Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission - Regular Meeting

OK, check, check, check, check. Is that good? OK, perfect. Okay, let's go ahead and get started. Okay, we'll call the meeting to order. We'll go ahead and do the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, agenda item C, roll call. Commissioner Kelly?

Here. Burnett?

Present. Jenkins?

Here.

Pevsner?

Here.

Estrada, or Vice Chair Estrada? Here. And Chair Kuykendall? Okay, I would like to remind the audience that if they wish to address the commission, they must submit a green request to speak form located at the podium in the back of the chamber. Citizens can submit public comment to the commission electronically no later than 1 p.m. on the day of the meeting. Comments received before the deadline will be sent to the commission and will be part of the record and will be mentioned as part of the public comment portion of the agenda. Material may be emailed to cityclerk at cityofmerced.gov and any correspondence received after 1 p.m. will be distributed to the commission and retained for the official record. Agenda item D, public comment. The clerk's office did not receive any emails for this meeting today. And we do have some members that are sitting in the audience. Does anyone want to speak? No, okay. No speakers. Agenda item E, consent. E1, citizen stipend setting commission minutes for April 16th, 2026. Move to approve.

I second.

Okay, I have a motion by Commissioner Kelly and a second by Commissioner Jenkins. Commissioners, please cast your votes. Okay, the motion passes unanimously. Okay, agenda item F, public hearing. F1, review and discussion of the current stipend for the mayor and city council members and discussion and recommendations, if any, regarding the appropriate stipend for the mayor and city council members.

Yes, I would like to kind of re-look at what we have proposed. I've asked Jennifer to put on the screen, because I thought sometimes when we're talking about money, we don't realize how it affects. So you can see that the current is $51,600. But if we raise it, it's $87,000, which is an increase of $35,400. I was just hearing on the radio today what a couple of things that were going to be affected. One is the fire department in 2027. And I can't imagine how many other things would be affected by that much of an increase, especially what has to be paid out if we pass this that wasn't part of the budget. And then as they're looking at this budget now, what would have to be eliminated? And you never know how that might affect you. So I would like us to kind of re-look at maybe the $700 a month, or the $100 increase to each of them and think that that's more of a realistic thing that we could, the city could afford. Because we have to remember that this city is not like a Fresno or even like a Turlock. We don't have the income coming in. And if we don't have enough money to cover that, something's gonna lose out.

For clarification, I believe it's $500 a month. Do they get $500 a month, not $600, right?

They do get $500 a month and the mayor gets $600.

Okay, so then that takes $7,200 off of, they get $500. So that takes $7,200 off that total. And how much does the mayor get? $600 a month. for the mayor, but the other council members, here's the current, the other council members get 500 a month. So the total council gets 36,000. That includes the mayor, correct?

Okay, so let me just explain my spreadsheet. I just brought this as kind of my backup information in case you had questions, but since Belinda shared her calcs, I'll share mine. So currently, the council receives, for six of them, 36,000, and the mayor receives 7,200. We do have Social Security and Medicare that we have to pay as employer taxes. So for the current, and this is a calendar year, right? So the current year, 46,505. With the proposed amount that is in the current resolution, I think right now, which is 1,000 a month for council and 1,250 a month for the mayor, that's 87,000 plus the taxes, it gets to 93,656. It's a difference of 47,000, a little over $47,000. The proposed budget, the city manager budget as of right now, So this will not go into effect. If it's approved, the increase would not go into effect until January. So July through December, you still have the old rate. January through June of 27, you would incorporate the new rate. So for next fiscal year, it's 70,080, which is a difference of what we currently have in the budget of 23,575. Does that make sense? but ultimately it's a $47,000 increase.

