City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone and welcome to the regular meeting of the city council. Today is Wednesday, August 20 excuse me, August 19, 2026. It is 6 PM city clerk Gonzalez.

Thank you for that call this meeting in order roll call please.

Thank you for my colleagues for being here tonight. If you could please stand for the location given by Pastor Nilly and Puzzle Legions by Mayor Pro Tim Zachariah.

Amen. Are you joining for the salute? Ready? Salute.

Thank you gentlemen. Moving on to approval of the agenda. I'll bring it back to my colleagues for any comments or concerns. I see none open up for public comment online or on zoom. Thank you. I will close public comment at this time and and bring it back to my colleagues for a motion and a 2nd mayor.

Okay. We'll have you back on that moment. With that, I bring it back to my colleagues. I'll move to approve. 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.

And presented by our very own Mayor Pro Tem Zachariah.

Thank you. And then it's... Anyone here representing the Pan Am and Frank Bagan Center? If you guys would come on up. All right, there we go. Come on, gang.

So we're here to recognize these individuals. And I know when we think of retirement, we always think we're just going to sit at home and, I think, watch the Wheel of Fortune or the prices ride all day. And I don't think that's the case here. I think as we retire, we understand you guys probably work harder than you did when you had jobs, right? So today is just kind of to recognize those, the seniors in our community that are doing so much work for our community, still active in everything that you guys do. So, for today, we would like to recognize whereas national senior citizens day honors

We have two young ladies who would like to say a few words.

You want to make your way up to the front for a picture?

Thank you for that. Just a few words before I call up the coaches and these young ladies that we are acknowledging tonight. I thank you for representing the city of Madera with class. and passion, because you guys had to fight your way to be where you're at today. And we appreciate all that you did. So I'm going to call up head coach Anaya, assistant coach Chavera, assistant coach Gonzalez to come up first. We can give a round of applause for these coaches. Your coach? Which one? Gonzalez. I had a three-way chance of getting it you are oh got it right congratulations sir I know it's not easy u

Out and when you get your certificate, you can line up in front and then we'll take a picture with council in the back when we're all done.

Well, ladies, memories are priceless that you just made here in the City of Madera and with each other. We thank everyone and all the parents for being here tonight. We don't blame you if you have to exit. We get it. Schools in and assignments are there because this will be a very long meeting. We would love for you to stay and hear all the wonderful things happening in the city, but that's truly up to you. Next item, City Clerk Gonzalez. Oh, we'll take a minute. We'll give him a minute.

that cleared fast okay city clerk gonzalez next item the next item is an update from madera county mosquito and vector control district thank you presented by the director of science and communications is he here tonight oh there you are welcome good afternoon uh don't fall asleep with me all right uh there's no clicker huh let's just keyboard okay perfect

All right, so my name is Aaron Velasquez. I'm the director of science communications at the Madeira Academy of Mosquito and Magical Logistics.

Thank you for that presentation. I'll bring it back to my colleagues for any questions or concerns. I'll start, um, have, are we still working with PG and E on their vaults that contain a lot of water that's just sitting there?

Great. And you're still working with our public works department in our inlets, making sure we're spraying all those to get the mosquitoes of water that's sitting in those?

Council Member Rodriguez. Yes, thank you. And thank you for providing the images. I think those really help us. But with the satellite imaging that you have, does your organization, can they spot areas that may require treatment for other types of mosquitoes like pools and what have you?

Thank you appreciate all the information, thank you definitely.

Thank you for your question another one. the cemeteries had a lot of sitting water in their little circles that flowers. And did we eliminate that standing water that's like in the middle of those subdivisions?

Got it. And they love me, so this is like a high priority for me or mosquitoes. Before you were going into the schools and doing programs for our second graders, is that still happening in Madera Unified, partnering with them?

Thank you and there was talks a few years ago when we had Mr Valdez come and talk to us about other cities that were look that we're trying and out prototyping bringing in female mosquitoes that were stale sterile and they were not able to reproduce and that was cutting the populations of mosquitoes in their city.

I don't see any questions from my colleagues. Um, thank you for that report. We really appreciate you being here tonight.

