City Council - Regular Meeting

We all set.

All right. We are back from closed session. City Attorney, do we have any reportable action from closed session to this evening? No reportable action, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. With that, we will adjourn the special meeting on 5 p.m. and come back for our regular meeting at 6 p.m. in about eight minutes.

All right.

All right, everybody, take your seats. We're going to get started with our meeting. Everybody, welcome to our Selma City Council regular meeting. It's Tuesday, September 1, 2026. It's 6 p.m. It's our meeting in the Selma City Council Chambers at 1710 Tucker Street, Selma, California, 93662. Teleconference phone number is 301-715-8592. Webinar ID is 891. 6 8 6 4 5 0 0 5 went on the phone. If you wish to address the council during the public comment, part of the agenda, press star nine to raise your hand and we will select you from the meeting queue for a star six to unmute and mute yourself. Notice to meeting attendees, members of the audience shall not engage in disorderly or boisterous conduct, including the utterance of threatening or abusive language or other acts, which disturbed. disrupt or impede or otherwise render the orderly conduct of a city council meeting infeasible. Okay. Tonight we have a invocation by the chaplain Gilbert bar Dixon chaplain. Would you come forward please?

Maybe.

Sovereign and gracious God, we invite your presence in this room and in the heart of every council members and those gathered here today in Selma. We grant wisdom, clarity, and unity as they make a decision that shape the daily lives of our community. We thank you for the freedoms and the opportunity we enjoy and the way, and we ask that you guide this council with insight, understanding. Where discussion are difficult, let civility prevail. Where opinions differ, let the common good lead the way. Lord invite, provide the resources needed to address the pressing needs of our city, safety, housing, transportation, And more, may the work done here tonight contribute to the well-being and the prosperity of every resident. Bless this meeting. Bless the council. Bless our community. Amen. Amen.

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. Would you call the roll, please?

Council Member Avalos?

Here.

Council Member Seguera? Here. Council Member Trujillo?

Here.

Mayor Partanguera? Here. Mayor Robertson?

Here. Potential conflict of interest. Any council member who has a potential conflict of interest may now identify the item and recuse themselves from discussing and voting on the matter. Agenda changes or deletions to better accommodate members of the public or inconvenience in the order of presentation. Items on the agenda may not be presented or acted on in the order listed. Additions to the agenda may be added only pursuant to California Government Code Section 54954.2B. City Attorney, do we have any agenda changes or deletions at this time?

No additions or deletions, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, City Attorney.

Oral communications. At this time, any member of the public may address the City Council regarding any item on the regular meeting agenda over which the Council has jurisdiction. No action or discussion will be taken on any item not on the agenda. Issues raised will be referred to the City Manager for review. Members of the public are asked to limit their remarks to three minutes. Do we have any oral communications at this time?

Good evening council council members. Um, we're not on the agenda. Um, so what's your, what's your name? Uh, David Gill. I'm with five river. I'm a holdings. Um, our issues with the Starbucks here down the road on second street.

Okay.

Um, am I able to, you got three minutes, go for it. Okay. Um, No, we have an issue with Starbucks in P.G., the city and the P&E. We we made that Starbucks here. We opened up last August and the city gave us a temporary conditional use permit. Thank you so much for that. But right now, as it is, the P&E lines are running over overhead. I guess the new. It has to be underground. Um, PG&E deemed it infeasible in there when, when they initially were doing the project. Um, and you guys gave us a temporary use permit to go ahead and open with, you know, obviously again, thank you so much, but now we're, you know, Starbucks is holding our lease because of the temporary use permit as those, uh, lines have to go underground. Um, but the cost to do that, they just sent us a, uh, like it's like 101. 30,000 dollar fee and then the extra cost of implementing it or installing it. So what we're asking the city council is that can there be. Is there any way we can you know wave that code and continue as is. You want to come up here and just total.

I manage Deep Kriwal. So we own the Starbucks and we developed the Chevron and the Starbucks together. So initially when the PG&E came, they told us to do the underground utilities, especially the electric one. But there are a lot of, in the alley, there's a sewer line, there's a water line and all that stuff. And they said the project's unfeasible. They went to above ground because all the power poles on the alley are all poles and they attach another pole and they give us the power. But the city said it was not up to their code because everything new development has to go underground. So we went back to square one and we asked the PG&E and city manager was involved and David was involved. So we again asked them, hey, can we revise the drawings again? Because city was not happy and PG&E was not happy. So now they gave us another drawing after six, eight months that now they say, again, we can do underground, but it has to go eight feet. And then it's cost us $130,000. Plus we have to do the improvements. We have to close the Starbucks. We have to take off all the parking lot and all that stuff. All we are requesting is if we can continue with the same, we have the power, we have the thing. Only thing is one pole is there. That is giving us the power. As per the municipal code, it has to be underground. And we can't really, you know, it's kind of a tricky situation. It's the last bowl. Now no power is going any further. All the power coming from the back is on the pole. You know, the property has been, you guys, I'm not from here, but That property has been sitting there for 30, 35, 40 years empty. We developed it, we followed the guidelines, we made it into downtown, breaks and all that stuff, and now we are pretty much stuck. Starbucks has not paid us rent since January because we have temporary certified occupancy. And then now on top of that is PG&E's asking us to go underground, which because that's what the city wants. So we just want to see, hey, if we can just make a circumstance kind of thing, just to do one thing, hey, power is there, we are doing anything, everything is set up, and if we can eliminate that, because there is a lot of sewer line, water line, alley is small, we did the whole alley, we have to do all over again.

Thank you. City Manager, how long is that CUP good for? What's the timeline on that?

It depends on what it was set, generally they're set at It depends on what they need, three, six months. This one was extended by me, and I don't know. off the top of my head how long, but I assume it's still in effect. But we have reached out, David reached out to PG&E on Friday to see what information PG&E can provide. And so that way we can apply it to the code because there are potential remedies within the code itself, but we have to make certain findings and we need PG&E to help.

Got it. So this is ultimately a PG&E rule for undergrounding utilities, which the city incorporated into its code, municipal code, but is it required in that location right there by anything other than the city's municipal code at that particular location?

Just Yeah, just the municipal code states any new development within the city has to be underground.

