City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone, and welcome to the regular mean of the Madera Council on special mean of the Madera City Council as a ground water sustainability agency. Today is Wednesday, April 5th, 2026 and I call this mean to order at 6 PM city clerk Gonzalez.

Thank you for that. And just to note that Council Member Mejia and Evans are ill this evening and will not be attending for that reasons. If you could please stand for the invocation given by Pastor Sammy Neely and remain standing for the flag salute by Mayor Pro Tem Zachariah.

I see none. I opened up for public comment. Anyone online or on Zoom? We have none, Mayor. I will close public comment at this time and come to my colleagues for a motion and a second. Second. I have a motion and second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you for that. Next item.

Good evening everyone. Thank you for being here this evening. I'm here joined by Mayor Pro Tim Zachariah. We have several people here in our audience that we want to acknowledge for their grateful and appreciation for generosity for our 4th of July celebration that was held at the Madeira District Fairgrounds. Our fireworks spectacular could not happen without your help and support, and your commitment to this community is sincerely appreciated. If we could call Mid-Valley Disposal, Joe Kopokoff, to come on up first. And then we have Links Ranch. Do we have, Mr. Fagundes is going to be accepti

And then I have next, we have supervisor, county supervisor from Fresno, Brian Pacheco here, if he would come on down. We also have representation from Abshire and Weiner LLP. Michael is here to accept that on behalf of his law firm. And finally, we have, um, our next person that's very important to this whole equation has started up the. Wonderful spectacular and handed it over to the city to do some other more exciting things, but with the support of all of them would be Zach security and that will be presented and given by mayor protein Zachariah.

I do appreciate these people so much. It is with their help that the event was able to continue. Every year it grows, and it's just a great event. I think the community was asking for it. I don't really want to take a lot of the credit. I was just the guy that said, hey, let's bring it back. It was with my fellow colleague, Rodriguez, that we made this possible. But again, it's through the generous donations that were brought by these people here that you see. So really give them the thanks, because without them, the event would not happen. So thank you again.

I like to be here. And a drum roll, please, for the next item, City Clerk Gonzales.

All right. And that will be presented by the CEO, Mr. Kalpacoff. You're on. Woo-hoo.

I'd like to get a picture of everyone. And we love those shirts, CEO Kabrakov. Those are nice shirts.

Thank you for coming out again and safe travels home everyone. Moving on to the next item city clerk Gonzalez on to public comment.

Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate you choosing Madera. It's a great place to work. Anyone else in the chamber online or on zoom city clerk Gonzalez.

Thank you for that. I will close public comment at this time and move on to the next item.

Thank you for that. I bring it back to my colleagues for any questions or comments. I see none. I open up for public comment. Anyone in the chamber? Online or on Zoom? I close public comment and I bring it back for a motion including moving B3 into the D section.

Move to approve consent with the removal of B3 into section D. I'll second.

Thank you for that motion. The second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you for that.

Thank you. I bring it back to my colleagues. If anybody would like to nominate somebody to be a delegate of this conference, that will be happening on September 22nd. Council Member Montes.

Just to clarify, we have two members attending, right, currently?

Oh, OK. So people haven't opted out yet? Correct. Oh, OK. So it could be anybody.

Is Councilwoman Evans registered? She is. Okay, I would suggest we nominate her as the voting member. Councilmember Rodriguez.

Yeah, I did plan to attend. So if that's fine, if I don't mind being the alternate.

Okay. I will take the second alternate spot. Slot of no one else wants to jump at it. Okay, so can I have a motion for that? Just to make it approval?

Move that we nominate Councilmember Evans as the voting member and designate alternates Councilmember Rodriguez and Mayor. Okay. Second.

All right. I have a motion and second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you for that. Thank you. Moving on to the next item item.

All right presented by very own parks director a bear. Thank you for being here this evening. 1st, out of the gate.

Thank you. I'll bring it back to my colleagues for any questions and concerns. Council Member Rodriguez. Thank you, Mayor.

Joe, I just wanted to give you thanks for taking the lead and the city for taking the lead on this. I know that when this event took place back to the fairgrounds, Kiwanis, you know, had initiated that start with other service clubs as well. I want to recognize the Rotary and also the Lions because they were also part of the volunteering throughout this process. But nevertheless, I just wanted to thank you again for taking the initiative on taking this. I know that the donors that were here before us have been generous every year, and I hope that they continue And anything that we can do, I th

Again, I would like to say thanks, Joe. It was kind of a nervousness to handing over our baby to you. But I know you guys did a great job. I like I agree it was probably even better with your guys's partnership. So I do thank you for trusting in us and that my promise that wasn't going to be too crazy for you guys. You know, I know it's going to grow. And that's kind of where we saw the partnership is, you know, that only better things we're going to kind of come from it. So I know the only complaint is obviously about the Ferris wheel that we're not going to hammer you too much about. But I t

Thank you. One comment is in the past, this is way back, there was a big thermometer that was held in front of City Hall. And then it was just painted every time there was donation. So the community constantly could see where we were at on donations and how to donate. It was kind of, Board gets around faster than social media and other things you put in the paper, but if you they see it constantly it's conversations that are being held and maybe rally in some of the schools to kind of. Do like a drive to raise money for the fourth of July and maybe Council members on corners, I know we do fill

Thank you. I will bring it back to my colleague for any questions and concerns. I see none. I open it up for public comment in the chamber. I see none. Anyone online or on Zoom? We have none, Mayor. Thank you for that. I bring it back to my colleagues for a motion and a second.

