staff, and I think we were able to act swiftly and to really kind of combat one particular instance where an individual had mental health issues. And I believe we utilized our chat team which is the alternative response model for folks with mental health disorders. And so hopefully we're able to resolve that issue, but also we really just walked around the block and talked about some of the blight behind Paradise Road, behind the The Dollar General and the Dollar Tree, I believe, are the two. Family Dollar and Dollar Tree, I think those businesses are called. That area is riddled with blight. Parked cars and folks living out of their vehicles. So I want to highlight that for staff to be able to keep an eye out on that area. And again, these mobile cameras that we have could be a simple practical solution to deter these sorts of things. And finally, we stopped at 4th Street Park where the Congressman and I toured along with city staff. I want to give a shout out to John Skeel from Parks and Rec who was gracious enough to spend his Sunday afternoon welcoming us and touring the Congressman. And a highlighted story that I thought was important. uh... with the congressman and it was this it was the boxing program at caesar chavez for four street park rather uh... uh... has you know since i've been kid growing up boxing there has subsequently subsequently went away uh... and i wanted to get this on record because i've been having these conversations with bruce lockard uh... alfredo guerra with pal uh... bruce lockard has been with the city of modesto for about fifty years literally uh... in the parks and rec department uh... and i've had no solutions But from what I understand, the boxing program has been diluted to make way for other programming like youth Pilates, yoga, et cetera. And I think those alternative programs are great, but I think quality versus quantity, this is that situation here. And I think if we can find a way to have a full boxing program, during certain hours and then also make way for these programs to run at different time slots throughout the day, throughout the week. We can accommodate these other programs. But when I was there, we had a full boxing ring, boxing bouts sanctioned by the state in the park. We would move the ring out into the park and have these boxing bouts and we don't have that anymore. DURING A TIME WHERE YOUTH ARE SO ATTACHED TO THEIR TABLETS, WE NEED TO CREATE OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENTS AND YOUTH TO GET, YOU KNOW, GET SOME PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN. AND I THINK THAT'S A GOOD OPPORTUNITY. IN ADDITION TO THE STEM PROGRAM, THE SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING AND MATH THAT WILL TAKE PLACE THERE, SO I WAS fortunate enough to have the conversation with the Congressman about some federal dollars to be earmarked for youth sports programming, particularly boxing equipment. And that's approximately $250,000. that we're going to try to get from the state to be invested in a full boxing program in Modesto at 4th Street Park. West Modesto doesn't have that. And I think that it's important for us to try to deter youth from going down the avenue of gangs, going down the avenue of drugs, and utilizing that energy into something productive where they learn discipline, respect, self-respect, structure, And so that was a dialogue I had with the Congressman, and I think that that was a time well spent. So I'll keep you all up to date on how that progresses, but I think that anytime we have an opportunity to divert youth from gangs and drugs, I'm full throttle in that direction. So giving them healthy, safe spaces to express themselves and to get that energy out is my priority, particularly as it pertains to parks. And I think that's about it, Mayor. I appreciate my time. Thank you.

Councilmember Bavaro.

Thank you, Mayor. A week ago Saturday, I held a neighborhood meeting in Lincoln Estates, my district. Approximately 40 homeowners attended. I do this annually at various neighborhoods in my district. One of the topics of concern was obviously the traffic speeds on scenic. And they look forward to the day where we might be able to put some roundabouts and to slow the traffic down. But they were, that was the major concern was the traffic on scenic. But they also had some positive things to say about the police department, seeing the motorcycle traffic enforcement out there. regularly and so they were happy with that. They are also pleased to hear that the council approved six paramedic applicants to go to paramedic school. Station 9 covers that area and many of them in that area are retired and they certainly are looking forward to possibly having a paramedic on duty on each shift. In in that area in the near future. I'd like to ditto With councilmember Alvarez said about the pop-ups. I agree with what he said Unfortunately, the one young lady is not here who was talking about having a difficult time with affordability getting her building or her business set up and Where she do this full-time perhaps we can inform her of the valley one Or the valley first loans that the City Council has available low interest loans that might fit that might be ideal for this type of program where we can assist them with their financial needs. And finally, I'm going to embarrass my colleague by acknowledging that today is his birthday. My friend and colleague, Chris Rickey, he's 29 years old today and I wish him a happy birthday.

Thank you. Vice Mayor Williams.

Thank you, Mayor, and I promise I won't sing happy birthday. You've got three minutes. No. But I would be remiss if I didn't bring up the topic of MoBan. MoBan has six times that they do in the park. It'll be this Thursday, the 25th. The second one is July 2nd. And the third one is July 9th. It is a free event. It starts at 8 o'clock in the cooling of the evening, I would add. And so if you want to make it to that, it's at Crusader Park, just off of Needham Avenue. The music starts with the national anthem at 8 o'clock, but people gather there as early as 5 o'clock in the afternoon. But it's, again, June 25th, July 2nd, and July 9th for Mo Band in the Park. And we thank them for doing what they do. There's usually about 2,000 to 3,000 or 4,000 people sometimes out there enjoying family, friends, and a nice time. So thank you, Mayor.

You're welcome. I would like to note that on Wednesday, June 17th, was our fourth annual Comadres in Action Latinas Empowerment Luncheon, and our very own Councilmember Rosa Escudia-Brayton was named the 2026 Comadre of the Year. Very excited to be there, and many of us were, and to celebrate you and to be with you at that very special time. Congratulations. Yes, this Friday is our, June 26th is the Gold Runner Passenger Appreciation Event at the Amtrak station at 1700 Hale Drive at 4 p.m. to celebrate our passengers that care about rail and ride the rail. On Thursday, July 2nd, as was mentioned, that is when MoBan will be celebrating America's 250th birthday at Grace Seda Park at 8 p.m. And Saturday, July 4th, is our Independence Day parade for all of our residents to come and enjoy the parade at 9.30 a.m. That's my report. Next, does the city manager have any comments and reports?

Yes, thank you, Mayor. First, I'd like to welcome our new Public Works Director, Chad Reed, to the City of Modesto. He comes to us via Stockton, where he served as the Public Works Director and also served as our Deputy City Manager. I look forward to his experience, enthusiasm, and collaborative commitment to delivering exceptional services within our organization and for the residents of Modesto. And I'd also like to comment on two new additions to our website. One is the interactive permitting estimator, which allows you to see how much it would cost you to build anything in Modesto. And so you can get your fees, you can adequately budget for any project that you would like to develop within our city. And also our new housing continuum dashboard on City View. This will help you. This will allow you to track our progress and investments in housing resources such as emergency shelter, transitional housing, affordable rental housing, and affordable home ownership. So check out our website for those two new additions. Thank you.