So it sounds like you are trying to work with this developer here and taking into account the business closure and the inconvenience for all of the Starbucks aficionados out there. So once you get that report back from PG&E, you'll be contacting Mr. Gill and his partner to review that with them. Is that correct? Yes. Okay.

Okay, thank you so much for your time.

I think link to you guys, all of you guys, but we'll send the report because it just came on Friday, the breakdown of the whole cost, and we'll share that with David and see how it goes.

Great. Yeah, next step is for PG&E to get back to our folks with the city, and then they can look at that and discuss it more with you in terms of what we can do to make this a situation that everybody can live with. Okay, thank you. Thank you for coming out. Good evening. Anybody in the chat? Oh, okay. Communications.

Teresa Salas. I had a couple people approach me the other day about the trash, I mean the bathrooms at Brintlinger. Apparently they're just in horrendous condition. They had rented the pavilion there for a family get together and they said that the bathrooms were not usable. They were just dirty, smelly, just not sanitary at all. And so I just, they said, can you do something? I said, well, I could mention it just at the city council meeting to see if that's something that can be looked into to try to get those back up to usable standards. And also, again, people have approached me about the property that you're trying to sell at McCall and Nelson Boulevard. Just, I have had a lot of input from people saying that they would really like to see another city facility there, like... A community center, something that the boys and girls clubs could use or something that the senior citizens can use. It is right next to the McCall Village mobile home park. So it would be ideal location where people could actually walk there instead of having to try to get transportation to the. the senior center here downtown. Again, we do have a wonderful Boys and Girls Club, but it's located at the complete other end of town at the Salazar Center. And so it would be really nice if there was something at this end of town. We have Indianola School, Jackson School, we have all these other schools at this end of town that I think could benefit from a location at the north end of town. And since the property is the cities already, and because it has not, you haven't sold it yet, maybe that might be a consideration for that property.

Thank you. Director Hahn.

Mr. Mayor, regarding the restrooms, this is the first that I've heard of that, but it's something that I will look into with my staff. I can tell you that those restrooms are clean seven days a week, 365. Even on holidays, we always pay a callback for or work out a way to get staff in to clean and stock the restrooms. Anytime there's an event or a shelter rental, we always get a work order from community services explaining what shelter and when it's happening, and we always make sure to go an extra distance to verify that the restrooms are up to par and whatnot. We do get quite a bit of vandalism at night. Sometimes the restrooms aren't getting locked just because PD's busy and they usually lock them for us. And so we have had occasions where we've come in to clean in the morning and they have wrecked them over the night. So I will look into that.

City Manager, can you maybe ask the PD to make sure that they lock them as well? whenever they possibly can, barring any emergencies. I think that takes care of a lot of the problems there. And I've been by Brentlinger in the morning too, and there are definitely people milling around there, which they should, it's their park, but sometimes people will cause damage like that. But at night is when it can really take place. Thank you for that. Moral communications.

1057 Mill Street. So for the record, because we've gotten a few calls and there's some confusion there with the political science. For how many years in the city of Selma, it's been 60 days. But something happened. So the citizens of Selma can understand what happened. And I think Teresa Salas, actually, we saw her banner out first and And that's when we started getting our calls. I believe they said they saw your banner on Keith and Rose Street. And I started getting our calls. Where's my sign? Where's this? That's how it happened. So I said, well, it's 60 days. But then somebody called the city and found out that it's 90 days, just for the record, so people could understand that. How did it become 90 days versus 60 days? We've been doing 60 days in our campaign in the city of Selma for many elections. So is there what happened? What happened with that? Why is it 60 days? I mean, excuse me. Why was why is it 90 days this election?

We had a. agenda item at the last meeting on signs and banners. I didn't notice anything regarding political signs or any kind of expressions of speech politically. Is there anything in there regarding political signs and timelines?

Within the municipal code, there's nothing in our municipal code related to when signs can go up as a result of the first to the state, which is 90 days.

The people asking code enforcement to do their job and restrict political signs that could only happen if they were placed illegally. Is that correct for the city code?

Correct. Within city right of way. Yeah, city right of way is like at the off ramp of Second Street. Or, you know, before the 90 days.

Because we don't have anything specific.

And while it may have been past practice or whatever, we could not find any official policy or anything that had been adopted by council related to that. It's something that after the current election season, we can revisit and we can put in a 60-day if that's the desire of council. But because we currently do not have something listed that way, then we defer back.

So was it always like that? There's nothing in place or... was it in place for 60 days? And so there's never been an ordinance for 60 days for the city of Selma. There has never been an ordinance for that. Okay.

We can find.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else with the oral communications?

I had a question. So I was talking to one of my neighbors the other day and he mentioned that he works for a big chain company here in Selma also about the science. He got, um, code enforcement went out there and told the company that they couldn't have banners, they couldn't cover their windows with advertisements or sales and things like that. So I wanted to know if maybe they can bring it back and fix that because I don't think it's right because I think every business should be able to promote whatever they're promoting or have, you know, for the store, maybe perhaps sales. I understand maybe because for the visual aspect, But maybe to a certain extent, if it's a certain percentage, maybe it should be a higher percentage where they can have multiple advertisements. So I just wanted to know if they can do that.

Thank you. I seem to recall that that ordinance is in place, the 10% rule, because PD wanted to be able to look in and see if there was a robbery being committed. Really wouldn't apply to retail businesses. City Manager, do you have any information on that one? In terms of how much when the youth who attend the schools, but speaking on behalf of the city, I think that's a very important topic. And I know the Selma PD and the fire department deal with the effects of drug use. Okay, with that, thank you for your call. And we will move on from oral communications to special presentations of which there are none. Now to the consent calendar. Have any items they would like removed tonight from the consent calendar?

Yes, thank you, Mayor and Council. Since we last met, the state has completed a special council meeting for the resolution of necessity. Staff and I had a kickoff meeting with Cosmont today regarding potential EIF catered towards, specifically towards groundwater recharge. So the opportunity that we're looking at is a potential identification of small city projects that future cohorts could assist with as part of their training. I also attended the Chamber of Commerce project

and mainly because it's removing the water from being discharged to the canal and now to the basin. So Umabi Horn was happy to nominate that project. We accepted the award on behalf of the city, but wanted to present the plaque that the ASCE gave to Director Hahn.

