City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. Good evening, everybody. Sorry for making you wait to welcome your Patterson City Council meeting Tuesday, June 2nd, 2026. Your report from closed session is your city council will adjourn to the closed session. We'll be on recess and we'll reconvene at the end of the open session to our closed session. We'll now adjourn from the closed session. Public meeting guidelines. City of Patterson City Council meetings are conducted in person at City Hall Council Chambers as a courtesy and technology permitting. Members of the public may continue to participate virtually. However, the City cannot guarantee the public's access to teleconferencing technology will be uninterrupted and technical difficulties may occur from time to time. The meeting will be televised and available for public viewing on Comcast Channel 7 on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday at 12 p.m. Our members of the public may watch on the Internet with the BMO link available on our City's website. Before we start our regular session, those in the audience who wish to do so, Please stand and bow your heads for our invocation. Emily, Father, once again, we enter your presence to express our thankfulness to your goodness to us. We thank you for the beautiful weather and safety as we celebrated our annual apricot fiesta this past weekend. We acknowledge that we are extremely blessed with a city full of hardworking volunteers. We ask that we might continue moving forward with that same spirit. As we meet tonight, we acknowledge that we are in need of your wisdom. Help us work together as public servants to find the best solutions for our community. We thank you for your guidance and wisdom. We give you all the glory for all that you do. In the name of your son, Jesus Christ, we ask this. Amen. Please remain standing as we call the meeting to order. Your Patterson City Council meeting will now come to order. Pledge of Allegiance. Statements of conflict. Are there any statements of conflict from the council members?

None.

None. And your mayor has no conflicts. Proclamation, Older Americans Month. May everyone that wanted to be part of this beautiful proclamation please come forward, and especially Guadalupe Villegas. Everybody, everybody, come on down. This is the best part of the evening. Come on, everybody. Don't be shy. All right. Is everybody up here? Going once, going twice. Everybody get settled. Is that the thumbs up? OK, I can go. All right. Well, tonight is a wonderful evening where we get to express our sincere appreciation for our older Americans. This is supposed to happen last month, but due to a scheduling conflict, we weren't able to get it done. but I am very, very proud to present this proclamation for Older Americans Month. So here it goes. Proclamation, Older Americans Month for May 2026. Whereas older Americans strengthen the fabric of our community through their wisdom, compassion, volunteerism, and lifelong dedication to serving others, and whereas the month of May is nationally recognized as Older Americans Month, to honor the countless contributions older adults make to our neighborhoods, organizations, and civic life. And whereas the City of Patterson proudly joins the Stanislaus County Commission on Aging and the Stanislaus County Area Agency on Agency in recognizing and celebrating older adults who continue to positively impact our community through service and leadership, and whereas the city of Patterson is especially honored to recognize Guadalupe Villegas as the 2026. Woo! Yeah, let's go. As the 2026 outstanding senior citizen for Stanislaus County District 5 for her extraordinary dedication in serving others. And whereas Guadalupe Villegas, affectionately known as Lupe, has devoted countless hours to volunteer work throughout the Patterson community, demonstrating kindness, leadership, and compassion in all she does. And whereas Ms. Villegas has served St. Vincent Paul Church for 14 years by preparing and distributing lunches to individuals in need, while supporting seniors through programs at the Hammond Senior Center in Patterson. And whereas Ms. Villegas has contributed community wellness by teaching exercise classes for migrant and special needs children through Patterson Promotoras and Rising Sun School, and by volunteering with organizations such as the Patterson Garden Club, Manos Unidas, Manos Magicas, Love Patterson, and Invest in Me, and whereas Ms. Villegas' dedication to community service, cultural enrichment, beautification efforts, and mentorship has inspired countless residents and embodies the spirit of volunteerism and neighborliness. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that I, Mayor Michael Clauzel, on behalf of the Patterson City Council, do hereby proclaim the month of May 2026 as Older Americans Month, and the City of Patterson extends sincere appreciation to all older Americans for their invaluable contributions to our community and A witness hereof, I have here to set my hand and cause the official seal of the city of Patterson to be affixed this second day of June, 2026. A huge round of applause for older Americans, especially Guadalupe Villegas. She's a little shy this evening, ladies and gentlemen. She doesn't want to say anything. Is there anybody else who wants to say a few words? Okay.

Yes.

Turn it around so they can see it.

Awesome. One last round of applause. All right. Moving on to items from the public. Any member of the audience who wishes to address the council on a matter not listed on the agenda may do so by raising your hand and stepping to the podium. If you're joining the meeting via Zoom, please use the raised hand feature. If you're calling in by phone, you may press 9 when the mayor announces the item. Council will take no action other than referring the item to staff for study and analysis and may place the item on a future agenda. In order that all interested parties have an opportunity to speak, any person interested in the council will be limited to a maximum of three minutes unless the mayor grants a longer period of time. City Council requests everyone be respectful of other citizens' time and stay within the allotted time period. If after extending the three-minute time period the mayor determines that the citizen will not complete their comments within a reasonable time, the mayor will request their comments be completed at a later date. The City Council fully supports the right of the public to comment freely during the public comment period per the Brown Act. However, All comments will be made respectfully and in no way be disruptive in nature. The Brown Act expressly authorizes a legislative body to remove from the meeting those persons who willfully interrupt the proceedings. Independent of the Brown Act, California Penal Code Section 403 makes it a misdemeanor to willfully disturb a lawful meeting. Please state your name and city for the record when you step to the podium. Thank you.

Good evening, Cheryl Lex, City of Paterson. I just wanted to take this opportunity to explain a little situation that happened where our mayor had an interaction with my granddaughter. And not only does our city council and mayor have an impact on us older folks and teenagers, but also on the younger ones. So Olivia has written a little note to the mayor, and I'm going to read it because she couldn't be here this evening. It says, from Olivia and my grandma, dear Mike, thank you, foe, F-O, being an awesome mayor to everyone. From Olivia. And then she drew your picture. It doesn't have your hat, but it says best mayor on here. And then there's a picture of grandma and Olivia. So thank you from Olivia.

Thank you very much. I appreciate that. All right. Is there anyone else present in the council chamber who wishes to provide a public comment?

Good evening. My name is Maria Gabriel, resident off Walnut Ave. I was wondering if there's going to be any more street safety down Walnut Avenue. I know we have placed speed reading meters down Hartley and Walnut, and I'm really glad that we got a new stop sign on Hartley. I'm very thankful for that. Um, but the last time, um, I've been up here before for this, and the last time I was contacted about possible speed bumps or, uh, road safety on Walnut was October 22nd of last year, and then all contact kind of stopped. Um, since then, there have been numerous children hit down Walnut. Um, of course, they're not following road safety, but... When people are going 20 to 25 miles over the speed limit, they can't really stop in the nick of time. There's been countless animals also hit. We have a lot of T and R cats, which are trap and release cats, cats that are too feral to be pets but are let back out into the community after being fixed. A lot of them have been hit in the road. I know that we have our speed meter out, but I'm not sure. Does it take pictures and send people tickets or is it kind of just there to warn people? Because if it is, they don't care. I find it really hard to pull out of my driveway when I'm going to work without the fear of being hit and T-boned. Um, I've seen my neighbors almost get T-boned, especially when school's being, um, well, now that school's out, I'm really happy. But, um, with school being in session, it was really terrifying trying to leave the house or even just seeing the kids from West Valley, um, being picked up and dropped off, knowing that there is, um, a chance that they could elope into the street is always scary. And, um, the drivers just don't care. So I'm thinking maybe speed humps, um, the ones that go all the way across the road with Dieter, um, a lot of the fast drivers that we have in town because I'm not really sure what the next step is. I want to stand out there with water balloons, but I know that's not okay. So I'm just hoping that we can have a little bit more road safety, especially on Walnut Ave, with us having two schools, a lot of neighborhoods, including the apartments. So thank you.

Absolutely.

Thank you. I WOULD LIKE TO SAY THAT WE DID HAVE THIS DISCUSSION A WHILE BACK WITH OUR PUBLIC SAFETY. TO MY UNDERSTANDING, WE CANNOT PUT SPEED BUMPS DUE TO OUR PUBLIC SAFETY. I DON'T KNOW IF YOU COULD HELP ME ELABORATE, FERNANDO, OR SOMEBODY ON OUR STAFF.

YEAH, I THINK THE CITY FOR RIGHT NOW DOES NOT HAVE OR MINIMIZE, IF ANY, SPEED BUMPS. bumps on the streets. We provide other traffic calming measures, whether it's traffic circles, roundabouts, stop signs, curb pop-outs, other stuff, because in emergency cases, the speed bumps have proven to slow down emergency response. Now, I know there's more up-to-date information methods, even on speed bumps that we're starting to look into. But to this date, we have not included speed bumps in the city of Patterson because of the slowing down of the emergency response. But that doesn't mean that in the future, as new technology comes out that can accommodate how the fire trucks and police respond where it doesn't affect their response time, that we could look into those situations as well.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Araceli.

Martha Fleming, Patterson. One of my concerns is that, as you can see, I'm in a power chair, and these roads are horrible. Even the sidewalks, some places on the sidewalks are horrible. So I am hoping that you guys can do something about that. At one point in time, you were working on the roads, and I thought maybe you would get to it. But that road right there by the post office coming down that way, it's a mess. And I don't know how much more my power chair can take on that road. I have to go really slow because of all the bumps and holes that are on that road. But as a wheelchair user and other people I've seen as wheelchair users, I'm sure they are having the same kind of issue. Also, I'd like to... Thank Cambria and Jasmine for the things that they do at the Senior Center. I appreciate the fact that Cambria comes around and talks to us and Jasmine to see how we're doing and, you know, if there's any way they can help us. That means a lot. We weren't getting that before. So I really want to thank them for that.

Ms. Rodriguez, City Engineer Rodriguez, do you want to address that really quick?

Thank you, Mayor. I would like to respond to that to say we are trying to do everything we can to continue to improve the roads and sidewalks in the city. A few years ago, we did our active transportation master plan and that identified sidewalk gaps and ADA ramps that are missing or that do need improvement. We will be starting construction very soon, reconstructing 9th Street. So all of 9th Street will be reconstructed and all the ADA ramps along the east side will be redone. We're currently in design for the Las Palmas Safety Corridor. We were out there at Fiesta trying to get public input of what two projects we should be pushing forward for the ATP program that the grant is statewide right now. So we'll be pushing forward the Las Palmas Safety Corridor and then Phase 2 of the Salada Creek Bike Trail because those got the most votes. So we hear you, and we will continue to make those improvements. Thank you.

Thank you. Mayor Mazzetti, welcome back. Yes, ma'am.

Mayor Mazzetti, Adelanto, California. I'm glad to be back. I'm just here for a visit. I'll be leaving on the 9th to go back home. But I love Patterson. I have been all over just to see how it has changed since I left. But it's still looking good. Still looking good. I'm here this evening. I'd kind of like to talk to you a little bit about I follow everything because I have the irrigator sent to me every week. And then I get phone calls from a lot of my friends that I get to keep up with Patterson. And what I have a really concerned with is how much money the city has been spending for legal fees. I'm glad to hear that you have funded money to do a feasibility study because I think that's something that's really going to be needed. But personally, I don't think that's enough. I think what you need to do is you need to have somebody come in from the Stanislaus County Grand Jury and do a complete assessment of exactly what's been going on with the city and how much money is being spent. Because we have a lot of things that we'd like to see done in the city of Patterson. We'd like to see our downtown revamped. done. We'd like to see our Centennial Park completed. And I know you can't do any of that without money. It's the name of the game. And maybe if we had a grant writer, because I live in Atalanto, which is in the high desert in Southern California, and they have a great grant writer. She just got them $762,000 to put in a brand new park. They overlaid a long, long street, a million dollars a mile, and she got it with grant money. So there is the availability for you to be able to do that. But if anybody is interested in contacting the grand jury, I'd like to give you a phone number, 209-525-4252. And you can go to them, and they'll send you a citizen's complaint form, You can fill it out and you can do it anonymously. So if anybody in town still has the same feeling I have is that maybe we have been spending too much money for legal fees, we need to be able to have somebody come in and do you a really assessment. Another thing that I'd like to talk to you about is does the state and the League of California Cities still come in and give you a group once a year to go through the Brown Act and all of those things? Are they still doing that so that council, planning commission, and anybody you have sitting on any boards and commissions can be educated as to what you're supposed to do and not do? I was fortunate when I sat on the council here for 10 years. is that I had a city attorney, Mr. Logan, and he knew everything about what you're supposed to do and not do as council people. And when I would come out of a meeting, he would even write down what I'm supposed to say so that the public is kept informed as to what we're doing in a back-closed-door session. So if Mr. Bollinger... is helping you. He's really very knowledgeable because he's been a city manager for two different cities. So I just like to see our city continue to do what it's doing. And I really appreciate being able to be back. I see a lot of my friendly faces here tonight, too. Thank you.

