City Council and Authorities - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to today's council meeting on July 21st, 2026. Let us go ahead and take roll.

Wonderful. At this time, I would like to invite up President Clark Francis from the Stockton Church of Jesus of Latter-day Saints.

Thank you. Next, I would like to invite Jennifer Gass up. And she is a member of my ADA roundtable. So you're on. JENNIFER GASS, AMBASSADOR, Am I here? And the mic is on. JENNIFER GASS, AMBASSADOR, OK.

Okay, moving on to item four, recognition announcements or reports. Before we get to our amazing Girl State and Disability Rights Month, I would like to invite two of Stockton's finest, Officer Boyda and Officer Saucedo to come to the podium if you're here. Thank you so much for showing up today. In case you didn't know, these are two members of the Stockton Police Department, and the other day they helped save somebody's life. Now, you might think officers do that every day, but this one I think was a little different. I haven't heard of it before, but I know Officer Boyda actually went in th

Yeah. So when our officers are out there trying to help people, We know it's their job. We all know it's their job. But I believe that they went above and beyond. Like I said, being there with the victim, comforting the victim, getting information from the victim. And I just want to show my appreciation. All of council appreciates you as well. And I just want to give you a small token of that appreciation in the form of a recognition. Special recognition is hereby presented in recognition of your professionalism, courage, and dedication to protecting the Stockton community. Your swift response

And if I can, while the mayor does that, well, she's going to get a photo and I'll say something after. If I can really quick, excuse me, officers, before you go away. I just want to say on a personal level, the individual that you did this for was one of my campaign consultants when I ran for office, and he's the current campaign consultant for two other people running. So I'm glad that the mayor recognized you because this is a week where we've seen one of our peacekeepers shot, now other people that are involved in the work that we do here at the city stabbed. And when you're attacked in th

OK. Next up, we are having a group of young women that I couldn't be prouder to recognize today. We have the California Girl State Citizen 2026 American Legion Auxiliary 16. So Mary Alt, do you want to come up and introduce these amazing young women?

Yes, thank you very much. Okay, thank you. Thank you very much.

And Araya was one of my students at STAG, and she was really outspoken there, and I know she's gonna keep that up. Next up, we have Malia.

You make Stockton very proud. So when people think about our youth, I hope that they're watching this meeting and they see that our future looks bright. So thank you. Now we are going to move on to a certificate of recognition, or excuse me, a proclamation for Disability Rights Month.

Kenneth is also a member of the roundtable, ADA roundtable. So go ahead, Kenneth.

And he took like seven pictures. One is good. Thank you. At this point, we will be moving on to item five, public comments.

I may please direct your comments up here.

Elena, your time is up. I'm sorry. Oh, my time is up? Yes, I'm sorry.

Thank you, Ms. Hernandez. Thank you. Oh, I'm done.

Thank you. We do have timers up on the screens behind us. Just for point of reference.

OK. So moving on then to the consent agenda, there are probably public comment on that. But which items would council like to pull?

Okay, and I will pull 6.3 and 6.4. Okay, and then public comment.

You need to put in a request before it's called.

Thank you. Okay, so we now will move to a public comment for the consent agenda.

OK. So moving to the items pulled by the Vice Mayor, 6.11. Do we make a motion to approve? Oh, sorry. Second. Wait. 6.11, 6.13.

OK. So we'll start with 6.1. Motion. Oh, sorry. Motion. Second. We have a motion. I have to use this new system. So.

Yeah, so. You just have to call for the roll call vote.

Yes. Motion carries 7-0. okay now going to item six point one one which is approve a motion to award professional services contract for the systematic intersection safety improvements project well if staff want to come to the podium and speak on the item then I can tell you what my objection was I mean or would you just like me to tell you what my they're right there oh you're gonna present

Why didn't hear staff present? So am I speaking? Are you speaking? Oh, okay. Sure. Well, there's no context for the audience. So I'll just say that there were items here. There were items here where there were Approve motion to award a professional service contract for the systemic intersection safety improvements. Obviously, my district wasn't on there. District five's not on there. District one's not on there. So the question was, why were they not included? Were there items in those districts that should have been included? And if not, then I have no further questions.