All right.

Congratulations.

Am I missing something? Where's the big novelty check that goes with that? It's coming. It's in the mail. Congratulations. Thanks for all your help with that. Thank you, director.

I have a question. I have a question. City engineer, where are we at with Thompson Park? I know every time they tell us, well, you know, it's almost there. I mean, pretty sad that Lenar just built a beautiful park with playground and everything. We can't get that Thompson Park built. What's going on with that?

Sure. So as a city manager mentioned that we had a meeting with CID on a couple of different projects. And the Thompson Park includes at the southeast corner of it is impacted by that open canal, which is CID's canal. So in the meeting, we brought up the park. We mentioned that that was a part of the project and working towards trying to pipe that portion, which is extremely expensive. So I feel like we had a good conversation with CID and they advised us to look at alternatives to not having to pipe the canal, which would match the proposed trail that's going northeast up to the Salazar Center. So as of last week, we took that information from CID and we actually talked to the designer of the park, the consultant, gave them that update. So now we're looking at ways to make small modifications to that corner to see how the walking trail There will be some impacts to the street, but it will greatly reduce the cost that's going to be needed for the park because of that canal issue. So it's currently back on our plate to try and make those revisions, submit those to the landscape architect that's designing the park. And with that, they will be able to actually wrap the project up. It will be completed in a design phase. So then the final funding and the grant money can be reviewed and proceeded.

Yeah, it was a good meeting with CID and good discussion and following up on projects, especially that one as well. And a really good recommendation from them. So I'm glad that we had that meeting.

Good that they give a timeframe in regards to when you would think you'd get that final. You know that yeah resolved so that the park can get started, or you know at least start moving forward with the consultant to finish up the park.

Yeah, I think it's a matter of removing pieces from that design because they've already designed it with it being piped. So it's not adding new design or having to recalculate. It's a matter of removing a piece from the design. So I feel like in the next week, we can provide direction to them. And then we've asked them to review that direction and provide the city manager with The impact or the changes that they would do and in that we've asked them for a timeline and any kind of modification so at that point we'd be able to have a firm timeline.

Thank you that that's gonna that's gonna really lower the cost right because that's the time to because they're covering that canal would be a lot so that's gonna is that coming from the money that we have our grant is that coming from our money.

My understanding is there's grant money for the park.

Yeah, so when we created that plan, there's a cost on that. Are we going back? Are we looking at what our savings is and what we're thinking about doing with the excess money? Have we thought of that?

From my opinion, I'm not sure that the cost to pipe the canal was included in the request for the grant. So instead of having to spend more, we will be able to spend less and focus on the grant.

That's good to hear.

Because I recall that original grant money was slated for Rockwell. When it got changed, it got diverted, and there was no piping that was going to be necessary at Rockwell Pond. We were going to put a big soccer field in for the kids and go from there and the 28 acres, which we're still hoping to do with the regional park. So, yeah, that makes sense that it wasn't in that original $4.5 million grant award.

David, I have a question. On the... by the railroad, operation by the railroad with the fiber optic. Where are we at on that issue right there?

We're still asking for the UPRR for updates. I did talk to the contractor, the city's contractor, who was authorized to move forward with the potholing. We're doing what we can on our part to try and push the UPRR people as soon as we get either a contact They did mention that they are working with rail pros, which is a third party entity. So if we can get some traction there, I've been trying to elevate it as much as I can to keep, keep moving on that.

I know we've been, I've been on here for a while. I'm sorry, man. It involves Amberwood. That's why, you know, that's why, you know, it's a technical thing, but it's very important at the, for the future of development, you know? So, you know, and thank you on that issue there, David.

Okay, Fire Chief Webster.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'll let it come to us tonight. First, if you have driven property recently, there's activity. That's lots of it. Facility happened. Currently, it looks like the foundation and stem wall are up. So our crews are all... Oh, is it not working yet? So our staff is excited to see that get to completion. Next, our newest ambulance 557 is unfortunately back down in Southern California. It and another agency's couple of ambulance all were painted with a bad batch of paint on just the cab portions. And so it's down in Southern California getting that taken care of. We hope to have that back by the end of the following week. So the pain just didn't harden up, which was kind of weird. And so anyway, it was us and another fire-based ambulance business in California that had the same issue. But they've been great and are taking care of it. So we are excited to get that thing back. Next, we have two brand-new and beautiful command vehicles sitting in our parking lot. One of them has a camper shell and some graphics on it. The other one just looks like a brand-new red pickup. Those vehicles will be the new vehicles for our battalion chiefs. They were funded through our mutual aid reimbursement, the money that we get back from incidents that we go to across the state. We're both purchased from Liberty Chevrolet. They're just awaiting upfitting stuff. So we're waiting for light bars and radios, camper shells, all that stuff. And so over the next quarter, I don't know, maybe six weeks, we should be able to get those back and online. So we're excited to get those going. With that, we're in primetime fire season. We currently have four personnel assigned to the timber incident, which is a fire in the Monterey Big Sur area. One is assigned to an incident management team, then another one is in our squad, which is our big off-road looking pickup. They've been assigned over there for the last, I want to say, seven or eight days at this point, and they all expect to do their full 14-day assignments before they before they return, and then this evening we got a call for a fire line paramedic to respond up to the Hoopa incident, which is in Hoopa, California, kind of north of the Bay Area up there, and that'll be for a fire line paramedic assignment up there. Um, the week of the fourteenth, which is when our next city council meeting is, I will be out of the office that week. Um, I'll be taking my son up to Oregon to move into college. So I'm super excited about that. And then also during that week, I will be attending the Cal Chiefs EMS North Section. Um, meeting up in Reading on the 17th. And so I've been requested by that division's director to be the subject matter expert for the PPGMT program and the CMS update. And so that's kind of an exciting opportunity for me, and I'm happy to share my knowledge and expertise when it comes to EMS billing to the rest of our our colleagues in that section. And so for that meeting, Chief Diaz will be in attendance in my place. So please ask him lots of questions. and make him feel warm and welcome. He'll have a few items that he'll be presenting that week. And the most important one, I'm gonna take a little bit of his thunder, but over the course of the last year, we've been working closely with Adventist Health in getting a non-emergency transport agreement in place. And so we finally worked through all of the red tape for that, and that'll be coming for your consideration that meeting. And so to preface that prior to 2023, when I started here, we were doing a lot of transports for that agency at no cost. And so we were providing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in transport for that agency. And so we've since cleaned all of that up and now have the opportunity for having an agreement in place where we're not just a provider of services, but a business partner to them and, and which will help us greater serve this community and that hospital. So I'm excited for him to bring that and present that to you. And yeah, and get that as part of our division and read for them.

