City Council and Authorities - Regular Meeting

Okay, we are ready to go back into open session. It is 1.27, and we are at public comment.

you have documents. I will be happy to see those documents.

I'm trying to get you help right now. Mr. Teramoto will take you outside. Please. Right here. He's right behind you.

And I need help. Me and my kids need to be able to thrive in this violent city.

Okay, we are moving on then to the consent agenda. Are there any items that council would like to call? Okay, so we'll move to public. Were there any items the public chose?

Catherine, what were the, because she spoke about a different item than 6.1.

So we can have you speak when that one comes up. That is agenda item 9.3. That's agenda item 9.3. So we'll call you back up for that item.

Okay, bringing it back to council, you've got to press your little button up here if you want to speak. I see people in there. Councilwoman Padilla.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to make a comment with regards to 6.5 and 6.6. I just wanted to take a moment to thank our firefighters and our fire management team for the work that they do every day. You know, this isn't an easy profession and they respond to people's worst days in their lives. and they put themselves in harm's way and i know most recently we've had some really bad fires here in our city and thankfully no one was you know injured or affected by those fires so i really thank them for serving our community and the professionalism and the compassion that they give to our reside

I was looking for a motion to approve because no items were pulled by council, but there were items pulled by members of the public.

We have a motion from Blower and a second from Vice Mayor. Council, we will do a roll call vote. So City Clerk.

Yes. Consent is approved 7-0. Okay, moving on then to administrative matters, bringing that to council if there are items. Vice Mayor, your light's on. Okay, so seeing none, we'll move on to item 9.1. It's a public hearing to accept the Economic Development Subsidy 2025 Annual Report. I declare the public hearing open.

Are there any questions for Ms. Ocasio? Any public comment?

So I have a couple comments on that But I don't have questions right now, so I'll wait till we close the public hearing But if there is somebody that has a question Thank you mayor so on slide 5 where it talks about cess recipients required to hire at least 50% stock to resident How are we tracking that and can council get a report?

I declare the public hearing closed. And what I just wanted to comment is we talk a lot about PFFs, and PFFs are for the city as a whole. When these projects come in, though, developers have to pay their way. So there's something called the CFD. So that's a financing district that is used to pay for the sidewalks, pay for the infrastructure in that particular area. It might be a park, building of a park. It might be building of a fire station. City, of course, has to pay for the personnel of that fire station or the upkeep of that park, but it does go to that. And with our 60-40 split on new d

Yes Yes Wonderful moving on to item 9.2 request for approval of ordinances for pre zoning and a development agreement for a proposed 2241 unit residential development At Northwest Lane as well as East Murata Lane Consideration of a request for an appeal of the Planning Commission decision and a resolution authorizing the filing of an annexation application with LAFCO I declare the public hearing open

staff and the applicants team are available to answer any questions thank you with that in terms of disclosures I do want to let it be known that I met with my cake Trevor Smith and Matt Arnaz a week ago or so and any other council members council member Enrique

Okay, are there any remaining questions for counsel of anybody before I close the public hearing? I do have a question, so Mr. Smith, can you come up please? since you're managing the project. So there have been, there was a comment, Mary Elizabeth talked about being EV ready. I know some projects have it as an option. I just am curious as to what the development, how they're looking at making sure that people have chargers if they need it, if the infrastructure will already be there for them.

I mean, they'll be able to, when they're purchasing a home, be able to say, I want A, B, C, or D? Okay, great. Thank you. I will close the public hearing and bring it back. I think, Vice Mayor, you pressed first.

Councilwoman Padilla. Thank you, Mayor. And as a council member for representing this district, you know, we see Stockton growing because people see our opportunities here. We have great neighborhoods. We have great parks. We have great schools. And, you know, we're in a location that makes us attractive to families looking to put their roots down here. You know, I need to acknowledge that I constantly hear from my residents and also hear today is the concerns about traffic. You know, those concerns are real and I share them and I've also expressed them to the developers when I met with them.

Yes, thank you, Mayor. I also agree with my colleagues. What really got me with this project, and if you all know me, I'm really big when it comes to parks. Stockton has over 60 different parks in different areas. All of our districts are all different. There's going to be four more coming. I saw the project. I agree with Council Member Padilla about hopefully they can bring some water to it. but it's going to bring jobs it's going to create more more tax to for us in our city so this is a big big thing for stockton i don't know if anyone has anything else to say i want to make a motion to app

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to thank everyone for this presentation, all the information. I'll echo what many of my colleagues have shared so far. I know one of the things for me that I appreciate about this project was first I asked questions about the water infrastructure and all my questions were answered. So that was the main focus that I had in terms of how it's going to be laid out in terms of the three developers uniting together for this. So seeing the visuals was really helpful for me. Also appreciating the green space. So I think those so that was another component to it I'm not to

Okay, so we have a motion and a second. Roll call? Second. Yeah, okay.