Thank you. A motion and a second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed, motion passes unanimously.

Thank you presented by our own admin analyst. Say, thank you for being here tonight.

Thank you for that. I bring it back to my colleagues for questions and concerns or comments. I see none. I open it up for public comment. No one in the chamber online or on Zoom. We have none, Mayor. Thank you. Just one comment with this approval. Hopefully, we see a lot more projects getting pushed through. We'll be excited about that. With that, I'll bring it to my colleagues for a motion for this resolution.

Second. A motion is second. All those in favor say aye. Those opposed. All the motion passes unanimously. Thank you for your report.

All right, presented by senior engineer Gamero.

forward and being proactive and taking care of something before it collapses. And then we're trying to get in there and scramble and fix it. So thank you for that. Any other comments from my colleagues? I see none. Open it for public comment in the chamber. I see none online or on Zoom. All right. I will close public comment and bring it back to my colleagues to adopt this resolution. I have a motion and second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you for that report. Senior Engineer Gamiro. Next item.

All right. Presented by our Public Works Director, Gandhi. Thank you for being here again this evening.

Any questions? Thank you for that report. Bring it back to my colleagues for any questions or concerns. I see none. Open it up for public comment. No one in the chamber. Anyone online or on Zoom? Thank you, City Clerk Gonzalez. I will close public comment and bring it back to my colleagues to adopt this resolution. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you, Public Works Director Gandhi, for your report. Thank you. Next item.

From our very own Finance Director Lima.

Thank you for that report. I bring it back to my colleagues for any questions or concerns. I see none. Open up for public comment in the chamber, online or on Zoom. Thank you. I'll bring it back to my colleagues to adopt this resolution as presented.

I have a motion and a second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you, Director Lima, for that report.

And that will be presented by our grants administrator, Zuniga.

Thank you for that. I bring it back to my colleagues. Any comments? I see none. Opening it for public comment in the chamber. Online or on Zoom? All right. I'll close public comment. And this is informational only. So thank you, Grants Administrator Zuniga. Don't go away too far. Next item, City Clerk.

All right. Thank you for that. My colleagues have any comments or concerns? I see none. I open it up for public comment in the chamber online or on zoom. All right. I will close public comment at this time. And it is just a review for us to have that information. Thank you grants. Next item.

a lot of the issues that arise from SGMA. Is that a problem for us to pay $3,000? Is that for moving forward and how they allocate these percentages?

It's such a small amount. I don't have, I mean, but. Nevertheless, I mean, I think this will come before us as we continue to share costs for more monitoring. I mean, this may be something small today could be something bigger tomorrow. And I think we've seen that over the last couple of meetings that we've had with other mitigations and other cost sharing that we've had.

Yeah. So, again, you're asking for direction, so that's why I was asking. Would be. who didn't for us to move on. It's not that much.

Okay, thank you, Councilmember Rodriguez. At this time, I open it for public comment in the chamber. I see none online or on zoom. Okay, I close public comment and bring it back to my colleagues for direction on this item.

You need a form of a motion. I mean, I think, you know, given that conversation, minimal is not worth the fight. So.

Yeah, we go with the recommendation of staff. Yeah, I move that we go with the recommendation of staff, the full amount.

motion thank you all those in favor say aye aye those opposed motion passes unanimously thank you for that director of engineering homework uh moving on city clerk gonzalez next item

All right, thank you for that. I will go to my right, Mayor Pro Tem Zachariah.

just I'll give one last thank you to Joe and his staff for the 4th of July and kind of the conclusion with tonight's presentation and closing it out and just uh you know in future meetings Joe if you just let me know I'd love to be there uh when you guys start kicking that back off um but other than that just miss you guys and it's been long felt like a long time since we had our meeting so it's kind of nice to be back perfect thank you council member Montez wow council member Rodriguez thank you mayor

I don't see that's I don't remember if we've had a council meeting since the last Caltrans ribbon cutting out there or groundbreaking I'm assuming we did but if that wasn't announced I just wanted to say that's great but I would suggest if this council would approve or give direction is to bring us some updates as far as what's taking place as far as traffic I know that we hear a lot in the community as far as how this has been impacting them a bit when I go down there doesn't impact me much because I make a left on E Street. But nevertheless, I do hear it on social media. So maybe a monthly u

And that's with downtown Yosemite project.

Yes, the cap and project. So yes, so maybe just a brief report on it. Just letting us know what's taking place. I'm not sure if we don't think we need Caltrans for that. I think we can kind of gain a pretty good idea of where that's at. But again, if I didn't say it, I don't recall that I did. But great, great work. Thank you. Because now with those improvements, I look forward to seeing downtown enhanced here in the future. And I mean, state route 145. So I am here. Thank you for your report. Councilmember Vegas.

Thank you. And I just have a few things. School's starting on Friday, so everyone be safe out there. Slow down. We had a lot of our businesses and partners come up with backpack events like the Elks Club, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Madera Ford Valley Steel. Just... Blessing our children with supplies to get them ready for the school year. So I think all the community out there that has been doing that. With that, I will turn it over to my attorney for closed session.

With that, I open up to public comment. I see none in the chamber. Anyone online on Zoom?

Thank you. I close public comment. Thank you, everyone. If you're not out here when we get back, Have a great evening. We will move into closed session at this time. Thank you. We're back from closed session and I will report that our G one and two is satisfactory. And with that, I adjourned the meeting tonight at 804. Have a good evening, everyone. Thank you for being here with us tonight.