She didn't graduations on your son going to Oregon State to toss communications director.

Mayor members of the Council i've been working closely with the in our homes to for the ribbon cutting on Sep tember 12 Saturday for amberwood park invite you all in the Community come out they're going to have a pancake vendor. Some coffee, ribbon cutting. If you're unfamiliar with it, it's on floral and dockery. Starting at 9 o'clock and it ends at 11 on Saturday, September 12th. So come on out to check out the new park that Lenar has built in the Amberwood development. It's a great park. It has a huge green space in the middle, covered patios, and a basketball court. So come out and get a chance to take a look at it and have a good time with us. The second thing is, of course, I have to mention, so I'm alive. This Friday. This Friday, a big event happening in the Morenos and Ruben y la Nueva Onda happening from 5 to 10 o'clock this Friday. Lincoln Park, come out. It's going to be a good time with everybody. Lastly, I've been working with Sparks and Public Works on the ice skating rink elements. The logistics of it, the marketing of it, the promotions, the planning, the design, the look. And I really want to... thank them for working together to come up with a great program that's going to take the city by storm this winter for sure. It's really going to put some on the map and I'm excited to get this project off and running. And that's really all I have.

Do you have a signed or a contract for signature for review yet with ice America?

I think director Fletcher will kind of have an update on that.

Okay. Speaking of director Fletcher.

Well, hello, I'm back. It's good to be back. So thank you guys for having me still. With that being said, yes, Selma Live is taking place on Friday. And so the community services department will also be out there. And I have invited our animal services department to join us as well. So we'll have some good information out there for you guys. An update on the ice rink. We do not have the contract back with them from them at this time. So we're still waiting for that. Our representative was out of the office for a few days last week. And so he said he would get that to us this week. So as soon as we get that, we review it and everything looks good. We'll sign and move forward with that. um and so um by the end of the season you guys will be i will be coming back to council so you guys can sponsor me for the 2028 olympics because i am going to be a very well-known ice skater it's great to know we're really excited to be able to provide the winter wonderland aspect of this and so we have some wonderful ideas that we've been working together to to kind of come up with so that way the community can come out and just enjoy the holiday atmosphere at the park. And so with that being said, I do have some other updates. How to Train Your Dragon has one more weekend over at the Selma Arts Center. Tickets are very limited. I did go catch part of the show this past weekend. Amazing. The Selma Arts Center just does a wonderful job. They had 90 plus kids register. So they split the cast and um when i went to go see the show this weekend they had 50 kids on the stage and i was just like oh my goodness i don't know how they do it they're amazing um but other than that we also attended the american society of civil engineers um as the community services department um qk did nominate us for an award through for the parks master plan and we were awarded that and so Myself, Matthew Tiger and Ulysses Maravilla from Public Works were there. We attended the dinner and received that award on this past Thursday as well. So thank you to QK for nominating us and it was a really good recognition of good dinner. Other than that, we still have registrations open right now for NFL flag football, our youth cheer program and our 5K color run. And all of those are live and available for registration through our website. And then I also have staff attending the high school football game on September 11th with the booth promoting the registrations as well. And then I wanted to promote the Pumpkinpalooza event. It is September 1st. So it's only, you know, given that we start talking fall and all the good stuff that come with it. And so Pumpkinpalooza will be October 3rd over at Pioneer Village. And that's a free community event. And so everybody is welcome to attend. And then I know that I believe Michael Hahn is going to give an update on the Pioneer Village restrooms. And so you'll kind of get a better idea of, you know, what's happening there. But I did want to just mention that I will be looking at booking those luxury restrooms for both the Hanau and Day of the Dead. that event, just in case those questions aren't up and going on time. So we'll still make sure that their needs are being met. So other than that, I think that's all.

You mentioned the grants.

Yes, we did receive two different grants from the California Arts Council. So one of them is an operational grant for $18,000. And the other one is a youth grant for $17,000. And so that will go towards our programming over at the Selma Arts Center. And so you will be seeing those up in the next agenda, most likely for signature to move forward with those as well. So

And I just want to thank her staff, Nicolette, especially for putting those together, getting them out to the state. That's really good news.

Yes. And then just a tidbit off of that. I wanted to just thank my whole department from. recreation, to animal services, to the arts center. They did a wonderful job in my absence and I've heard nothing but wonderful things. And so I'm very proud of their hard work and making sure that everybody stayed afloat, especially Matthew Tiger. I cannot thank him enough. I know he was probably a little stressed out, but he learned so much and he keeps telling me that. And so I think it was a really good opportunity for him to grow and as a professional in our field as well. And so kudos to him. I'm very proud. And that's all I have.

Great, great news. Thank you for that.

