City Council - Special Meeting

We're calling this meeting to order. This is our special council meeting, December 18th, 2024. It is now 1114 a.m. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Okay, please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance led by Councilman Pinedo.

one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Okay, agenda order of business. I don't believe there's anything. We'll open up the public comments at this time. Public comments is now open. Anybody who would like to speak, please approach the podium. You have three minutes to speak to this council in a respectful manner. I do have one comment card from Mr. Michael Pizzi. Please approach the podium.

Thank you very much. Any other public comments at this time? Being none, public comments is now closed and we will move into discussion items. Madam Clerk.

Councilwoman Reynoso, this is your item.

Thank you so much, Mayor, through the chair. This is my item. I believe that the memo states my intent, and this is not eliminating the position of vice mayor. It's just eliminating certain costs associated with the position that I feel would be better used in other programs that I would like the residents to participate in. be able to enjoy instead of spending the cost that we did on certain apparel, stationery, and materials. That's all. All right.

Thank you very much, Councilwoman. Any other comments or questions at this time? Yes. You have the floor.

Mr. Attorney, can you give your legal opinion on this, please?

The entire ordinance. Did you help write this ordinance? It's a resolution. Or a resolution?

Mr. Attorney, how many drafts did you publish of this resolution?

Madam Clerk, can you provide copies of the first resolution to all my colleagues and also make them available for the public to take one, please? You have them? Yes, I have them. So there were three different drafts of this resolution. The first draft, Mr. Attorney, if you can confirm, you did not help draft, correct? And why did you feel compelled to draft or help modify the first resolution?

So to confirm, the first draft you found had some sections that were a violation of the charter? Yes.

Thank you. If you look at page two, section two, Mr. Attorney, give me your legal opinion on the lawfulness of that section. And if you believe it conforms with the charter specific section listing that there shall be a vice mayor.

So again, do you believe that Section 2 is or is not in violation of the city charter?

Okay, thank you. Madam Clerk, can you tell us what items have been?

Yeah, that's right. We have about three different drafts.

Thank you. Madam Clerk, can you tell us what items have already been purchased for the vice mayor and how far in advance they get purchased?

And what do you currently have in your office that's been purchased?

Okay, great. And Mr. City Manager, what items have already been purchased for the vice mayor rotation and how much do they cost?

So public affairs is not under the clerk. So what items has public affairs already purchased or paid for the vice mayor rotation? If you don't have the answer, maybe you can bring someone from your staff.

And what is the, through the mayor, what is the estimated cost of purchasing items for the vice mayor rotation, including advertisements, city bus benches, you know, everything that comes along with all of that?

Okay, and thank you. Madam Clerk, what is the cost of the items that you have right now?

Okay, and the logo wear that we have already requested?

Okay, thank you. And then back to the city manager. Did you review this item or do your evaluation as per the rules of procedure to estimate the cost for these, the fiscal impact?

through the chair. Can I just ask one question? Please allow her to finish.

Okay, so Mr. Manager, you did not review the item and did not do the fiscal impact evaluation. Is there anyone in your office that can say an estimate or approximate cost of these replacement items? Because so far, I have $3,000 to $4,000, right? Is there anyone in your office, Mr. Manager?

We just heard of the bus benches, which is $2,000. Are there any additional costs that anyone else here in the city, perhaps the deputy manager?

Thank you. And so we're doing this analysis here because it wasn't done before. So from what I'm seeing, it looks like the cost is around $3,000 or $4,000, and the majority of those costs have already been spent. Right? OK. That's all I have for now as far as questions. I will come back with a second comment at the end. Thank you.

