City Council - Regular Meeting

YOUR CITY COUNCIL IS RETURNING FROM CLOSED SESSION.

AND WE'RE REPORTING CLOSING OUT. NO REPORTABLE ACTION AS OF NOW. WE WILL ADJOURN TO A REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING. PUBLIC MEETING. WELCOME TO OUR CITY COUNCIL, PATTERSON CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING, SEPTEMBER 15, 2026. Public meeting guidelines. City of Paterson City Council meetings are conducted in person at City Hall Council Chambers. As a courtesy and technology permitting, members of the public may participate virtually. However, the city cannot guarantee that the public access to teleconference and translated technology will be uninterrupted, and technical difficulties may occur from time to time. Members of the public may participate in the meeting in person or via teleconference call. The meeting will be televised or available for public viewing on contact channel 7 Wednesday Friday and Saturday. To access room translation during the meeting you could access the link. The city council agenda and supporting public documents are available for viewing in city hall administration. In Patterson during the normal business hours. We will now call our Patterson city council meeting to order. Can you please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I don't three are there any statements on conflict from any council members none none none your mayor pro tem has none. Moving on to our proclamation a world so suicide prevention month mayor clausel mayor pro tem. Lean senior. Proclamation a proclamation of City Council of the city of Patterson recognizes world suicide prevention month September 2026. Whereas suicide and tragic and preventable public health issue that effect of individuals of all ages, genders, races, and background, and continues to have a profound impact on families, friends, and communities across the nation. And whereas the city of Patterson recognizes that suicide is not a personal failure, but a complex issue that requires compassion, understanding, and proactive community support. And whereas a World Suicide Prevention Month, observed every September, serves as a global call to action to raise awareness, reduce the stigma, and foster hope for those who struggle in silence. And whereas in the United States, nearly 50,000 people die by suicide each year, and countless more experience suicidal thoughts, highlighting the urgent need for education, early intervention, and open dialogue around mental health. And whereas the city of Patterson affirms in commitment to mental wellness, connection, and community-based prevention efforts, including working alongside local nonprofits, health professionals, educators, faith leaders, and advocates. And now, therefore, it better be to be resolved that I, Mayor Pro Tem Carlos Roque, the City of Paterson, along with the City Council do hereby proclaim September 2026 as World Suicide Prevention Month in the City of Paterson. Be it further to resolve that the City of Paterson supports suicide prevention initiatives and encourages all residents to learn the signs of emotional distress, engage in compassionate conversations, and promote access to local resources, and mental health services. Let this proclamation serve as a call to action, a message of support, and a reminder that no one in our community walks alone. In witness of here, say a hand by Mayor Pro Temp and Mayor Clauzel be affixed by the 15th day of September 26th.

Good evening, everyone. Siobhan Alves, former council member. I want to thank Lindsay for inviting me up here tonight to receive the proclamation with her. I had the opportunity to meet her last year at the first annual vigil that her and Love Patterson organized. And I am happy to say that, I mean, this is a sad thing that we're recognizing here tonight. mental health is a real thing and so we're advocating for more access here on the west side They have a vigil going on on the evening of the 29th here downtown. I encourage everyone to come who has experienced this or just wants to come and support. On the morning of the 28th, Invest in Me will be having a QPR one-hour training if you'd like to sign up for that. And We Can and NAMI have been coming to the farmer's market, and they will be back out on the 23rd. Thank you, everybody.

Thank you very much, and let's give them a big round of applause. We're moving on to five 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 their hand and stepping up to the podium. If you're joining the meeting through Zoom, please raise the hand feature. If you're calling by phone, you may press 9 when the Mayor Pro Temp announces the item. Council will take no action other than referring the item to staff for study or analysis and may place it in the item for future agenda. In order that all interested parties have an opportunity to speak, any person addressing the Council will be limited to a maximum of three minutes unless the Mayor Pro Temp grants them a longer period of time. Please state your name for the record. Come to the front.