Okay, thank you. I had the opportunity to message with five of the council members. I didn't hear back from two of them. And to get a rough estimate of the time that they spend on council business, because I think it's important we look at the hours they're putting into city business. So the average without the mayor, because he was at over $100 a month, so I did his separately because he also gets a different stipend, was 55 hours. And if we divide that by the current of $500 a month, that's $9.09 an hour. With the mayor at, I think, $600, if we divide that at just, say, 100 hours, that's $6 an hour. And my concern is, and I just want to put it out there, I've been coming to council meetings for a long time, and I said this last time, this is the most community-infused and invested council that there has been to date. If you just go back three councils, you saw maybe one or two of the council members. If you go back five councils, the only time you saw the council members was either on this dais or at the branding iron at 5 p.m. And I know because I was at the branding iron at 5 p.m. But this council, for a good example, I was, and Jeremy was there as well, we were at the grand opening of Bob Hart Square, and there were three council members plus the mayor. If you go look at Kitty Land or Red Ribbon Week or Earth Day, you're always gonna run into some member of your council. And I further had conversations with a few council members and a lot of them don't submit reimbursement for their gas, their mileage, their insurance costs to attend these events. And they don't submit pre-authorization expenses for these events. They go because they wanna be part of the community. And again, I hold to the $1,000 and the 1,250, because even at those rates with the proposed, it would be 1,250 an hour for the mayor and $18 an hour for the council members, which are close. Well, the mayor's is less than the minimum wage in the state of California, and the council members are close. So I again, hold to the recommendation that we go 1,000 and 1,250, because I know that there are some savings that could be had through attrition with people retiring perhaps. And again, these are pre-tax rates. So these aren't, after tax, the mayor and I did this based on a single, you know, claiming as single. After tax with the new rates, based on single, it comes out to $999.40 for the mayor and $872 for each council member. And if we look at what the hours spent into those numbers, It actually is $9.99 for the mayor and $16.22 for the council members. And I just wanted to put those numbers out there because I think it's important to look at the amount of time our council members are spending off this dais and in the community. And it's not like this is a reward. I don't think anyone would hire anyone for $9 an hour. You know, it's illegal, first of all. Secondly, you know, I can find a $9 an hour employee that brings such value to the community. And again, is going to be guiding this city over the next 10 to 20 years, which is a great responsibility. You know, I'd hire him tomorrow.

I'd like to raise a parliamentary issue, if someone would correct me if I'm wrong. When an item has been decided by a deliberative body like the City Council or this commission, it cannot be reconsidered unless it is brought up by someone who had voted affirmatively for the item. So in this case, nobody's raising the issue who voted affirmatively, so I don't believe that can be reconsidered.

So you guys made a recommendation at the last meeting, and then this meeting, once we open and close the public hearing, is to solidify a written recommendation to council, which is that resolution that was attached to your packet.

I just want to speak real quick. I do second Ms. Kelly, or Ms., And the reason why is because, like she said, our mayor and our council members are present at all these events, which I think it's important for the community to be able to see their visibility, to be able to come talk to them, not be scared to come, you know, just discuss things with them there or anything of that sort, just being more comfortable with them. That's one way that I was able to, you know, I talked to one of the council members a few years ago at, I think it was Mercado Knights they do downtown. And so that really makes a difference, especially to, you know, our community is growing. We're no longer a small city, small town. And I think it's important to show to them, you know, how important they are for taking the time to be here and, making these decisions for us to improve.

So I would have to agree with Cynthia. Sorry, Amanda. But I just want to bring something. I know that they show up to a lot of community events. We're mostly there. We see them all the time. But some of them do have a nine to five jobs on top of this. And just throwing it out there, they are community residents. So they are showing up to a community event because they are a resident as well. So I really want to make that a reason why we're giving them The reason why we're making it a little bit higher than what they're getting now, because they're community residents. So it's part of their, it's not their job to come to every event. They're coming as a resident. But I am in agreement with the numbers that we did and what we voted on. So I have nothing else I want to say.

Can someone speak to my parliamentary issue? Are we gonna vote again on something we've already voted on?

Commissioner Pevsner, so we're voting on the actual written to solidify your vote from the last meeting. So that's why you have to vote on the resolution that's presented to you tonight. And that's the written recommendation that will go to council.

Thank you for the clarification. I've been thinking about this, and actually I'm on the side of supporting the $1,000 for each council member and $1,250 for the mayor.

Okay, so at this time we'll go ahead and we'll open the public hearing. If there's anyone that would like to speak on this item. Okay, seeing none, we'll go ahead and close the public hearing at 548. and we'll take it back to commission.

I move to approve the resolution. With the following change in the resolution, it says the date was April 6th and it should be April 16th. We'll fix that typo. Yeah, thank you. I'll second the motion.

I have a motion by Commissioner Kelly and a second by Commissioner Jenkins. The motion will include the adoption of Resolution 2026-19, a resolution of the Citizen Stipend Setting Commission of the City of Merced, California, providing a written recommendation to the City Council regarding the recommended monthly stipend it deems appropriate for the City Council and the Mayor pursuant to Section 402 of the City of Merced Charter. Commissioners, please cast your votes. Okay, and the motion passes with Commissioner Burnett voting no. Okay, agenda item G, adjournment.

Move to adjourn. Second.

Okay, I have a motion by Commissioner Kelly and a second by Commissioner Jenkins. Commissioners, please cast your votes. And the motion passes unanimously.

Shortest meeting I've ever seen here. It's my kind of meeting.