City Council - Regular Meeting

And welcome to the September 15th, 2026, Salinas City Council meeting. We'll go ahead and call the meeting to order and kick it over to the city clerk.

OK, Zoom webinar participation is available for members of the public. The Zoom webinar ID and link are available on the posted agenda on the city website. And with that, will everyone please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

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

Thank you. All right, let's call the roll.

All right, with that, before we head into closed session, are there any, does anybody from the public wish to comment on the closed session items? All right, are there any Zoomers? There is not. City Council will reconvene at the rotunda at 5 p.m. Thank you.

All right. All right. The council is now reconvening. There's nothing to report out from closed session. And with that, we will do some proclamations. The first is National Hispanic Heritage Month. And who do I have? Do I have somebody here for that proclamation?

OK. Good. All right. Well, let me read the proclamation, then we'll turn it over to you. Does that sound OK? Terrific. OK. Great. Whereas National Hispanic Heritage Month is observed from September 15 through October 15, with the intent of celebrating the culture, history, and contributions of Hispanics and Latinos, and whereas the Hispanic and Latino population of the United States totals over 62 million individuals, and whereas Hispanics and Latinos have contributed and positively influenced the city of Salinas with its centuries, old traditions and diverse perspectives, and whereas the Hisp

Hang tight towards the front and then we'll do the other proclamation and then we'll all come up and we'll do photos Okay, so all right the council will be the same but we'll shuffle we'll shuffle the receivers. Okay. All right Next up stormwater awareness week and We're gonna we're Heidi's gonna come up and receive a come up and receive this. I see she's influenced the whereases. There are a lot of them. So it's Stormwater Awareness Week, September 21 through 25, 2026. Whereas stormwater that does not soak into the ground becomes runoff, that can be come polluted by automotive fluids fertiliz

Thank you. All right. Don't go far. You'll be coming back up.

Mr. Mayor, if I may, usually during Hispanic Heritage Month, we have the horses and the bull, as you know, outside. But today... because of the good work of El Grito and the Gomez family. The Gomez family and the El Grito committee right now as we speak, they're in San Jose being honored by the Consulate of Mexico for the event. And Mr. Mayor, we may, when we are taking pictures of Mr. Gomez Jr. can come with his team. I see Orlando as well and another gentleman, if they can just come and join with the picture. Thank you.

Well, that's the first photo op, so come on up.

All right. We are now open for public comment on items not on the agenda and that are in the city Of Salinas' subject matter jurisdiction, comments on consideration, public hearing items, and the consent agenda should be held until the items are reached. Public comment will be limited to two minutes. Each person who addresses the City Council during public comment shall do so in an orderly manner and shall not make any personal, slanderous, or profane remarks to any member of the City Council, City staff, or the general public. Any person who makes such remarks or who uses threatening personal

You'll be removed from the chambers with no clapping. It's not a spectator sport.

Okay, thank you. And I want that. Okay, thank you.

OK, thank you. All right, anyone on Zoom? OK. All right. OK, is it? I can't quite see. Sophia.

Thank you. All right, Eric? Eric, you're up.

All right, we're going to go ahead and close public comment. And we will then proceed to have a presentation from the Youth Council. Are they there? There they are.

Thank you. All right. Very good. All right. With that, we are going to proceed to public hearing items. And we're looking for Courtney Grossman, who I think you might win the longest title for something for the year. But it starts planned unit development dot, dot, dot, commercial retail zoning district. I'll let you fill in the blanks. Hi, Lisa.

OK. Thank you. All right. I'll start to my right. Andrew, I'll start with you. Any questions?

My only question is, you know, I know that there's been businesses over the last couple of years that have said the city of Salinas sign ordinances are more restrictive than other cities. What is our plan to address? I mean, right now we have this before us, but what's our plan to address future businesses and signing requirements?

What kind of timeframe are we looking at?

Thank you. Tony? No questions, but I do have similar issues. I know this is about one specific business, but I think we have to be more business friendly. There's been businesses that have been held for months because of these signages, and we've got to do better. Thank you.

All right, thank you. How long did it take the applicant to get through this process to get to today?

And is that kind of like the final step that's keeping the applicant from opening up or moving forward with development or construction on the site?