Good evening, Pro Tem, Council, and members of the public. My name is Danielle Morgar. I'm from the Office of Assemblyman Juan Alaniz, here to provide a legislative update. I am happy to report that the governor did sign on to three additional bills authored by Assemblymember Alaniz, which follow. AB 2004, which will grant peace officer status to deputy sheriffs assigned to cadastral duties in various Central Valley counties. AB 1728 adds firefighting and law enforcement courses to the California Community College's common course numbering system to help address first responder shortages. AB 1617 will streamline reporting requirements for local agencies to submit data to CalRecycle and DTSC. We are awaiting Governor to ACT ON FIVE REMAINING BILLS FOR 2026 AND THE GOVERNOR DOES HAVE UNTIL SEPTEMBER 30TH TO SIGN ON OR VETO THE REMAINING LEGISLATION. AS ALWAYS, IF THERE'S ANY QUESTION REGARDING OUR LEGISLATION OR REQUIRE ANY OF OUR SERVICES FROM OUR DISTRICT OFFICE, PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO REACH OUT TO OUR OFFICE. THANK YOU.

Hello Council and the members of the public. Tim Benefield and at this point representing the Patterson Irrigator and also in conjunction with Westside Community Action Network. We know that it is Suicide Prevention Month and so we just the Our manager, Mary Beth, had got together with Siobhan Alves and wanted to do something for people to remember loved ones who may have been lost to suicide. And so there will be a special edition, a special page here next week in which people can remember loved ones. I have flyers if anybody's interested. It doesn't cost a single thing. You can put a picture, just a brief little quote remembering them. And we just want to give people the opportunity. Everybody, myself included, we all know I've had experience with a loved one, a friend, somebody who has gotten to a point of taking their own life. We know the heartache that brings. And so we just want to give people a chance to honor that loved one if they would choose to do it in this way and want to make people aware about it. You can contact the newspaper office or get a flyer from me tonight, and we would love to help you remember them in a special way next week in the newspaper. Thank you.

Good evening council members of the city, the staff and the public. My name is Amy Pertali. I am the union representative representing AFSCME local 10 and the city of Patterson employees within our bargaining unit. I am speaking on behalf of our members in fear of retaliation. I am here tonight. because our members deserve to come to work, perform their jobs, and serve the community without feeling intimidated and confronted by an elected official. Our union has received calls of serious concerns from members regarding multiple public verbal confrontations involving Mayor Castle and AFSCME representative employees. IT IS OUR UNDERSTANDING THAT THE MEMBERS AND COUNCIL HAVE MEMBERS OF THIS COUNCIL HAVE WITNESSED SOME OF THESE INTERACTIONS FIRSTHAND THE CONCERNS CANNOT SIMPLY BE IGNORED OR ALLOWED TO DISAPPEAR THROUGH CONTINUED DELAYS THE CITY HAS INITIATED A FORMAL CENSOR PROCESS REGARDING THE MAYOR YET THE MATTER CONTINUES TO BE REMOVED FROM OR DELAYED FROM THE COUNCIL AGENDA ASME BELIEVES OUR MEMBERS AND THIS COMMUNITY DESERVES TO SEE THE PROCESS ADDRESSED OPENLY AND WITHOUT UNNECESSARY DELAY I also want to make one point clear. The mayor does not have a direct supervisor authority over AFSCME employees. Our members work within an established chain of command under city management. Those professional boundaries exist for a reason and need to be respected. This is not about politics. It's about protecting our employees and maintaining a professionalism in the workplace and public settings. When an AFSCME member tells us they feel intimidated, targeted, or verbally confronted while simply trying to do their job, our union has an obligation to stand beside them. This is exactly why we're here tonight. We are asking the council to move the censorship process forward, address the concerns publicly and transparently, and send a clear message that city employees deserve to be treated with professionalism and respect, regardless who is sitting on the dais. Our members dedicate themselves every day to serving the residents of Patterson. Tonight, AFSCME is standing together and asking the council to ensure the same respect our members give this community is also given to them. Thank you.

Thank you, Amy.