You're welcome. Thank you for that report. Next on the agenda is hearings, item 17. A hearing to consider approving fiscal year 2026-27 diagram and annual assessment in order Ordering the levy and collection of charges within landscape maintenance assessment district number one for dry Creek Meadows subdivision numbers one through six and we're going to hear about items 17 18 and 19 those will be presented together Should I read? Item 17, or excuse me, 18 and 19 now also? Okay, okay. Item 18 will be a hearing to consider approving fiscal year 2026-27 diagram and annual assessment and ordering the levy and collection of charges within landscape maintenance assessment district number two for Dry Creek Meadows subdivision numbers seven through 10 Creekwood Meadows subdivision and Yosemite Meadows subdivisions, unit one and two and item 19 will be a hearing to consider approving fiscal year 2026, 27 diagram and annual assessment and ordering the levy and collection of charges within Shackleford landscape and lighting district. And we will have a report on these three items now. Thank you.

Thank you. Mayor city council, Jessica Hill, director of community and economic development. So we'll start off with Landscape Maintenance Assessment District number one. It is located actually in between both Claus Road and McClure Road, and it's south of the MID lateral. For the assessment this current fiscal year, we're looking at 19,474. That is to assess 749 residential parcels. And again, no escalator has been when it was adopted in 1988. So it's maintained that flat assessment every year. When we're looking at Landscape Maintenance Assessment District 2, it's located west of Claus Road, east of McClure, north of Yosemite, directly south of Landscape Maintenance Assessment District 1. So these Landscape Maintenance Assessment Districts can pay for landscaping the public right-of-way within street medians and adjacent to the access control walls. We're looking to adjust it by the annual escalator which is 1.8% to bring the total assessment which is a little typo today to $34,820.85. This will be assessed on 590 residential parcels and 18 commercial parcels. For the Shackleford Lighting and Landscape District, it's located south of Pico, west of Main Street, east of Crows Landing, and north of Rio Grande. And it pays for the maintenance of the utility bills of the 77 streetlights that are associated in that general area. The levy set each year by determining what the total cost would be for the assessment on it, and so what our assessment is for fiscal year 26-27 is $17,785.24. So for backgrounds, council adopted two separate actions in order to again approve the levy for this specific council meeting. On March 10th, they directed staff to prepare and file an annual engineer's report. And on June 2nd, they adopted resolutions approving the annual engineer's report and a resolution of intention to collect assessments and set the public hearing. So today's action is to actually order the levy and collection of those changes. And if approved in August, 2026, we will work directly with the assessor's office to set those levies for the fiscal year, 2627. And with that, um, I do have a recommended action, but I'm happy to answer any questions.

All right. We'll first do item, uh, 17. Does council have any questions of staff regarding the, um, district number one for dry Creek Meadows subdivisions, numbers one through six vice mayor Williams.

Thank you, mayor. Jessica, there's three different amounts. One on number two is $51.16 a parcel. The other one is $26 a parcel for number one. What are those again?

Yeah, so essentially each are different areas within the City of Modesto. So Landscape Maintenance Assessment District 1 is the one that we're asking questions with right now and that's the $26. And so essentially this funding is assessed on the property tax bills to the property owners to help pay for landscaping in their general area.

So it's $26 per 100,000 or $26 per area? $26 flat. Okay, perfect.

These are all flat charges.

Perfect, thank you.

All right, any other questions for item 17? Seeing none, I'll now open the public hearing. Any members of the public that would like to come forward regarding item 17? Seeing none, I will close public comments. Any comments from council members? Vice Mayor Williams?

Oh, I'm sorry.

All right, any comments, council? Seeing none, I have a resolution ordering the levy and collection of such charges as shown within the engineer's annual report within landscape maintenance assessment district number one for Dry Creek Meadows subdivision numbers one through six for fiscal year 2026-27. Do I have a motion?

So moved. Second.

Moved by Council Member Bavaro, seconded by Vice Mayor Williams. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Rickey. Aye. Council Member Bavaro. Aye. Vice Mayor Williams. Aye. Council Member Wright. Aye. Council Member Scudia-Breton. Aye. Council Member Alvarez. Aye. And Mayor Zwollin. Aye. Carries unanimously.

Next, we will go to item 18, are there any questions from council regarding item 18 regarding the subdivisions, assessment district two for Dry Creek Meadows subdivisions number seven through 10, Creekwood Meadows subdivision and Yosemite Meadows subdivisions units one and two? Seeing no questions from council, I'll now open the public hearing. Are there any members of the public regarding item 18 that would like to speak? Seeing none, I'll close public comments. Any comments from council members regarding this item? Seeing none, I have a resolution ordering the levy and collection of such charges as shown within the engineer's annual report within landscape maintenance assessment district number two for Dry Creek Meadows subdivisions number seven through 10, Creekwood Meadows subdivision and Yosemite Meadows subdivisions unit one and two for fiscal year 2026-27. Do I have a motion? So moved. Moved by Council Member Wright. Second. Second by Council Member Scudia-Brayton. And will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Rickey.

Aye.

Council Member Bavaro. Aye. Vice Mayor Williams. Aye. Council Member Wright. Aye. Council Member Scudia-Brayton. Aye. Council Member Alvarez. Aye. And Mayor Zwollin. Aye. Carries unanimously.

Next, item 19, this is regarding the diagram and annual assessment for charges within Shackleford Landscape and Lighting District. Does council have any questions of staff regarding item 19? Seeing none, I'll now open the public hearing. Any members of the public that would like to come forward regarding item 19? Seeing none, I'll close public. Oh, excuse me. Come right up.

Emerson Drake again. You know, most of us in Stanislaus County are aware that we need to protect our groundwater. We know that our groundwater is finite. We know that it's being exported on a regular basis. So let's pretend we're standing at the bottom of Half Dome for a minute, okay, down there on the valley floor, and we look up. It's about 4,700 feet.

I just looked it up.