And it's very clear to me, based on the responses to my colleagues' questions as to what the next phases are, and that's working through the zoning code update to kind of implement some of the changes. However, we're still one to two years out And as the gentleman mentioned, the applicant applied early on this year. We're in mid to late September now. Not every business has that same financial wherewithal to kind of hold off and put off these types of improvements. So what can we do in the interim, in the short term to kind of help address some of these issues that businesses are dealing with?

As it relates to the zoning code update itself, and I may or may not be deviating from the actual content here at hand, would it be best if the council wanted to create a priority list of advancing the sign ordinance If we wanted to create that out of that into phase two, could staff provide perhaps an update at a future date in the next 60 to 90 days on, hey, this is what we had planned initially for phase two and phase three. What does the council want to be advanced or prioritized based on our priorities? Yes, I'd definitely be inclined to see that happen. Thank you. All right.

Yes, I had an opportunity to take a look at staff's report. No questions, just comments. After looking at the renditions and the argument regarding making it proportional makes sense because it did look quite small. I think residents might question because it is a fairly large building. I recall when it was Sears and it felt like that. uh that those letters that were used at that time also felt that they were proportional to the size of the building i do concur with my other council members that would like to see a future presentation on signs you know signs are also evolving i know that i've

I have no questions. I'm glad that we've been working with them. And I saw that the Planning Commission It was unanimously decided by all of them to approve, right?

Okay, thank you. Just a couple comments. I agree. I think the Planning Commission does a really good job of asking the right questions on these type of projects, well, on all projects. So I really rely on them to make recommendations to us because they know the real details. I think when businesses come and invest in Salinas, we should give them every opportunity to be successful. Signage is the least we can do is make sure that people can find what they're looking for. And I don't believe Burlington is a brand that's common in this area. I've only seen it in bigger cities, so I'm happy they'r

Thank you, Margaret. All right, anyone from the public?

Thank you. All right, anyone on Zoom? All right, we will come back. I'll look for a motion. Motion to approve. Is there a second?

All right, Patty, I'd like for any final comments.

Yeah, I think this is an excellent opportunity. We heard from our economic development director that there's going to be an opportunity to revisit the signage ordinance in a future update. So my ask for the staff is to reach out to the sign companies so we can start soliciting their feedback. And now reflecting back, I've actually encountered quite a few who have raised concerns and just shared that it affects not only small businesses, but obviously their businesses as well to be able to navigate through that process. And to Eric, I will reach out to Northridge Mall Management. I know that Et

OK, thank you. Anyone else? All right, let's go ahead and call for the question.

All right, and now we're going to hear an annual HUD consolidated performance and evaluation report. And we're looking for Orlando, and he is here. So you have the stage.

OK. Thank you, Orlando. Margaret, we'll start with you.

Thank you for the report. It's a lot of information. A lot of good news coming in terms of housing. So I like seeing those numbers. And it looks like some of them, I noticed you had a disclaimer about the numbers are changing all the time. And they've changed since this report was handed to us. So that's good. They're going in the right direction. Let's put it that way. So I'm happy to see that. So you said the city is one of the partner funders. And then I'm assuming developers have to come in with money as well as I guess I'm kind of curious, like what part, like for the Chinatown project, w

Thank you. That's really helpful. I can see where the city has to put our best foot forward in the beginning, make sure that we're investing in the project as well as others. So that makes total sense. And then when do you expect us to get an update on some of these projects? Can we get a semiannual update just to kind of see how we're tracking over the next year? Because a lot of things are happening in March of 2027. It'd be nice to get an update. see kind of where we are.

I had a question, and I should have probably asked during our briefing. Where is El Rey Motel in this? Because we're being told constantly about the homelessness. Could you tell us?

Right, not through the feds. Okay, so that's good to hear. And mine is not so much questions, I'll go back for comments, because I have a lot of comments, a lot of good things, so.

Aurelio? No comments, no questions at this time, thank you.