I'm Dominic Farina, Patterson resident and former city council member for 18 years. I thought the matter regarding the investigation was going to be on tonight's agenda, but apparently that topic has been tabled for now. What I'm about to say is not about politics, personalities, or personal grievances. It is about something far more fundamental. Trust. The trust that every resident of the city placed in each of us the moment they cast their vote. That trust is not abstract. It is the foundation upon which every decision made in this chamber either stands or collapses. And when that foundation is threatened, it is not merely one person's problem. It becomes every person's responsibility. Mayor, the office is not yours to hold, is not yours to possess. It is yours to steward. The council manager form of government exists for a reason. It was specifically designed to separate political authority from administrative authority to ensure that no single elected official can direct staff, manipulate personnel decisions, or exercise executive power that belongs exclusively to the city manager. When a mayor does not understand or refuses to respect those boundaries, the consequences are not merely procedural. They are real, costly, and serious. To our employees, to our finances, to our legal standing, and to the public trust, this institution depends upon to function. The allegations that have been raised of harassment, bullying, and intimidation are serious, not because of personalities or politics, but because they threaten the basic conditions every healthy community requires, fairness, respect, safety, and accountability. Every employee should be able to do their job without fear. Every elected official should be able to question the decision or express disagreement without becoming a target. And every resident should be able to trust that the rules apply equally to everyone, including those of us entrusted with public office. When those conditions are compromised, the damage does not stay contained. Staff morale collapses. Qualified people resign and refuse to serve. Legal liability grows. Public confidence erodes. And the institution itself, the one we were sworn to protect, begins to fracture from the inside. Accountability is not humiliation. It is not revenge. It's the recognition that public authority comes with responsibility and that those who hold power must know where the boundaries are and must respect them. We were all entrusted with this office. Our obligation is not to ourselves. It's obligations to the people. They gave us their trust when they cast their votes, and that trust is not ours to spend. It is ours to protect. Good night, everyone.

Good evening, City Council. My name is Laila Ayala. I am here to speak on the homecoming and the fees that the city is proposing. I understand that it is on the agenda, but I would like to proceed with your permission as I have to leave for work. I am a current senior at Patterson High School, and through the associated student body, I am the activities coordinator. But people do not know me by this title. Instead, they know me as the girl who talks at pep rallies or who carried around an inflatable tiger for the first two days of school. And I don't do this because it's fun, but instead I do it because I'm proud to represent our school. Now, please take into consideration the 200 students that participate in our homecoming parade, not for fun, but because they are proud to represent their organizations and their school. They have been given a reason to go and want to inspire the next generation, the students and families that go and watch the parade. I myself was inspired seeing the Disneyland's homecoming parade in 2019, and that has created me to become the activities coordinator. So please let us continue to inspire these children without coming at the cost of our education. The proposed $5,000 fee can go to very real problems that affect our schools. I personally have witnessed our female bathrooms not having soap dispensers. So please, let our 200 students who are community leaders and are invested in their organizations continue to inspire the next generation. These students are in good academic standing in order to be able to be signed out. Please give them another reason to be proud of their organization, to be proud of being in the high school, and to be proud of being in the city of Paterson. Please give us the privilege to continue this tradition that has gone on since before my time and will hopefully go on till after my time. Because at the end of the day, it was not about showing off our homecoming parade floats, but instead about investing in our community as a city and as a high school. Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much, Leah.

Hello, Yolanda Magana, City of Patterson. So I'm going to be wearing a couple of different hats tonight. First one is Broomsticks and Bubbly event is being finalized this week. It's looking to become a very fun shopping experience. We made some tweaks to better benefit downtown businesses. The chamber is opening up to host small businesses that don't have a storefront. So that will be fun. And so if any businesses want to participate, please reach out to myself or the Chamber to register with Special Events 209 by Friday. And then I just want to say thank you for the suicide proclamation. I'm looking forward to Special Events 209 helping sponsor a little bit of that and being a part of that. And then I'm officially taking on the huge task of the Christmas festival. So I'm kind of filling in for Candice. And so I'm getting my feet wet. So please bear with me while it's a big learning experience. But for those businesses who haven't heard from me yet, you will be this week as I try to navigate this huge task. thing. Luckily, it seems like it's a pretty well-tuned oil machine, so it's not going to be too difficult, I hope. And then I just wanted to announce, if you live in District D, we have a Facebook group for special events, and I'm sure Mayor Pro Tem will speak more about that. So thank you.

