City Council - Regular Meeting

so that when if when and if we do send it out, they'll be set it'll be set to more just to make sure we get more than one response. However, I will say Blackwater is a very good consulting firm. I just am concerned about us having something to compare to to make sure we're getting the best bang for our buck, I guess you could say. Any other questions or comments from council? Any motion? I'd like to make a motion that reject the proposal. Sorry. And uh direct staff to reissue the proposal.

I if there's no other there's no second. Is there another? It dies for lack of a second and another motion can be made. So I'll make a motion to accept the proposal from Blackwater Consulting. Second. Roll call, please. Council member Odiva, yes. Council member Pimento, yes. Council member Call, yes. Vice Mayor FSY, no. Mayor Hernandez, yes. Motion passes for one. comments, reports, city manager, after all the long meetings we've had, even I wasn't ready for [laughter] I know it's happening.

So, mark your calendars for Saturday, November 1st, because downtown Riverbank is coming alive with the sights, sounds, and spirits of the sixth annual diia Muertos celebration. Join us as we honor loved ones, celebrate life, and embrace the beauty of Mexican culture through an unforgettable night of live music, dancing, delicious food, vibrant altars, and community traditions that light up the heart of Riverbank. The winter watering schedule goes into effect this Saturday as well. Even addresses can water on Tuesday and Saturday. Odd addresses on Wednesday and Sunday. That means you each get two days to water. Now, you can water before 10:00 a.m. or after 4:00 p.m. There's no watering Monday, Thursdays, and Fridays or within 48 hours of measurable rainfall. Edits to the third draft of the housing element are being finalized. will be posting online for a 7-day public review and comment period no later than early next week. After the review period, it will be subsequently remitted to HCD for their 60-day review. And the statewide special election is happening next Tuesday on November 4th. Registered voters should have already received their absentee ballots via mail. There's a ballot dropbox available at costless foods and the voting center at the Riverbank Community Center opens this Saturday, November 1st. And we'll will be open Saturday, Sunday, and Monday from 8 to 5 and on Tuesday from 7 to 8. And that is all from staff.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Thank you. Uh first of all, I'd like to um remind the uh residents that we do have a lot of construction. It is not easy. Trust me, I live here too. Um I avoid Clarabel and Patterson with all my passion. And so I'm just asking everybody to, you know, bring their patience with them. Nobody is going to get anywhere any faster if you try to speed past people or, you know, run into somebody. Well, don't run into anybody. But I'm just, you know, we've got a long year ahead of us and so let's just make sure we all make it through it. I'd also would like to just mention that I will be working at the polls at the community center. And I just want to remind residents that I will be working there as a poll taker. So please don't come up and and comment to me or talk to me because I will not be able to talk to you and I don't want to be rude. So um just remember I'm there as a pole worker doing my job. I'm not there as your vice mayor. Yeah, I'm on the clock. Um, historical society will have their next meeting Monday, November 10th at 5 5:00 pm at the museum right behind us. Women's club is meeting Tuesday, November 18th at 6:30 at Scout Hall. Thank you,

thank you, mayor. Um, so just to just to uh add a little bit more context to the comment that was made earlier from Michael. So, Christian Food Sharing, um they are going to they are going to be located at Scout Hall and they're doing this every Friday. Um they're going to be starting up at 7 in the morning all the way to 10 o'clock. Uh so, come for 3 hours, come for 5 minutes. Um they're looking for volunteers. They're looking for donations. So, I'll be out there um as soon as I drop off my daughter. I'm going to head straight over there uh 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 Scout Hall. Um and if you haven't heard, uh me and the mayor uh we teamed up with American Veterans First. Um it's going to be their event and we're going to be there supporting them. Um they're they're partnering up with also Veterans in Action. Um their event is going to be November 3rd at 11:00. The address is 3228 Santa Fe. So just literally down the street right here. Uh American Veterans First. Uh it's going to be they're going to we're going to be providing food, social gathering. Uh we're going to invite veterans uh local veterans to come out um have a discussion. uh meet AVF, meet Veterans in Action. Um have a chat with the local leaders there. Come support veterans. There's a huge percentage of veterans here locally. Um and we'd love to just kind of support AVF and what they're doing. So please join us. Um and that's in preparation for November 11th, actual Veterans Day. So please come on out. Thank you.

Member. On the 19th, I attended the second annual Halloween harvest. Sister City was there. Sister City was there. And it's nice to see the town coming together, you know, everyone getting involved. I want to give a shout out to uh Wallflower. It's a mom and daughter coffee shop. That was their first time there and uh really good coffee. It pushed me through the whole event. So, that was a really good event we had. And also um I've been hearing the concerns about Calresh. I work with the elderly and uh they're very concerned. So I appreciate that our city, you know, they post the actual links and information. So direct people to our city page so you'll get the accurate information, not secondhand information because it's scary for the people, especially if you're elderly. I will be doing a meet and greet in November. I'm going to set a a time and date and I'll post that on my Facebook page. And also, um, Crossroads East, it's really developing and there's a lot of people shopping. I want to encourage people to keep shopping there. It's clean. It's a good environment and it's giving back to the economy. So, thank you.