Well, our friend Bill Lyons sold 20,000 acre feet, 20,000. That's an acre of water a foot deep, four of them side by side, as tall as Half Dome. And he'd have some left over. Modesto is a city, uses about 67,000 acre feet of water a year for it to mix with our drinking, or for our drinking water. that 20,000 acre feet that he sold, sold for his own personal profit, amounts to almost one third of the water we buy for our drinking water. In the years that we saw, I think it was 2018 with the drought, the five year drought, we had to cut back because when the farmers get their deliveries cut back, the city gets theirs cut back. Now I'd like to know, we've got a plan, I went to the M.I.D. board about this too, but does the plan really mean anything? I noticed we waited until basically the last day. It's gotta be done by July 1st. We don't have a lot of scooch room here. I'd like to know just how our wells are holding up. How many wells do we have that are functioning right now? How many wells do we have that we've shut down in each of the last couple years? Because before long, that water's gonna be more and more scarce. And we watch, we saw Hetch Hetchy, well, we didn't see Hetch Hetchy. We saw Don Pedro go from being full to being a creek at the bottom of a ravine. To going back full again to being a creek at the bottom of a ravine. So I'm not comfortable passing on to my grandkids, and quite honestly, I have great grandkids, any kind of control to somebody else about our water. And I'm not sure that we put together a plan, if you will, that it's effective. You know, when we sell water out of the sub-basin, it's gone. If it stays in the sub-basin, we're good. But does our plan actually protect us for now and the future? So if you could come up with the numbers of the wells. I tried to do it all at once, so to speak, but it doesn't work real well. The number of the wells that we have that are in production right now, how many have we shut down in each of the last couple years? And what does it look like, how many do we have that may get shut down in the next couple years? Thank you very much. And I do appreciate you following up.

I think, were you referring to item 20? That's about the urban water management plan. Okay. All right. No problem. All right. Any other comments on item 19? Public comments? Seeing none, I'll close public comments. Any comments from council members regarding item 19? Seeing none, I have a resolution ordering the levy and collection of such charges as shown within the engineer's annual report within the Shackleford Landscape and Lighting District for fiscal year 2026-27. Do I have a motion? So moved. Motion by Councilmember Wright. Second. Second by Councilmember Scootie Brayton. Will the clerk please call the roll for item 19? Councilmember Rickey?

Aye. Councilmember Bavaro? Aye. Vice Mayor Williams. Aye. Council Member Wright. Aye. Council Member Scudier-Breton. Aye. Council Member Alvarez. Aye. And Mayor Zwollin. Aye. Carries unanimously.

Next is item 20, hearing to consider adopting the draft 2025 joint urban water management plan and water shortage contingency plan update. And we will have a staff report. Welcome. And if it's possible to address Mr. Drake's comments in your report, that would be helpful. I did not write them down this time. Yes. Okay. Thank you.

Jim Alves, Utilities Department, Water Resources Group. I'm speaking tonight for Will Wong, who's out today. The Joint Urban Water Management Plan is the topic for tonight. So what is an urban water management plan? Let me get the thing going. Where do I point it to? Oh, there we go. Okay. Hold on. There we go. New at this. All right. So what is an urban water management plan? In essence, it's a state required long range planning document. It's required by the Urban Water Management Planning Act. We evaluate the 20 to 25 year supply and demand for the city, not the incorporated city, but our water service area, which also incorporates areas outside our corporate area. It evaluates our long-term drought, typically a one to five year drought. It's also a foundation for water supply assessments. These are documents that we do usually at specific plant level. It's, you know, down the road. This is a foundational document that supports water supply assessments. And we do these every five years, ending in zero and five, with the reports due July 1st ending in one and six. So why is it not required? Well, in 1983, the Urban Water Management Planning Act was adopted, basically having urban water suppliers give an assessment of what their demands are gonna be and what their supplies are. It's really to protect us from maybe over-developing before we don't have the water for it. It applies to suppliers such as Modesto that provide over 3,000 customers or 3,000 acre-feet per year. It must be updated every five years as I stated, and it's also required to obtain and retain any state and loan eligibility grants. So if we did not do an urban water management plan, we could lose state grants and loans and not be eligible. So why would we do a joint plan with Modesto Irrigation District? Well, MIDE provides surface water, treated surface water to the city of Modesto. They've been doing it for 30 years. MIDE is also required to submit an urban water management plan as a wholesale provider, we being a retail recipient of that surface water. And we're also a wholesale provider of our groundwater. A joint plan approves coordination and consistency between the two of us. Much easier for us to submit one plan instead of two separate plans. And we've been doing this for, since 1995, we've been doing joint plants. And MIDM, like I said, we've been doing this since 1995. So we've had a long history of this. So the key components of an AMP is it describes a service area, the area that we serve. The water use characterization, different statistics, how many homes, how much water goes to residential, commercial, those kinds of things. It also addresses our conservation target compliance. This is something that was implemented in 2009 by the governor that basically said you need to set some targets that you'll meet by 2020. At that time, we set our targets back in 2010. We set our target as 228 gallons per capita per day. By 2020, we had exceeded that. We were down to 175 gallons per capita per day. Right now in 2025, we're down to about 165 gallons per capita per day. So we've achieved the target and we've maintained that target for 2020. The other key component is supply and reliability during a drought. So this plan describes what happens during a one year drought, a two year drought, a five year drought. How are we gonna manage that water supply and have demands to meet that? The other thing that's a key component is a water shortage contingency plan. Now this is a plan that says if we have a water shortage, either real, say during a drought we have cutbacks, or perceived. Say the state says we want have a 20% reduction. This plan will describe how we're going to go through and do that, different stages, six stages at 10% increments. So maybe at stage three, we say, OK, no more car washing. Stage four, we say, OK, let's cut back water use on lawns, things like that. So it describes what process we will take to reduce our demands to meet our supplies or to increase supplies to meet the demands. So summary of our supplies, we have up to 51,500 acre feet of groundwater a year. That's about 46 million gallons a day. We have up to 67,200 acre feet of treated surface water from MIT. That's about 60 million gallons a day. This is what we have planned for that's available to us. And then we also have some non-potable supplies for groundwater. We've pumped some wells that are non-potable wells for parks, things like that. And we also have some recycled water that we don't use here, but we do provide it and sell it to irrigation district out of the area. So one of the big components of this is a water shortage contingency plan. Again, this is what we would do if we had to have, if we had a shortage in supply. Six stages, each stage identifies which actions we would take to either reduce the demand or in some cases we could increase supply. Maybe we pump a little more groundwater to make up for it. We updated it, we're updating it from the 2021 plan. So we update it every five years with our op. And again, it describes not only the restrictions, but how we would do outreach, how we would do surveys, rebate programs. If we had to implement a plan, we would come back to council and adopt those implementations. So key findings of our, we have adequate water supplies, both groundwater and surface water, through 2020-50 under all hydrologic conditions. This includes a five-year drought. In 2025, we delivered 49,738 acre feet per year. That's about 45 billion gallons a day. In dry years, the city can rely on additional groundwater as MID may reduce surface water supplies and in parity with agriculture users. So when we say parity, priority with MID, if they cut ag back 10%, they cut urban back 10%. And so we've shown that what we would do in a five-year drought, how we could make up for that. And then the last key finding is the City of Modesto has supply, like I said, during a five-year drought. And that's it. I don't know if there were any questions. Oh, and I will, oh, Mr. Drake asked about how many active wells we have. We have about 77 active wells right now throughout our system. And in the last five years, I think we've had to shut down about 13 of those, 13 wells. mostly due to age. But currently right now we have about 77 active wells. Available for any questions.