I'll save you time. I'm looking at the staff report on March 2nd, 2026, the city advertiser RFP for design of systemic intersection safety improvements. That's what we're talking about, correct?

and more to that that report was done really in reaction to this funding that we're receiving we could not receive this funding and unless we did that i'm not asking for staff to justify what they need to do to get funding that's not the question the question is and i think you just answered it so there was work done five years ago prior to this council to identify areas that needed to be improved that is why my district is not on the list that's correct okay that's the only question i had But we're absolutely going to be looking for future inclusions because there's a lot to be done in distri

Thank you, Mayor. And I just want to clarify in discussion with Public Works, because we get several requests for speed bumps in areas every month. And constituents feel like this is just something that our Public Works can install Right away or within that month and that's not how the process works And so I just want to advise the community that once your application is put in There does have to be requirements under that application as well as a public hearing and so in District six case there were two public hearings in my case There were no applications made during that time period So that

Thank you, Mayor. Just for, so my constituents know, first I want to thank Penny and his team for the work, and I just want to highlight in District 4, March Lane and Persissy Lane, and just in case if you don't read the legislative text, design will be completed by June 2027. What comes after the design completion?

Great. And typically, on average, how often does that happen? So by June 2027, two, three months afterwards, or it just depends?

Just for some clarification, this isn't the traffic calming, right? They're not talking speed bumps. Could you describe what this is?

Yeah, I think thanks to Councilman Padilla for kind of jogging my memory on our conversation upstairs yesterday that the prior the person that sat in the seat prior to me once they apply or once the RP goes out people have to follow through show up go to meetings. I think what's important when these meetings happen and staff have been pretty good about at least for my district, I would assume my colleagues want the same as that council members are aware that these meetings are happening that we can promote them through our channels and that we can advocate for civic participation because obvio

We have a motion and a second. Roll call. Council Member Blower.

Okay, moving on to item 6.13, adopt a resolution to authorize the Neighborhood Traffic Management Program 2024, districts 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Mayor, my comments were similar to 6.11, so it's the same thing. So I can, if there's no other questions, I'll make a motion to approve.

We have a motion and a second. The person seconded. You have to click the button. Please be patient. Ponce, did you second that?

Thank you, Mayor. Just one quick question. Thank you all for being patient with this transition of our new technology. But for 613, I just want to give clarity and I want to thank the team again. I know for the Weberstown One project has been ongoing for about a year. And I believe we've had at least three community meetings. And I just want to get clarity. So once this is already being decided on, when the folks got their ballots, can you confirm that the ballot description of what they got to the reality is accurate, has been updated, and that constituents know that it's not the cul-de-sacs

I appreciate that in the ballot results in terms of what they got is it different from what we see now today and so do the residents now know of this.

Great. Wonderful. Thank you again. I appreciate it.

Thank you. So I just want also two points Fair Oaks track to Ronald had contacted me a number of times saying you know that their their community had voted on it and approved the traffic calming Program and he was like when's it coming? I see it says fall of 2026 So are you is that like then before Christmas this weather permitting should be done. I

No, it's on the list. It's on the approved list for tonight.

I'm just reading the staff report that said fall 2026. So Don't want to tell somebody something's gonna happen and it doesn't happen. So that that's my concern And the other thing I wanted to point out is that the mayor from Lancaster, Pennsylvania? His community he wanted to do a roundabout his community wasn't supportive of it It was in an intersection that there were a number of accidents and so he said fine. We won't do that He went out and he put orange cones into a circle and people went around they didn't go through the cones now I'm not saying that would happen in Stockton necessarily

Thank you, Mayor. I'm sorry, this new system is very frustrating. I just want to say, you know, this pad isn't working. The attachments I'm seeing are not in the report. I don't see them here. I can't see this screen from here because it's not on my pad. So we need to figure out how to make this functional for us because I'm trying not to disrupt the mayor while she's talking. But then even the system, I can't click to talk to her. It's quite frustrating. I'm getting older. I can't see these letters are too small. You know the the You know what? That's all I wanted to say actually I thought I'