Okay, Councilman Cabral, you had a comment. If I may, well, I have a few questions. Councilwoman, I know that you brought this because you are, what it says here, and I know that there have been many changes within the resolution, but my understanding is that you're concerned on the expenditure for making these changes or to advertise who is in the cycle of being the next vice mayor. Could you please share with us how much is the number that you have that you're so concerned that the cost of all of this, because our city manager doesn't have any information about how much it's a cost. So could

So there was a concerned resident during my time campaigning that had brought up to my attention A letter that was sent from the councilwoman's office basically delineating that she was going to be vice mayor and that costs based on the cost that I have spent on certain things that were sent. when I was campaigning could be $5,000, $10,000 when it comes to the letter that was actually sent, the stamps, the person that was tasked to send out and organize. So there's other costs other than just that letter that also go into it. And there's other costs other than what we just went through right n

Well, so it seems that you're based on what you think, not really on the exact numbers of how much this, I mean, the thing is that when I bring something to the dais, I have to talk based on facts. I have to have the numbers. I always ask, how much is the cost of this? How much is the impact? So you don't have that information. You're basing on whatever you were doing during the campaign that is different from also the budget that we have here. Also, if you see our budget, that's something that I've been always very open and transparent talking about it. You have to see how much it was our bud

Point of order. I have five minutes. Point of order. Five minutes. Yes, but learn rules of procedure. Point of order. You will be respectful. I am respectful. No, you're not being respectful.

Listen, I have not cursed or say anything. Nobody needs.

No, I have not. No, no, no, no. Nobody's character needs to be.

Point of order, which means I have the floor. I have the floor. Yeah, I understand. No, meaning I have the floor means you stop talking.

Yeah, and then I'm going to talk because this is my first amendment too and I'm not attacking anybody. I'm just giving an advice.

Nobody, this is not a place to give advice. Excuse me one second.

I'm not sure you understand what that means. I do understand. So you continue to speak. Yeah. We will respect each other, number one. You are questioning character. That is not a debate, nor is it questioning on the item. Your questions were in line up to that point. I will not allow it. So please refrain from questioning character of any of your colleagues. We will no longer allow that. For far too long, we have endured your political attacks up here. So please be respectful, ask your questions, and we will move on. That will be the will of this council moving forward. So I will allow you to

I have not attacked. I mean, that's your opinion to anybody. I'm just putting here clear to try to understand and to be on the record that this is really just a political trying to do a damage to the vice mayor because, like, Nobody has been able to. I'm still talking. I still have the floor. So the thing is that I was looking into the numbers too. To me, it doesn't make any sense. That's why I was trying to understand. She has her everything, most of everything that has been already spent, it has been already from the councilwoman, the vice mayor's office. Then the rest is what we usually alw

Thank you very much. You put your comments on the record.

And attacking a fellow council member when you all have been saying let's work united, let's work united. This doesn't reflect that.

Thank you very much for your comments. Okay. If there's no other comments, I will go ahead and make some comments now myself.

I'm going to do follow-up comments. You can make your comments, Mayor.

Okay. I'm going to go ahead and make my comments. First of all, I do not appreciate, Councilwoman, that when I call point of order, you do not follow instruction on procedure, okay? Next time I will get to our parliamentarian so he can clarify for you. But I would recommend that you brush up on rules of procedure. Number two, thank you Councilwoman Reynoso for bringing this forward. I don't think that this has to do, first of all, with anything other than making sure that there's clarity on what this position is. As the deputy city manager said, the expense is a compounded one. Every year it c

Yes, Councilwoman Porce, Vice Mayor Porce.

You just mentioned that you and the city attorney changed the title? I did not change the title. I said I reviewed it. And you changed the title based on her recommendation?

I can answer. Through the Mayor, Council, well, Vice Mayor, no, I had the opportunity to view the final draft that was published and I did not agree with the title. Therefore, I let the Clerk and the City Attorney know of the edits that I wanted THE TITLE OF THE RESOLUTION TO CHANGE. AND JUST ANOTHER THING THAT I WANT TO ADDRESS AS WELL.

COUNCILMEN, DO YOU MIND? I STILL HAVE THE FLOOR. NO, IT'S OKAY. NO WORRIES. I JUST WANT TO GET THROUGH AND THEN I'M SURE, YOU KNOW. Okay. So I, again, we can not now, but we do have a record of the statement. So Mr. Attorney, can you confirm, because the mayor said that she sat down with you, did not agree with the title and you changed it.

That's not what I said at all. I didn't say that. I said, I saw that the title changed. That's all I said. I reviewed the first one. I reviewed the second one and then I saw the title change. Okay. That's all.

