City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. We're going to go ahead and call this meeting to order for the Visayas City Council session. We are going to start off by allowing citizens to comment on issues within jurisdiction of the Visayas City Council and items listed on the closed session agenda. The council asks that you keep your comments concise and positive. Creative criticism presented with the perfect courtesy is welcome. The city does not tolerate disruptive behavior in our meetings. This council meeting is considered a limited public forum, which means that the council can regulate the time, place, and manner of

Okay. Bill, do you have any closed item sessions you'd like to speak on? No. No closed item. Okay. So then you can come back at 7 o'clock. Okay. Very good. City Clerk, is there anyone online who is here to speak?

Okay, very good. So we will go ahead and adjourn this meeting and we will go into closed session. So we will see everyone back at seven o'clock. Welcome to the Visayas City Council meeting. We're going to go ahead and call this meeting to order. We're excited to have so many people in the room today, and we love all the energy that the players are bringing, so we're excited to be able to recognize them today. So we're going to go ahead and start our meeting off with our Pledge of Allegiance, led by Council Member Puchigian, and after that, we ask you to stay standing so we can have a Pledge of

Please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you, Pastor Archer. We appreciate your invocation tonight. All right, so we're going to start off first by recognizing our Cal Ripken Blue All-Stars 11 and under and our Cal Ripken Blue All-Stars 12 and under. So we are excited to be able to recognize these youth today. What we'll do is we will introduce the coaches, and then we will have the coaches read off all the players, and then we'll have the players come up, shake our hands, and then they'll stay up here. We'll take a photo. Parents, feel free to stand up, take photos. This is your guys' time to honor your kids. But we just want

The speech is mandatory, so you've got to say something.

And then when they come up, they can stay up here too. We'll take a picture. All right, awesome.

I have a – All right, boys, as in say your name, come on, walk in, and then – Yeah, this is my coach, Derek Miller, and then Ricky Rios.

All right, so next we're going to be recognizing the 12 and under Visalia Blue All-Stars, our 2026 Kyle Ripken Regional Champs. Their head coach is Kyle Newton, and then their coaches are Clay, Lucas, Isaac, and Matt Maxson, who is here tonight. So we'll have the coaches come on up first.

All right. Well, it's always exciting. As you know, Visey's got a strong history in baseball. And we've actually won quite a few World Series. So it's exciting to see two more teams going off to represent our community. Hopefully they'll be successful and bring home some championships. So congratulations and best of luck to them. So we'll go ahead and move on to the public comment portion of our meeting. Citizens are now invited to comment on issues within the jurisdiction of the Visayas City Council and items listed on the agenda. The council asks that you keep your comments concise and posit

Hey, Sam. Sam. I don't believe you're going to retire in five years. I figure you're just going to keep working nonstop continuously.

Okay, nobody else from this room is wanting to speak at this time? City Clerk, do we have anyone online wishing to speak?

Okay, so if that's the case, we'll go ahead and close public comments. And we'll be skipping items of interest and going on to the consent calendar. Consent calendar items are considered routine and will be enacted in one motion. This is a time for members of the public to provide public comments on an item on the consent calendar. Comments will not be taken individually by a public if an item is pulled by a council member. Each speaker is allowed up to three minutes and a timer will notify you when your time is expired. Please begin your comments by stating and spelling your name and providin

Okay, thank you. So we will, Council Member Nelson, do you have any items you'd like to pull? Item number three. Item number three. Council Member Pichigian, any items you'd like to pull? All right, Council Member Soto, any items you'd like to pull? No items, thank you. Thank you. And Vice Mayor Nguyen, any items you'd like to pull?

All right, if that's the case, I'll entertain a motion for the remainder. Make a motion to accept a balance of the consent calendar as presented. I'll second. We have first and second. All those in favor, please vote. The remainder of the consent calendar passes with a 5-0 vote. Thank you very much. At this time, we'll go on to item number three in the consent calendar, which is a ward contract for Fire Station 54 parking lot rehabilitation project. Councilman, would you like a report or do you have a specific question on that that you'd like answered?

I mean, I'm in favor of the necessary work. I think what caught my attention is that the first scope of doing the parking lot and the cost analysis was done in 2022. Since that time, the scope has changed on the work that's going to be done. And then you have an increase in cost of the project. My question would be, why didn't we update, say, in 2024 or update in 2025? Because now we have to pull the money out of the general fund. I'm trying to figure out, was the ball dropped? which is possible, but there is a big gap between, especially in the change of the scope of the project, and as soon

I appreciate the comments, and like I said, I'm in favor of it, and I understand the need to be concrete versus asphalt. It's amazing to me they even did asphalt at that time. And I appreciate the aspect of we kind of put it on the staff on 2022 to 23, I guess, and 24. It just amazes me. We have quality people in the Department of Engineering. And everybody knows once you change the scope of a project, the cost of the project goes up, even if it's in current time. And I think what bothers me is why this wasn't caught in a four-year period to say, hey, we're changing the scope. We got a new bid

Perfect, thank you. Any other questions for staff? Any other comments? I'll entertain a motion.