That'd be great Councilman Blower Thank You mayor very excited to see this item on the agenda. It's something that I've been hoping would happen sooner than later. So I'm glad we're finally here. Last December, we had residents that showed up from Swain Oaks Manor Longview that had their meeting. They expected the speed bumps to go in last summer. Venetian Gardens grouse run as well. I mean both of those Neighborhoods expected that to be done last summer. So I'm glad that I know there were some funding issues that had popped up So I'm thrilled that this is going forward. So my big question. I'

Or do you have timelines you know? Can you tell us when these are going to happen?

Okay, and I would hope that you would give priority to the people that expected it and were told it would happen a year ago That it didn't happen. So hopefully that will factor in Thank you.

So we had a motion by councilman Blower. We had a second by councilwoman Ponce We're gonna do roll call we're gonna do roll call.

Motion passes. Yep. Motion carries 7-0. Okay. Moving on then to item 6.3, adoption of a resolution waiving any privileges applicable to an email from the city attorney's office to the city council on July 30th, 2025 at approximately 3.39 Pacific time, 6.39 PM Eastern time. So I pulled this, I had similar questions that David had. I also question, does that mean that any conversations, multiple emails, or is it just the piece of paper that gets released? I mean, well, the email, which.

Okay. And then I want to say how much I appreciate this being on the agenda. We recently had an email from July 1st that clearly said attorney client and it was only sent to counsel from the city attorney. And yet many of us got calls for comment specifically on the email from our city attorney on July 1st. So if people want to release attorney-client emails, this is the proper way to do it. But with that being said, I am not in support of this. I do not want to open up Pandora's box. This is not something that was an investigation or anything of the such. And I am not in support of it. So I'm

Thank you, Mayor. With respect to the opening statement around leaked emails, I second that. I do want to go on the record to say that I don't think we should confirm whatever was or was not an email that is an actual email or not. Because as you mentioned, that is privileged. I made the motion. I actually added this to the agenda because we talked about transparency. You put on the agenda to waive the report. that I can't wait to talk about as it relates to OPTIC and OPDA. The email that's referenced here, first question, city attorney, how many council members came to meet with you to review

OK, so none of you cared to see because either you don't want to stop releasing it or you just don't intend to be transparent. And I think that this council has talked about transparency since day one. And we're out here campaigning, talking about being transparent. This email is directly related to an inquiry from the district attorney who asked us to send over under an oath signed by us under potential perjury that something happened here at City Hall. It's one email that would go with another email that this council has already waived. And if no council members went to your office to look a

I actually did see the email. And it's not that I don't want to be transparent to the public. However, I don't feel that this is information that is productive to our city. This is a topic that was in the past. We need to move on and fix things in our city. And anything in this email should be handled internally, behind the scenes. It's not for the public to be involved in. We have crime. We have homelessness. We want to fix our neighborhoods. To me, this is just information that is not making our city productive.

I did have a motion from the Vice Mayor on this item. And I have a second. Roll call vote.

No. Motion carries 4-3 to release it. Moving on then to item 6.4, adoption of a resolution waiving any privileges applicable to the Optic Budget Investigation Report. Vice Mayor and I both agreed that this should be on the agenda, that it's important it was approved. funded through taxpayer dollars. And looking at the process, I just had a couple questions. So I know we authorized section 406 of the city charter. And so if that committee authorizes it, does that item have to be agendized? If there is an investigation that wants to be called, does it have to be agendized to the audit committee?