All right. Well, thank you so much for being here tonight. We appreciate it. City Clerk Gonzalez, moving on to the next item.

Thank you. You have a question, and it will be a concern that an item that is not on Thea's agenda, correct?

Thank you for your comment and time. Anyone else online? City clerk Gonzales.

Thank you. I will bring it back to the Chamber if we have a public comment. You have to go up to the podium please.

yes and your comma will have to wait for that item on the agenda okay okay then I'll wait if that's if that's a comment is it about downtown yes then I'll have to wait for that agenda item thank you for that okay with that I close public comments and move on to the next item

Thank you for that. I bring it back to my colleagues for any comments or concerns. I see none. I will open it for public comment. Anything on consent calendar? I see no one in the chamber online or on Zoom. Thank you. I close public comment and bring it back to my colleagues for a motion. I'll move to approve. Second. Thank you for that. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed, motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Next item.

Presented by our very own Director Lima.

And I think you have a team that's going to help you tonight.

I'll bring us back to closed session, city attorney.

Thank you, City Attorney. With that, I open it up for public comment. Anyone in the chamber for a closed session? Online or on Zoom? I see none. So we will go into closed session and hopefully be back. Thank you.

Thank you city clerk Gonzales. We are returning back at 729 and we'll continue our city council meeting before we move on. I would like my colleagues to entertain that we bring up E1 to the front of the agenda. We do have Caltrans in the house and a business owner that would like to speak and because of the interruption it will probably be a later night evening than we expected. Do I have the okay from my colleagues?

Okay, uh, city clerk is also, are you ready for that? Or do I need you in a minute?

And I will be presenting by our director of engineering helmet council members.

I don't think it was on Zoom. Give us a minute. Okay. Yes. You're good. Thank you.

Thank you for that report, Director of Engineering. I'll bring it back to my colleagues for any questions or concerns. I just have 1 comment. I would like to, um, think Caltrans for the signs that are pretty big that say we're open for business just to remind travelers that are downtown. Um, I saw I saw 2 of them pretty big. They're not little ones. They catch your attention and I know our, um. Our community is being hit by the construction, but we did hear for many years that do something to this road, clean up, make some medium islands, give us some greenery. And so with partnering with Calt

Uh, yes. Thank you, Mayor. I too want to appreciate, uh, Keith for their report. Also Caltrans. The one thing that I would, um, would suggest or I recommend I'm not sure if this is through the city or Caltrans is how we disseminate information I hear a lot of people complaining that this is a city project it is a part in partnership with Caltrans and Caltrans again putting this CAPM project I think we've done everything but really try to disseminate more information for folks that this is a a road diet that's coming through caltrans and sure good opportunity for the city i guess you know when

Is that keep if you're walking downtown with the hardhat?

Throw out that information letting us going so mr. Johnson, can you also touch a base on when you did come to us? We know that it's a nine-month project between great gateway to Tozer. Could you touch upon? How long you'll be working per block?

Thank you for that comment. And I have been sharing that with local businesses and community that usually projects do take a year and a half to two years. But we really stress to Caltrans when you did come to us about being a partner is that it does infect businesses. And if we could speed fastest, which you have done, we appreciate it. And I did share with business owners also, that you did put in the RP that contracts would be working like almost day and night so that it was aggressive and get done sooner. So we appreciate that very much. Any other questions or comments? Okay, I'll open it u

Thank you for your comment. Thank you. City Clerk Gonzalez, anyone online?

Thank you for that. At this time, I will close public comment. This was informational and direction. I think we kind of add that what what we need so thank you for that and caltrans for being here and hanging in with us tonight we appreciate it thank you we'll go back up to our agenda city clerk gonzalez next item item c1 business license overview all right here we go round two financial director lima

Or I can wait until 5.30 and just park somewhere.

Well, here it goes. Mayor Pro Tem Zachariah, out of the gates.