Thank you very much, Rolanda.

Cat Ritchie, Patterson, kind of inspired by a group of the staff that I wasn't expecting to see tonight, and I'm really happy to see them here, because I know it means a lot to a lot of others that are not here today. Good evening, council, city manager, staff, and community. Tonight I want to speak for every city employee who quietly serves this community with integrity and for every resident community leader or employee who has ever been dismissed, harassed, intimidated, or afraid to speak up. Public recognition means very little if the people doing the work are not treated with dignity when the cameras are off. Matthew 23 warns us about leaders who seek places of honor and public recognition I think there is an important lesson there for all of us. There's a difference between leadership and control. A true leader gets the best from people because they feel valued, respected, and supported. Control can also produce results, but through fear, intimidation, or the work of others, while someone else stands in front and accepts the applause. And applause can be deceiving. It's easy to stand before a crowd and say, look at what I accomplished. But character isn't measured by what someone claims to have accomplished. Character is measured by how they treated the people who helped them accomplish it. That brings me to our city manager. Although you've been well aware of the issues with the many staffers. And our, sorry you guys, I get a little emotional because I, I feel so bad for some of these folks. And our mayor, for a year, you and Mike Ouellette did nothing to stop it. In fact, it almost feels like you've applauded it and enabled him. You've heard concerns about your staff and the community has too. Whatever disagreements exist between elected officials, management or employees, there should be one principle in which every person in this room can agree. No city employee should have to work in an environment of intimidation or fear just for doing their job. Our city manager is responsible for managing this city. That means employees need to know that they are safe, and it means elected officials should set policy and provide oversight, while professional staff are allowed to perform their jobs without inappropriate interference. And it means that there cannot be a shadow city manager operating alongside the person Patterson actually hired to do this job. Mr. Lowe, I'm asking you publicly. Will you commit to protecting the professional boundaries of your staff? Will you make clear, as staff sits in this room, that intimidation, physical manhandling outside during public events, disrespect, or inappropriate interference with employees will not be tolerated by the mayor or the council, any of you? So that's my question. Will you protect our staff, sir?

Thank you, Kat. I will answer the question and the fact that in the city manager's office, we do not tolerate any type of behavior that demeans or puts our employees in a situation where they shouldn't be. The items that you have brought up, I was not aware. I know that there was some things being discussed and I will and not just with mayor but other council members that would just reach out to induce certain things with staff but without get into detail, I've always encouraged our our manager supervisors that everything should be directed to the city manager's office because that's how I have control when when items are directed through the city manager's office. is when I understand now more of how things are being handled but if things are being bypassed and I'm not being told directly what's going on then I don't have control of that situation, but I have expressed multiple times through our staff that when any not just the mayor just Council in general reaches out that they should rear the redirect to me because this way I can have control of the situation on what's happening.

So are you saying you will your stance is you will do not want the mayor to be reaching out directly to your staff because in my CPRA requests that I looked at and I've pulled from you guys that I have been able to see I do see the mayor reaching out directly to your staff and you're not on those

That is correct. I do not. I prefer not just the mayor, any council member to not reach out directly to staff because it does. There is that ability to cross the line one way or another intentionally or unintentionally.

Well, and to be clear, council and the mayor both, they do have the right to ask questions of the staff, so I don't want to take away from that. However, we're talking about something completely different. We're talking about where he is intimidating staff, and he is doing things that he shouldn't be.

A big item, correct, and I would just readdress that, that council should never be directing staff. Kat, we're going over the minute. Yes.

Thank you.

Is anybody else who would want to come to the podium?

Thank you.

Araceli, could we hand her the mic, please?

Martha Fleming, City of Patterson. One of my concerns is the roadways and the fact that being in a power wheelchair Again, I've been bringing this up for a few times and nothing seems to be being done about these roads where people in wheelchairs and power chairs have to use. I would thought that by now there'd have been some effort put forward to taking care of this matter because again, I got stuck. coming down on First Street, and I had to call 911 because I couldn't get out. And so happens that this guy was passing by, so he helped me. But these kind of things shouldn't be happening to people with disabilities. And this is so ridiculous that nothing has been done. And I know it's been at least six weeks. So that is a big issue for me and other people that I have talked to who are in wheelchairs. So I think that some action should have taken place by now. So I don't know why that hasn't happened. And also, the water issue has become a big deal and has been a big deal for quite a while. But I'm wondering, even if you have an infiltration system in your home, is it good enough to prevent you from getting cancer?