You're welcome, ma'am. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Ellen Schneider. I'm a Patterson resident, and I would like to address the mandate council regarding the following. I'm here to support and speak on behalf of creating the Centennial Park and really discuss and outline that this is something that Patterson will not just need today, but in 10, 20, 30 years to come as the city grows and continues to grow. We are a growing community. I've been here for over 20 years, and the city is not the same that it was when I even moved here. So as our population grows, parks and recreation opportunities for our residents are going to be ever important. Centennial Park is an opportunity to create a destination that serves the residents of this city of all ages. I'm a mother of teenagers, and that age group is highly underserved within the city. There's very little that they can do here that doesn't require them to travel to Modesto, the Bay Area, outside of town. So a successful park would include a number of amenities that really would bring citizens and families together. Features like combined pickleball and tennis courts, a full basketball court, open grass areas for picnics, family gatherings, music in the park, ADA accessible pathways, picnic tables, secure restrooms, all that. I think I am aware that there has been conversations around a splash pad or additional half basketball courts. Those are things that we already have in Patterson. There is a splash pad that's already available. There's multiple parks within the city that have half basketball courts already. So I think the idea is that the proposal is then rather than You know, expending on offerings that the city already is offering, let's really think about what we can add to our offering that continues to attract and be an attractive feature for the residents of Paterson and the surrounding cities. So I think looking at neighboring communities like Gustine and Newman, those cities have invested in recreational facilities that are more offerings that span multiple ages. Gustine has tennis courts, for example. They have an opportunity to play pickleball. Newman has a park that has opportunities to have concerts, for example, things like that. That being said, I think recreation shouldn't just be limited to the youth. It should be encompassing all ages, including senior citizens and adults to really build a space where the community can come together and enjoy our city. It could be a great opportunity. I'm running, I see my timer. So I guess I'll close out and I say I do encourage the council to create a centennial park that is future thinking and inclusive and designed for all ages as an opportunity to build something that Patterson residents will enjoy and be proud of for generations to come. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else present in the council chamber who wishes to provide a public comment? Yes, ma'am.

Good evening. My name is Veronica Barron. I'm with Promotoras Patterson. I'm here to talk about how if they could paint the white lines on the street of North 1st Street and Walnut Avenue. because there are no lines right there. And I drive, right now the summer school started again. I drive towards Northmead, so I make a left, and it's become very dangerous. And many times my son has gotten scared, because there's nothing to distinguish where each line, each car should be. So, and that's it. Thank you.

Thank you. I was coming right to you.

Thank you, Mayor. Actually, I'd like to respond to that and say that there is a project we are including in the budget that's citywide striping. And so we will be looking at striping everything east of Highway 33 that's not a part of the slurry seal project and just looking at all those areas. So that is already part of our project.

Thank you very much. Appreciate that. Is there anyone else present in the council? Yes, ma'am. Go ahead.

Hello, good evening. My name is Alyssa, and I am a resident of Patterson and former school board member. This past weekend was Apricot Fiesta. I attended and had a wonderful time with my family. I was able to support local businesses, get a henna tattoo, and even a sunburn. The fireworks were stunning, as always, and thank you to the team of volunteers who made the Apricot Fiesta happen. Apricot Fiesta shows the best of Patterson. Neighbors coming together, supporting local businesses, and celebrating community. That is exactly why public safety and public trust matter. Saturday, while people were gathered waiting for the fireworks to begin, there was a reported use of force incident involving law enforcement captured on video in which a community member was forcefully shoved to the ground. In the video, she appears to strike her shoulder on the curb. Had the circumstances only been slightly different, the outcome could have been far more serious. This incident has raised concerns in the community about escalation and whether de-escalation practices are being consistently applied during interactions with residents. This is not an isolated concern. The Stanislaus County sheriffs have faced scrutiny across the county. The last two settlements, just the last two settlements from the sheriff's department totaled in approximately $12.1 million. That raises serious questions about accountability, public safety, and whether deeper systemic issues need to be addressed. This ties directly to the public safety concerns many of us have been raising since April 7th, the day Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez was shot. Since then, nearly two months have passed and multiple council meetings have come and gone. Residents have continued showing up and we have continued speaking and continued asking for answers and action. And most importantly, we did not come here only with concerns. We came with solutions as well. Community members suggested strengthening sanctuary protections, increasing transparency regarding cooperation with ICE. prohibiting ice activity on city property, and developing a safety plan for situations like this. Whether this council agrees with those proposals or not, those were concrete ideas that could have been added to an agenda and discussed publicly. Yet nearly two months later, there has been no visible discussion of these proposals on the agenda, no public update on what actions are being considered, and no clear roadmap for how the city intends to respond to concerns that many residents have been following closely. If action is being taken from behind the scenes, then tell the community what that action is. Transparency is not an attack. Transparency is how trust is built. People have been patient. Families, especially Carlos' family, have been waiting, and residents have continued showing up. So I'm going to wrap this up. So tonight I am asking this council for something very simple, accountability, communication, and a clear explanation of what has been done since April 7th. Nearly two months is long enough to expect a public response and a clear safety plan. If action is being taken, it should not be invisible to the people most affected. Thank you.

Really quick, if I could add to that.

We have been in constant communication with Lisa Montero from Adams Grace Office, discussing these issues with our Council Member Hernandez as well. Unfortunately, under Senate Bill 54, the state of California is considered a sanctuary state. Although the city, our sheriff's department, to what I understand is we have nothing to do with ICE. You know, it's a total federal agency. And as of this, we've been collaborating with our supervisor Condit and our congressman. And they said at this point it's a very delicate situation. And they said if you have any questions to please refer you guys to them. But if you want, I could give you the phone number when we're done and see if we could, you know, escalate to a different congressperson. But thank you.

I would also like to add, Lisa, right, that I will be reaching out to Faith in the Valley to have more Know Your Rights on Zoom and have them come out and have more workshops in regards to immigration.

You're welcome.

Candace Weyrock, Cynthia Patterson. I wasn't going to talk, but I just felt like I needed to address the first part of that incident you were referring to on Saturday. So unfortunately with all things, there's two sides and then there's a truth. And the video that is circulating on social media is about five minutes too late started. So I just want to encourage the community to be patient and to allow the people whose job it is to look into that to be able to do that. Also, I would love to see the body cam footage because Horrible things happened that day, and before people were arrested, horrible things continued to happen, and it was escalated, unfortunately, by people that had had way too much alcohol to drink. And you can also see in the video, if you watch, that the officer who came on scene, I have... TON OF VERY CLOSE FAMILY MEMBERS THAT ARE IN LAW ENFORCEMENT. THE OFFICER WHO CAME ON THE SCENE AFTER MULTIPLE PEOPLE WERE BEING DETAINED, THEIR JOB IS TO KEEP CONTROL OF THE SITUATION BY KEEPING PEOPLE AWAY. And you can see that one officer did that with very gentle, I would say, very gentle nudges to people. And on the second push, it wasn't even truly, in my opinion, that hard of a push when you're trying to detain a very hostile active situation where people are screaming obscenities racial slurs at these officers and they did everything in their power to control the scene to just the ones that were being detained and honestly as someone who works that barricade That's my barricade. That 9th Street barricade by the fireworks is my barricade. I work it with a lot of other amazing volunteers, and I've been called a thing or two by people who are just a little too drunk and think that they can do whatever they want at the fireworks. And there's rules and regulations for a reason, and it's always to keep people safe. Um, and these people just didn't want to be safe, unfortunately. Um, and I'm actually kudos to our sheriff's office for handling it the way that they did because they kept as many innocent bystanders safe as possible while dealing with a really horrible situation. And people went to jail and, um, It's, again, a horrible situation. But if it would have escalated further, I think their de-escalation tactics worked as well as they could in that situation. Sometimes drunk people cannot be de-escalated. And I think that if it hadn't de-escalated the way that it did and ended the way that it did, I don't think the fireworks could have even happened. So kudos to them for handling it. And I just want to encourage people, like, I know it's not fun to see people get pushed, but you have to know that that's not where, where the video starts is not where the incident starts. So I just want to encourage you to just, for those of us that were there, boots on the ground, not quite literally, I was in flip-flops, but for those of us that were there, like, And there's way more to it than what you guys saw in an apricot watch video. So I just want to encourage people to keep an open mind until, honestly, I'd love for the body cam footage to be released because I think people would be disgusted at some of the things that were said and done to these officers before the video started rolling. Thank you.

Thank you. Next public comment.

Janice James, resident of Walker Ranch and Del Porto Canyon. So my big thing, it's not addressing what was previously said, but my big thing about Patterson downtown, especially with the Fiesta so current, is just the fact that our downtown really isn't I'm inviting all towards people I know we have a a master plan I'm in that's been in the works for a very long time I'm but the procedure is in very very slow I've been here for I'm going on almost 20 years now and I'm it's just been extremely slow getting anything done in the downtown area Especially with the Fiesta, you still have Highway 33 coming through, and I understand that it's a highway, but it also goes through Newman, which reduces down to 25 miles an hour in their historical little zone right there. We're still at 40 miles an hour coming in right past the downtown circle area, and that technically means people can be going almost 50 miles an hour and blasting through there if they don't have a red light at the signal light so that corridor right there which we're trying to enhance and bring more people into downtown historical area really needs to be addressed with reduction of lanes on 33, more horizontal parking on 33, so that it would be able to have a lot more parking for downtown flow. And just the fact that it's still zoned the way it is for commercial and not just retail and restaurant retail, that's keeping all of these big commercial offices in downtown where there's no walking traffic for those. Pretty much everybody does it online now. So those buildings should be utilized for retail and restaurant. And so that would bring in all this walking traffic to downtown, occupying these big buildings that have been, I mean, the whole circle is banks, banks and insurance. I mean, get them out of town where the offices and commercial areas should be. Our main focus should be on rezoning the downtown for strictly retail and restaurant to bring in all of this. I'm tired of going to Turlock for all my antique shopping. I want to shop here. I want to browse here. I want to go bougie downtown in historical Patterson. You know, I want to have my little coffee and tea. I love Turlock only because it's the whole historical area. I want it to be in Patterson, not over in Turlock, even though I like Turlock, because of that. So please, try to rezone. Try to do more in downtown. Sorry to go over the time. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. Anybody else present in the council chambers who wishes to provide a public comment this evening? Seeing no takers. Madam Clerk, is there anyone online who wishes to provide a public comment?

We do have a few comments online, Mayor. Yolanda, you can go ahead and unmute yourself.

Hi, guys. Sorry, my son has a class I couldn't make it in tonight. First of all, I just want to say I love Apricot Fiesta. I finally was able to be here the whole weekend and come see Come and go all weekend, and it's just amazing. So thank you to everyone who puts that on. It's just amazing. And I did have a suggestion for the sheriffs. While I was out in the riding, where the rides are with my kids, I noticed a lack of sheriff equipment. sheriff's coming and going. I saw all of them at the command post, but none walking through. I feel like a lot of the drunkenness and fights and stuff can be prevented if they're more of a presence throughout, as well as walking towards the fireworks. I didn't quite see many out, you know, on the city, keeping an eye on things. So that would be my... And that's coming from ex-law enforcement. We were not allowed to be in groups like that for long periods of time, as well as... a mom's perspective and someone who's been a victim of gang violence for years, specifically getting jumped at fairs. So that's one thing that I always look for is where are the officers? And so that would be my suggestion. The other question I actually had was who determines when there's a new residential area Who determines the width of the streets? Is that a developer issue or a city issue?