Okay, Tony? Thank you. Mr. Reyes, I'm going to ask you some questions that make it as layman as you can. Because I'll be honest with you, I read this report and I read it and there are a lot of numbers. My concern is how do we keep track? There's a lot of stuff here, but you just put 40 units, 36 units, 88 units. How do we keep track of, for example, go to Vista de la Terraza. Your report says housing $610,000 up to 40 units ongoing. And remember, I read this, but just tell me so the public can understand. Okay, so we're putting $610,000 and it says 40 units ongoing. What exactly does that mea

See, that part I understand. How do we keep track of the work? Did it get done? We spend this money. And you know what, and I'm going to ask with a lot of respect, because I know your department is very tedious in making sure every, like they say, all the T's are crossed and all the dots are dotted. But my God, it takes a long time. When you're dealing within your own government, sometimes why do we take so long for some of these things to, I know you mentioned developers, but why does it take so long? I'm sure there's a good answer there, but I don't understand it.

Yeah, yeah. And that's understandable. Mr. Mendez, to Ms. Councilmember DeRigo's question, and I think there's great work here, but is it possible where your staff, as they're proceeding and getting this money spent and good work is being done, where the public can start seeing, hey, there's development. We're actually seeing where these dollars are going to.

And I know I heard about the dashboard. I heard that. But I'm talking about bringing some kind of report back to this council as well.

And Mr. Mendez, and the reason I bring that, Mr. Reyes, I know we're looking forward to the Chispa St. George Apartments, which is an exciting project for seniors. You mentioned something about September 2027. Is that when it's going to start?

And Mr. Reyes, and I think where this is exciting, because as you hear the people that we work for, on a weekly basis are coming in and ask us when are we gonna start building houses, whether it's for seniors, whether it's for houses, apartments, but it seems like it's coming to fruition. Another question, Mr. Reyes, on the SORT. Again, remember I read this, but I'm really trying to understand it. SORT, supportive services, 1,190,000 plus, zero persons.

And Mr. Reyes, as your SORT team has helped these folks, do we have some kind of track record? Some of these people were housed here, others are doing this, or do we have those? Do we have that? Yes. Yeah? And I'm just going to ask Just one last question. On the housing, we have some recreation centers. And Mr. Mendez, maybe you can help us with this. Within your own government, we have recreation centers that need some work. We have the Firehouse Recreation Center right now. I believe Sherwood just got completed. I think it did. How can we make those, why is the Firehouse Recreation Center ta

Well, it is tedious, but you know what? I think the education is great because sometimes the public, the people that we serve, You know, I may look at something and say, man, why is it taking so long? But then you explained it. There's bureaucracy on top of bureaucracy here, which is needed, like you say. Or it's not needed, but you're supposed to do it. So I think it's always great to be able to explain that to the public as well. So with that said, let me, when do we cut the ribbon at the Firehouse Recreation Center?

Okay. Well, the new council will be able to celebrate. I will be there whether in person or on the Thank you.

Thank you very much for your report. Well, my question is for the city manager. And you all touched about some of the barriers to some of this housing. But there's been some claims that rent stabilization and the other rental ordinances are impacting the development of new housing, specifically affordable housing. But could you identify maybe the two or three top reasons why there's been some delays in some of these projects, or what's taking so long?

Thank you. Is there anything you think we can do as a city to help expedite it or are we kind of doing everything we can and now we're relying on federal agencies or the developers?

Right, and specifically to the El Rey project, how much additional funding do we need to move that project forward? And then kind of when will we know from our federal grant that we submitted?

So when we get that response, will the city council be brought back like a decision whether to pivot with that funding or what will we do next with the El Rey Hotel?

I guess my question is if we're not awarded the funds.

I mean, considering we still have a need, but if we don't get those funds, we need to do something.

Okay, thank you. Jose? Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the presentation. I want to start off with a quick comment and before I move into my questions. I heard from my colleagues, I think we all agree on kind of communicating this report and this information a little bit more publicly. I know the city manager made some suggestions on that there's the Housing dashboard there's updates to the housing and land use committee There's the bi-monthly update to the City Council that we all will be getting starting this this Friday moving forward But another suggestion I would have I think what we all w

Thank you for that clarification. That answered my follow-up question. Can we pull up slide number seven on the HOME program? So it's pretty clear that there's a precedent for partnerships, particularly with the county, as it relates to this. You know, I think Mr. Orlando mentioned, you know, that our funding makes applications more competitive for HUD in particular. Would we be able to partner with the county moving forward, perhaps with like some of these CHSPA projects that aren't necessarily tied to homelessness directly for RENA numbers, even though they're within city limits or on like t

And then I know some dates were mentioned, March 27, December 27, I think September 26, as for dates for submissions of applications for various tax credits and funding opportunities. How long will we wait for Chispa and Milestone Housing to acquire the funding before the city pulls the funding back and reallocates it or pivots to Plan B or C?