Director Hahn. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. A few things to update on. One thing is previously requested by council, there was a request for more of the dog refuse stations to be installed throughout the districts. We ordered three of them. Those systems seem to be backordered, so we have four more of them that are ordered, but they are backordered. We should have them in the next three to four weeks. The three stations that we did receive have been installed and we'll continue doing that until we get those in all those locations. We're currently getting quotes right now for the re-roofing of the railroad historical building at Pioneer Village. I spoke to Councilmember Avalos earlier tonight about that. Because of the age of the building, we are gonna have to do an asbestos report before we can get prices to remove and replace that roof. So we've reached out to two different local asbestos abatement contractors to inquire about getting that report started. I just spoke to council member Avalos about helping the historical society at that building get a tarp or something over that building for the incoming rain that they're predicting just to protect from any more damage than what's already occurred. So we are working on that and I will keep the council updated as we progress through that process. Currently, as a lot of you have noticed, my street maintenance crew is doing a wonderful job removing and replacing concrete in front of the senior center. Today, the really bad location just to the west of the entrance to Senior Center where we had a very large root ball that was heaving the sidewalk. Our arborist came out, looked at the tree, diagnosed it, removed that part of the root ball, said the tree is very healthy and fine. We don't have to worry about it falling over. So we're going to continue pouring that flat work. We've ordered a brick stamp for concrete stamping, and I'm going to be working with Cal Portland before the end of the week to actually get a mixed design for that brick-colored concrete. We have a sample from the bricks that were put in at Veterans Plaza. Direction's been given to kind of follow that color scheme for the brick stamp. So as soon as we get that stamp and we get that mixed design created with Cal Portland, which should be fairly quickly, when we finish the flat work with the concrete, we will fall back and pour all of the colored concrete and stamp that to mimic the brick. So I'm hoping by the end of this month, September, we will be completed with that project and moving on to other projects. We, as previously requested and discussed in council, the fencing around the Chinese buildings and the dance hall at Pioneer Village for safety reasons during large events has been completed last week. We had our fence contractor come out and they fenced both of those completely off. They are completely secured. The posts were driven into the ground after we USA'd it to make sure we weren't going through utilities. So those are secure now. And so council and members of the community can be at ease about the liability option of potential that we had at those buildings that's been addressed. The restrooms at Pioneer Village. So we have been approved to purchase the two buildings. I personally drove to Livermore last Tuesday to physically look at the buildings, take pictures, get a better idea of what we were working with. The 12 by 40 footer is completely restored and ready to go. I've showed a couple of people pictures of color schemes and flooring and new partitions. It's actually quite a nice restroom. The 44 footer has a 40 hour work order for mobile modular to do all the work that they need to do before it gets sent to us. It's what they call rent ready. We are purchasing, but they have to redo the flooring, some woodwork that's kind of rotted that they have to replace siding, paint it. I've showed the city manager and some other people the color of the building that's completed is a much more subtle color. uh appealing aesthetically for pioneer village with all the white buildings instead of that classroom looking mobile or modular building that's like kind of the rusty brown with the dark brown trim so we've opted to go with that lighter color that's more aesthetically pleasing and the better flooring i'm also waiting for a quote from mobile modular um i want to know what it would cost to replace the partitions in the building that needs to be worked on um they were they were okay but they were old and kind of outdated they're a little bit of rust on them and so i figured if we're going to do this i have some more budget after the purchase of the two units that we're using for the deck and so i want to understand what that cost impact would be more than likely we're going to move forward with that color scheme flooring and we're going to have two beautiful trailers out there and also have a nice budget to finish the deck on next council meeting i'm going to try to i haven't even talked to him yet so hello david I'm going to try to get a concept drawing to actually show a little PowerPoint with the pictures that I took last week at Mobile Modular of what we're getting, but also just kind of a concept of what the layout is going to look like side by side with the deck, just so that we have a better visual for everybody to kind of understand what we're going to be doing out there. So I will try to get that done and on the agenda for the 15th. Last item I have for tonight is I met this morning for one of our final preparation meetings, we'll call it, for the Rotary Band Festival Parade. They are changing a couple of things. Nothing major that's going to really impact city staff for setting up or helping run that event during the parade, but... One thing that I wanted to bring to council that is going to come up is there was discussion, as we all know, we lost Mr. Israelian recently, who was a community member, worked for the city for many years, city clerk. He was a city planner. He's been a Rotarian for over 60 years. Him and his partner were the original members. uh, people who have the concept for the band festival. And this year will actually be the 61st year, I believe of that festival, uh, in, uh, In remembering Pete Israelian, what has been brought forward to me today from Rotary is that they have funds that they would like to do a rock, kind of a plaque that's granite rock. It's got kind of the face of it at a 45 that's smooth with an inscription on there, basically commemorating Pete and what he did for the band festival and for the city of Selma. They've identified the small triangle of grass that's up by Bank of America on High Street where the band festival comes off of errands and turns right there. In my opinion, that's a very good location for that if the council, when that's brought forward by Rotary, accepts that. So I just wanted to give council a heads up that Rotary's putting something together to come to a council meeting and try to get approved for purchasing that and having Public Works help them get that monument set in that location. So again, that's just a heads up on that, that that'll be coming in a future council meeting for approval. And that's all I have. Thank you.

I have a question. That area that was identified as possible parking at Pioneer Village where all the weeds and stuff, do we ever take a look at that and see what...

Yes, sir. We are currently working on that. The arborist that was out today that cut our root ball. Unfortunately, the trees that are out there, the big pine in the middle and that palm tree that's to the park side, a little more than what my staff can handle to fall those appropriately safely. So we will be out assisting them, but we already have them on the schedule to come out and remove those trees and the stumps. And then we will be working on getting that graded.

and we will be placing a recycled class two base rock and compacting that on that location so that that we can have that accessible for parking during big events at pioneer yep i have one more question on the front of the senior center there's uh there's like there's striping there like for a crosswalk for safety for the seniors it's kind of faded can we you think we can find some paint to

We absolutely can. There's other work at the senior center that in my meeting today with Liz, we discussed the pillars in the front. We have funding that we budgeted for also replacing that. The sidewalk is a big hazard. It's a trip fall. So we wanted to address that, but we definitely will be going back. We're going to be striping all of Selma street, the ADA parking and all of that stuff. So that will be done. Okay. Thank you. Yep.

How about the stoplights at Whitson and Floral? What's going on with those?

So Ulysses Matavia went out and looked at it. And what it actually is, is if you're coming southbound on Whitson before you come to the intersection, there are the pre-warning placards and the flashing yellow lights. One of the flashing yellow lights is kind of funky. It was kind of flashing in an odd manner. So they went out and looked. It was something with the circuitry. They've ordered the part today. And so as soon as we have that, we're going to go out and we will replace that, and it should be fine. The intersection, the traffic signal itself, timing was working. We checked the conflict board. There were no red lights on. Everything seemed to be functioning, and we watched it go through a couple of cycles, Ulysses told me, and it seemed to be working fine.