City engineer, you want to answer that for us?

Yes, thank you, Mayor. Good evening, Yolanda. I will say that the city of Patterson has road section standards that we hold the developers to.

Okay, so having said that, I would suggest I'm in the new development off of Walnut by the school over there. And when there's cars parked on each side of the street, there's no way two cars can get through coming and going opposite directions. We actually have to pull over. We have to wait and let the other person coming the opposite direction pull over in front of like a driveway where there's no cars to allow cars. as to come through. So for emergency vehicles, I think that's a bit dangerous. I see these beautiful white streets downtown area, but over there, for some reason, it's not. So I would, as a resident, suggest having those a little bit wider. And then some of the comments that were made, I missed the downtown revitalization commission meeting recently, but is there an update maybe, I don't know if Brian Stice is there, on when we're getting lights downtown? That was talked about maybe the most simplest, inexpensive thing we can do to brighten up downtown.

Community Development Director Stice, do you want to answer that? I believe it's a budget item, correct?

Hi, Yolanda. The plans for the downtown string lights have been tentatively designed, and they're just needing to be funded. There's not been a designated set of funds to pull the trigger and have them constructed. There's some challenges with the project. And so there just has not been the level of consensus to make it happen yet. And so there's no date yet. They've been tentatively designed. But to answer your question, there's no date of construction thus far.

Okay. Thank you very much. That was it, you guys.

All right. Thank you.

JERIN, YOU CAN GO AHEAD AND EMUTE YOURSELF.

NEW SPEAKER Hello. My name is Jerin. My family has lived in Patterson, California, for 13 years, and I've represented Patterson in academic competitions at a county and state level. On April 7th, ICE agents shot Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez. In the two months that have passed, community members have begged for accountability and communication from the City Council. During this time, Carlos has had to endure inhumane living conditions and a lack of adequate medical treatment. We are calling to the City Council not to isolate or to shame any individual members, but to call upon your sense of compassion that drew you to your positions. We are here to acknowledge all of you, not just as neighbors, but as members of a system much larger than any singular individual. We have recommended strengthening sanctuary protections, transparency around cooperation with ICE, and prohibiting ICE activity on city property. As community members, we deserve proposals on the agenda, public updates, and clear roadmaps at the very least. I understand that some of the city council have stated that they are taking action. Regardless, we are here to say that we have not forgotten and we will not forget. May Carlos and his family find safety and justice. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Cat, you can go ahead and unmute yourself.

Hi, Cat Ritchie. I just had a question, I think, in regards to the sports park. I know last year, you know, I had some discussions with everybody about concrete incidences there. And I know that Public Works came out and kind of did some temporary work. Um, and I just, um, I'm hopeful because I was under the understanding that all that concrete was going to get replaced, um, because it's a true safety risk, um, issue for, you know, our families that are there and there's a lot of families that are there. And so I guess I'm trying to understand, um, What the plan is, I know we had a plan to do not just the work on the concrete, but a whole plan for that park. And just wondering if that's getting funded.

Interim Director Gugliarte, do you have any update on that? Or should I refer this to City Manager?

That is not, I don't know if this mic is working or not, but that's currently not funded at the moment, but we could definitely look at it.

Yeah, I will add that there's a lot of the stuff, Kat, that we look for at the sports complex. It's unfunded to the level of doing, I guess, a large amount of projects at a time. We try to take certain things by phasing because we do, as development comes in, depending where the development happens, there is impact fees for the overall project. City-wide parks. Not necessarily when you discuss of a neighborhood park, but if that new development is coming in and is not providing an outlet for a community sports-type park, then they have an impact fee that they have to pay that we collect. And Through those, we do collect those fees. We do have funding, but limited funding as how much development is happening. And then other avenues that we have been shooting for and aiming for is grants. Grants to further grow faster than we otherwise getting funding to build out the sports complex that ultimately has designed.

Does that answer your question? Did we lose her?

No, I'm sorry. I was trying to unmute myself.

No problem.

All good. So last city council meeting, you guys talked about a special fund that needs to be spent. Um, and so my ask would be council, if you guys can look to see if there's something that can be done with that money to fix that, because that's a true, I mean, I'm happy to send pictures of my, um, of my community, um, that has had, um, you know, some things that have happened. But, you know, it's a really big safety risk to not get that concrete completed, like, at a minimum. So I don't know if that bond would work or not. But I think it's important.

Definitely. Is there anything else?

No, I mean, I think you guys all see online that I'm not real happy about a full basketball court being taken out of the new park that was supposed to be next to the high school. And I guess my only question was, I've gone through all of the workshops and it would appear that nowhere in the workshops does it ever show there being 12 kids. pickleball courts and so i was going to ask like how did we get there did the community that was there any community feedback reports like was there any anything done to like show that we didn't need a full basketball court there that we needed 12 pickleball courts instead

So what I will say to start off with is the basketball court is still part of the plan. It's just not part of phase one. But I'm going to let our city engineer give you a little bit of light as to the configuration of the courts. Go ahead, ma'am.

Thank you, Mayor. Hello, Kat. I just wanted to respond to that. So like the mayor mentioned, what we presented at the last city council meeting for the bond funding was specifically just phase one. And phase one is focusing just on that parking lot and then on those pickleball courts and tennis courts. We initially did outreach as a part of Centennial Park as a part of a different grant project back in 2021. And in terms of Centennial Park and that configuration did come before City Council three different times. We presented three different conceptual designs and then came back two different times to get those approved. And I do have the dates of those City Council meetings. So we did do the outreach. We put together requests for proposals and got a consultant under contract. We provided all that feedback from all those community outreach events to the consultants, and we generated that master plan. That master plan was then taken to city council and ultimately approved. Does that answer your question?

Yeah, I read through all of that that you guys have provided to the community. I don't know if there's any other something else that wasn't provided, but what you have provided, I've read through. And, you know, I'd love to see, you know, if maybe offline you can send that to me. Because everything that I show shows two to four pickleball courts, which seem like pretty reasonable. But I know that everything that I've seen so far don't align perfectly. with what you guys presented in the last city council meeting doesn't align with what the workshops with the community were that we've seen. And in speaking with others that were on council before, this design is not the same design that they approved. So something has changed. I'd like to know how it got changed And, you know, if the community really wants 12 pickleball courts and then not these other things, then great. But that's like an acre and almost an acre and a half of pickleball and tennis ball courts. It just seems exorbitant and concerning that sits next to a high school and a senior center.

Yeah, I understand your concerns, but the one thing that I want to make sure that we confirm for the entire community and for you this evening is it's only four permanent pickleball courts. It's four tennis courts. The two middle courts that you see when you're looking at the design plan are multi-use. And so what you're seeing in that black and white picture, which is why we tried to provide a color one, is so that you can see that it's four tennis courts, but there's the striping down for the four pickleball courts per tennis court so that we can have tournament capability because that's a big thing for me to be able to bring people in from other communities. That's going to fill up our restaurants and fill up our hotels. And so the permanent striping will be there for those four pickleball courts, but it will be set up as four tennis courts and four pickleball courts. Is that information correct, City Engineer?

Yes, Mayor.

Okay. Thank you very much. Does that answer your question, Kat?

Yeah, I guess if we're building the park for something else other than for our community, then I guess that would make sense. But I guess I look at it differently. And I guess that's why I would like to see what the community, how you guys built this based off of community feedback. That's all. So if you guys have something that shows that the community is asking for this transition to change compared to what's been shown, you know, I'm not going to fight it, but I'd love to see that data.

Okay. No problem. We'll provide that for you as much as we can with the city engineer. And just for clarity again, this is phase one of a multi-phase project for the entirety of Centennial Park. which will include all sorts of different amenities like an amphitheater. It's going to include playgrounds for kids. So there's much more to this particular park than just pickleball courts and tennis courts. The community needs to understand that. This is phase one only. Of a much bigger plan.

But we've also been through phase one of the sports park. And so we're still waiting for phase two of the sports park.

Well, phase two is underway because we have actually built a new baseball field out there and it should be ready within a month, correct? Yes. Thereabouts?

Correct, Mayor.

So this council has committed to moving forward on the sports park, which hadn't had any construction done on it since the 1990s. So we are on our way, and we're going to continue to deliver at a high level as much as humanly possible given our financial constraints.

If it's okay, I would like to ask one question really quick. You did mention you hired another consultant. So did we hire another consultant on top of the original consultant that we had for the Centennial Park, or did I misunderstand something?

So initially we had one consultant on who did the preliminary master plan of Centennial Park. When they provided costs for a design, it was too high. The costs were too high. And at that time, council directed city staff to put together requests for proposals for the design of the park. And from that request for proposals, we have the current consultant online, our under contract Melton Design Group.

Another one question that I have I've asked this to I think Fernando do we have a history of how much money? We have spent on consulting you know on Centennial Park Where we add on those realistic numbers?

I don't have those numbers directly in front of me, but I can get those to the city manager Okay, that's pretty much it.

Thank you Madam clerk is there anyone else online who wishes to provide a public comment I?

We do. Patterson resident, you can go ahead and unmute yourself.

Good evening. I just wanted to CALL IN PRETTY MUCH PIGGYBACK OFF OF WHAT KANDICE HAD ALREADY SAID. WE WERE PRESENT FOR THE ALTERCATION DURING THE FIREWORKS AND I JUST WANT TO APPLAUD THE SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT FOR THEIR CROWD CONTROL GIVEN THE RESOURCES THAT THEY DID HAVE. It seemed to be a lot of intoxicated people shoving their phones in the officers' faces and impeding on arrests and crowd control. And I believe that they did the best they could given the circumstances, again, with a bunch of intoxicated people and it had not been for their quick actions. Many of our kids who are out there And many of us who had set up our seating on 9th Street at 3 p.m. so we could have a front row seat were made to leave because of the outbursts of some of those community members who were unable to control themselves. So good job to the Sheriff's Department. And then I do have a question regarding the lane closures still on Sperry Avenue. It's creating an enormous amount of traffic still, and it doesn't seem to be like there's any movement. Is there any way to provide an update on what's happening there? Or is there a way to remove those cones and unrestrict the lane until the work moves forward?

Hello, ma'am. This is Tiffany Rodriguez, the city engineer. I'd like to respond to that. City staff understands the frustration. You have to understand the work that we're doing under the undercrossing, they're actually working under the bridge. And there's a very specific sequence of construction that we have to undertake to ensure that we are maintaining the structural stability of that bridge. We have to excavate, then we have to pour the slurry backfill, put the rebar in, and then pour the concrete. The concrete has to reach a certain compressive strength before we can even move on to the next section. We're additionally complicated in that Salado Creek is considered a protected waterway of the U.S. We cannot pour concrete five days before a rain event and concrete for 24 hours after a rain event. So we just haven't had the best, I mean, good thing that we are getting the rain, but just how the rain has been coming through has been just extending the lane closure. As of right now, we are set to pour the final section of concrete on Friday, and we should be, if we can get the compressive strength on the concrete, we should be removing traffic control Monday afternoon.

Awesome. Thank you so much.

Thank you for that update. Madam Clerk, anyone else online?

We do have Erica. You can go ahead and unmute yourself.

Hi, good evening, Mayor and City Council. My name is Erica and I am a resident here of Patterson. I am making an invitation announcement. This is to invite you to a community forum, if you will. Invest in Me is partnering with San RTA and Debrief to bring in a meeting on June 25th, which is a Thursday from 530 to 7 o'clock at Stone Gate Community Center, which is 625 Logan Way in Patterson. It's going to be a conversation about accessibility to transportation and public transportation. Those impacted can use Dial Ride and the BART commuter are strongly encouraged to participate in this conversation, to voice their opinion, provide feedback, and hear about the changes that are underway. So I invite the community to partake in this conversation. And again, it will be on Thursday, June 25th from 5.30 to 7 at the Stonegate Community Center at 625 Logan Way. And we invite the community to join us. Thank you.

Anybody else online?

We do have another one. Alexia, you can go ahead and unmute yourself.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Okay, good evening. I just wanted to come on and just show support for the centennial project. I think that it would bring a huge upgrade to that area. And I would love to see the whole project, one, the project be started so that the whole thing can continue to kind of keep going and it can all be finished. Because I think, again, it would really benefit the residents. So... That's all.