And I know we're moving forward, not going back. I just want to say that it was under future items and committee member comments on August 4th. It was when people were, you know, Vice Chair Padilla talked about ASM Global, Trinity Parkway cleanup costs. Councilmember Blower, OPDA, Trinity Parkway, cleanup costs. And then in comes this approve a motion. And so I, you know, we're talking about process. And if we're talking about process, the item was not agendized and the notes didn't reflect that it was, or excuse me, the announcement of the. I don't understand. Committee meeting did not show t

It was under future items. It wasn't actually agendized. It was a presentation for informational only. And this was under a completely different item four. And it said future item committee member comments. And I don't think we make motions during committee member comments.

Okay. A quick question then. How many years have we worked with this firm, RPLG?

OK. And then what did we pay for this report?

Point of order. We haven't waived privilege on the price, right? And we can, which I have no problem voting for. She just voted against waiving privilege. But if you're going to say the price, I think part of that was we need to waive the privilege for that invoice.

Okay, point of order isn't you then speaking? Point of order, you have to state your point.

Okay. And then we rule on it. What's your point? Okay, my point of order. No, no, no. You got to give me the numbers. I'm going to tell you, if you slow down a little bit. My point of order is that the invoice and what we paid for this investigation. Can I give it to you or do you want to argue? No, I just want you to give me the numbers. I'm going to give it to you if you will wait a second. I'm giving it to you.

In order to move on the point, you need to say the point.

I don't know where we're going to go with this because I'm not going to leave tonight. And I'm going to give you the point of order if you want to hear it. But if you don't, then let me know. The invoice is privileged. The fee that we paid for it is privileged. Ask the city attorney. She's sitting right there. If she confirms that, we need to vote to waive that. And I'm down to do that. Let's do it.

So at our last meeting, there was a figure that was put out by the Vice Mayor, $771,000 and some change. Was that privilege?

And when will we be getting that list of costs for investigations that we've all asked for?

Okay, and then I guess my last comment, I have to go back to my old one, because I keep going back between the two. Let me get to it. So this, like any other investigation, we get results. Some of us agree with the results. Some of us don't agree with the results. Accountability is following evidence, not imaginary stories. If an investigation finds wrongdoing, we address it. Here in City Hall. If there are process failures, then we have to fix them. And when allegations are not sustained, we should be honest about that. The goal shouldn't be to win an argument from last year, from two weeks a

We need to comment. We want to talk on the items. I'm sorry.

I can still make a motion on the item to approve. since I pulled it.

Yeah, I think it's really ironic that you don't want to go backwards, but you go all the way backwards. I also think it's ironic that you try to shut down discussion and go straight to a motion on an item that involves one investigation but doesn't include all the investigations that total up to $770,580, which is the total number. absolutely talked about waiving privilege on all of it because the taxpayers paid for the circus and they should be able to get a ticket to the show. Um, I, I find it really interesting that you're saying you want to build a government for a better tomorrow. Uh, yet

OK, I have a motion and a second on this item. Roll call.

I'd like to amend that motion to say that I want to release all the investigations and all the cost of all the investigations to the public.

That's not the agenda item, though. This one says that this one applicable only to optic budget investigation.

Because you only chose one investigation. You didn't put yours on here. You didn't put Steve Colangelo's on here. You didn't put the one. You didn't put others on here. Well, no, I made an amendment to the motion. Is there a second?

Okay, administrative matters. Moving on to administrative matters. I think we've heard one already, and I didn't know if there were any other from council members.

yeah um you you spoke earlier i think is an entryway to this item that i want to add about the released emails and i'm just perplexed on us discussing a better government for tomorrow when the subject of those in emails that have been released is still here So pursuant to charter section, charter article 11, section 1102N, authorizing the mayor with advice and consent of council to appoint employees to the office of the mayor. Jason Teramoto was appointed by resolution of this council on December 9, 2025. Council policy 4.02.

So is there something you want to agendize?

I'm going to give it to you right here. Here it is. Well, council policy 4.0 to allows council to reconsider an item when six months have passed since the last meeting at which the item was voted on. So I'd like to make a motion to add it's not that position to a future agenda to the next agenda. I'll support that. Thank you.

Okay, moving then on to Oh, sorry. Councilwoman Padilla.