I know Mike was going to. He was ready for this. So I saw the presentation. No, I wanted to start. I mean, I think everyone knows our family business has been around for about 45 years. I have a secondary business that's been around since 2012. Do the math. I think between the two businesses, we collect almost every single license available to city, state, federal. So, um, the point of the story is to say that I, I think the concern that I had when bringing this about. Is understanding from a business perspective, uh, 1. That, um, you know, especially coming on council. That seemed like a lot

Thank you for your comment. Council Member Rodriguez.

Thank you, Mayor Gallegos. I will say thank you, Mike, for your presentation. And I want to thank Council Member Zachariah for his comments. I do have gone through the process of obtaining a business license, whether it be I said I do have gone through the process of obtaining a business license, whether it be a home occupant permit or a standard business license. And I will say that someone that thinks they know what they're doing online, the process of going through it, having to have all these departments come to an office and go through this process, it was pretty lengthy. I think it was l

we can help small businesses we just haven't used it is that all council members that's all okay thank you councilwoman uh thank you i agree that

a strong entrepreneurial spirit here with the residents of Madera. And I myself have seen, I have experienced similar concerns through organizing the , which is a cultural event that originates in Oaxaca. And I think the event in and of itself does draw a lot of tourism to there. And I saw that same type of interest here in Madera. We had a lot of people trying to come out from the Bay Area and all parts of California trying to do business here. And beyond doing business, that tourism, it promotes our city. And I think that by treating the smaller businesses like the bigger ones we are having

Thank you for that council member Montez.

Yeah. Um, just want to respond. I'm going to agree with some of some of the things that had been set up here, but some, you know, I guess I have a different perspective, right? So I've come from the enforcement side. So I actually did court enforcement in the city there on some of these vendors and some of these businesses and actually, was part of the code enforcement process where we would go and verify hey is the business where they say they are are they doing what they say they're doing and is it permitted i know uh the other departments um had their role in that too but you know as code w

And so that I guess that's kind of my point. I mean, I think, you know, more of the carrot and the stick to certain degree. So I think that I know we have some of the cannabis revenues, we can say, well, we can have kind of like a care program, like with PG&E, right? Because I think to this point, some of those funds are unallocated. I know it's a different topic, but I think that we can do that. If you qualify based on certain conditions, then maybe we can waive those using um the cannabis fee so that we don't kind of hamstring ourselves in the future saying well it's costing us this much mon

Thank you for your comments. A couple from me before I move on to other council members. Director Lima, you talked about our Airbnbs do not have business license, have to apply for business license. Is that correct? Correct. Okay. So I hear from a lot of community members that are concerned because more Airbnbs are popping up. And these are people that are just having parties for the weekend. And I think they're popping up more in the city because a business license is not attached to that. So I would think if my colleagues are in agreement to maybe looking into those type of businesses having

So I think it's for Director Tackett maybe to answer. So how many of those mobile food vendors do we have that have CUPs? And do our officers know those vendors that they can just keep on driving knowing that they are cleared through the planning department?

Okay, thank you for that answer. Okay, then I will move on to a mayor pro. Tim. Zachariah.

Yeah, sorry. I'll be quick. I'll be quick. Um, there was, uh, 2 questions for you, Mike. So, I know what I know under the, the, the, uh, peddler and mobile licensing stuff. things like Amazon, Uber, are these falling under that licensing, and are they licensed to be in the city, or do we treat them as an out of the city business, or do we get anything from these guys?

And the other question is kind of knowing that like for our security company, for lawn care, you know, a lot of industries have to have a license number on the vehicle on their item. Would that be something that would be helpful to the mobile vendor? So, I mean, like I know you can go look at the back of my car and you can look up that number on a website and it'll tell you the status of my company if we're active or, you know, closed or whatever. Is that something maybe, too, that would be helpful either to maybe even chief staff to kind of just say, I don't have to go get out of the car. Whe

I mean, especially, I mean, for council, I mean, we get, you know, if I drive by and I see some random pop-up, I mean, I hate to bug Chief or all the time and say, like, or, you know, call Arnoldo and say, hey, is this guy licensed? Can they actually be out here? I mean, I think it would be kind of easy to say, well, there's their license. Maybe go look it up on maybe a city website and say, like, okay, yeah, they've gotten approved. This is licensed. I don't know if there's privacy issues or whatever as far as that, but I just know, like I said, on most of the stuff I deal with on the state l