Thank you. Anybody else?

Yes. Jocelyn, you can go ahead and unmute yourself.

Thank you. Good evening, everyone. My name is Jocelyn Ramirez. I'm going off Elisa's comment, public comment from earlier today. As you remember, I have been I continue actually to this day advocating for my brother in law, Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, who was shot by ice on April 7th. I was not prepared to speak today, but I wanted to prepare. Couldn't be there in person since I I just couldn't be there. Anyways, it's been I've been very involved ever since this incident happened. Could be, you know, too late, but I wanted to be involved. So I've been attending the city meetings here in Patterson, as well as the city meetings in California City. And this is the second time I hear, oh, he he said she said type of situation. Till this day, we've been trying to contact Lisa from Adam Gray's office. So the updates that you guys have provided are a shock to me and my family because till this day, you know, we haven't heard anything from what the council has been doing. And, you know, when we came to you guys, I know there's only so many limits you guys can do. You know, still to this day, I think one of the things that hurts me till this day is that While, you know, Carlos was in the hospital pretty much dying, you know, and my sister was looking for him, the mayor, you know, along with the sheriff, along with ICE, along with FBI was probably in the menus, you know, providing the news besides us not knowing what was going on with my family member. So to this day, this is a shock to me. Till this day, we still wait for a return call to whoever we spoke to in the office, you know, asking for answers. I don't know, someone from the, might be here in the audience, who knows, right? But someone, a lady, responded to us saying, we'll call you back. Still to this day, we're now in the month of June. This happened in April 7th. Still to this day, waiting for that call. So I would like, you know, you all as a council, like I said, I know your power is very limitless, right? I really like how Gabby has been reaching out to the Faith in the Valley, you know, organization because they're very helpful. And I think we need more of that support, especially with the sheriff's tipping eyes, you know, and coming for our people, the most vulnerable. City of Patterson is filled with a lot of immigrants, you know, filled with a lot of people of color, filled with a lot of people that are hard workers and are coming, you know, to the bay and that, you know, the same situation that happened to Carlos could happen to them just on the way to work. So I want less of the, oh, he said, oh, we're working with this. Talk to us. Talk to the family. We're here. You know, we want answers. We want transparency. Like I said, this is the first time I've been hearing that you guys are working with Lisa. Lisa has yet to reach to us. We met with her even in her office the first week the incident happened. And still to this day, no answers. So that's all we're asking realistically, just transparency. And, you know, one of the solutions that could be implemented is an emergency plans because this could happen again and again. And as we're seeing it, it's a big problem with our community, not just here, but every other community facing this. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am.

Joseline, if I could add, I did have a conversation with Lisa, I believe it was about last week, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, and we did discuss the situation. At this point, we have been working, I discussed this issue with our supervisor, Condit, as well as with Lisa. At this point, you know, the direction that we have is a very delicate situation that we're dealing with. And it's in hands of pretty much of our congressmen. We are doing the best we can. We are communicating and we are pushing. Unfortunately, we have not received too much collaboration or too much information at this point. But I do want you to understand, I do understand and we are doing the best we can as here as a council. Thank you, Jocelyn. Thank you. We have Diana. You can go ahead and unmute yourself. Hi. Good evening. Diana Ortiz, City of Patterson. I wanted to make a comment on the Centennial Park project.

From what I'm gathering and what I'm reading through social media and whatnot, it seems like this was approved a while ago and there are many residents that aren't aware of the plans. And now that we have, as you can see, we have the seats that are filling in city council and we have a lot of residents that are now being more engaged. It would be nice to see what the entire plan looks like. Mayor, I know that you mentioned that this is a phase one. And honestly, I don't know what the rest of the phases look like. So I would like to see what that looks like and maybe educate the rest of the community since they are voicing concerns regarding the cost and what is going up. And you mentioned a basketball court. So if we know what the rest of those phases looks like, then being educated would help us be able to see what is happening with that. And then I had a question. regarding when this came up, was the Parks, Rec, and Beautification Committee involved in any of these decisions when the plans were coming up?

This is the City Engineer. I know when we did the outreach initially, I think in 2021, I think they were consulted then. AND LIKE I SAID, ALL THE, AS I STATED PREVIOUSLY, ALL THE MASTER PLANS WAS APPROVED AT CITY COUNCIL.

OKAY. AND THEN DOES, JUST BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE THE KNOWLEDGE, DOES IT STOP THERE FROM THEIR INTERACTIONS AND INPUT OR ANYTHING FROM THAT? DOES THAT STOP WITH THEM FROM THERE?

SO WE DID THE INITIAL OUTREACH IN 2021 AND THEN WE CAME BACK TO CITY COUNCIL WITH THREE CONCEPTUAL IDEAS AND THEN CAME BACK TWO SUBSEQUENT TIMES TO GET THE MASTER PLAN APPROVED. THE MASTER PLAN IS WHAT WE USE AS OUR GUIDELINES TO CONTINUE ON THE DESIGN. But once we get into the design and we start looking at grades and start looking at, you know, ensuring that we're using the space effectively, that's kind of where we're at now of, you know, we're in the design process, taking what was approved at council and what we're hearing from our strategic plan of, you know, getting additional courts, completing Centennial Park. And so we use all of those as we're in this design process.

Okay. And do you have, so do we have a master plan that shows the, from concession to completion of what Centennial Park will look like? Or are we still drafting that up?

So we, our phase one plans are almost 100% complete. We're fine tuning them now. We're probably about 60% on the design of the rest of the park.

And when is that shared with the public?

So we have shared phase one as that one is complete. And then as we continue on in our design of once we have a set layout for phase two, if that was the desire of city council, we could bring it back at that time.

Okay. If possible, I would like to request that. That would be great. Thank you.

Absolutely. Tiffany, I have another question real quick. Going back to the Centennial part, you mentioned back on 2021, you guys had gone through this information before. Do you have any metrics that you guys did then that you might be able to share with us?

YES, WE DO. SO IN 2021, WE HAD THE PARKS AND RECS MASTER PLAN COMMUNITY SURVEY. WE HAD 160 PARTICIPANTS. THE RESPONSES WERE ACROSS THE BOARD OF, YOU KNOW, There's limited shade at the park, lack of amenities or interest. And so we took all of those comments and we shared those with our consultant and then use those to say, okay, this is what our community wants to see. Let's generate a master plan based on those comments. And then we took that to council for approval.

Okay, and just to rephrase, just want to make sure because they've been asking me, it's like what was really on those 2021 plans? You know, what did the people vote or what was their total outcome of the 160 participants? What did they want to put? Because I don't have no answer. When they ask me, it's just like what am I going to say? I don't know what to say.

So one of the top answers we were getting is multi-use walking paths, spray water pad, exercise station, outdoor amphitheater. And so the outdoor amphitheater and the walking paths, that's included in Centennial Park. And we had just percentages across the board of just on all these different topics.

Thank you.

Anyone else online, ma'am?

We do have Yolanda again. You can go ahead and unmute yourself.

Hi. I'm sorry. I didn't mention anything about Centennial Park because I thought we were going to wait until, because it was on the agenda, correct?

It's not on the agenda today. That's why I think people are bringing it up during public comment.

Oh, for some reason I thought I saw it on there. Can I have a couple minutes?

Sure.

Okay. I have to totally disagree with you guys reaching out to the community. The Parks Commission little survey they did, it was just that. Yeah, you got ideas on what we wanted, but you didn't get specifics. So workshops need to be... more interactive with all the different organizations that use our parks and that are out. You have to go to the elderly, you have to go to the sports organizations, to the schools, to the churches and, and form like you guys just created an idea on what, from what was said, um, created, Oh, we're going to have four tennis courts and four pickleball courts. Like you didn't ask the kids what they wanted. Um, I just, and all the rendering, that rendering that was posted, that black and white one, does not look anything like all of those beautiful colored ones that we received. And I think doing something as big as this, you need a lot of community input. Like, it needs to be something that the community wants. Phase one, great. That's just phase one. But it could be, it needs to be asked of the community what it is that they're wanting in phase one. I just feel like something so permanent and so big as this needs to be way more interactive with the community. I mean, you're going to get a lot of unhappy people, like that clock tower situation. So I just think that it should have been way more dealt with with the community because we could be using an over a huge overhang of multi-use space between those courts of shaded areas. So we could have outdoor exercise and dance classes. There's, there's just more as a, as a mom, there's so much more that our young kids need that aren't getting met from what, from what we have now. And yes, we have a splash pad. It's a bowl that sprays water. Like there's way more amenities that we could be doing for our children than, than all just tennis courts and pickle balls and a half court basketball. We, you know, what about tournaments for basketball? I don't know. I just, I'm, I'm fired up because I feel like there was not a lot of community input and, and I know that there should have been more. So thank you.

Thank you, Yolanda. This is Tiffany Rodriguez, the city engineer, and I'd like to respond. So in 2021, so we did do parks and recreation outreach. And so for parks and recreation master plan community survey, we had 160 participants. We did an outdoor environmental program survey. We had 335 responses. We did a community pop-up event at Garza Park. They did the dot board exercise, just like what we did at Apricot Fiesta and Love Patterson. We had people come and put dots on boards to get the community input on amenities they wanted to see. The community center committee met three times between November 2021 and March of 2022. So there was quite a bit of previous outreach that generated the master plan that came to city council for approval, and that's what Centennial Park is based off of.

We have Siobhan. You can go ahead and unmute yourself.

Good evening, Council. Former Mayor Alves here. I just wanted to chime in really quick and start off by saying thank you for everyone. Kudos on a beautiful Fiesta weekend.

That was a wonderful time and a great, safe event.

I wanted to follow up real quick about the We're talking about the downtown and until we get downtown, the sewer lines restructured, then putting lights up, you know, everything kind of goes from the ground up. So if we could see that master plan and have the timeline, if we have upcoming meetings to find out, you know, what is that timeline of this downtown revitalization, then that can help focus us and know where we are going forward. forward because like the lady that went up there and spoke people want to spend their money here and we want to spend their time here um and centennial park there was a lot of community feedback several years ago on that and it's just hard when we fast forward five years um people are now here that weren't here or people forget or maybe they didn't know about it back then um But there was quite a bit of community involvement and feedback, as Tiffany just said. But perhaps there's a way to incorporate lesser but valid current people's feedback to just see if maybe tides have turned just a little bit. Sometimes we can get stuck and get our gears caught just trying to get so much feedback. We don't get a project going. And we know that everyday costs go up. So it's important to, if we're ready, to try to try to get some fun things going for our community there because the tennis courts and the pickleball are going to be a great first step to provide something fun for, for our residents to do. I wanted to, with, Regarding the downtown Marion and the farmer's market, we're looking at putting some quality musicians on Wednesday nights, music at the market. So if anyone has any particular musician or band, reach out to him or I so that we can link them up and put them on the calendar. Fernando and Mayor Roque, I reached out to you regarding the mural and I'm still waiting to hear back. Do you have any follow up on that question that was posed a while back?

Hi, Siobhan, this is Fernando, and I do apologize that we haven't got back to you. And I thought someone had reached out and at least informed that we are working on that, and we know that council has approved the funding. But one of the things that we were confirming before we move forward is as part of the approval process, I know it did specify that it needed to go to the Parks and Beautification Committee And that's what we're confirming to see if it had gone, to make sure that it has gone to the Parks and Beautification Committee to review that before we provide all the necessary funding that council has approved. But we are working on that and making sure that we are true to what past council has already approved to assure that this mural does move forward. We just want to make sure that no steps that was as part of the approval that are going to be skipped.

That's wonderful. And I'm happy to hear that. I know that in other cities, sometimes, you know, when they see a project that is quality and they want to move forward with it, it doesn't get stuck in some red tape. And considering it's been so long just to hear back anything, I didn't know where we were. But we have an artist that's willing to fit within that budget of that amount that was granted already. and do it while incorporating local artists, possible high school artists, so that they could fill in the gaps and be more inclusive to our community and get more people involved in the actual project itself. So I look forward to hearing back, and I thank you for that. And I'll be linked in to hopefully see this come to fruition. Have a wonderful night. Thank you, guys.

You too, Siobhan. Good hearing from you.