Okay. Thank you for that clarification. And then where within this presentation were the share center, Paul? Or is the Sheriff's Center funding separate from all this? Oh, yeah. OK, fine. Thank you. That's all my questions.

All right. Let's go ahead and go out to the public.

All right. Anyone else from the public? All right. We'll see what we have on Zoom. OK, I've seen nothing on Zoom. We will come back to council for final comments, and then we'll look for a motion. So I'll start over here to my right.

Honey? Mayor and city manager, I think to The lady's point, I think that's what the goal is to be able to create more housing so people can be housed. And I think we're going in the right direction. It takes a long time. But I think to the zeros where people trust us or don't trust us, I think what's important is that our financial reports need to reflect where all the money is going. And if people are asking it, we should be able to report out. And with that said, to Mr. Reyes, I want to thank you for this, because it's not easy. But there's a lot of people that are being helped because of ho

Just want to thank you all for the presentation once again And wanted to share with the rest of the council that the housing and land use committee did approve this item unanimously Also, just thank you all for the hard work that you all do I think the numbers reflect the you know the outcomes reflect the hard work that staff has done I've had an opportunity to do tours of the moon gate Plaza and and do some outreach myself with the SORT team and also go out in the back roads of Natividad Creek Park, walk those areas, walk through the Sheriff's Center and see how all this interconnects. So I k

no i've just just concurred it's always nice to see numbers or anticipated numbers served if there are any programs that we've implemented in the past as as an entitlement city i know that whenever you have a new program obviously we don't know we would have to project out i do i do agree with council members remember the public just wanting to know in general with any such programs if it's anticipated for going to serve households of 10 or individuals 100 or more helps put the plan in perspective. Thank you.

Thank you, Lisa. Thank you to your staff, Mr. Reyes. And I just want to say, you know, I remember mr infante coming and talking to us about the rehab in those apartments and the other day when i went to cesar chavez park you can see you can see it looks beautiful those apartments were going down like this they were sloping and now with the rehab it looks Beautiful. Then they did a paint job. The asphalt, the driveway has been revitalized. They look so beautiful now from the park. And of course, the residents. They're so happy, and it's rehab. So we could see where the money has gone to. And al

I just want to end with, I just encourage the people that spoke out today about transparency and numbers and I appreciate you being here and caring enough to ask those questions and holding us accountable and that you look at the dashboard if that's something that you're interested in and really drilling down at the numbers and if you have problem accessing or you don't know how to utilize it, there's city staff here that can help you. So that's a tool that we have been insisting on for some time to really just get, like you said, public-facing, and I think those are great tools for the public

Thank you. All right, Patty, go ahead and call for the question. There's a motion and a second.

Okay, very good. All right, thank you. All right, we will now proceed to the consent agenda. Matters listed under the consent agenda may be enacted by one motion unless a member of the council requests a separate vote or discussion. Members of the public may comment on the consent agenda items collectively during their public comment. Would any council member like any item pulled? No. All right.

second okay well noted noted in interim step uh would any would anyone from uh okay so we'll now take public item public comment on the consent agenda good evening community once again mayor i'd like to have those two minutes per item it'd be great to have

Thank you. All right, anyone on Zoom? Nobody on Zoom. None on Zoom. We will come back. There was a motion to approve and a second. Patty, go ahead and call for the question.

Motion passes. Thank you. All right. We will take a report from the City Manager.