But I've gotten a number of complaints for the corner of Lake and Cleveland. And they set up their they set up their little restaurant and the The restaurant that is sitting there is the taco casa and she's really having a hard time because you know they can walk up order get and then leave. But now she has a permanent residence she's having to I mean permanent business she's having to pay all the the fees and everything of that nature and her business is starting to dwindle because you can drive by and it's a line out. You know, on the street, because you can pull right up, get it and then le

Yeah. She's complained a number of times about that. Also, I'm not. Okay. So when you having an event, okay. Yeah, we're switching. Okay. And, um, you have, you know, like, a little. Mommel vendors that you know they come and they sit and they make the bracelets and things like that Is there a one-day permit for them or is it even required that they have a permit? Yes, or how does that work?

Any other comments from my colleagues? Okay, open it.

I'll throw in some numbers for Mike, because Mike likes numbers. I do. Hypothetically, I don't know how many of these vendors we have, but let's assume there's 40 to 50. of them that are operating throughout our city. And each one of them is generating anywhere between $60,000 a year and sales. We don't know.

That equates to about $2.4 million of gross revenues, of which sales tax also applies there, which is quite a bit of money. The city level, we probably won't see more than $12,000 to $15,000 of that money. But it's not so much the money, it's what it does to the other economy, which is your brick and mortar. And I think that was said earlier. There is a president that we have to continue, I wouldn't say to enforce, and it's harder to say that because it costs more money to chase those dollars, which is $12,000, but it's not about chasing. I think it's the system, the way it's set up right now,

through, I guess, a proper program for that to not be 70 people, to be 100 people. I think everybody is saying there's more than 69 vendors on the street right now, especially when you look at special events and everything. There's probably a few hundred people we're missing when it comes to the money. You know, the idea was just to say if it could be a sliding scale on the fees for those mobiles to make an entry easy, but then as they improve their business. But I think, like, to your point, is there a way to kind of even know, like, what's a cap on a mobile vendor? Like, are they really, is

Do you think the return would be outweighed by the amount of maybe work hours to go through the reporting of those or not really? It's hard to say.

no CUP, no nothing, the simple fact of, like, I need to apply, like, what's the time it takes to kind of verify that? And then year two, when I need to kind of renew my license, I got a report, you have to verify the report and send them a license. Like, what's the kind of, I would assume a couple hours per applicant, or is it a more lengthy investigation that we're kind of doing when they report, right?

council member Rodriguez thank you Mary I'll just end with this I know that we're going to walk away with this just an information report so I think to be proactive I would request that this council direct staff member to bring back something as far as uh maybe if there's any money if we have a pot of money somewhere to try to get something going with uh maybe education because I wouldn't mind paying ten thousand dollars a year well it is me that's my money right not the city's money but to try to inform people help people the entry level And instead of having enforcement chase that around, it

Council would like we can go back and try to researching every one of those every one of those can lead us down multiple rabbit trails because they're they're complex issues so hopefully I summarized it mayor and council I think you did thank you at this time I open it for public comment anyone in the chamber city clerk Gonzalez anyone online on zoom we have none mayor thank you I closed public comment and I think director Lima director Tackett chief administrative analyst Garcia for being here tonight and That report was amazing.

Thank you for that presentation, Chief. Good news that it's going to keep going. I'll bring it back to my colleagues for any questions or concerns. I see none. Open up for public comment. No one in the chamber, online, or on Zoom. City Clerk. Thank you. I will close that for public comment and bring it back to my colleagues for an adoption.

I will make the motion to approve. And thank you, Chief, for the fun facts. Second.

Thank you. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed, motion passes unanimously. Thank you for that. Next item.

And that will be presented by our deputy engineer bidder. Good evening.

I'll bring it back to my colleagues for some comments or concerns. I see none. Open up for public comment in the chamber. There is none online or on Zoom. We have done, Mayor. I will close public comment and ask for a motion to adopt this resolution.

I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed, motion passes unanimously. Thank you, Deputy Engineer Britter, for the report. Next item.