Siobhan, first of all, I really want to apologize for not following up. But moving forward, I will promise that we'll follow up and we'll make sure we get that mural done as soon as possible. I have another point too. Yolanda did bring a great point regarding if we do go out to have a survey for Centennial Park, I think it would be a great idea if we could collaborate maybe with the school district and really ask what the kids really want. Because at the end of the day, it's FOR THE KIDS. I'M GOING TO BE 50 PRETTY SOON. I'M NOT GOING TO BE ENJOYING IT AS MUCH. BUT THE KIDS ARE THE ONES THAT REALLY NEED IT. SO YOU DID BRING A GOOD POINT. GOING BACK TO SHIVAN'S POINT, GOING BACK ON 2021 WHEN ALL THIS INFORMATION WAS THROUGH PREVIOUS COUNSEL, THAT'S ONE OF THE ISSUES THAT I'VE had plenty of concerns because we do all this hard work. For example, Mayor Clauzel is doing all this hard work. We're also counsel. And all of a sudden, our term is up. Now a different counsel is going to come and decide a different direction. We need to focus on what has been started so we could actually finish. Or else we're just going to be wasting our taxpayers' money, our staff time, which I don't agree. But moving forward, I think there's some – and answers that we need to give to our community and ourselves. So that's pretty much what I have to say. Thank you.

I'd like to add to that. Thank you, Yolanda, for your comments, and thank you, Siobhan L., for your comments as well. So we do understand the value that the parks bring to the community. I want to remind the public and our constituents that it is a 3.8 million park project. So using bond funding represents a significant financial commitment tied to our residents, and it's critical that we ensure these funds are allocated in a way that it delivers the greatest and most equitable benefits to the community as a whole. And the council is not blocking anything from happening. The drafts are there. Thank you.

I'm clerk. Anyone else online?

We do have another member of the public. Elias, you can go ahead and unmute yourself.

Hi there. My name is Elias Funes, former Patterson Planning Commissioner, Parks and Rec Commissioner, and former General Plan Advisory Committee member for the 2012 General Plan. Even before Centennial Park was was in the mix. Um, you know, there was the villages of Patterson's Docker complex that was approved back in 2006, uh, with the villages of Patterson. Uh, and so I know we're, we're talking about, you know, uh, and I'm, and I'm glad to hear that Centennial park is going forward. Uh, but you know, this was something that was, uh, uh, you know, it's sad to see these kids playing, uh, their soccer, uh, games in these basins just here and there and everywhere. Um, when this was, you know, supposed to be a world class soccer complex that was promised to the kids of Patterson back in 2006. And, you know, here we are now, 20 years later, and we haven't seen any movement on that. But yet, you know, there's a sign out there in a development that says Villages of Patterson. So I just want to make sure that, you know, there's you know, we're talking about parks and parks are great. You know, that was the main thing that, you know, we promoted when I was on the Parks and Rec Commission, that parks make life better. They bring down the crime rates and, you know, they give things for people to do. So they're great, whether it's pickleball or soccer. But, you know, when the mayor is saying things like, you know, I want to bring, you know, these in to hold tournaments and this and that, like, We just got to be careful providing these comments. You know, this is the public comment period, and I believe there is a comment period at the end of the meeting for council members. And the reason why I bring that up is I don't want, you know, you guys to be held towards some sort of potential litigation. But anyways, you know, going back to, you know, the parks, you know, we've got to think about maybe some sort of funding schemes. you know, maybe we need a ballot measure, a quarter cent sales tax measure, because we've got some pretty big parks that we have to fund and we have to create here. You know, we're talking about the Zacharias complex out there. And, you know, we want to see the Del Prado Canyon Corridor Park built. The other parks that were promised were the San Joaquin River Corridor Park. There's supposed to be a big park out there. So these were all things that were promised way back in the day that we haven't seen any movement on. So, I just want to throw all that out there that, you know, don't forget about this. You know, Prop 64, how many dispensaries do we have in town? All the taxes and funds that go in towards that, you know, that should come directly back to us. We just have to apply for it. I've been working up here in Grass Valley for about 10 years, and, you know, they just got a $1.5 million skate park paid completely by Prop 64 funding. So I know that we put into that with all the taxes and fees, all we have to do is just apply for it. But we have to have projects ready to go. So I know that Centennial Park is ready for other phases. Well, one of the main things about that Centennial Park was open space. So I hope that, you know, some sort of open space element is still, you know, part of the future phases. But thank you so much. I wasn't prepared to speak. You know, it's great to hear you. You know, people speak about Carlos and about the apricot fiesta. And, you know, it's such a great thing that that happens every year. Thank you to everyone who puts that on. Sorry, I'm getting a little emotional here, but thanks again.

Bye. You're welcome, sir.

Hi, City Manager here. Just a quick update on some of your comments there. The Centennial Park is moving forward, and it will be having open space. That still hasn't, as our City Engineer has mentioned, the remaining phases are still under design, and part of the concept is to have that open space. Moving over to the Villages of Patterson, that is a part of the development of the Villages of Patterson, and just as a quick update on that, they're That half of the property that was privately owned where that soccer complex is going to go has been acquired by the city already. So that full area now is fully owned and. Owned by the city, and as 1 of the. Last projects that the council approved for the villages of Patterson as part of the conditions of approval for that project. it was that they had to do at least start the design of that sports complex. So it is moving forward. Sometimes it's not as fast as we'd like to see things because especially when it comes to development on Villages of Patterson, it's we get things, things get accomplished over there by how fast the housing is moving over there in part of the requirements under the conditions of there. So the villages of Patterson Soccer Complex hasn't been been forgotten. It is moving forward. It's just not as maybe as fast as some of the residents would like to see as the maybe the residential housing. If they were on a high demand for housing and there's a lot of residential housing being built, then things will move faster. But it's just moving along at the pace of how housing is moving over there.

Madam Clerk.

Elias is on the call, wanting to make a comment again.

Okay, go ahead and unmute yourself, Elias.

Well, I just wanted to respond and say, you know, living and working up here in Grass Valley has given me a great perspective on different developments and how, you know, their aspects, our elements are phased in. And it's all dependent on development agreements with the developers. You know, up here, there's the parks and everything were put in before the houses were built, which was really, really surprising to see for me, but that's all because those agreements are made in advance. So as you guys are moving forward with negotiations with developers, make sure that these agreements are front-loaded. The streets should be widened in advance.

Elias, thank you so much. Yeah, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Sorry for cutting you off, but I've got to get to other folks. Sorry. Is there anybody else online?

No, Mayor, but I do need to state for the record that the City Clerk's Office did receive written correspondence from Martin Rodriguez regarding support for Centennial Park. The correspondence was received prior to the meeting and has been provided to City Council and made available to the public.

Awesome. Thank you very much. And I have one more. There's no one else online, correct?

No.

Okay. I believe I have two more people that want to come forward and provide a public comment.

Hello, my name is Phoebe Skelson, and I'm a resident of Patterson and also a teacher for the school district. I hate to belabor this point. I support Centennial Park. I'm very happy and grateful that you guys worked so hard to make this happen, make this short and sweet. I also, I guess now I'm making this a pro pickleball speech. Pickleball is not only the fastest growing sport, but it also is so inclusive that we have so many generations of kids, adults, and elderly play together. My feeling is that people who are complaining about the number of pickleball courts haven't really gotten out there, and I'm not saying that you don't have a say, but... As somebody who works with kids, I know that, and I see, I witness, you know, kids playing with their parents and kids playing with, you know, other generations. I think this is a great family sport. That's all I have to say. Thank you very much.

Thank you. All right. I believe we have one last person, Candice. Come up for round two.

I was also under the impression that this Centennial Park was maybe going to come up during the budget stuff, but it sounds like it's not. Am I correct on that? Okay, so then I do have a Centennial Park statement. First of all... We had someone that had sent in an email and asked it to be read as part of the city council meeting, but it didn't happen the way that this one did. What is the proper channel to make sure that something like this happens, gets printed for you guys in the community, and then gets entered into public record? What does that look like? Just so the community knows. Because we had a project leader that wanted a statement right at a city council meeting right after Lev Patterson. And it didn't happen. And she was like super sad. And I was like, I don't know how to get this. But then it happened tonight. So I'm like, there must be a way. if they send it to the city clerk's office um we print it out and distribute it to the public okay i think she emailed the city clerk's office i think she emailed a few email addresses but i'll follow up with her um but this was cool to see and i don't know that i've ever actually seen it like printed out and available in the back um okay so here's my here's my two cents I feel like we're all hung up on Centennial Park because some of it changed. It did change from what we were first told was going to be part of phase one. It has now shifted. So I feel like the obvious thing to do, and I hate to be the person that's like, why don't we just do this, but why wouldn't we do one basketball court, one tennis court, one multi-use course? That way everyone gets... something in that first phase. I don't know that it's necessarily smart of us to build the part of the park that would bring tournaments at the very beginning, mainly because if the rest of the park isn't built, we're not ready for those kinds of people in our community yet. But also, I just want to point out the glaring obvious here. We do not have a single full court basketball court in Patterson that is available to Period. End of statement. So we have kids in Patterson who are, no offense to pickleball, it's super fun, not going to be playing pickleball. And what will they be playing? Basketball. And we have a couple half-court basketball hoops. I'm grateful that the new development in Baldwin Ranch has two half-court basketball hoops. And we have a pretty large friend group. And every time we go to the park, the kids request one with a basketball hoop. So I really think that to hit a certain target demographic of Patterson, I'm going to say Patterson boys, teenage boys. To make Centennial Park a place that Patterson teenage boys can go to to get out of trouble, I think a basketball court needs to be, one basketball court, I'm not saying five, I'm not saying 20, one basketball court needs to be included in Centennial Park's first phase. And think about it. We could do a cops versus firefighters basketball game or a cops versus Patterson plus high school class. Like there's so many things that the community could benefit from. And that would still include one multi-use court, one tennis court, one basketball court. So that is my ask. One of each in phase one. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

We do have an additional comment online, Mayor.

Okay.

Alexia, you can go ahead and unmute yourself.

So I just want to follow up on what I believe Candace just said, but is there not a full basketball court anywhere in Patterson?

That is true. Only the school district has full basketball courts. But the one thing that I do want to throw out there is that I was discussing with... Director Gugliarte back in the day about creating some of those half courts and extending them out to full courts, and he had a really good plan put together. We just never quite got the funding. I did speak to the Assistant City Manager today about getting with now Interim Director Gugliarte about unearthing some of those plans and getting them incorporated possibly as part of this budget so it can be debated by the City Council. So there were like two, correct, that we had identified?

Yes. I can never tell if this microphone's on, but yes, Mayor. There were two basketball courts that we're looking at extending that are currently half courts over in the Walker Ranch area. Okay, great. So we can definitely discuss that further in the coming weeks.

That would be awesome. Yes, I would love to see that happen as part of this next budget.

So, yeah, because I think like that, to me, it would be a lesser burden of cost if we were to add, like you're saying, a full court to something that's already there in terms of the financing, because maybe the financing can come from like a funded district, if that makes sense.

Yeah, that's what he had discussed as well. When I presented him that challenge, he stepped up and identified the spaces, and we just didn't move forward because of budget concerns. But if we can make it part of this budget, I think it's well worth the investment.

So just, yeah, I think in terms of the council and the committees and everything, just making it clear to the public the way things are funded and that with Centennial Park, like the funding would be easier to come by for a full basketball court in Walker Ranch or a park in those areas that are easier to fund where Centennial Park is going to have to come from, my understanding is the general fund.

Yeah, that was exactly why he identified those spaces. I just asked for full basketball courts, and he's the one that came up with the idea pretty much on his own.

Okay. And then there was somebody else. Oh, I think it was Phoebe. I just wanted to say when I expressed to my teenage daughter that they were thinking of putting pickleball courts, her face lit up. She was super excited. So I will say that my teenage daughter was really excited about that. So I'm pretty pro the pickleball tennis courts. Again, only because there is nothing like that in Patterson. And we do have... You know, the boys can go and play basketball. Maybe it's not a full court, but there is nowhere to play tennis or pickleball in Patterson.