I do have important city business to talk about. So on our next council meeting, I would like to agendize the Appendix P ordinance for temporary shelter in Stockton. Second. And this refers to our ad hoc project that we are working on.

Okay, and it didn't come up on my screen, just letting you know. Okay, any other administrative, oh, it's not coming up on my screen. Don't know what to tell you. Councilman Villalpudo.

I'd like to bring discussion as well. I think I spoke on in the last couple of meetings about dogs in their neighborhoods. So Councilmember Enriquez, maybe you could put that on ledge to have that on that. Can I get a second on that? Second. Thank you.

I don't see any more lights except okay great okay item eight unfinished business none there item nine nine point one public hearing authorizing the vacation of a portion of East Fifth Street right away and reserving public utility easement I declare the public hearing open hello Jordan

Okay. Councilman Villapudua, you have a question? Okay, well we'll wait then. Okay, any questions for Jordan at this point? Not seeing none. A public comment?

You don't have any public comment on this item? Okay. We haven't approved it yet. We still have to do that. I declare the public hearing closed. Councilman Villalpudua.

Well, I think this is a very good project. As you know, the community, the C community, every day is not a day that they give out food for the need. There's always the first ones to respond when there's something going on in our community. This is a great project. It's going to open a lot of things, a kitchen for a lot of things, a parking lot. So I know this isn't a vice mayor's district, but I will be supporting this item. I'm going to let him have some words.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Villalpura. I just want to thank Jesse from the Sikh Temple who called me. He's a very silent giant, all of you are, and I just appreciate the work that all of you do in the community, not just for the Sikh Temple, but as Council Member Villalpura said, for everybody. I think your presence spoke a lot, so we need 20 public comments, but I'll be supporting this also, and if there's no other comments, I'll make a motion to approve. Second. Second.

I do have a comment. I remember when it was just the Gurdwara and there wasn't much else. You had the area just to the south of the property, but building of the new kitchen that you had there. And then the parade has just grown. You know, people that come out and celebrate of all walks of life come and are part of the parade. I haven't brought my broom yet, but I'm just thinking about that maybe for next year to sweep the streets as they go through Stockton. But this will kind of make it cohesive so on that day we're not walking in the dirt and that we have a nice area for that celebration, b

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Jordan. You always do a great job. So as a newly elected, I've learned that these presentations don't just pop out of nowhere. So we're getting informational training on Surplus Land Act. Why? I just wanted and felt that everybody sort of need a refresher. Okay. So I don't want to assume, but maybe it's safe to assume there'll be something that comes before us soon around our surplus land. I'm assuming.

So I have a couple questions for Jordan then. So the surplus land if we act, would that apply to Old City Hall, Weber Point, Martin Luther King Plaza, anything owned by the city?

Let me get to what I'm trying to get at. So we have, obviously, a very fragile budget that you all have figured out how to balance. And we're always talking about how to increase the tax base, how to look at creative ways of bringing in more money to our local economy. And one of those would be liquidating some of our assets. So if we had an operator that wanted to buy something because they could either build housing or not tear it down but still operate it better, Would this apply to that?

land and does the surplus land act prohibit the city from selling so let me give you an example because then again i'm learning we we sell the old city hall to become a casino not saying that that's in the plans i'm just saying just for that they're going to tear it down they're going to build something new that's one thing but arena say you're going to sell it to a operator who's going to keep it not tear it down but operate it does that make sense or does the surplus land act Apply to both scenarios.

And are there restrictions on what you can do with the land and property?

Or I can just send you several questions I have. You got it. I'm just trying to understand.

Any other questions for Jordan? Councilman Villalpudua?

I guess I'm having trouble with it because I'm pressing the speak, so I don't know. It's not showing. Okay. Just for clarity, Jordan and probably city manager, coming back, are you guys going to give us the opportunity to see what surpluses that we can use for, like, parks, community centers, economic development? Is that type of stuff? And also probably even affordable housing.

yes okay that's all i wanted to know okay thanks any comment from the public we have none okay so uh this was informational only so we will now go on to the next item on the agenda which is city managers update thank you jordan yes we do have a report Diana, okay, we noted it when you spoke.