I move to authorize the city manager to execute a construction contract with Toasted Asphalt for RFB 25-26-44 for parking lot rehabilitation at Fire Station 54 in the amount of $176,479.84 and authorize the appropriation of $115,000 from the general fund. I'll second. First and second. All those in favor, please vote.

Item passes 5-0. Thank you very much. Next, we're going to regular items and public hearings. Comments related to regular items and public hearing items are limited to three minutes per speaker for a maximum of 30 minutes per item. The mayor may reasonably limit or extend public comment periods to preserve the council's interest in conducting an efficient, orderly meeting. Item number one is a shopping cart ordinance update. Staff report, please.

Thank you. So Jeff, was that your first public report for city council? You did a wonderful job. Thank you very much. You did a great job, so I appreciate your help tonight. So we'll start off with questions or comments by council. Council Member Soto, any questions or comments?

One question, thank you for the report. Just curious, does the sweep team ever pick up carts? They are.

Thank you. Thank you for the report. Councilman Pucci again.

Yeah, great report. You know, just for public information, I asked this question when I met with code enforcement. And I said, isn't taking a shopping cart a crime? And they said, well, it has to be reported as a crime. Because if it's not reported, it's not a crime when someone takes a shopping cart. Because I would think you're walking out with a $1,000 car, however much it is, that should be considered a crime. It's not a crime until the store actually says, hey, they stole that and has to report it. So public knowledge, I didn't know that. I thought that was good information, passed it out

Great report, and probably when you look at it, it's probably way overdue to really look at this ordinance. I mean, the shopping cart situation has grown in numbers. And you guys do a great job in keeping the blight out of the city, but I think we're overdue in making this change, and I'm all in favor of it. So thank you. Thank you.

Thank you again. Code enforcement, you come through as usual to help beautify our city, picking up trash, picking up carts. It's going to be a better-looking, cleaner city, and I think that just, as Bill says, clean is less mean. So I appreciate all your hard work.

absolutely thank you um our city continually demands that we keep our city beautiful and one of the big complaints i think we get is shopping carts and so you know that's one of the one of the reasons why we started our sweep team a year and a half ago was to make sure that our streets were keeping uh beautiful whether it's just trash shopping carts or whatever and so And it kind of puts us in a weird position because at the end of the day, these stores are victims because someone's taking their property, but then they're also not reporting it. So they're also part of the problem. And then obv

A quick question, I know we said new businesses, but what happens if an existing business pulls a permit for remodel with this kick in?

All right, let's go ahead and open this up to the public. Anybody from the public wishing to speak on this item, please come forward to the podium. And seeing no one coming up, do we have anyone online? Nobody online, fantastic. With that being said, we'll go ahead and entertain any further discussion or a motion.

I move to, I'm sorry, I'm on the wrong page. I move to approve the motion as presented in the staff report.

Thank you, first and second. All those in favor, please vote. And the item moves forward with a five to zero vote. Thank you very much. Next, we'll go on to item number two, which is a review, review the Visayas Police Department AB481 annual report and adoption of resolution number 2026-53. Staff report, please.

Thank you very much. Councillor Nelson, any questions or comments?

No, very thorough report. And I appreciate the transparency that the department is showing towards the public and the use of the different equipment. So I really appreciate that. So thank you. Council Member Poochigan?

Yeah, great report. Quick question, this is all public knowledge, so at any time anyone requests, you have this information available at any point throughout the year, correct?

Yeah, like, great report. It just upsets me that the state puts these kind of requirements on you guys. You know, we have this information out there for anybody that wants it throughout the year, and the fact that the state continues to make you guys jump through hoops for this, it upsets me, but I'll be fully supportive of it because it's the law and I have to do it today. So, thank you.

Thank you for the report and the transparency.

Yeah, we appreciate it. I mean, chemical agents and direct impact munitions. I mean, that's a really scary way to say less than lethal, you know, which is what we want. So we appreciate what you guys do. You guys are obviously a great asset to our community, and we appreciate the report. So we'll go ahead and open this up to the public. Anyone wishing to speak on this item, come forward and state your name and city of residence.

Thank you. Anybody else from the public wishing to speak? Okay, seeing none in this room. City Clerk, do we have anyone online?

Thank you. I'll go ahead and entertain a motion at this time.

I move to adopt resolution 2026-53, a resolution renewing ordinance number 2022-09, which authorizes the department's military equipment use policy.

We have a first and a second. All those in favor, please vote. Item passes 5-0. Thank you very much. All right, next we'll go on to our closed session reports. City Attorney, anything to report?

Wonderful, thank you. At this time, we'll go ahead and adjourn our meeting, and we welcome everyone to come back to our next meeting, which will be Monday, August 17th, 2026. Thank you very much.