All right, thank you for your presentation. Questions from council? Council member Bavaro.

Thank you, Mayor. Since 1995, can you share with us, you know, on our conservation water what percentage decreased and due to the conservation to the consumers well um yeah so I can tell you that before we had surface water we were completely reliant upon groundwater I think we were

It was a lot of groundwater we were using. Since that time, and there's various measures of conservation, water metering, which we didn't do back then. We started water metering in 2005, raising rates, and then again, the water conservation, water loss audits. We've reduced our pumping of groundwater probably by 70% since we got surface water. Even our, so I don't know what the actual amount is from conservation, but I can tell you that our consumption, our demands have been dropping significantly, especially since 2005. We were using probably 30 million gallons a day of just surface water alone back then, and now, like maybe 26, and we've had growth. So conservation has had a significant impact through the various rebates, water loss audits. We have a very robust conservation group that goes out, and that's been a significant reason why, even with the growth we've had, that our demands are down.

So you say we consume about 26 million gallons a day in Modesto?

Yeah, I think last year we did about 20 of surface water.

Surface water, yeah.

Total was about 546 million gallons.

And our agreement with MID is up to 60 million gallons a day?

Our agreement is for 60 million gallons a day. That's a long-term agreement. And the way that works is as we grow, as the city grows and ag converts to urban, more of that 60 million gallons a day becomes available for us. So right now, we don't need the 60 million gallons. We couldn't use it if we wanted to. But it's a long-term plan that we have. And what we have is the treatment capacity. We have 60 million gallons of treatment capacity. Along with that comes that supply.

So with the remaining balance that we're not using at this time, what does the MID do with that water? Where does that go?

Well, right now, if you talk to MID, right now they would say they're using that water for agricultural use. As ag converts to urban and they're not providing that water to that acre of land that developed, the water now becomes available for urban use.

And in that agreement that we have with the MID, if we go through the severe drought Is that 60 million reduced gallons? Is that in that agreement or is that guaranteed use?

No, so the way it works now is we're not getting the 60 million gallons. If we have a reduction, it would basically be based upon what we use now. So let's just say we got about 30 million gallons. They would take the reduction from that 10% or 20% reduction from that.

OK, thank you.

But as we grow, that number goes up higher. And the reduction will be based upon that higher number.

In April, this council approved and gave direction to staff on the general plan 2050. Is your department going to provide a water study if there's, you know, based on the areas that we're looking at the sphere of influence, if there would be sufficient water to service that area? Would there be a study done? MR.

Yes, there will. This current does not look at build out of this. new general plan that's being proposed it really just looks at what we think our growth is going to be over the next 20 years that growth could be within our current general plan it could be in the future general plan it's just growth so we presume a certain amount of growth over time and then we have the water supplies to support that so it's really not in it's not dedicated to any particular area. But we will be doing digital studies. The general plan is going to do a sequel analysis. They're going to do an EIR. They're going to do an EIR. And so there's studies going on for that that will look at that. We will also update our water master plan. We're gonna initiate that in the second half of 2027. That will look at what it's gonna take infrastructure-wise to provide water to what we think will then be the new general plan area.

And within that new general plan area that you talk about and doing your water analysis or study, do you also go in your report consideration of a severe drought and how you would be able to service the areas that are going to be in our, uh, growth pattern, um, on how we would cut back if we were in a drought and what impacts that would have on business and residential. Yeah.

So overall the urban water management plan, which we'll do every five years. So we'll do another one of these in 2030. Right. And we certainly won't have built out anywhere. The general plan by 2030.

So it's an ongoing process. Yeah.

Oh yeah. Every five years of 2030, we'll look at this again and we'll have different numbers. And we'll have a different planning area that we'll be planning for for that 20-year period. But our master plan will actually look at how we're going to provide water in certain areas, how many wells we're going to need with the intent that if there's a cutback, our surface water is our primary source. We want to use that as much as possible, right? Groundwater is supposed to be our backup, more of our backup plan. But we do use it for during the summer, during peak demands, you've got a fire, the tank turns on and it provides water. So the master plan will identify where we need wells, where are we gonna need tanks for the future so that we can provide water to all the areas. Final question, Mayor?

Thank you. Will these studies be done internally with your utility department or are we going to be outsourcing this work to consultants?

Master plans, we get consultants involved. These are pretty sophisticated efforts that have complicated hydraulic modeling, computer modeling associated with them. They take a lot of staff to do that, and so we hire those out to do those. It's very specialized work. The other thing we do every year, we do an annual required by state to submit an annual water supply and demand report. And so what that does is we look at what's our supply for the next year. We just submitted one. It was due July 1. We just submitted it in May. We said, OK, here's what we know our supply is from MIDE, from groundwater. We know what our demand is going to be for the next year. We're not anticipating any shortages. And so every year we submit this to the state. If we were to think we were going to have a shortage, we would put in that plan how we plan to meet that. And that's where their water shortage contingency plan comes in. We're going to say, oh, we're going to go from stage two to stage three. And it dictates that we'll only water our lawns two days a week, three days a week. So there's a lot of mechanisms where we are monitoring water supply and demand annually every five years, master plans every 10 years, SQL efforts through specific plans, through the general plan, water loss audit reports every year. There's a significant amount of eyeballs on this thing to assure that we can manage our supplies, that we can serve the needs of the city.