Absolutely. Just want to make sure you know that we had a tentative plan in place to address that need so that our children can play on full basketball courts. We just never quite got it through the budget cycle. We're going to try and make that happen, ma'am.

Okay, and then just one more comment, and then I will turn my mic off, but also just so the community is aware when I know the community has maybe said, oh, well, we have tennis courts at the school, but those are not available to Patterson residents.

That is correct.

So, okay. Alrighty, that's it. Thank you.

Thank you. Sure. Okay, please.

Because you mentioned Walker Ranch. Melrose is psycho-expensive in Walker Ranch. So we've already paid and continue to pay for the next umpteen years and will continue to pay an exorbitant amount of taxes for that area for parks and that. So when you say extending out those, I know exactly the basketball courts you're referring to, that should already be in our tax, Melrose taxes. So it shouldn't be coming out of any city budgets anyway. It should be coming out of our Melrose because, like I said, we're on a 30-year plan, and then it gets tacked on another 30 years, 30 years. That's never ending in the Melrose and Walker Ranch. So it shouldn't come out of city budget.

You're absolutely right. That was the brilliance of the idea.

Yeah. So, like I said, it shouldn't even be an issue with the city.

Thank you. Yes, ma'am. We're on it. All right. Hopefully there's no one else present in the council chambers that wishes to write a public comment. Round three? I have one more question about, I didn't get the question. One question, because I can't let this get too far out of control here.

What does that timeline look like then to build out those basketball courts? Because we're hearing that there should be money because it's district parks. I didn't even know that that was an option. Like, I don't think any of us knew that was an option. We should have been building basketball courts a long time ago if that was an option. So what does that timeline look like? Because I know that there's district money in those district parks. So what kind of timeline are we looking at? That's all.

Xavier, go ahead.

I got the rough question.

Yes, so.

So basically the way it works is it's the landscape maintenance district funding. There's a balance in there and we have to build that into the engineers report in order to to fund a full court basketball court. From a timeline perspective, it would really be about approving that budget. And then executing so it could technically be done if it's funded this year within a year. So the next fiscal year, if it's approved, we could technically do that in the next fiscal year. So that would be the timeline.

Awesome. No one else online?

One quick comment. How close is Centennial Park to the high school?

Across the street.

Okay. Right across the street. Okay. Thank you. I think that's why we're requesting basketball courts for the kids that are near Centennial Park when it gets built.

Thank you.

And what district are the basketball courts at? Is it A or B? The parks. The parks at Walker Ranch, the ones we're talking about for the basketball expansion.

Which specific parks or which district are they?

Yeah, both.

Both. So they're actually in your district.

I know we have like a 400 and something, 424,000, I think, in LMDs, right, to use in that district.

Yes, there's definitely a balance in the LMDs. I don't have the specific number on top of my head, but it is in Walker Ratch, and I believe Rosette is one of the parks, and I believe Early Gold is the other one that's available.

Thank you.

Okay.

Siobhan, you can go ahead and unmute yourself.

Hi, guys. Really quick, I just wanted to apologize. My boyfriend said I misspoke my title earlier. I'm so sorry. I guess I was a nervous little silly goose there. Great commentary about the Melrose funds to be used in such a way.

Anyway, thanks, guys. You're welcome. Madam Clerk?

No other comments, Mayor.

All right. So seeing no one else in the council chambers or online who wishes to provide a public comment, we will now close the public comment period. Consent calendar. All items are approved by a single action. Any item may be removed from the consent calendar for separate discussion upon request from a member of the public, staff, or council member. Consent calendar items 6.1 to 6.4 are open for consideration of approval. Are there any items to be pulled for discussion by the council members?

None.

None.

Are there any items to be pulled for discussion by staff or members of the public?

Thank you, Mayor. We have item 6.4. We're not requesting to pull it for discussion. It's just a clarification that before you, you have a red line with a corrected number for the ordinance. A copy of this has been also provided to the public. So as part of your consent calendar approval, we ask that you adopt the revision. Okay.

As is before the council, no problem. Therefore, do I have a motion to approve consent calendar items 6.1 to 6.4? Subject move. All right. I have a motion for approval. Do I have a second?

I'll second.

Okay. They've been seconded, and they go for approval for the entire council. Here comes your vote. Mayor Pro Tem Roque?

Aye.

Council Member Mora?

Aye.

Council Member Hernandez?

Aye.

And your mayor votes aye. The motion to approve consent calendar items 6.1 to 6.4 passes with a 4-0 vote. City staff reports. Adopt Resolution 2026-31, approving City of Patterson technology disruption policy for remote public participation during City Council meetings. Staff report, City Clerk Pellegrin.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council. Tonight, staff is bringing before you this item regarding the adoption of the technology disruption policy related to remote public participation during City Council meetings. This policy was drafted as a response to legislative updates to the Brown Act as part of Senate Bill 707. Although the City of Patterson is not currently required to adopt this policy under Senate Bill 707 due to our population threshold, staff is recommending adoption proactively as the best practice since the City already offers remote public participation during meetings. The policy establishes procedures for how the City Council will respond in the event of a telephone or Internet disruption during meetings to help ensure transparency, consistency, and continued public access. There is no fiscal impact associated with this item. Staff is recommending approval of the resolution adopting the policy. And at this time, I am happy to answer any questions.

Any questions, comments, or concerns from the Council for this item?

I just have a comment. I really appreciate actually starting to be more proactive than reactive, so let's get this done.

Thank you. All right. Seeing no additional concerns or comments from the council and none from myself, we will now open item 7.1 for public comment. Are there any members of the public present in the council chambers with any public comment on item 7.1? All right. Seeing none, Madam Clerk, is there anyone online who has a public comment on item 7.1?

We do, we do have, um, Elias, you can go ahead and unmute yourself.

Hi again, council. Uh, thanks again for allowing me to speak. I did want to say thank you guys for allowing the online option. Uh, you know, it does, um, uh, allow people to check in on their hometown when they're pulled away. So, uh, it is a very appreciated, um, uh, tool that not all councils or a board of supervisors, uh, EMPLOYEE. SO APPRECIATE IT.

THANK YOU. NEW SPEAKER YES, SIR. THANK YOU. NEW SPEAKER IS THERE ANYONE ELSE ONLINE WHO HAS A PUBLIC COMMENT?

NEW SPEAKER WE DO HAVE SHAVONNE. YOU CAN GO AHEAD AND UNMUTE YOURSELF.

NEW SPEAKER HEY, GUYS. I JUST WANTED TO COMMENT REGARDING THE ZOOM. IT IS A GREAT TOOL TO HAVE TO KEEP EVERYONE INVOLVED. I TRIED TO GET ON. I DON'T KNOW THAT IT'S ALWAYS WORKING FOR THE OTHER COMMITTEES. SO IF WE WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT THAT IS ACTIVE AND WORKING PROPERLY for other committees, that would be great too. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am. We'll look into that. All right. Any other public comment?

No other comments, ma'am.

All right. So seeing no one else in the council chambers or online who wishes to provide a public comment on item 7-1, we'll now close the public comment period and bring the item back for the council's direction and action. Do I have a motion to adopt Resolution 2026-31, approving the City of Patterson Technology Disruption Policy for remote public participation during City Council meetings?

I'll motion.

Okay, we have a motion. Do I have a second?

I'll second.

The motion has been seconded and requires a roll call vote from the Council. Mayor Pro Tem Roke.

Aye.

Council Member Mora.

Aye.

Council Member Hernandez.

Aye.

And your Mayor votes aye. The motion to adopt Resolution 2026-31, approving the City of Patterson technology disruption policy for remote public participation during City Council meetings, passes with a 4-0 vote. Item 7-2, receive a presentation from staff and conduct a review and discussion of the proposed fiscal year 2026-2027 general fund and all other funds budget for the City of Patterson and provide direction to staff regarding the proposed budget. Staff report, Finance Director Williams.