Wonderful. Okay, moving on to agenda item 9.3, public hearing to approve a resolution overruling protest adopting the delinquent utility service assessment report and directing the assessments be placed on the San Joaquin County treasurer tax collector's tax roll. I declare the public hearing open.

What if they would like to set up a payment plan? I

Okay, but they have to see you before July 31st? Yes. Okay, thank you.

I know there's public comment because I see Steve Haram. Well, no, I don't, but he's behind the column. So public comment.

No. Do we have any other public comment or are we done? We do not. Okay. Go ahead, Vice Mayor. Second. We have a motion by Vice Mayor, second by Councilwoman Padilla. Roll call.

Well, I would say we have Vanessa and Steve here, so please have a conversation with them before they leave, because they're the ones that are decision makers of waste management.

And I forgot I closed the public hearing.

Okay, so we're going to take a quick break. It is 3.49. Please be back by 4.10. 4.10. Is that okay with everybody? 4.10. Okay, we will now bring our meeting back to order. Apologies, it's 4.14. The next item on the agenda, 10.1, is San Joaquin Regional Transit District Update. I know we received something like right before the meeting.

Okay, so I know we have a meeting on July, I wanna say 21st, and then we have August 18th, and then September, first or second I mean I'm just throwing out all of our council dates so if there's one that he feels can fit would love to have him come or somebody from RTD come and do a presentation I know he has a I don't know if it's an interim or a permanent CFO because they presented to cog I know Two of my colleagues were at COG when they both presented, and if we could have them come, that would be fabulous.

Okay. Thank you. Oh, there's a question. Florence. What's up? Oh.

Okay, understood. Okay, moving on then to item 10.2, community development department development process overview and process enhancements. Looking forward to it.

Yeah, the item is continued to a date not certain.

Depending on the application type the municipal code dictates the level of approval that is required for a project Once an approval occurs a 10-day appeal period starts and once that appeal period is exhausted the permit is then issued Okay, so before you go to the next slide so that process How what is the average time for that for that process to go from application submittal to the 10-day appeal

okay so on this part I think this is something you know most of us have heard about and I know you go into more detail on that review do you have are you fully staffed right now

So I'm just thinking, you know, for continuity, I know oftentimes people have said it's almost like the goal line keeps moving or it's. abc you fix abc but somebody else then gets their hands on it and they want xyz so if you're fully staffed and if it's if if it's the ability is there to have one person try to you know see a project all the way through and i know you guys do a great job of anybody that wants to do something getting all the people around the table you know from fire prevention from building you know engineers all that kind of stuff from the city's point of view but you know th

I think specifically about opportunity zones and the fact that Stockton had this designation, we're applying again for that designation, and what I've been told by investors is they need things to move quicker Because they have to get their money their investment in Within 60 days now. I'm not saying we're doing it outside or inside of that I'm just saying those are the concerns that I get from people who want to come into this city and do business Understood.

Now, I know there's more slides. AI, is there opportunities for, I mean, you still need humans, of course, to assist with this, but are they able to do like a quick, you know, to make sure all the documents are there, to look at some of the less, Well, I shouldn't say less important. Everything's important. But I think you understand what I'm saying. Are they able to go through some of the nuances that are tedious but still need to get done?

I would think maybe we could be like kind of a guinea pig on a project or two and we get the software for free. I don't know. I'm just throwing that out there as a possibility for us to help them figure out the kinks and we get something in return for that.

going back to the digital access right is that active right now which part yes so per my previous slide we have 15 building permit application types that can be submitted online through our SELA customer portal Okay. And all this stuff, is it bilingual as well?

Yeah, I agree with the mayor as well. I get contractors as well always saying that these permits are taking longer than it is. I've seen the change from 2018 to 2020. a dramatic impact as you guys have upgraded your programs. So, for example, if someone is open to visit, are there some type of video on how the process, how someone can get a permit? Because sometimes these people don't know how to do it exactly.

Okay. And then my last question. Do we subcontract anything out there to our permits?