That's good. Thank you for painting that picture. Equipment storage as well. Cal Ripken. It's really nice. The bandits are definitely benefiting from that. They have a nice equipment storage. It's always been an issue with Schaefer and they've got a nice home at Brentlinger now. So thank you for that. Sure. They always want the potholes filled out.

right so we have gone and addressed that as of that messaging last week we've gone and addressed that and just to go backwards the seating that was asked and were requested for that as soon as we hit fall and we have the right weather we will be reseating that field as well okay great that will definitely work anybody else okay um so that concludes our departmental reports the council want to keep rolling since we have one agenda item or do you want to take a five minute break

Keep rolling? Okay, let's keep going. We will move on from departmental reports to regular business. It's item 5-1, and that is to adopt Resolution 2026-94 for award of on-call grant writing and procurement services agreements to Towns and Public Affairs, Inc., Blaze and Associates, LLC, and InterWest Consulting Group, City Manager. Okay.

Yes, thank you, Mayor and City Council. City staff recently completed a formal RFQ process related to on-call grant writing, and we received 12 proposals related to that. The proposals were independently evaluated by the City Manager, Deputy City Manager, Finance Director, and the Fire Chief. Out of those, the three high-strength firms were Townsend Public Affairs, being a grant services and interest consulting group. At this time, staff recommends awarding all three firms, but they would serve different roles. Townsend would be the city's primary grant consultant under a 5,500 monthly retainer. BNA and Interwest would be strictly hourly on-call consultants with no guaranteed work and no minimum cost to the city. The three firm structure, The reason for this recommendation is that it provides capacity, specialization, and flexibility. Townsend would be our primary grant writer. B&A and InterWest would be on call hourly. InterWest, for example, brings specialized infrastructure funding expertise because of their engineering focus, while B&A is a large grant firm on grant research writing and administration as well. So that gives us the additional capacity and specialized expertise that we need as we go after additional grant funding. That said, council can certainly choose to award to only one firm if that is the preference. And as stated, the highest ranked firm was Townsend Public Affairs.

And I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you for your report. Does council have any questions for the city manager?

Yeah, I'd like to just mention that. Oh, do you want to go?

Yeah, I like Townsend, believe it or not. I like Townsend guys. We had them before and they did a great job, what they do. They're not, you know, and I like Jason's plans, how he lays out this situation with the unique plan. And I like, you know, people on call, association, engineering, stuff like this. That's the thinking outside the box, Jason, and your staff. I thank you for that. And I would recommend, my person, I would recommend Townsend.

Got it. Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem.

I would like to say I'm really pleased as well with Townsend's public affairs. They have a proven track record, especially with the city of Selma. And I know they do with other cities that really say that they're outstanding. And I know that, we know that because they were with city of Selma. I do like the plan with the other two as well, because we always have to have that expertise. Maybe one may not have the expertise to modify and I'm just gonna use, like HRSA, just if we were dealing with medical. you have to be an expert to be able to understand the contracts and understand that if there's at the end of the year, they need additional information that needs to be provided in order to be awarded, that's what you have to do. It's these expertise that are gonna continue to help us get to that next level. And the way the city is going with all these projects, we're going to need it. So I think that your plan with going with all three is something we need to do. We need to really look at this in the future.

I know I never worked with Townsend before, but I spoke to a couple of different cities around this, and they come highly recommended. I think we should just have one, but that's just my opinion. With the track record that Townsend has, I'm sure they can, you know, go after a lot of different grants that would benefit our city. So, but that's just my opinion.

I would say the same, but only if we're actually paying BNA Grant Services and InterWest Consulting Group. It's my understanding we wouldn't pay them unless there's a need and they're kind of on call and they offer an hourly rate. Is that correct?

Correct. It'd be through a task order only. So for a specific grant, if we were going for that, for instance, if we were going for a I don't know if it's even called that anymore, but a Tiger Grant federal for roads and that type of stuff. You know, we would potentially use InterWest with their engineering background to develop that.

So it just adds resources to the city's infrastructure. toolbox here in order to get that money. And as we saw tonight from director Fletcher, we got 35,000 in grants just from someone who really knows what they're doing for the, the art center and to augment that with a really first-class outfit like towns and public affairs. I think it's going to be a force multiplier for the city. Cause we, we do have a lot of projects going and you know, we are looking to, minimize the cost disruption to the public to the absolute minimum so i think this is a really a really good move um this is a agenda item does the public have any input on this at this time theresa solace i do recall townsend working for the city in the past how long ago was that and why did they why are they no longer why weren't they working for us up to this point Yeah, right up until COVID. And I think what happened was there were some personnel changes that seemed to recall. Yeah.

I remember what I recall is it was never brought to councils to eliminate them.

It wasn't a vote.

It wasn't a vote. They just eliminated them.

Just got discontinued. They disappeared. Yeah.

I just want to say that's music to my ears that Townsend brought tons. And I mean, big grants to the city of Selma. We were here when they were no longer. around. What I liked about Townsend's, they would come and do a presentation constantly, what they were getting in. As you know, being on the bid, we have Han, with the $300,000 grant, the Clean California grant, they found a matching one. So when you get a matching one, I mean, now we're going to be able to order more lights, more for the whole downtown, not just high street, second street was front street. I mean, whatever falls into that category, but Townsend was doing a phenomenal job in all areas and then gone. Just really sad, but this is again, moving Selma forward. So very, very good news to hear the name Townsend. Thank you.

Anybody else with a comment? Anybody in the chat with a comment?

Mayor, I see no hands raised at this time.

Okay. I'm willing to make a motion to pick Townsend.

Is there a second?

I'll second.

Call the roll, please. For clarification, that's just Townsend only?

Well, Townsend with the plan that you associated with.

Okay.

Okay. Two on call. Okay. Thank you.

With the other two on call?

The other two on call.

Okay. Okay.

Because like you said earlier, we need the expertise and talents that we need to facilitate some of these streamlined issues that we have. And especially now, more than ever. Okay. Call the roll, please.

Council Member Avalos? Yes. Council Member Seguera? Yes. Council Member Trujillo?

Yes.

Mayor Tim Guerra?

Yes.

Mayor Robertson?

Yes. Item passes. Thank you. And we will now move on to future agenda items. This is council request for future agenda items not subject to public comment. Items require a consensus. Does council have any items or an item they would like to propose at this time? Councilman Trejo? Councilman Avalos?