Good evening, mayors, city council members, and the public. This evening, I will be presenting the fiscal year 26-27 proposed budget. This presentation will walk through our key assumptions, major changes, and overall financial outlook. So here's a quick overview of tonight's presentation. We will start with the general fund, including a review of the current year and our projections for next year. Then we will cover other funds, including capital projects and enterprise funds like water and sewer. Finally, we will wrap up with a citywide budget summary. So the budget follows a step-by-step process. We begin with revenue projections, followed by estimating expenses. Then we review the draft budget internally. And then that leads us to where we are tonight, and I will be leading the formal budget presentation. After that, the final step is budget adoption, which is slated for June 16th of 2026. Before we continue, I want to explain a few key terms. Revenues fall into two distinct categories. Discretionary revenues can be used by city council for any legal purpose. These include sales tax, property tax, and business license taxes. Then there are non-discretionary revenues, and they must be used for specific purposes. So some examples of these include grants, gas tax, and utility revenues. On the expense side, we also group costs into categories. So you have personnel costs, so these include salaries and benefits. We have maintenance and operations costs, and so these cover daily costs like utilities and other certain contracts. We have capital outlay, which includes major purchases and various CIP projects. We also track fund balances, which is the money left over after all expenses are paid. For enterprise funds, we call the fund balance available working capital. That's just what we can budget during the year. And so in some of our funds, money is set aside for specific uses while others are available for council priorities. So going into fiscal year 26-27, we have some budget assumptions. On the revenue side, we used updated estimates for taxes and fees. We removed one-time funding and grants that are no longer active. We also included expected increases in fees and services. On the expense side, we included known cost increases like salaries and benefits. We also adjusted for inflation and rising service costs. We removed completed projects and added new capital projects. We also created a new internal service fund for information technology, which will give that department more budgetary control over its operations. And lastly, the human resources department has been pulled out of the administrative department for budgetary reporting purposes only. Next, I will review the new budget request for fiscal year 26-27. So management received 126 new requests totaling about $42 million for fiscal year 26-27. This includes requests for CIP, operations and maintenance, and staffing. Of the requests submitted, about 54% were approved and 46% were deferred. For operating requests, which are represented in the graph by O&M and staffing, only 13% were approved. This shows the city has taken a very conservative approach with the fiscal year 27 budget. For capital projects, about $21 million was approved. Nearly half of these projects were funded by grants, and the majority of the funding is coming from non-discretionary sources. Priority was given to projects supported by these non-discretionary funding sources. This slide shows how requests are funded. The blue bar graph shows requests that were deferred. The orange shows the requests that were approved. Approved projects relied heavily on grants, impact fees, measure L funds, and bond funds. This helps reduce pressure on the general fund. So here are a listing of all of the approved new requests that were non-CIP. These includes staffing additions, public safety equipment, and infrastructure improvements. We focused on essential needs and projects with non-discretionary funding sources. So the total approved is about $1.3 million. Next, I will review the Capital Improvement Program. Staff has been working diligently in implementing the new five-year CIP. We've made it extremely far over the last few months, but it is not 100% completed. Please expect the CIP to come back to Council in the months after budget adoption for the completed plan. But for now, let's take a look at Fiscal Year 27's projects. The proposed CIP totals about $21.2 million. Funding comes from a mix of grants, impact fees, and other restricted sources. This allows us to invest in infrastructure without relying too heavily on the general fund, although there are some general fund CIP included in this plan. So the next few slides provide more detail on CIP projects across funding sources. And so this is broken down by the funding source. So first one, we have grants are going to be contributing to four different projects to the tune of about $9 million, and the projects are listed here. Measure L is going to be providing $1.9 million of funding for six different projects. Water rates are going to be contributing about $1,500 for a piece of equipment or its share for a piece of equipment. PPFA bond funds, they still need to be allocated, but there's going to be approximately $5.5 million available for eligible projects. SB1 funds are going to be contributing about $3.4 million to four projects. Multiple different impact fees are going to be going towards six projects totaling about $358,000. The general fund is planning to contribute about $507,000 to four projects. CFD 2003-1 is expecting to spend about $30,000 in fiscal year 27 on one project. SUBRA rates will be contributing to three projects in the amount of about $163,000. And CFD, excuse me, 2018-2, which is the VOP maintenance CFD, will be contributing $97,000 for two projects. Benefit assessment districts will be contributing $4,000 for its share of the purchase of a new sprayer. Excuse me. So now let's go ahead and talk about the general fund. So first, let's go ahead and talk about the general fund revenues. Sales tax is expected to grow by about 4.9%. Property tax is projected to increase by about 10.5%, and this is mostly due to new development. Transfers into the general fund mainly include cost reimbursements and overhead allocations. The major revenue sources are sales tax at 33% of all of the general fund's total revenue. Property tax comes in at 25% of the general fund's total revenue, and transfers are projected to come in at about 20% of the general fund's total revenue. This chart shows overall revenue trends over time. As you can see, there's a little bit of fluctuation, but in total, we see moderate growth year over year when including transfers related to capital projects. However, when we review revenues without transfers related to CIP, revenues show about a 6% decrease. This highlights how much we rely on one-time or project-based funding. The amount of revenue the general fund is now expected to receive looks to set a new baseline, and the city will need to start making adjustments based on these changes in the future. On the expense side, we included changes related to labor agreements and known cost increases. We also work to keep spending consistent with prior years while adjusting for inflation. Salaries and benefits take the lion's share of costs in the general fund, amounting to 42% of total costs. This chart shows spending trends over time. Personal costs remain the largest expense category. However, there was a large increase in fiscal year 25. That was related to transfers out of the general fund, which were needed to address fund deficits in a multitude of other funds. And in fiscal year 25, that's the light green bar shown in the graph. So I know it's kind of hard to read, but this slide summarizes total revenues and expenditures, which were provided for in the preceding graphs. We're expecting about $39 million in total revenue and transfers in, and total expenditures are going to be about, and transfers out to be about $41 million. So of revenue, most of note are the decreases in revenues in licenses and permits, as well as the reduction of federal grants and subsidies. Based on our projections, development has slowed down a pretty tremendous amount, and we have seen a decrease in our licenses and permits revenue of about 85%, which accounts for about $2.6 million. And so just as a reminder to council, these are projections, and actual results may vary once the year gets underway and new development starts to pick up. This could change. However, the goal is to maintain a balanced budget while continuing key services. The negative total revenues less expenditures in the amount of $1.3 million indicates that we are using available fund balance to balance the budget. This is okay to do from time to time, but once fund balance is spent, it's gone. Once a structural deficit is present, meaning revenues are less than operating expenditures, action is needed to be taken immediately to ensure the health of the fund. We are moving closer to this scenario and a recommendation on how to move forward is included at the end of this presentation. So this slide shows the available fund balance in the general fund. We are projecting to have about $1 million in available general fund balance at the end of fiscal year 27 with fully funded reserves in the amount of $13.7 million. The city has a requirement to have 42% of all operating costs in the general fund to be held as a reserve in the general fund, and that is projected to be fully funded. And fund balance provides financial stability and helps manage unexpected costs. Excuse me. So the next few slides highlight CFD 2003-1, which is used to support Fire Station No. 2. Special tax revenues are remaining consistent with prior fiscal years and expenditures have decreased approximately 8%. We are projecting to have an available fund balance of about $333,000 at the end of fiscal year 27. These funds are restricted and can only be used for fire station number two. So these four graphs here are a depiction of what was discussed before. Fiscal year 25 had a larger increase in revenue, which is the top right column there. In fiscal year 25, you can see it is much larger than the others. And this was due to transfers in from the general fund. Other than that year, CFD 23-1 does not bring in enough funds to pay for all of its expenses, so the general fund continues to provide support. As demonstrated in the revenue graph, the majority of funding comes from transfers in at 44% and special tax assessments at 54% of the fund's total revenue. The majority of the expenses in this fund are attributable to salaries and benefits. Next, we are going to take a look at the city's enterprise funds. So some enterprise fund assumptions. So enterprise funds must maintain enough revenue to cover expenses and debt payments. Key priorities include maintaining infrastructure and planning for future cost increases. The next few slides will cover the garbage, sewer, and water funds. Each fund is supported by user rates and must remain financially stable. We also continue to invest in system improvements and long-term reliability. Garbage fund. Revenues are expected to increase by about 6% due to the increase in rates. Expenditures are expected to increase by 12%. Included in these increases are costs associated with bringing street sweeping in-house and higher garbage collection costs. I'm going to go ahead and take a look at the numbers in graphical format on the next slide. The majority of revenue in the garbage fund comes from utility rates at about 95%. Salary and benefits and maintenance and operations make up the majority of expenditures. Maintenance and operations is at 65% of total expenses and 25% is attributable to salaries and benefits. Maintenance and operations is higher than salaries because the city outsources garbage collection. The garbage fund is expected to have an available fund balance of negative $373,000 at the end of fiscal year 27. This means that the garbage fund is dipping into its reserves to cover operating costs. This was planned in the garbage rate study to keep increases to the rates year over year to a minimum. For the sewer fund, total revenues and transfers in are expected to come in about $9.5 million, and total expenditures are expected to be about $10.8 million. But this is showing total revenues are expected to decrease by 61% in fiscal year 27. This is due to the decrease in transfers in related to the wastewater treatment plant phase 3 expansion project. Charges for current services are actually expected to increase by about 13%. Staff is anticipating the end of a litigation item contributing to this increase. There are also more sewer accounts overall due to new development. Expenditures are also down 60% when compared to the fiscal year 26 adjusted budget, and these are costs related to that same expansion project. So when we look at the revenues and expenditures in our fundamental graphs here, the majority of revenue in the sewer fund comes from utility rates at about 78%. Transfers in do account for about 20% of revenue and are mostly inter-sewer fund transfers from sewer capital or sewer debt to clean up some transfers items between the two funds or the three funds. Salary, benefits, and maintenance and operations make up the majority of expenditures. Maintenance and operations is 25% of expenses and 36% is attributable to salaries and benefits. Transfers out account for a significant portion as well in the sewer fund, but with transfers in, the majority are cleanup transfers, and so they net each other out. The projected available fund balance in the sewer fund is projected to be negative $2.9 million, with an actual negative balance of negative $672,000. As mentioned earlier, staff is working through a litigation item, and an update to sewer rates is currently in process. Once both of these items are completed, the sewer fund will start to bounce back from its current position. So in the water fund, total revenues and transfers in is coming in about $17.8 million, and total expenditures is about $17.9 million. So total revenue is up about 32% in the water fund, but like in the sewer fund, this is mostly coming from transfers in. Actual service charges are expected to be up 5%. Expenditures are expected to see a total decrease of 18%. Uh, the majority of revenue in the water fund comes from utility rates at about 50% in fiscal year 27. Um, transfers in do account for about 49% of revenue and are mostly from the water capital and water debt funds as cleanup items. Um, salary and benefits and maintenance operations make up, um, a majority of expenditures. Um, Maintenance and operations is about 12% and 20% is attributable to salaries and benefits. Capital outlay does also make up a pretty significant amount of expenditures in fiscal year 26-27 as the city continues to reinvest in its infrastructure. The water fund is the healthiest of the three enterprise funds and is projected to have an available fund balance in the amount of about $7.2 million at the end of fiscal year 27 with a fully funded reserve in the amount of about $2 million. And to go back, chromium remediation is a high priority for the city, and several new request items were added to the budget in fiscal year 27 to aid on that front. So now I'll provide a citywide overview of the fiscal year 27 budget. This slide shows right here, this slide. shows total revenues across all funds by revenue type for the last four years. Fiscal year 24 shows a disproportionate amount of revenue compared to the following years because the city issued about $60 million in bonds that refinance older bonds during fiscal year 24. Since these refundings do not happen every year, the total revenue received in fiscal year 24 looks to be inflated. Fiscal year 27 has a total projected revenue amount of about $113 million. Funding comes from a mix of taxes, fees, grants, and service charges. Most revenue in fiscal year 27 is coming from taxes or assessments in about 33%, user fees in the amount of about 22%, and transfers in in the amount of about 24%. This slide shows total spending across all funds by expenditure type for the last four years. Again, in fiscal year 24, the total expenditures are inflated by the funds paid to refinance older bonds. Of the largest expenditure of the city has consistently been salaries and benefits at 24% of total costs, followed closely by maintenance and operations. So this chart breaks down spending by department. We are looking at a total budget in fiscal year 27 of about $124 million. Public works with about 23% of the total budget. Police with 7% and fire with about 7.5% represent a large share of total departmental expenditures. So now on to next steps and recommendations. So just as a reminder, this was a presentation of the fiscal year 27 proposed budget. The budget has not been finalized, and there's still a small amount of time to make any sort of required changes. With that in mind, we recommend taking the following actions. On the revenue side, we will review utility rates, business license taxes, and user fees. We will also continue to pursue grant funding. These items may not directly apply to Fiscal Year 27, but will be absolutely critical in the coming years. For expenses, we will monitor staffing levels and control costs to the best of our ability. We will also review service levels and prioritize capital projects in order to spread the dollars that we have as far as they will go. Additionally, we will continue to find areas in which we can increase efficiency through the use of new technology. And lastly, we are proposing to create an assigned fund balance category in the general fund that could be funded every year for the use on discretionary projects as long as funds are available. So this would look like council directing staff to designate a certain amount of funding every year for use on discretionary funding. An example amount to use for fiscal year 27 could be $50,000 or 5% of available fund balance. Some sort of cap or maximum amount should also be established. These funds could be allocated in a number of different ways that could be approved by council. So all of the steps mentioned before will aid in overcoming the financial hurdles that lie ahead if no action is taken. In conclusion, this concludes my presentation. Thank you, and I'll have it answer any questions you may have.

Questions, comments, or concerns from the council?

I don't have any questions or concerns, just some clarifications. I'll email to you tomorrow.

Any other council members with questions, comments, or concerns?

Are you good?

Okay.

Well, you mentioned that we could allocate about 5% of the total general fund, which is $1 million. That could be distributed to our underserved districts, correct? The District D, myself, and I think Kendra's as well.

If that is the direction council wants to provide, we can absolutely do that, yes.

Now, going back, those 5% will be for each one, which would be nice, right? But I think we mentioned this has to be split between both of us. So if it's a million, we're looking at $50,000 split between each district would be $25,000 and $25,000 each. Is that correct? So the 5% and $50,000 would be the total amount that we –

as an example, could be distributed out, yes, in total.

No, once those funds are, we do allocate them, obviously it's like anything else in negotiation, I would love to have more, but we want to make sure we're healthy, you know, 7.5% or something. Now, if we do go that route, we would be able to allocate that money for anything that we need in our districts, or is there going to be a certain criteria that we could or we cannot use?

As long as it's discretionary funding, it's anything that city council is legally allowed to spend the money on, yes.

Okay, good. You also mentioned that the water fund is pretty healthy, pretty healthy funds. As of now, yes. Okay, so now how is the garbage, right, and the sewer fees up to date?

So garbage rates were adopted, I believe, early fiscal year 26, right? or they went into effect in July of 25 for fiscal year 26. And during that process, it was planned to dip into the fund's reserves to spread out or to limit the rate increases over the five-year study. And at the end of the five-year study, we will get back to a fully fund reserve amount. in regards to the sewer fund we are currently working right now with our consultant in updating the sewer rates we kind of hit a pause in that though because there is a litigation item that we can't really get into too much detail in this forum here that once is resolved we'll put the sewer fund back in a better standing now do we know more or less what that time frame be on the sewer fund

YOU KNOW, THE REASON WHY I'M SAYING THIS, WE'RE TRYING TO LOOK AHEAD, TRYING TO BE PROACTIVE. YOU DON'T WANT TO BE LIKE LAST TIME TRYING TO SLAM THIS, I THINK IT WAS A GARMAGE FUND AND ALL OF A SUDDEN IT DIDN'T GO THROUGH AND THEN WE HAD TO REDO IT AGAIN FOR ANOTHER YEAR OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT. WE WANT TO MAKE SURE IT DOESN'T HAPPEN AGAIN.

I DO NOT PERSONALLY HAVE A TIMELINE AVAILABLE TO ME THAT I CAN SHARE WITH RIGHT NOW. I DON'T KNOW IF FERNANDO.

NO SPECIFIC TIMELINE HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED BUT WHAT HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED IS THAT A SEWER RACE STUDY IS COMING AND WE DO NEED TO GET THAT MOVING AND NOT ONLY AS SOON AS WE CAN BUT WHEN IT'S THE RIGHT TIMING TO MAKE SURE THAT WE GET THE UPDATED SEWER RACE STUDY COMPLETED AND BRING TO COUNCIL.