Thank you, Mayor.

All right. Regarding the work that was done, the massive work underground at Garrison Park, Roosevelt Park, and Pikes Park, and now, of course, the beautification that we see on the surface, how has those efforts, those immensely large storage areas underneath those parks, how has that helped? It has helped with the storm water, correct? So these roads are not flooding anymore?

These are storm water projects. These were primarily in areas that flooded. They had lots of rock wells which are not always able to maintain very well. They're not always effective. So in these areas, these were mostly flooding efforts. But we said let's get rid of these rock wells. Let's funnel this water to the park. Park gets some beautification, we take all that storm water, it goes through filters, and then it percolates into the ground. So the tie between storm water management and water is, whereas before, maybe not all this water percolated right away into the ground, it flooded streets. Now all that water is being funneled into the park, underground storage, it's all percolating into the ground. So its benefits are groundwater aquifer. This is what it does. All these projects do that. And we're doing some more projects in that regard where we're gonna be recharging our aquifer with water.

All right, thank you. Any other questions from council members regarding item 20? All right, seeing none, I'll now open the public hearing. And I have one blue card from Karen Conrado. Thank you for staying.

Thank you very much.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council members. I do have some questions. You brought some up that were my questions that you answered, but I still want to ask about them. I think as soon as the 2050 plan is adopted or when they apply for their SOI, Will the urban water management plan need to be redone? It sounds like you do that progressively every five years.

Karen, you can direct your questions here and then we'll hear you. Oh, sorry. That's all right. Then we'll hear you directly in the microphone and we have to hear the questions so that we can listen to the answers too.

Yes, it sounds like that was already in the plan to be addressed in the future. What was it that you were referring to? I'm sorry. As the 2050 plan is adopted or when they apply for the SOI. My other question, how is the water recharge that is currently occurring all year from rain and farmers irrigating? going to be replaced when urbanization occurs with the 2050 plan. And again, your speaker mentioned as ag land is reduced, that water would go to urban. but I don't see that storm water the same as aqua for refill with the quality of water. You're talking about treatment and quality and quantity. And I had another question that I'm sorry I didn't write. I'm looking where I wrote it down as you were speaking. I know that one of them was just the amount of surface water that's already being treated. And how much more of a percentage can that be used as the need increases for water, as the population increases? Thank you. Thank you.

All right, if you can respond.

I'll answer the last question first. Currently, with the 60 million gallon a day capacity that we have at the plant for treating surface water, we're using about 43% of that capacity right now. And with groundwater, we're using probably about 40% of the 51,000 acre feet that we have established as water that we could extract from the ground without causing a degradation of the groundwater levels, we're using only about 40%, I think about 16 million gallons a day. I think that's what we're using right now. That would be maybe 45 million gallons a day that we believe we could extract from the groundwater. In terms of stormwater, in the general plan, that's really not something that's in the urban water management plan. But the way we're managing stormwater now and the way we've actually been doing it in the last 20 years is that stormwater is managed locally. In other words, the rain falls, it goes into, there's different ways to do it, but mostly a lot of times it'll go into a basin and it percolates into the ground. We are not discharging to rivers or canals anymore. We have some existing discharges, but all new development, probably over the last 20 years, has been, stormwater is managed locally, and the vast majority of it is percolated into the ground. Did I answer all the questions, or did I miss one?

I think so. If you have another question, step up, please, to the microphone. Thank you.

I think I also worry about the quality of the water. You say that you go through the rocks, it goes through the filters, it percolates, and it cleans as it percolates as it would in a river. That's just, I guess, more of a comment than I don't know if you can address that or not. Thank you. Thank you.

In regards to stormwater, we were talking about the Pike Park types, those do go through filters to filter out garbage and some sediments before it gets into our percolation basin. Rockwells also do a fairly decent job of filtering the water before it gets into the ground. And that's for the stormwater aspect. As far as for the water that we drink, our wells have treatment systems on them as needed. We provide potable water to the city. We meet all city standards for potable water. The treatment plant's the same way as treated water. And we manage that groundwater quality daily as to what we needed, so yeah.

All right, thank you. Any other members of the public that would like to speak regarding item 20? Yes, please step forward.

Derek Castle. I was very excited to hear how much that we've reduced water usage in Modesto over that period of time. That's something I think that as a City Council you should be very proud about. And I talked before about how working with city staff I've found so helpful in the past. I've had over the last five years I've done five projects of removing lawn grass and converting it and sprinklers and converting it to landscaping that doesn't require hardly any water. And over that five years, I've worked with the city staff, with the Water Conservation Division, and I've found them extremely helpful, very supportive and very knowledgeable. And so I want to congratulate the city for what you're doing. Obviously we've got more to go. It would be really great to even reduce the groundwater that we're using even more. We all know that California has a big problem with groundwater. most of the time. But we're doing well. We're on the right track, I believe, and so congratulations and congratulations to the Council for what you've done over the last number of years. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other members of the public regarding item 20 during the public hearing? All right. Seeing none, I'll close public comments. Any comments from Council members? Seeing none, I have two resolutions we can vote. Oh, excuse me, Council Member Bavaro.

Thank you, Mayor. Just a point of clarification. You mentioned, and correct me if I'm wrong, you mentioned that we're not using canals anymore and that water is now percolating into the ground and we're not using the MID canals. Am I correct on that?

We are using currently MID canals for some of our existing basins during the winter months. We do have the ability to pump some of our stormwater into those canals. They were designed that way. My statement is based on in the last 20 years, We haven't had any new discharges to MID. We haven't developed any new outfalls to MID canals, any new outfalls to the river. And so if there was already an existing, if there was a development there that already had an existing outfall, and it was planned that way, that's still there. But for all our new areas, there's going to be no new discharges. Everything is 100% retention of our stormwater.

I'll also reiterate, we are embarking on a program to look at reducing our reliance on pumping the water into the MID canals and looking at how we're going to recharge the current basins that are pumping into the canals so that we can reduce our reliance on putting the water in the canals instead of putting them back in the water.

Yes.

I'm sorry, in the ground.

Yeah, Joe is correct. One of our goals is to 100% recharge all of our water. We think it's a better use to use it locally.

What's your timeframe on that?

I think that's going to depend on a number of factors. Yeah. But we have a number of ideas, but we're going to do some studies to see where we can reduce the... One of the things we can do is look at our operations, like operations of our canals, and try to hold that water a little bit longer instead of just pumping it in. So operations, and there's some other ideas we have that we can utilize that water better.