Yes, I do. Yes, I do. I like to actually revisit our people that serve, you know, like like, like he said about Peter, you know, Peter is alien, but also people that in our community that were in government, you know, like Dennis Lujan, uh, you know, and Mike Durr that created the art center, him and his wife and Dennis, his expertise as far as is, uh, how would I say is his willingness to help people in a different dynamic way. Okay. And I want to name a park after him. And in the park, I know we've been dragging around this situation, but I like to streamline it. I like to change Ringle Park and put his name on there. And the reason why, because as one of my colleagues on the council, that was... That was his backbone area. That was him. That was Dennis. And anything for the needy people in our community, he was there. We used to have the celebrations there, and he was there. That was him. And Mike Durer, on the other hand, him and his wife were very instrumental in bringing the art center to the downtown area where it is at now. We used to be at the hospital way back in the day. We sold it to the hospital. We bought Gateway, actually Gateway Furniture Store at the time. And that vote was actually four to one. I was a guy that was against it because I told him the building wasn't sound enough.

And it collapsed.

And it collapsed. But the things turned out. I guess God looked out for us and we got insurance money on the deal. Okay. But we built the art center. So I like to... tell my colleagues to change these names for Mike Durer and Dennis Lujan, like Ringgold Park and the Art Center to Durer Art Center. Because they were a part of where we're at today. If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't be where Selma's at. They were a part of the Walmarts and they were a part of the development way back then. And to me, that's respect.

Oh, absolutely. Those are two giants in Selma's political history. Just a point of clarification, do parks or buildings get named after people who are still alive, or do they have to be deceased?

No, I think we should do it before they die. The reason why I say that, I mean, when you're dead, they don't get to see it. I think it's very important that to do this.

Gotcha.

You know, I mean, it's great memories for people to see their legacy.

I think the city does it out of liability, doesn't it? I mean, just in terms of people.

Yeah. I mean, we recognize people who they are.

Yeah. Nothing against anybody living, but You know, it's just, I think that's the point of the policy.

Yeah, but I know. We could change policy, guys. We change policy and direction, okay?

That's a different agenda item. You want to change that too? Yes, I'm going to change that too. Buildings and parks can be named after living people.

Yes, I want to change those because, you know.

Because those are two different items. Two different items. They're related, but they're two different items.

Two different items. One's this. I think we'll table it. Table it. We need a consensus. Yeah. So what was it?

Do you want to?

No discussion. It's just whether we're going to put these two items on a agenda item.

No, no, this got picked too. We're going to do it. We do it right. Okay. I'm just telling you straight up, Johnny. Okay.

Right. Um, so yeah, in order to move forward, consensus, we need a consensus. Yep.

I'm as willing to do it.

Yep.

Okay. Two, two separate items, not together, but it'd be two separate items. Okay.

Yeah. I want to change the policy on naming buildings. Amend the policy of some dying. And one would be specifically for Dennis Lujan and Mike Durr.

And Mike Durr. That was my question is that we started off the discussion was to name the art center, Durr Art Center, or Mike Durr Art Center, and the second was, would it say Dennis Lujan Park or Lujan Park?

No, I would probably put Lujan Park, abbreviate it.

So those are three separate items, right? Yes. Because you're going to do the policies one. You're going to do that one.

Well, actually, we'll change the policy.

That's what he's saying. That's what he wants. We'll change the policy, okay? These will be items to discuss. Yeah, we can discuss.

Future agenda discussion items. Okay. For direction. For direction. Okay.

I'm going to disagree with the good-looking guy over here. I don't believe in naming a park after someone and then later on coming and changing the name. Peter Ringo Park and Peter Ringo Park since I can remember it is not fair for the family for Peter Ringo to have the name taken off. We had already promised the family of Mr. Lujan that Thompson Park was going to be in fact Lujan Park. So I would like to put it on the agenda that Thompson Park will remain as we had agreed to be Dennis Lujan Park.

So what you're actually, that's where I was going to go with this because I've heard you guys in the past. So the topic would be to name a park for Lujan. and the other one would be Mike Durr discussion for the Arts Center, discussion for the Arts Center. And before those two, the discussion has to be said of discussing the policy, which would give us the ability to do anything else prior, correct? Right, yeah. Okay.

Do we have consensus on my item?

Yes. Yes.

Good. Another item is I want to bring up is someone bring up to what the requirements are for fire department for special events for future agenda item. I know this came up all of a sudden, so I would like to put it on the future agenda for discussion.

Okay.

Do we have a potential?

Okay.

Pro Tem.

Yeah, I would like to get an update in regards to the Casitas project, the marketplace project, and also the project behind where Country Rose Estates is. Because I know when I went door to door, I've been going around speaking to my constituents, This question keeps coming up and they're asking about the custom homes that are supposed to come behind Country Rose Estates because they had talked apparently to the owner and I believe that was Sunny Panu, if I'm correct. Not sure, but some of them had some serious details in regards to the lots that they had put their names on and that they want to consider purchasing lots if it was still going to go forward on custom lots. And that was the custom homes with... Yeah, it was behind the Country Rose Estates. Those estates.

I'm good with that. Everybody good with looking at that? All right. Mine would be maybe just a status. I've requested this before, but looking for the amendment of the general plan for that very area that Mayor Pro Tem is talking about to make sure that low density is defined and shown as the usage of that area. Everybody good with that?

Yes.

Okay.

I have one as well because it involves commissions and commissions of the council. I had a summer high school student that has reached out to me a few times and he is wanting to potentially form a Like a youth council or youth commission that similar that in his words would operate similar to planning commissions or something like that, where the youth is appointed and then provides recommendations to counsel as well and so. He wanted to see if I could bring it in front of you, if that would be something that council would be interested in.

Great idea. Absolutely. Get them started early. That's a really cool project.

Yeah, maybe they would like to do a presentation to give us an update as to what they would like to. Just plans. What's the plans? Because I've gone to some of the school board meetings and they did have a junior type of commission where the students would go up there and give an update as to what's going on in the school. And I thought that was really a great idea. So that might, you know, that... They can even help us giving us updates in regards to what's going on at the school.

All right, so we'll reach out to him if there's consensus on it.

Yeah, before you take consensus, when I was the chair for community services, we used to have a school member, a person in school still, be part of the commission. Oh, that was a long time ago.

On the school board, they used to have a student?