You council member Call.

Last Thursday, I joined Pizza Plus and Cardoozo SDC class. I was able to work with the children uh hands-on and help them make pizzas and it was just a really fun opportunity. So, I wanted to thank Pizza Plus for their engagement and dedication to the youth in our community. Last Friday, I walked around with Valley Sierra SBDC. We went around in the downtown pocket to a variety of small businesses, dentist office, occupational medicine, salons, just passing out brochures, talking to owners, managers, letting them know of the resources. There is a survey going around. I will post it to my social media page for resources and challenges where you can input your the resources you need or the challenges that you're facing as a small business. And one of the common ones that I heard, which I was really surprised to hear because we don't hear often, is QuickBooks training. So, uh, that's a big key hit point for our small businesses right now, managing their money and then marketing support. So, I'll post the resources and challenges link so that you can take the survey and we can get more feedback so we know how to apply the opportunity Santa loss contract that we have. Uh, the soccer season just wrapped up. I just wanted to give a huge kudos to parks and wreck and the partnership with East Valley Earthquakes. My son played on the 6U team, I believe is what it ended up being. There were 240 players this year. We had an incredible time. It was seamless. We went, we showed up to the sports complex, we played our games. It was, they ran a tight ship, water break, halftime, water break, game over, super easy. So, thank you to the coaches, Parks and Wreck, and all of the other volunteers. I'd like to reinforce the shop with a cop fundraiser on November 8th at 108 Sports Lounge. We did it last year. We raised over $1,200. It sends around four children uh shopping. And I know $300 sounds really

like a lot of money to take kids, but coats are expensive, toys are expensive, shoes are expensive. So the more money we can raise for this event, 100% of it goes to Riverbank Police Services for this event. So like Michael Chrissy said, if you can't come to the event itself, drop by Riverbank Police Services with any sort of donation you can. I know they also take toys because the day of the shopping, they all meet at the community center. They have a pizza party and then they distribute toys there. So, an un an unwrapped brand new box toy also helps the cause as well. And then November 20th, I'm going to be doing a medicine tours and there's going to be hosted coffee. So, RSVP with me sallallank.org by the 18th and you'll get to see the rich history of Riverbank and this the industrial complex itself and as well as the sustainable manufacturing happening there. And then lastly, to piggyback on the construction piece, please pull over for our first responders. I know the roads are congested on Oakdale and Claus Road, but I'm seeing it very often as I'm going east uh north and south on Oakdale because we have the Silven and Modesto MST coming and responding here in Crossroads. People are not pulling over and is so important that we pull over for our first responders so that they can get to the emergency. Thanks. you. Um, we are at the peak of event season, so a lot of schools and um, our own city are hosting lots of events and so it's been fun participating in those. Um, I I'm going to like sandwich good stuff, not so fun stuff with Stanco. Um, there's uh, a lot of work moving forward. If if you're not familiar with the organization, it works with transportation dollars at the state and federal level here locally. Um and uh we're moving forward back to some normaly um after some bumps in the road this year. Um there is a an interim that

we're moving forward with at this point um and really working to uh get stuff back on track um and working through some of the uh extenduating circumstances that have been happening. So, um it feels uh like some uh balance coming back to the organization. Um and so we're moving forward with that. Um and then uh youth council has met about five times already and um they sit up here about eight eight students. Uh they've worked through defining and assigning their own officer duties as they've mentioned and they're very selfsufficient. So, I've been attending the meetings, but I'm really just an observer as they work through what uh their goal setting is and how they're going to move forward with that and and fundraising is kind of one of their big goals right now, fundraising and outreach. So, um you'll see them out at the muertos on November 1st and uh with some other events with the school district. Um and I think that is it. All right. So we are going to adjourn to close session. Let me come over here. Item 13.1 conference with labor negotiators pursuant to government code 54957.6 agency rep city manager Marisella H. Garcia employee organizations riverbank men management employee association. Item 13.2 liability claims pursuant to government code 54961. claimment penuri penori Venezuela and Kramer trial lawyers agency claimed against city of riverbank. Um is there any public comment on any of these items either of these items? And uh we have Zoom back up. Is there anything online? We do have Zoom um back online, but unfortunately we did get um some

attendees uh emailing saying they couldn't public comment on any of the items tonight. Okay. Nothing around not not any. Okay. All right. So, we will turn to close session.

All right, we are back from close session. Item 14.1 report from item 13.1 uh direction has been given to staff. Item 14.2 report from item 13.2. The claim has been denied. And our next city council meeting uh which would be regularly scheduled November 11th is councled. So our next meeting will be on Tuesday, November 25th, 2025. This meeting is adjourned.