Okay. So I'm gonna reiterate the following things. The cost or at least half of the cost that comes with the changes in the vice mayor come from my budget. So unless you are restricting my budget and not anyone else's, this is completely unfair and also wrong. The cost so far that we have is about $3,000 to $4,000 and we don't have an actual figure because the city manager did not review and evaluate or provide a fiscal impact on this item. All of the items right now that we have, have already been ordered and are in our possession, in the city's possession, okay? I am really truly disappointe

Madam Councilwoman, again, apparently you did not hear when I asked Councilwoman Cabral to please refrain from any character

Can I move forward? As long as you are not, we're going to call the question. Yes.

Can I move forward? Thank you. I really think that we really have to look and make sure that our conduct here is something that is of integrity and can really demonstrate us abiding by the rules of the city, as well as the state laws, all the laws. And right now, I don't believe that this is happening here in the council. I think that's something I can absolutely say. Obviously, I'm in opposition, and I'm hoping that my council members here, especially the ones that have already had, have been vice mayors in the past, are going to take this resolution seriously and understand that this is goin

Thank you very much. Any other comments or questions? Yes. Mr. Colby.

Thank you, Mr. Boye. Did you have any comments, Councilman Reynoso? Thank you. Through the mayor, with all due respect to my colleagues, this is not going after a particular council member. This is something, again, that was brought up to my attention. And really, if it would have been any, if it would have been Councilman Cabral, if it would have been Councilman Pinedo, I would have brought up the item the same. This is my first item. This is my first time as a council member it was the opportunity that I had to bring it up and That's all the comment that I would like to make thank you throug

Thank you councilwoman All right, I think we've exhausted this item through the chair.

I feel this is the second one So I think that I have to have my opportunity to speak okay everybody else Go ahead So going again, at the end, the residents are the ones seeing what's going on and how petty really this resolution is. I repeat again, we have spent much more money on other things that are not necessary. We're talking 40 millions above the budget that it was approved. So I don't think that this will limit to help any of our residents. We're talking about the Silver Club, we're talking about the special needs, the parks, any of the different events or any other community engaged th

Okay, thank you very much for your opinion. All right, just to close, I want to put on the record the two letters that I received from residents showing taxpayer money being spent to campaign as vice mayor. For the record, I'll put those. I had them. Why are you saying I'm campaigning? I have this on the floor. I have the floor right now.

Could you not just call us out for character? I have the floor right now. Are you admitting it or no? I have the floor at this time. Do you admit it? I have the floor at this time. Keep saying that I was campaigning.

I have the floor. Thank you very much. I have the floor at this time. So just to close this item very quickly, I think that there's been a lot of Accusations made there's been a lot of things said you know it's really unfortunate How you know we're hypocritical about the way we handle things because you know? If anybody has violated the charter before it was in how we did certain selections of the city manager previously You know I was told to sue the city if I didn't like the decision that was being made from this council So you know it's really unfortunate I understand that there may be thin

Okay. Just want to make sure. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Okay, Councilwoman Reynoso, this is your item. Before we move on, I also want to just mention I'm going to be implementing the clock moving forward on our discussion items. Madam Clerk?

Through the Mayor, again, I think my memo is suffice.

Hold on, Councilwoman Reynoso. Councilwoman Porras, are you being excused? I'm being excused. Okay, thank you. Please note on the record, thank you very much.

Thank you to the mayor. I think my memo is suffice explaining this item as well. All right. Thank you very much.

Motion to approve by Council Member Pinedo. Second. Second. Second by Councilwoman Reynoso. I just want to make a quick comment on this. I appreciate this item because I think, and I'm sure you've experienced this as when you worked here and even over the past two years, that there is a need for some clarity on protocols and procedures through public affairs. And so thank you for asking and allowing me to work with the city manager's office to create those policies and procedures as a spokesperson of the city. I think it's important that there is guidelines. And so I will bring forward somethi

I haven't had the opportunity to give my comments, so if I may, before my vote.

Actually, we're already roll calling at this time. Sorry, we did ask if there was any comments. Okay. Councilwoman Cabral.

So I just hope that everybody, that when you work with the city, with the city manager, you remember that this is the voice of all five of us. But my vote is no. Mayor Farah.

All right, thank you very much. We need a motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjourn by Councilman Cabrera, second by Councilman Pineda. All in favor say aye. Aye. This meeting is adjourned. Thank you. Thank you very much.