They were in our commission, our community service commission. We had one person that was a student that served in that commission. Just a little history.

Who uses the parks? The kids. You're really good.

All right.

Sounds good. Thank you. Thank you for that. We'll move on now to council reports. Councilman Trujillo. Report. Councilman Adelos. Back on it.

Well, you know, I actually, I was out touring the city today, looking at work, looking at public works job guys. They're going to job on the parks. Okay. I was looking at the fire department. Great job out there, guys. The fire trucks, you know, I was in Fresno. Your ambulance with the community hospital, they were there. Good job. Right on it. Police department out there patrolling, pulling cars over, checking them out and keeping crime down. Good job, guys. You know, stay safe. Tell the guys, stay safe. All right. Don't take chances, please. And and I and. I see the flock cameras are in play, very unique. I have another plan I'll discuss in the next council meeting about cameras. But at this time, I thank the staff, the workers that put this together, our packets every week. Thank you, guys, all the way down, from the janitor all the way up, the top. Jason, don't let it go to your head, okay? But I also thank the public that come out and, you know, give their opinion. Because without their opinion, you know, you don't see everything on the streets. And with them, they tell you what's going on out there. And I thank them very much. You know, I don't care if it's good or bad, but it's all good and respect of life. Thank you. Great. Thank you.

Councilman Oscara. Do you want to move on? Come back? Yeah. Okay. Mayor Pro Tem.

Okay. I attended the Chamber of Commerce membership appreciation barbecue. That turned out really nice. I said they really did a great job out there and I believe the community really enjoyed it and so did the members. I also attended the Fresno County candidate session, News and Brews at Riley's. And that was a nice, it turned out nice. I don't think that they got a whole lot of candidates from Fresno County, but they got a few, so it was okay. That was it.

I attended the same one, News and Brews, Fresno County. I think it was a Mid-Valley event that was, Nice that they did it, and they said that Selma's event was the best attended one that they had. So that's good for Selma. We definitely take an interest in current events and politics and things that affect our town. That's what I love about this town. Everybody gets involved. I attended the same Selma Chamber Appreciation event. Thank you to the Chamber of Commerce for that. Saw a nice representative set from the American Legion. Thank you to them for participating. I attended a Selma cemetery district meeting. Very good. They're doing great things with the new columbarium over there and they put a pergola in and it's just looking really nice. And with pricing being what it is now, not a lot of, you know, it's expensive to have burial plots. So a lot of people are going to cremation route. And that's really responding to that need. I attended a Selma planning commission meeting. That was a, a good meeting moving forward with our city, with the growth. I served and provided dinner to the Selma High School football team the evening before they successfully opened their season against Sunnyvale, Sunnyside High School. So that was very good. And they won. And I think it's quite frankly because of the chicken we served them that night. I really think there's something in there. I don't know. But that's secret sauce. And I wanted to say thank you to the Fresno County Rural Transit Agency for adding that bench out on floral. Very nice. That was a bench provided by the FCRTA from FACS from the Fresno County. Fresno bus lines. They provided that. So it's out there and hopefully Janelle and Moses will get a bus stop out there, the full development of one with a shelter. But for right now, at least we have a place for seniors to sit waiting for their ride after they go to Walmart. It's been a long time happening. I'm glad that we're able to provide that service. And I attended a meeting with a developer, with the city manager and council member Avalos. And with that, we'll move on to our final oral communications of the evening. Anybody have anything to say? Okay, let the public.

1050 Saturday Mill Street, Rose Robertson. I think that's a great idea, City Manager. It would be nice if you could get them for all the commissions, start them off early. I also want to just repeat Selma Life this Friday. I want to say thank you to Chief Alcarez, but he's not here today, but please give him the message again on record. We appreciate their support, providing officers through the sponsorship for the City of Selma. and like to see some of our firefighters out there. If they're able to, I understand that you guys got to leave sometimes, but it's nice to see our public safety come out and makes all the citizens feel safe. But so we really do enjoy that. Appreciate that very much. And thank you to everybody that always comes out to these events. I know this is going to be a long weekend, but there's a lot of people that will be attending. So we do look forward to this Friday. And as we do go door to door, that's one thing they say, please thank council for these events. That's something they really enjoy. They don't need to leave Selma anymore. They're really thrilled of this ice rink. That's just phenomenal what you hear out there. The ice rink is just the thing they're hearing and that's gonna make, again, it's gonna make the history of Selma first time ever. So that's appreciated. But again, they want to specifically say thank you to you all that provide these events free for the concert events for the citizens of Selma. Thank you.

Anybody else with a comment?

I just have a question for a follow-up. I know they mentioned a few times if the planning commission can receive some kind of shirt or polo or something like that so we can represent the city. I believe we play a big role in the city of Selma. Even though we are a recommendation body, I feel like we're very important as well. So I'm just curious. Thank you.

Great question. I think that was something I brought up previously. Are we making any progress on ordering the polos for our commission members?

Yes, that's an item I have. We actually don't have enough of the round seals, so we're having to order the patches, and so it is an item in the works. When you look at all of the commissioners who have bid, all the different ones, there's actually quite a few commissioners that we have to accommodate for.

I think we should get one for every single one of them. They volunteer their time, and that's the essence of local government, in my opinion. Awesome.

I have a comment. I saved it for last. There was a reason why. And the reason why I saved this comment for last is people running for office. You know, I don't care for school board, you know, healthcare or whatever. When you run for office, when you put up your signs and people's properties, please, please ask the owners or the people that live there, if it's okay. And you get these calls and says, Hey, people are just put a sign. They didn't tell me I come over here and there's a sign in front of my house. I didn't, I don't know this person shows up. I didn't give him permission, but you know what, you know, you gotta have respect when you run for office, You have to tell the people, hey, can I put the sign there or not? They say, no, don't worry about it. But when you do it deliberately without their permission, that's disrespect. And being disrespect is you're calling yourself some kind of leader. That's not a very good leader. That shows that you don't care only for yourself. And that's not who, when you run for office, that's not who you are. You take office. for the job you're supposed to do, not the job where you're thinking about yourself. That's all I got to say.

Thank you, Councilman. I completely agree. Anybody in the chat with a comment? Mayor, I see no hands raised at this time.