Thank you, Mayor.

All right. One quick question for me, too. Oh, yeah. Sure. We now water two days, or allowed two days, or we are a two-day-a-week watering.

We are three. Three. Yeah, in our outlying areas, it is, which is, we have some outlying areas, which is like 2% of our water. That's still two days a week, because they're only groundwater. But in the contiguous Modesto, Salida, Empire, those areas, it is three days a week. Yeah, I think in the wintertime you go down to two days a week, including parks. I'm not I'm not sure. Yeah, I'm not sure. Yes. Yeah, I'm not sure.

right thank you any other comments from council members uh council member wright yeah i do have a comment you know it's it's uh we need to remember that uh the city uses about 10 to 20 percent of water compared to 80 to 90 percent of the farmers use of the water and we have to remember too that when we take an acre of farmland and turn into housing like up in we actually save water because that farmland would actually use more water than the residents would be using the same amount of land. So that is an area that we really help our ground wells. And my understanding is our ground wells are at the highest levels. compared to other wells throughout California. And we've always kept our wells at high levels by the way we're conserving water. And then because of the Tuolumne River helps and the snowpack helps generate those wells and keep them at a higher level. Thank you, Mayor.

Any other comments? My only comment would be thank you to our residents who are extremely conscientious and always have been. As I recall in the early 70s, I believe we were either the first or second county in the state of California that started recycling and everyone would put their cans and bottles and little buckets and put it out by their driveway out in the street before we had our much more sophisticated system now, but you know, we're conscientious stewards of water and land and this reduction of 70% is really to be commended and that is a thank you to all 220,000 plus people that live here that make that happen. Certainly not just the seven of us. So really thanks to them. Appreciate that. All right. I'm sorry, public comment time is over. No, once we close the public hearing, it's closed. Yeah. All right, two resolutions. A resolution adopting the draft 2025 joint urban water management plan and instructing staff to submit the final 2025 joint urban water management plan to the Department of Water Resources by July 1st, 2026. And a resolution adopting the 2025 water shortage contingency plan and instructing staff to submit the 2025 water shortage contingency plan as part of the final 2025 Joint Urban Water Management Plan to the Department of Water Resources by July 1st, 2026. Do I have a motion?

So moved.

Second. Moved by Council Member Bavaro, second by Council Member Wright. And will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Ricci.

Aye.

Council Member Bavaro. Aye. Vice Mayor Williams. Aye. Council Member Wright. Aye. Council Member Skoudia-Brayton. Aye.

Council Member Alvarez. Aye. And Mayor Swallow. Aye. Carries unanimously. Next is new business item 21 consider adopting meeting technology disruption and public participation and public outreach council policies to comply with government code 54953.4 effective july 1st 2026 and we will have a report

Good evening, Mayor and Council. This item consists of two policies related to SB 707. The first policy is a public participation and public outreach policy, and the second is a meeting technology disruption policy. The policies were prepared jointly by the offices of the city clerk, the city attorney, and the city manager. I will wait a moment. There we go. A little bit of background. Governor Newsom signed into law SB 707 sponsored by Senator Maria Elena Durazo pertaining to open meetings, specifically meeting and teleconferencing requirements that was signed in October of last year. This bill is also known as the Brown Act Modernization Bill. Under SB 707, eligible legislative bodies must comply with new meeting requirements beginning July 1st of this year. SB 707 defines eligible legislative bodies as a city council in a city with a population of more than 30,000 or a city in a county with a population of more than 600,000. Beginning July 1st, eligible legislative bodies must follow enhanced teleconferencing transparency and outreach requirements that include translation of agendas and accommodation for language interpretation, outreach to underrepresented and non-English speaking communities, Adoption of a policy on service disruption during council meetings as well as closed captioning for remote platform participants. The Modesto City Council does qualify as an eligible legislative body under SB707. Part of the requirements of SB 707 is public participation in outreach, specifically as it relates to translation. Meeting agendas of eligible legislative bodies must be translated into every applicable language when it posts the agenda within the required background act notice posting. The bill defines applicable languages as those spoken by at least 20% of the local population that speaks English less than very well, according to the most recent American Community Survey. The City of Modesto does meet that 20% threshold. 37% of the applicable population speaks English less than very well. As a result, Spanish translation is applicable. To comply with the translation requirement Spanish City Council meeting agendas. Did it go one first? Sir, I'm not touching it. Let me go That's right. Okay To comply with translation requirements, Spanish City Council meeting agendas will be posted online as well as outside on the City's posting board. There's also a requirement for the City to provide a physical location for members of the public to post their own translation of the Council agendas. Currently, City Council meeting agendas are posted on the locked posting board right outside the entrance of this building. An open and accessible bulletin board has been installed right next to that. To allow for the posting of translated agendas by the public This Are you doing it like what's going on there's a day, okay This slide shows an example of the translated agendas that we posted on July 1st they'll be posted right next to the English agenda and it'll say agenda and in Espanol, I believe. And then right next to that, there is the physical posting board that I just mentioned right next to the posting board that we use that's open and accessible for the public to utilize. Another component is public interpretation assistance. Agencies are also required to reasonably assist members of the public seeking language interpretation services. Instructions on how to request assistance are posted on the City Council agenda and meeting information webpage. The City also currently provides wordly translation and offers live interpreters upon request in advance of the meeting. These measures that are in place already satisfy the City's language assistance requirements under Senate Bill 707. Part of the public participation and outreach is also outreach to underrepresented communities. Sonia Severo, Public Relations and Legislative Affairs Manager, will detail those efforts.