One other question. Can staff provide an overview of any potential new revenue sources other than what we've seen on your list? What could we do to provide some additional income? Because at the end of the day, if we don't get some income, we're not going to be able to move forward in a lot of things in our city. Has the city come up with the different plans or how to come up with extra sorts of incomes?

There are... There are opportunities available to the city. I know the fire department, specifically Chief Hakala, has been working very hard in strategizing different scenarios for generating additional revenue. I think the user fees, they are due to be updated. I think staff is, we're planning on taking a look and seeing how much we can get updated ON OUR OWN. THEY HAVEN'T BEEN UPDATED IN FIVE YEARS. THERE ARE BUSINESS LICENSE TAXES. THEY HAVEN'T BEEN UPDATED IN QUITE SOME TIME. THEY WILL REQUIRE A BALLOT MEASURE, THOUGH. SO WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO DO SOME PLANNING FOR THAT. BUT I THINK THAT IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO INCREASE OUR BUSINESS LICENSE TAXES. In addition, that's kind of what we're looking at right now. We are continuing to research every possible action on generating more revenue.

Now, my question is that falls under your responsibility of finance, or does it go to different departments as well, like planning, economic development, and if, I don't know, what's the route that you guys take?

So generally, finance works as a compiler and general overview. We are a team. We all work together. And in each departmental purview, you could say, we are looking at different avenues to generate more revenue.

I HAVE ANOTHER QUESTION REAL QUICK. DO YOU GUYS EVER COLLABORATE TOGETHER TO COME UP WITH SOME GAME PLANS TO SEE WHAT IS THE BEST ROUTE TO GO INSTEAD OF JUST WORKING INDEPENDENTLY, JUST A FEW, TWO, THREE HEADS, IF YOU GET ALL THE DEPARTMENTS JUST TO SEE IF WE COULD WORK TOGETHER AND SEE WHAT BEST IDEA WE COULD COME UP WITH SOME IDEAS. HAVE YOU GUYS DONE THAT IN THE PAST OR ARE YOU GUYS DOING IT?

Just as an example, for user fee updates, those, all departments are required to work together and see and come up with the appropriate solutions in order to get those updated. So it's what we have done in the past and what we should continue to do into the future.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any additional comments or concerns from the council?

I have a question for clarification. Director Williams, you mentioned there was a decrease in permits and business licenses. Is that correct?

In licenses and permits, yes.

Okay. So two questions. Do we track customer satisfaction or permit turnaround times? No.

THAT IS OUTSIDE OF MY UNDERSTANDING. I WOULD LIKE TO DEFER TO THE RESPONSIBLE DEPARTMENT.

SO QUICK QUESTION, GOING BACK TO WHAT YOU SAID, WE HAD A DECREASE ON PERMITS AND BUSINESS LICENSE. THOSE ARE THE TYPE OF THINGS I WAS ASKING, WHAT CAN WE DO AS A CITY TO COME UP WITH IDEAS. THIS IS WHAT WE NEED TO TRY TO GET MORE TAX REVENUES IN BECAUSE WE DO NEED THOSE EXTRA TAX TO GET AS MANY AS WE CAN IN THE FUTURE.

Also, I think before that, I think we also need some feedback as far as if we receive business. Well, what challenges do you face for that if there's a decrease in permits and business license? Because I think we need to get to the core of the situation. to see what is going on. And I think a good avenue for that would be feedback and surveys and also assess and track customer service as well. I know that Ms. Moore over here, Council Member Moore and I have worked with Stand 2030 and Workforce Development in regards to getting some funding for the chamber, but we're waiting on the city to see what processes you guys are will set in place in the future. So it's a little bit concerning for me to hear that there is a decrease in licenses and business permits. So I would love to hear from you and see if we, by any chance, can have some surveys or some feedback. Because we surveyed 20 businesses in town, and they said that it was extremely hard to get, you know, the process going. So I would love to see in the future some feedback from our business owners.

So, yeah, we welcome feedback from business owners. That's a great way to be directly connected and to have a window into their perspective and their challenges where those are shared with us. We do react to those comments and take them very seriously because we want for our organization as the city of Patterson to reflect most positively on them and for them. Customer service is one of my highest priorities to serve the public. I consider all of us public servants first and foremost before being an actual employee. Regarding the revenues on permitting, most of the permit revenues stem from what the development community is up to. What are they building? What's the housing market? what are building materials, what are financing costs. So we're largely at the mercy of the greater economy. What the housing market is doing in California, we're a part of that, and we reflect some of the symptoms of that. So we have had significant industrial development over the years. We're looking at the largest single industrial development that is being proposed currently. It is going to the Planning Commission in two weeks. It will be by far the largest industrial development in the city's history. The property tax revenue that would be generated from that one development would be the equivalent of about 600 $1 million homes hitting the tax rolls overnight once it becomes occupied. That's a significant bump just in property tax revenue. We're banking on significant sales tax revenue coming from that that would be equal to or more than double our Amazon facility that we have currently by just this one development alone. We've been working on this one development for the last year and a half at this point. and it comes to a head two weeks from now it would not be built until well into next year and 2028 at this point because it's a massive development it's 2.2 million square feet and so that would be a major boost for property taxes for sales tax revenue as well as for permitting that would be a major shot in the arm to the building permit revenues we would receive by that one project alone There are a couple of other large industrial buildings that have been previously approved. We're waiting for them to break ground on. So we're doing our part to process developments as efficiently as we can. These big developments, actually that I'm speaking of, fly through our process in months versus years. If you go over the hill, these same developments would not even be approved within a year. Some of them wouldn't be approved perhaps at all. We have the blessing of living in a community that is supportive of growth. They appreciate the job opportunities and the diversification of the economy that these particular developments bring. We have a new shopping center slowly taking place, taking shape across from the ARCO station on Sperry. As you know, the city doesn't develop, the city doesn't build a gas station or a grocery store We depend upon the private market, the development community, to take those risks and to fund that development. And so where we can accommodate them and make ourselves available, guide them, offer wisdom, areas of efficiency, we thrive on that. We love doing that. And we see positive responses. Housing development, just the outlook on that. It's interesting. We've seen Baldwin North build out over the last three years or so, and they are about out of lots. They're looking to have an expansion of the Baldwin community go south as part of a new subdivision that we will probably be bringing to the City Council July or August. That would be another 161 homes with their own corresponding building permits. So there's interest also in multifamily development from a longtime existing property owner in Patterson. So there'll be a steady flow of new development. I can't emphasize enough that we do what we can to accommodate it, to facilitate it. and to guide it efficiently and effectively to help them navigate the complex process of getting a development in California approved. But it's up to them to take that financial risk, to secure the funding, secure labor contracts, adhere to the numerous, countless state regulations, and ultimately, hopefully, get something built while there are tariffs, while there are extensive regulations and so forth. So that's a bit of what I can offer on the revenue side, on the development outlook side. And so are there other questions I could answer for you?

I think you answered most of them. My follow-up was, what are the biggest bottlenecks in our permit approval process today that you can think of? But I think you answered that. You said tariffs, regulations, and all of that stuff.

Yeah, just the general economy. The interest rates are way higher than all the folks in development would prefer. A lot of homebuyers are on the fence, not comfortable paying the higher interest rates. A lot of people don't want to sell their homes because they know if they sell their homes, they unlock the low interest rate that they've had for the last 15 years, and now they enter 6%, 6.5%, 7% mortgage rates. And so... So all cities are at that mercy. And so, but we are experiencing growth. We are experiencing some demand. We are looking forward to that picking up when the economy turns.

Is there anything you can think of that we can do something creative to help alleviate the process and not have a decrease?

In terms of revenue? Yeah, I think that we can more aggressively market Patterson. We can target industries, commercial sectors that are better positioned to come into our particular community based on needs. based on analysis that shows leakage where we're losing out on revenues that are going to other communities in the area that we could capture and actually the recently approved downtown master plan has a leakage report as part of that and so we could get that out more. It's available to the public but You know, I don't believe the public goes looking for that information. The master plan and that information is available on our website currently. But under the direction of the city manager, we have collaborated on ways to more aggressively market Patterson. and attract, look for ways to attract industry and commercial activity. Another major shot in our arm was the City Planning Commission's approval of the new 90-foot high pylon sign marketing. Not only the brand-new McDonald's that we're getting off of Sperry, and I-5, but it comes now also with a 10-foot high by 24-foot wide electronic billboard, which will provide a more dynamic opportunity for advertising beyond even the initial center that's there. It'll have substantial signage accompanying the golden arches. Large, I think they're 6-foot high by 24-foot wide additional panels available for the immediate commercial businesses that are coming in that particular district. But that large electronic billboard display will be another opportunity for us to market various commercial activities. I received a phone call today from the owner of ARCO asking, hey, what can I do to get a sign out there at Sperry and the interstate? I know it's not where I'm at. That billboard allows him to mark it. He's further from the highway. He's looking for ways to put himself out there. And that's an opportunity. Not only him, but others would have that opportunity. And so it would be up to us to regulate just how much of that we want. That's really something our leadership can decide if we feel it's getting out of hand. but when folks are asking for more opportunities for advertising, that's a good location method and tool that's concise, uniform, neat in a still-growing part of town. So those are positives, and that sign will be constructed by the end of August.

I'm sorry. Any additional questions, comments, or concerns from the council?

Just one last question. That LED billboard that you put there, 6 by 24, will it belong to the city or is it going to be run by McDonald's?

It'll be owned by the organization Eagle Valley Investments.

It would be nice for us to have a piece of that pie in there.

All right. Seeing no apparent additional concerns from the council and no further questions, we will now open item 7.2 for public comment. Are there any members of the public, well, I guess we're all down to employees at this point, present in the council chambers who wish to provide a public comment on item 7.2? Seeing no takers, Madam Clerk, is there anyone online who wishes to provide a public comment on item 7.2?

Just as a reminder, if you're joining us on Zoom and wish to make a comment, please use the raise hand feature. If you're calling in by phone, you may press star nine. No comments, Mayor.

All right. Seeing no one online or here in the Council Chambers who has provided public comment, we will now close the public comment period and bring the item back to Council for any final thoughts or comments. None? My only... COMMENT IS THAT IF WE COULD FIND A WAY TO GET THOSE FULL COURT BASKETBALL COURTS INCORPORATED INTO THE BUDGET. THAT'S IT. THAT'S ALL I HAVE. ALL RIGHT. NOW WE'LL CLOSE ITEM 7.2. CITY COUNCIL ITEMS. COUNCIL MEMBER FERNANDEZ.

NO UPDATES AT THIS TIME.

COUNCIL MEMBER MORA.

NO UPDATES.

MAYOR PROTEM. NO UPDATES ON EDAC. And for myself, Stanislaus County, Mayor's meeting will be next Wednesday here in Pedersen at the Old Water Office. Other matters? All right. The only thing that I will say very, very quickly is I want to give kudos to Supervisor Condit for getting Old Las Palmas Road through the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors today. That's a project him and I have been working on for quite some time. And I am just so grateful for everybody that had a hand in getting that done. And I can't wait to see it go under construction. It kind of stinks. It's not going to happen until 2017. Hopefully they can move it up, but at least it's approved and going to be incorporated and actually get constructed because those citizens have been waiting decades for that road to get done. And the only other item, again, with Supervisor Condit is we are going to take another strike at HUD to try and get our senior housing project done over by the Hammond Senior Center. It looks like there are some funds still available from a local source that will remain unnamed. And it's another city here in Stanislaus County that actually holds that pot of funds and has to be used by September. So he's going to be working really aggressively with HUD, and I'm going to work with the local, I guess, entity, I guess is the best way to say it, to try and get those funds allocated to Patterson so we can get that construction underway. So looking forward to that. Anything else before we adjourn? All right. May the Lord protect our fire, our sheriffs, and all our first responders, everybody in this room, our entire city, your families. Amen.

Mayor?

Oh, yeah, please.

We must return back.

Oh, that's right. We have to go back to closed session. My goodness gracious. We now will adjourn back to the closed session. Thank you for reminding me. It's been so long, it almost feels like tomorrow.