Remarks by Miguel Arias
198 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 6 of 8
- Play at 9:08:34
“But you could also prove it and say that you can make the findings that is incidental to that facility only versus to the whole corporation and it would go through.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 9:09:38
“My other question, Director, is how much time do you need before you think you'll be prepared to bring a text amendment forward?”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 9:10:09
“So, so that's, that leads to my other concern, um, to council member Richardson. PUTTING THIS, BAKING THIS IN TERMS OF A TENURE, THIS ITEM SIMPLY DIRECTS FOR THEM TO INITIATE THE PROCESS, WHICH COULD BE AS SHORT AS A FEW MONTHS OR AS LONG AS A YEAR. IN THAT TIME FRAME, WE COULD POTENTIALLY BE HAVING TO PROCESS APPLICATIONS BECAUSE when people pay their application fee, we're required to process the application, right? When there is not yet a determination by this body on whether we're going to allow them and whether it's in our best interest or not. So what I would recommend in terms of…”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 9:11:40
“WELL, THEY CAN ARGUE THAT THEIR PROPOSAL DOES NOT FIT THE DESCRIPTION OR THE DEFINITION BECAUSE ONE DOESN'T EXIST.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 9:11:57
“But what if you change your mind next month? Because you think that the proposal before you, there is a sufficient water or power.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 9:13:36
“I appreciate that. But just let me give you this context. In my 25 years at City Hall, i.e. Luis Chavez, we did not have a definition for smoke shops. And overnight, hundreds of them popped up in the city. And then we had to play catch up to define a smoke shop and regulate a smoke shop. So additionally, we are not allowed to rezone a certain property, but yet we kept that subject alive for a year.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 9:14:06
“Right? SO WHAT I DON'T WANT TO DO IS WASTE THIS BODY'S TIME AND STAFF'S TIME WITH SOMEBODY SUBMITTING AN APPLICATION, WE GETTING DRAGGED INTO THE CITIES GOING BACK ON THEIR BAN FOR DATA CENTERS BECAUSE THERE'S STILL A LACK OF A DEFINITION. IT'S GOING TO TAKE MAYBE FOUR MONTHS OR MAYBE A YEAR TO GET BACK. IN OUR LAST BUDGET PRESENTATION IMPROVAL PROCESS WE HAD, THE DIRECTOR AND THE CITY MANAGER MADE IT CLEAR WE HAVE NO MONEY FOR ANY MORE TEXT AMENDMENTS. So we're tapped out. So if this does trigger a sequel analysis, i.e. money to do the environmental, this is gonna be another conversation we…”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 9:15:24
“I don't know when was the last time a director's determination was on the council agenda for public discussion. She can probably speak the last time a director's determination came up.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 9:15:45
“To even suspend your authority on data centers?”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 9:16:54
“So Director, if I may, to Member Karbaugh's point, this isn't about you or about this current administration, it's just historically, people have found loopholes, right? And tech companies are much better at this than we are in finding loopholes, to a tax code, to the environmental code, to . So what if, in terms of amendment, Member Richardson, we include that if the city receives any application for a data center or for an auxiliary use or incidental use of a data center storage system, that the council will be notified. I don't want any secret.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 9:17:40
“Yeah. Okay. Cause ultimately I just want to know, and I want my predecessor to know if Amazon's planning to get creative and turn their distribution center to a data center. And I don't want to know after it shows up on planning commission. I want to know when the application comes through and maybe by that time there is no policy yet. And, we have to then speed up the process of adopting a policy or dealing with the reality. Well, your predecessor isn't here anymore, but... Not my predecessor.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 9:18:14
“All right, well now, when you go to motion to approve, I would appreciate an amendment that includes immediate notification of the council offices of any, of all council offices for any application that seeks to use a data center as their primary use or incidental or auxiliary use to their operation.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 9:36:11
“The other option too is for us to include in the resolution that we should not provide them any services. Because the county does not run a water department or a sewer department. So we can say that any data center within the sphere of influence would not receive any city services.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 9:42:09
“So in general, each time we adopt a budget, we also adopt the budgets for each council office. And then whenever we have to make adjustments to our council budgets, we're required to bring it back to the council for approval. So in this case, I am moving some money from infrastructure to operations, primarily for a couple of reasons. AS I FINISHED MY TERM ON THE COUNCIL, WE'VE BEEN NOTIFIED BY PUBLIC WORKS THAT MONEY THAT WE SET ASIDE INFRASTRUCTURE FOR PROJECTS THAT WERE SCHEDULED TO BE DONE ARE NOT GOING TO BE DONE DURING MY TENURE. AND WE'VE ALSO GOT SOME NEW COST INCREASES ON OTHER…”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 9:43:13
“As you guys will do this too, as we leave office, our employees who are also leaving with us or retiring from the system, they have compiled a lot of sick leave, vacation and whatnot, and those have to be cashed out towards the end. So those typically don't get cashed out for the whole time. So yeah, that's the case.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 1:45:13
“Thank you, Council President. This item in essence is a lease agreement between Fresno Economics Opportunities Commission and the City of Fresno for utilization of our community centers. My issue and my concerns are not with the Mosquera Community Center. My concern is that this item as written also includes termination of the Head Start program in West Fresno, and it's the first time that I received notice that such plans were under BEING UNDERTAKEN. HAVE WE FORMALLY RECEIVED NOTICE FROM PRESIDENT OF ELC THAT THEY PLAN TO TERMINATE HEAD START?”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 1:48:01
“So this agreement also calls for them to eliminate the Romaine facility? That is correct, and they have moved out of there as well. So they've officially moved out of both community centers? They have, yes.”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 1:48:21
“And if you could, is there anybody from ELC here today? I do not believe so, no. Before we go and proceed with this, is this item time sensitive? Does it need to be approved today? I'd really like to hear from ELC, because I don't want to put you guys in a position to explain or justify their decision making on head starts. We're simply the landlord at this point. Does this need to be approved today?”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 1:49:02
“Yeah, and I don't want to be disruptive to District 5 and Mosqueda Center and their lease or any other lease that's on here. So this lease is basically for Mosqueda Center and what other community center where they plan to expand? Willow and Balch. Willow, is that D? That's D5, I believe. D5? I'd like to table this to the next council meeting. What is the significant exposure if they're out of lease for a week or so?”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 1:50:10
“And here's my other concern, city manager. I don't want the public, I don't want to have to entertain criticism and concerns from the public that the city is shutting down these Head Start programs. From my understanding, ELC has not notified the public of their plans to shut them down. They're out. I know. They are gone. They're gone. And nobody's aware of it. They have not notified people.”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 1:50:46
“So why are you informing us of this now then, if they moved out months ago?”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 1:51:43
“Correct. So did I miss a memo somewhere where you guys communicate to us that we're shutting down Marietta Brown?”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 1:52:05
“Thank you, those are my questions. I appreciate you guys' work. I did not realize that this has gone that far along and that the move out had already occurred. So my secondary question is, what's the plan for the space now? So I'm gonna turn that over to the Director of Parks. And, Director, if you don't have plans yet, that's a fair response, too. I don't want to have you make programming decisions on the fly. When do you anticipate having programming operations in that vacant space?”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 1:53:25
“So it's fair to say that since they've moved out officially, you guys will start the minor tenant improvements before you start programming?”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 1:53:56
“Thank you again for your time and clarification. With that, Council President, I'll make a motion to approve. Yeah, I'll second that.”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026