Hi, good evening, Mayor and Councilmember Sonia Severo, Public Relations and Legislative Affairs Manager for the City of Modesto. So outreach to underrepresented communities. So eligible legislative bodies must make reasonable efforts as determined by the legislative body to invite groups that do not traditionally participate in public meetings to attend those meetings. The proposed public participation and public outreach policy includes creating a city subscription list for email and electronic notifications for city council meeting notices and agendas available both in English and Spanish. Also to develop communications materials for community distribution that encourage public participation in city council meetings with a QR code for an easy sign up to the email subscription list. Part of that is proposing public participation and outreach policy would be to promote on our City of Modesto web pages in English and Spanish where residents, businesses, and organizations can access meeting information and agendas. This includes meeting notices and agendas in City News email blasts like the Modesto City News and sent to subscribers, including residents, businesses, community groups, and organizations. So in addition to the Modesto City News, we have additional subscriber lists on our City of Modesto websites for Calendars, Notifies Me, and Community News. And we also have an external community contact list that we'll be utilizing to send these messages out initially to get people to sign up for the email subscription list. We will also be distributing meeting notices and agendas to local media contacts including Spanish language news sources which we currently already do with our current press releases. We will also be using the city's social media platforms to promote public participation in city council meetings in both English and Spanish. This includes upcoming meeting dates and times and highlights of a few of the agenda items that will be presented for discussion to the city council. I presented you guys with a draft earlier today of the city council meetings community guide. We're working to finalize this draft, but it will be in English and Spanish, and it will outline an overview of the city council meetings, what the intention of the city council are. It will outline how people can participate in meetings, and then also how they can subscribe to the email news blast to receive the agendas in English and Spanish, as well as additional information about city council meetings. With that, I will pass it back over to Diane. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. An additional requirement is providing remote participation beginning July 1st. The city currently utilizes Zoom and will soon enable the feature that will allow remote public comment. This will provide greater access for the public to participate and comment during city council meetings. The City must also adopt a meeting technology disruption policy that's in line with Senate Bill 707. That policy should consist of implementation of a two-way telephonic or audiovisual for public access and participation during the meetings. Staff has drafted a proposed City Council meeting technology disruption policy to address technology related disruptions affecting remote participants only. Meeting decorum issues are addressed separately. Pursuant to Senate Bill 707, the policy states that in the event of a technology disruption, good faith efforts must be made for at least one hour to restore service. And if after that time, service is unable to be restored, The City Council may resume the meeting upon making a finding that the benefit of resuming the meeting outweighs the impact on remote participation. All technology disruptions, restoration efforts, and decisions to resume the meeting must be documented in the official minutes. And as a recap, effective July 1st, there's that language access component we just spoke about, and we will achieve those requirements by providing the Spanish translation of city council agendas online as well as the physical posting on our exterior posting board, continue to provide worldly translation and interpreter accommodations. And then those outreach efforts that Sonia just detailed by the bilingual communications and public outreach and engagement. And then the remote participation by way of Zoom and including the remote public access as well as continuing to provide closed captioning. And then what governs this is the public meeting participation and outreach policy as well as a meeting technology disruption policy. And with that, I believe there are two staff recommendations. This concludes the presentation. At this time, City Attorney Sanchez, Deputy City Manager Scottie Douglas, Sonya, and I are more than happy to answer any questions you might have.

All right. Thank you for your report. Any questions? Council Member Scootie Brayton.

presentation. This technology disruption just occurred to me last week. So what would this be considered a technology disruption? And if so, how would we deal with it? When only the image on a zoom meeting went away, the audio remained. So we continued with the meeting given that the audio was still functional, and we were able to conduct business.

Did you want to address that, Jose? It says a two-way audio or visual, so.

Yeah, we would still fit under the two-way audio exception. The video, as far as the video that would be in this case in your question, is the video really for the council member participating when they participate remotely. The public doesn't participate through video. As long as our phone feature, because we still have the phone available that people could dial in as well.

So in other words, we would continue with the meeting? That's correct. Okay, wonderful, thank you.

All right, Councilmember Ricci.

Diane, do you know what the penalties are of not fulfilling the requirements of SB 707?

It's a new legislation, so I would look at our city manager for guidance. I mean, city attorney, apologies.

City manager, take this one. We would, of course, we'll look at it, but if you don't conduct meetings pursuant to the Brown Act, you run the risk of all the actions you take to not actually be done correctly. So be able to be challenged.

Thank you.

All right. Any other questions from council members regarding this item? Seeing none, I'll open this up to the public. Any members of the public that would like to comment regarding item 21?

Good evening again, Emerson Drake. Only really a comment here. You know, Modesto Irrigation District has been providing Zoom comments remotely for quite some time now. You know, Modesta likes to say we're open and transparent, but are we? We could have made the decision to let them participate through Zoom already. We weren't being forced not to, we're being forced to. Now, I don't find that as a good thing. I want to do it, don't misunderstand me, but I don't find it's a good thing that it took till basically the, I don't want to use, trying to find a less descriptive, till you're forced. I don't want to say gun to your head, that's just terrible. I guess I just did. But you're being forced by the state to open up your meeting to the public. That shouldn't be the case. I'm surprised no member out there already requested it of the mayor. I would have thought you would have brought it forward. Why not? We allow council members to. There's nothing wrong with that. I know we had some issues in the past. Everybody's had some issues in the past. We get strangers, but there's a disconnect button when we get crazy out there. There's no reason that we couldn't provide that except it'll probably make your meetings longer. Potentially, anyway. That is, of course, if you encourage public participation. All I'm asking is for you to think about it for a minute and wonder why you haven't already made this decision. Thank you very much for your time.

All right, anyone else? Public comments regarding this item? Seeing none, comments from council members? Council member Scootie Branton. Thank you, ma'am.

good job team for putting together a process and good material to share with our community in multiple languages. In regards to the languages, as was stated earlier, the purpose is the need to provide material in the language that's predominantly spoken in the community, in this case, Spanish. We need to be cautious with the fact that Spanish isn't, it's diverse in its own group. There's Castilian Spanish, which is a unique sounding and spelling, and then there's non-Castilian Spanish. So I would venture to guess that the population in our city speaks a particular type of dialect with Spanish and that's the way it should be translated because writing it not in that manner, it will not be understood. So I would encourage you to find a translator that translates in the manner that the majority of the Spanish speaking people understand. Thank you.

Council Member Bavaro.

Thank you, Mayor. I have a question to the City Attorney. It says on SB 707 as defined eligible legislative bodies as of city councils of the population between 30,000 and 60,000 per county. Does this also include state legislative bodies in their committee hearings?

These are for the Brown Act applies to local agencies.

So the state exempted themselves is what we're saying.

This wouldn't apply to them.

That's transparency. Thank you.

All right. Any other comments from council members? Seeing none, I have two resolutions. We can do one vote. a resolution adopting a city council meeting technology disruption policy to comply with government code 54953.4, effective July 1st, 2026, and a resolution adopting a city council public participation and public outreach policy to comply with government code 54953.4, effective July 1st, 2026. Do I have a motion? Second. Move by Council Member Alvarez, second by Council Member Rickey, and will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Rickey. Aye. Council Member Bavaro. Aye. Vice Mayor Williams. Aye. Council Member Wright. Aye. Council Member Scudia-Braton.