Okay, thank you. Council comments. I have Councilwoman Padilla, but she stepped out. Oh, Council comments? Okay, you're up. Oh, you did. Oh, okay. Well, I'll go to somebody else. Okay.

I'm not going with the system. So we all know that every district is not immune to sideshows. And so after looking at the information that the San Joaquin County had put out for their pilot program, I've asked our staff to look into bringing this to Stockton. So what I've seen, it could really make a difference in our communities. With that, you know, no single problem can fix everything, but this gives us another way to discourage those that are doing sideshows, that are driving recklessly in those streets that are wider or those intersections that are wider. So anything that we can do to hel

Thank you, Mayor. And I echo what my colleague just said. And the one thing I want to start by saying at the onset of my comments tonight is that everybody should just give up trying to change who I am on social media. That is where I make lots of money. That's where I live my life. I am a I am a social person, and I want everybody listening to go to my Facebook and follow me everywhere on social media so you can stay in touch with what I have going on. First, I want to start with the public comments tonight. The woman that came before us and talked about AC Smoke Shop, I just want to ask staf

Okay, thank you. I want to shout out the Zumba ladies in Western Ranch. I am not a Zumba person, but I did get out there the other day, and I did it as much as I could. I want to invite any of you who want to go, Councilman Ponce, if you want to stop on the way to work, we can get out there and Zumba, but That group is just an amazing group of women. They're often thrown out here as if people who are just ignoring them. They don't want to go in the school. They like being outside. They know they have the option to go inside. But they will be at my national night out on August 4 at Paul Weston

Thank you Any other council members wish to speak Councilman Blower

First thing I wanted to mention, going back to July 9th, just wanted to again congratulate Deputy Chief Annabelle Morris for being recognized as Woman of the Year by Senator McNerney's office. I missed the speeches because I was running the Sajafka meeting, which started at the same time as that. But I did get in there and caught the tail end of the event. Just very, very happy for her, and I think that it's very well deserved. Other events that have happened since the last council meeting, July 11th through 12th was StocktonCon, and that was a great time for the community. I want to thank Mik

yes thank you mayor and thank you everyone for coming today even though little difficulties with our i.t stuff and you know it's a progress but we're getting better and we're going to get it so um i wouldn't know what to do but uh i just want to start up thanking our city manager public works director uh for everything you guys doing they make us us look great our my constituents look great so we appreciate you As well, big shout out to Sergeant Patrick High. Every day that he does in our community, every time he needs some cleanup, everything, he's right there with his crew. So big shout out

Yes, Councilman Enriquez, District 4, everybody over here all day. Thank you, Mayor. So I'm kind of all over the place because I had to write all my council comments on my notebook due to my iPad. But just so folks know, I usually like to be a little bit more organized. But I just want to say it's been just a very productive last couple of two weeks since our first meeting here at City Hall. But I want to start off with Lewis Park and the folks that spoke about the incidents of public safety that have been going on throughout the city and that i want to talk about just generally but particular

Perfect. And that'll be the first branch that'll be officially here at New City Hall. So congrats to the U.S. Coast Guard on Tuesday, August 4th. So join us at 9 a.m. Like many of my colleagues have shared, National Night Out will be coming. I will be, I think last year I went to about 10 or 11. This year I hope to beat my record, but I want to thank our police department. They shared all the locations. And learning from last year, I want to put it out there. For folks that put the addresses of where they're hosting, please let us know if you want us to publicly put that out there. Because the

Okay, so first I want to talk about, we had a director who had an opportunity to go to another city and I had a conversation with that director and they decided to stay. So I'm super happy about that because Lord knows we've had people talk about the movement of our employees and why are they staying? Why are they going? Well, not why they're staying, but why they're going. School, slow down. When kids are back in school, please slow down when you are in a school area. 25 miles an hour. You're getting to somewhere on the time you want, and somebody's life, there's no comparison. I was going to