Okay. All right. No further questions, Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor. I know you touched on development and businesses, but could you briefly explain what kind of permit is allowed or needed for businesses operating out of your home? Because I have several in my district, and It's more so the neighbors that are being affected by these businesses within a residential area Sure, so home-based businesses require a home occupation permit from planning.

So if we do identify a business being out of the home, would we just contact code enforcement and that's how it goes through the process?

Any other questions from Council Informational, thank you so much.

Okay, thank you moving on to item 10.3 submittal of the Stockton Opportunity Zones 2.0 prioritization list through the California State Governor Good afternoon mayor and council Jordan Peterson economic development department

Jordan, we have some questions. Go ahead, Vice Mayor.

on that lot there or, you know, something going on at the church there. And then there's another area that I thought the University of the Pacific owns. But that's what I'm thinking of, those two huge fields.

Any questions before we go to public comment? Do you have a question? Okay, public comment. Mary Elizabeth, please.

We have a motion and a second by three people. Can we do roll call?

Okay, thank you. moving on to the next item 10.4 discussion on council initiated investigations and associated costs I know at our April 28th meeting I had requested that we get whatever information we have for the conclusion of the you know the fiscal year And I know that we got the grand jury report. And I think the audit committee also had a report done that was given to them, but it wasn't given to the full council. And so I wanted to know where we're at with the council-initiated investigations. If they've been concluded, if there's still an outlying, is there a cost? I know that there is

Okay, so I had an opportunity just to briefly look at the full report that was 3,485 pages. I know that it will have to be up to this council whether or not they want to waive privilege. I know we did that for the previous one. It will be the decision of this council. I always recommend people actually look at those They necessarily waive privilege, but I think we've kind of set a precedent for that. Whether or not this council wants to stay in that same vein is up to them. But is that something people want? I mean, do people want a – oh, sorry, Vice Mayor. Stop.

And I would agree with that as well. Councilwoman Padilla.

I just want to clarify that the investigation that we're asking of two-way privilege is the optic.

So would that mean then Taryn, because Taryn was part of that, would Taryn be able to disseminate the findings in that investigation? okay okay um so is that a motion or no yeah i make a motion can we do that and because it's not agendized we have to agendize it yeah

Second. Yes, everybody. Yeah, we don't even have to do a roll call. We've got two. So we're good. And I would have put it on that.

Mayor, are we talking about all investigations?

Well, we're doing them one at a time. So we just did the executive summary confidential investigation for OPTIC that was initiated by the audit committee. Okay. Do you have another comment on that item?

I have not been able to get my hands on the full report because obviously there would be a lot of redaction to that. I have made a request for it. I don't know if anybody else up here on council has made a request to get that full report. But I will tell you that... as soon as i got it i started going through it and as you know yeah i have yellow i have red i have blue i have all kinds of colors in here and i will tell you because of the scrutiny of the 23-24 grand jury report. I made a commitment that I was gonna go through this line by line, item by item, recommendation by recommendation, an

and I have copies for everybody I just did not bring them down I thought they were in my folder I would have given them to you oh yeah so I apologize for not getting you guys the copies and then are there any more comments on the grand jury report Okay, and then the last thing on there, and I think the Vice Mayor already alluded to it, is the letter from the Assistant District Attorney and... their conclusion we have not heard from the attorney general we have not heard from the state controller and we did hear from the grand jury so there's still two groups that are that are outstanding and w

No worries. Thank you, Mayor. And yeah, I just want to just reiterate just in terms of when I first read the grand jury report, I was actually happy that we finally got it because I kept asking myself every month, when are we going to get it? When are we going to get it? And I remember Thinking back early last summer, about a year ago, I think it was maybe late May, early June, probably July, but I remember when, what I shared about what I wanted taken to the grand jury, and having gone through, I think, two interviews, I think one lasted three hours, where I was being asked questions left and

Okay, it is 525. We're bringing council back. We are on item 10.4. Are you still talking? Yes. Okay. Councilman Enriquez.

Yes. So I appreciate the tension that there's a... Council members are protected, but I want to just continue with just kind of giving just the general thoughts of why this is on the agenda. So I appreciate you, city attorney, just for us to be extra cautious. But what I was going to say was just in terms of the overall process from last year and looking at it and reading it thoroughly page by page and the recommendations. And one of the things that, you know, for those that don't go to ledge, and I know I wanted to give context, was people kept asking about recommendations from the first gran

Yes, I just had a question for the city attorney. Oh, sorry. yeah I just had a question for the city attorney on the part for the investigations right what Steve Colangelo charge

Former CD. I just wanted to know if there was any charges at all on him. Okay. And then what was the cost on that investigation?