Aye.

Council Member Alvarez. Aye. And Mayor Zwolle.

Aye. Thank you very much. It's unanimous. Next is item 22, consider approving an ordinance amending the Modesto Municipal Code section related to the Office of the City Clerk and City Auditor to create separate sections for the Office of the City Clerk and the Office of the City Auditor. And we will have a report.

All right. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Colleen Rosales, City Auditor. We saved the best for last tonight. We have a municipal code update that is an administrative cleanup item. This would align the municipal code with the city's charter as well as our current business practices. The municipal code currently combines the office of city clerk and auditor into one role. This was done over 30 years ago and through subsequent charter updates and changes in how we staff these roles, that municipal code has not been updated. And so working together, the clerk, finance director, auditor, and attorney all have worked on drafting updates. I'm afraid to press this too many times after. other people's issues tonight. We drafted updates that eliminate that conflicting language. We eliminate all those outdated references. And then we're also clarifying the clerk's role as a standalone position. This helps to align it with best practices as well as state law. And then the auditor's role is also clarified as a standalone position. And this helps not just with internal controls across the city, but again supports that independence of the city auditor's role. So there is one operational impact to this change. The city clerk for decades has been doing reviews of weekly check registers and biweekly payroll registers. Given that we have updates to technology now, these functions can be handled very easily by finance. And then we have added into the annual internal audit work plan some regular sampling and testing of those check registers and payrolls to make sure that things are on the up and up so that those tasks are covered and the clerk can really work at their highest and best use. So I will not read the staff recommendation, but I am happy to answer any questions as well as the attorney and clerk are available.

All right, questions from council regarding this item? Seeing none, I'll open this up to the public. Please step up to the microphone.

Emerson Drake again. I noticed when I was reading the paperwork you were passing out front that they refer to this as an independent position, the auditor, But it's not, really, though, is it? Does the auditor report to somebody? You want to respond, just if you don't mind, you know?

She's a charter officer, and she reports to the city council.

How does she get hired?

Please just say what you're going to say.

Okay, I'm sorry.

Say what you're going to say, and then we'll see what we can answer.

My point is, when we went through this, and none of you were here then, I realized that. It was just the last city council.

I'm not sure if you were or not, Dave. I don't think so.

We had Jane, we had Ridenour, we had Ridenour, we had a variety. We all met over at King Kennedy. We were given a presentation about otters. When the people went home that night, they truly believed they were gonna have an independent otter, maybe even one that was elected. They showed us different versions of it. They had people from an independent auditor, one that was appointed or chosen by the city manager. They had a variety of them. And it was pretty obvious that if you want an independent auditor that you can trust, no offense to anybody, that you can trust that they'll have an independent auditor Position on whatever they're talking about let's go there. I'm not trying to shade anybody. That's not the point It's not independent if you think if you can't do that if they have to go well I'm independent, but if I don't get my contract renewed. I'm not independent am I? You know that's the facts That's the facts But that's not what we have All we asked for somebody that could say, I don't care what you say, I want to look into this, and they could. But no, we didn't want that. You have to ask yourselves why. Maybe you don't. Maybe you don't want to, I don't know. But for the citizens, we prefer an independent auditor that can pick and choose what they wanna look into. Sure, there's topics they're gonna check out on a regular basis. But if something comes up, they don't have to ask permission. You want the auditor to be like a police detective, take you where the clues lead, call it whatever you want. But we don't have that. And that's what gives you more power. That way it gives you more trust that you can believe what you're told when you have someone whose sole job is to look into things. Look into things and get to the bottom of it, but you don't have that. So instead we have a lap dog. I'll take the last 25 seconds to point out, Councilman Wright, if you Google how much water it takes to grow sod or grass in Central California, it's three and a half to five feet of water. That's more than it takes to grow an almond tree. So it's not a wash. Not at all. Don't believe me? Google it. I thank you for your time.

Any one else from the public regarding item 22? Seeing none, any comments from council members? Council member Bavaro.

Thank you, Mayor. The independent auditor was hired by this council a few years ago. We did interviews with several auditors, both individuals as well as firms. There's no evidence that this auditor is nothing more than independent and it serves at the pleasure of this council. And to refer to our auditor as being a lapdog is offensive without no evidence to back up that language. So let's use our words carefully. and to maintain credibility, present the facts. Thank you, Mayor.

You're welcome. Vice Mayor Williams.

Thank you, Mayor. I agree with the statement that was just made by Council Member Bavaro.

Thank you. And I also might add that we have an audit committee, which I believe is unique to the city of Modesto. I don't know that every city has an audit committee, which is made up of two members of the public that are chosen through the appointments committee. So it's an extremely transparent process. And the audit committee takes their rules very seriously. and helps to direct the work. And I have had the opportunity to serve on multiple interviews with auditors that do financial audits for the city and questioned about the transparency in the city of Modesto and I'm grateful that I'm always able to say that our finance director is known for her impeccable work that our city auditor works independently making decisions on what to audit based on multiple of getting the input, whether it's from the audit committee, from staff, from council members, and I appreciate that work and those efforts. And I'm deeply offended by any remark towards any person that works for the city of Modesto in those terms.

Any other comments from council members?

All right, I have a motion introducing and waiving the first reading of an ordinance repealing Title II, Administration, Chapter 3, Administrative Departments, Article 3, Office of the City Clerk and Auditor of the Modesto Municipal Code, adding Title II, Administration, Chapter 3, Administrative Departments, Article 3, Office of the City Clerk to the Modesto Municipal Code to clarify that the Office of the City Clerk is a stand-alone position, and adding Title II, Administration, Chapter 3, Administrative Departments, Article 20, City Auditor to the Modesto Municipal Code to clarify that the Office of the City Auditor is a stand-alone position consistent with the Modesto City Charter. Do I have a motion? So moved.

Moved by Councilmember Wright, seconded by Councilmember Bavaro.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Rickey. Aye. Council Member Bavaro. Aye. Vice Mayor Williams. Aye. Council Member Wright. Aye. Council Member Scudia-Breton. Aye. Council Member Alvarez. Aye. And Mayor Zwollin.

Aye. Carries unanimously. All right. Are there any matters too late for the agenda? Seeing none, this meeting will be adjourned.