Yes, thank you, Mayor. For those folks that are not aware, I'm the chair of the Rodeo Oversight Committee, and I needed to make a report. Along with that are my colleagues, Council Member De La Rosa and Council Member Barajas are on the Rodeo Subcommittee. And the reason I need to read it, because if I'm going to be judged, I want to be judged correctly on every word that I say. So this is not a script, I just wanted to make sure I take care of myself. Some of you may recall a recent video showing what appeared to be a bull rider being injured in a bull by the name of Maximo, mistreated, was m

Well, since you have been speaking, why don't you go ahead and we'll start with you for your council reports. Thank you. I want to thank El Grito, volunteers, the city, the police department, firefighters. Man, it was an awesome event. I know all the council was there. It was a fantastic event. Somebody, I don't know who gets up on the roof, maybe at a Taco Bell or something and they start counting. They said we had about 30,000 plus. I don't know how they do that, but that's what I heard. And Mr. Mendez, you have an awesome leader Lizbeth Garcia and her team, along with Alisal High School stu

Thank you. I want to bring forward a request from some Northridge Drive residents. And to be honest, I can understand their frustration. There's a red zone that they've been requesting to get painted for like five years. It's ridiculous, to be honest. And, you know, so much that they basically have lost faith in the city to be able to take care of some of this low hanging fruit. So I talked to Councilmember De La Rosa a little bit ago, and so I'm going to be inviting the mayor and Councilmember De La Rosa to the Northridge area neighborhood to talk to residents and see how we can come up with

I'm going to start off by sharing that I'm a little bit frustrated and disappointed that we canceled the Rodeo Oversight Committee meeting because the fact of the matter was although the reason for calling for the meeting was initiated by the bull incident, there's still a lot more work to be done with the Rodeo Oversight Committee. I remember very clearly when we made that request, we requested to oversee the financials, specifically the 26 financials. And if they didn't have 26 financials, the 25 financials. Starting with that. Second item was overseeing the leases and all the issues, like w

to oversee all the other issues that are within the purview of the road oversight committee i i don't disagree with that i'm going to look and i and i appreciate what you're saying and and i'm all for that but i want to look to uh the city manager the city attorney and ms lundquist which is in charge of compiling the information and yeah if uh we can speak to them and we can we can put something together like that yeah thank you thank you

All right. Next one is, I also have a brief statement to share, and I will also be looking at my laptop just so I can cross my teeth, dot my I's. At the last council meeting, we had an item where I was made the vote by proxy for the City of Salinas at the League of Cities Conference that we're having next week. And the item is on the housing, on a housing issue. So I wanted to share that the League of California Cities 2026 policy resolution submitted by the City of Murrieta and is supported by multiple cities calls for the creation of a statewide working group to explore a state constitutiona

right thank you all right aurelio uh yes i have a couple of things i'll try to um get through this as quickly as possible i had the opportunity to attend the agrito festival with fellow council members uh just want to also make sure that we acknowledge and thank uh council um perez rodriguez and our very own honorary council uh blanca sarasua and uh i really enjoyed having the opportunity to meet donald and his son NOT AN EASY EVENT TO PUT TOGETHER AND JUST WANT TO THANK ALL THE EVENT ORGANIZERS. GOT THERE A LITTLE BIT EARLY AND MEET WITH SOME OF THE VENDORS THAT WERE OUT IN FULL FORCE. ALSO N

on that tone on the flock cameras i'm i'm going to ask that we get a report from our police department on the flock cameras so that the community really so that we understand

My next thing is, yeah, a lot of things are happening. First, I want to give kudos to El Grito Committee, and I want to thank the volunteers. I want to thank the staff. I want to thank all the community that came out. It was a wonderful event. Also, this Saturday on the 19th, council members mentioned it already, but I want to give kudos to the Relay for Life, all the volunteers, you know, Nancy Valdez who works really, really hard in her committees and the city the city staff thank you Alexis Patty because you put a lot of energy and into the relay for life you I know you have baskets you you

OK, thank you, Mr. Mayor. As you can see, there are lots of events happening in our community. And people say there's nothing to do. They're crazy. Because if you can see from all of us that have been to events for the last two weeks, we're tired. There's a lot going on. But it's real positive, a lot of family-friendly events. One that was not mentioned was the first he had their annual event, and as you know, the city's a partner in that venture, and it's great. They had probably 40 or 50 kids out there greeting everybody with pom-poms and really representing the organization very well, very

OK. All right. Just a couple of things. Two deliberately, well, actually all three will be a little repetitive. Just I want to call out the Railroad Museum. And I appreciate the fact they came and visited council. It's really a fun little spot. And they get really excited when folks come visit them. And it means a lot to them what people do. And like I say, It's actually really fun to spend some time there, so I want to recognize them. The thing that I'm always struck by our Relay for Life, several years ago we had two big departures, or two serial changes, material changes, One of the major a