No, on his. I'm just asking the question. Yeah, no problem. If you knew how much that cost.

No, I don't We're gonna get right on it Looking through this.

on this and I'm glad to see a plan being in place and the one thing I really liked to see was the grand jury response matrix. So I like that idea of following each of the recommendations and having it very clear. I feel like when the report came out in 23 we kind of took a while to respond to it and I know some of the items from that are are still hanging out there. I'm glad to hear Ledge is going to take a shot at some of those things, but I'd love to see those items incorporated into the matrix as well from the 23 report. I think that's a good idea so we can see which ones, because I know so

Yeah, so that will be presented then at the next meeting. Because I think the public would like to know, instead of just one big number, what is assigned to each one of those. So I'm glad to hear that. So that is. Okay, good.

I don't want to go back tit for tat on everything. We've said this is a new chapter for this city. I turned the page. do think it's important that people realize you know that the information that we got back again don't necessarily agree with everything in it there are nuances that were left out an interpretation that was made for things in terms of you know our commissioners you know they sign an oath and the oath is very clear so people want to get up here and say what they want that is their First Amendment right but they also represent you as a council member or me or any of us as members

So I agree with that statement, especially the last one. And again, as we move forward, again, do not want to go tit for tat. We can either move forward or not. I have said I'm open to mediation. I have stayed very steadfast in trying my vision and hope and prayers for this council. I have groups that pray all over this city for this council, as well as the people of this city. And as we move forward, that's why some of the things in our council policies and our charter that do relate to dealing with things behind closed doors, yes, if you want that out there, we can put it out there, but agai

You needed to put it in before the item was introduced. I'm sorry. Yeah, it's all electronic now. Okay, so City Manager's Update.

So city manager, do you want to share anything?

Wonderful. Great. Moving on then to item 12, council comments. Councilman Blower.

Thank you, Mayor. First of all, I just want to talk about the Fourth of July. I thought the parade was a lot of fun. We had a fair amount of us were involved in that. And I just want to thank the Karl Ross Post for putting that on. I thought, you know, every year it seems like the crowd gets a little bigger. So hopefully that will continue to be the trend. And then that night, I got to see the fireworks downtown and it was one of the most impressive fireworks displays I've ever seen from the city. It just kept going on and on and you kept thinking you saw the grand finale and then something be

Yes, thank you, Mayor. First of all, I want to thank everyone coming out today. I want to thank our city manager and our public works for everything you guys are doing. It was a past great 4th of July weekend. The day before 4th of July weekend, obviously, there was a big fire that occurred in my district, and I just wanted to thank our firefighters for just getting on top of it and controlling that fire before it even got worse. I approached the area. I talked to the mayor about it. And I just want to thank our firefighters. And they deserve everything that they get as well as PD. So I just w

Thank you, Mayor. Councilmember Villaputa mentioned that we have over 60 parks. city and most of those parks or there's areas that have pools well district one does not have a city public pool so when ursula meyer community center opened i actually pressured ardry of csd really hard um to get a j uh with the Lodi Unified School District because McNair High School is just right behind the community center, and they have an awesome Olympic-sized pool. And every time I saw her, I was like, are you on that pool? Are you on that pool? Well, she followed through. And we now have an MOU with Lodi Uni

Great, thank you Mayor. So like many of my colleagues have shared, I'm very excited that we're here at New City Hall and the fact that I made a comment about being on the dais and just what an honor it is to represent District 4 and to be in these new chambers. It means a lot and I know it's the same sentiment that my colleagues have to be able to be here and represent their constituents. There's a new energy here. I felt it even when I first came a couple weeks ago when staff was here. Every time I saw staff, I just felt I saw more smiles. And I said, you know, it just feels lighter. There's

You had to get to the end. Okay, so a couple of things. On June 28th, it was a Sunday, I saw no less than 500 young people because there was the Taban's 38th annual karate event. competition at St. Mary's High School. Then from there, I went over to Stagg High School, where we had Jeremiah Farms, who plays football for the New England Patriots. He had a football camp from the littles to the high schools. The place was packed. They did haircuts. They gave out food. They gave out boxes of food. Bread of Life was there handing out food. And it was great, because this is somebody who has been very

Second, okay all those in favor say aye Motion adjourned Okay, bringing council back from closed session. City Attorney, do we have anything to report out? No reportable action. Okay, 730, do I have a motion to adjourn? Motion. All those in favor say aye. Aye. We are adjourned.