I just have a question director April, is it possible to approach our little league and American national and literally to see if they would consider donating some money for this batting cage because their children will be affected by having that they're right behind their fields.

i have no problem asking for money i just don't know that we're going to get it from them and this is going to be open at all times to the public it's not going to be a locked yeah it's it'll be open facility and it's just the cages it's no batting no pitching machine or anything like that right okay open up for public comment in the chamber i see none online around soon we have none mayor okay i close public comment at this time and bring it back for a motion and a second move to approve second I have a motion and a second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion passes u

You're in, Community Development Director Taggart. Taggart.

Thank you for that. I bring it back to my colleagues for any comments. I see none. I open up for public comment in the chamber. There is none online or on Zoom.

Thank you for that. I bring it back to my colleagues for an adoption of this resolution.

I have a motion and second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you, Director Tackett, for that report. Next item, going to E2.

Thank you for that. I will bring it back to my colleagues. Council Member Rodriguez.

Yes, thank you, Mayor Gallegos. And again, thank you, Director Hebert for that presentation. as you noted um that irrigation system is is dated and um also as he noted that that there is a consultant on the way we haven't really had an opportunity to meet to execute that but there is funds in our um account there so that we can continue with that consultant and hopefully get that central system um situated so that we can get that irrigation going i know there's a lot of other items that came up there those are minor compared to the irrigation But this gives us a pretty good roadmap of what we

Appreciate your time. Thank you for your comment. I open up for public comment. Anyone in the chamber? I see none online or on Zoom. Okay. I close public comment. Informational. Moving on to the next item.

I will go to my left councilmember Vegas Oh, nothing to report. Thank you, Council Member Rodriguez.

I'll make this quick. I had an opportunity to visit and tour Diablo Canyon Power Plant, which was an eye-opening experience for me. Obviously, that's a nuclear power that's being supplied 24-7 to over 10% of California's electricity, which is roughly 2 to 2.5 million homes. That being said, when you think about power is how do you store that power? We haven't had that infrastructure, but fact that that's pushing through and that was going to be decommissioned in 2025 is scary to think when we had those rolling blackouts anyhow it was very interesting really uh um something i can bring back her

Thank you. This year's Guelaguetas is coming back. It's going to be on Sunday, October 11th. It's going to be from 2 PM to 7 PM. There are about half a dozen Guelaguetas that take place in California and this is the uh only one that I believe is happening during the evening this time so the organizing committee is very excited to host it again this year and it's going to take place at the Madera District Fairgrounds and flyers are forthcoming and that concludes my report thank you Councilmember Montes thank you Mayor Pro Tem Zachariah

Uh, just 1 in the spirit of, uh, licensing, uh, I would ask if we could bring about. Um, maybe some discussion about licensing related to our card rooms. It's my understanding that there's an individual that controls the entire. Licensing or licenses that we have for that, and maybe have some potential revenue loss. Since that was the license are not being executed from what I understand for a long time. Um, so if if the council would allow, maybe having some discussion related to that.

Thank you. Got all of us. We're good. Thank you. Thank you for your report. Councilwoman Evans.

Thank you so much. I just wanted to say that I attended the King Hussein ribbon cutting ceremony a couple few days ago, and it was very interesting to just know about Mr. Hussein and his religious, religious aspects of life and the things that he incorporated in and then the number of individuals that came from like Brigham Young and different organizations like that. So that was, you know, very interesting to me. I also went to Leona Pistaresi's funeral service and the lady was dynamic. I did not realize that, you know, she was this broad in the spectrum. I know being with Monty, you would ha

And I thank you for your comment. I will just be asking my colleagues to entertain. We've gotten a lot of good feedback on our color palette that we have put in place on social media. But I am hearing a lot from the community about existing buildings that are sitting there that aren't with our color palette. if this council would be entertaining an item to come back to look at how we can subsidize and maybe partner with some of the buildings downtown that need some repair, just not on the color, but on the post or what's ever needed to make it look nice. Since we're putting this beautiful road

Thank you. And I will close and adjourn this meeting at 928. Thank you. Everyone safe travels home.