Madam Clerk, is anybody online who wishes to provide a public comment?

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. And at this time, we do not have any. Oh, we do have a comment. Candace, go ahead and unmute yourself.

Candace Wyrock, City of Patterson. I actually didn't realize that. Um, there would be people there tonight kind of sharing their stories, um, about situations that they've had with the mayor. Um, and I feel like it's kind of heartbreaking to see the hardest working employees at the city level, our public works employees, um, having to come to the point where they're spending their Tuesday nights at a city council meeting. I feel like looking at all those shirts in the back, all those city employees that are the ones recycling our poop water and picking up our streets and cleaning out our gutters and figuring out why pipes are broken, the hardest working employees for the city are are so desperate for help from this council and our city manager that they're showing up on a Tuesday night to publicly ask for help, which means that all the help that they've tried to get behind closed doors has not come to fruition. So as someone who has also been, victim might be a strong word, because I'm not trying to like, downplay what they went through, but as someone that's also a victim of Michael Claubel's anger and ego, I would just like to say that I really hope that you guys are looking at every single one of those employees in the face and that you have every intention of fixing this for them and making it right. And as we've talked about the last few meetings about the censure, like, yes, it won't remove him from office, But he does need us a public slap on the wrist because he's going to continue acting like this if we as a community don't stand up and say that's not acceptable. It's not acceptable to treat people the way that he treats people. And I don't know. I just I really thought that. I mean, I've said my piece with him. So and if you haven't seen what that piece is, it's on the Internet. So you can find it very easily. I kind of thought that my beef was just between me and him. But at Lobster Fest, his wife put herself into the beef that him and I had. So it's very clear that it's turning into a turf war. And I did see that the California Post joked about it being a civil war, which I think is a little bit dramatic. But to be honest, if you don't stand up for people and doing the right thing for people, then it should be a civil war. We really should. So I think a public... Slap on the wrist. The unity of our community is saying it is not okay to treat people like this. It's not okay to bully people. It's not okay to intimidate people. It's not okay to try to get people removed from their volunteer positions because they quote unquote embarrassed you. None of those things are right. And he is going to continue acting like this unless you guys publicly say it is not okay. So I stand with Public Works. That's fine. I stand with Public Works. I stand with any employee who has ever had to deal with Michael Clauzel's anger because I have had to. And I have countless friends who have heard him yell at me on the phone. So I know that if he's doing that to me, he's doing it to other people. So anyways, just please stand up for these people. Thank you.

Thank you, Candace, very much. Madam Clerk, is anybody else online?

No other comments, Mayor Pro Temp.

Okay. Just in account of transparency, I've asked our city attorney just to give us an update exactly to know where we're at on this censure process so there could be a clear transparency process of where we're at.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. I know that the process appears to be moving slowly, but it is moving. The intention is to have the process complete this month. We are trying to schedule a Rules Committee meeting as we speak and from there it will be public and move very quickly. So we appreciate that everyone has been real patient with this process and it should be coming to an end shortly.

Thank you. Does anybody else have any other comment before we close? You good, Gabby?

Yes, I have a comment. I wanted to give some time for everyone to speak, but to our union members, thank you for showing up. To everyone that has spoken up tonight, thank you for showing up. Speaking publicly takes a lot of courage. Advocating for fair treatment, respect and accountability. Your voices matter. Your experiences matter. and your courage did not go unnoticed. Some have tried to dismiss serious concerns by calling them a witch hunt, going as far as saying that I, myself, am running against Mayor Clausel because it's a witch hunt, which it's not. I decided to run a month ago, and that should say a lot. So for everyone that speaks up, we're listening. And thank you for speaking up. Thank you for being patient. Thank you. Thank you for being patient with this council and the process. The process has not been easy. The process has taken too long. And there needs to be a lot of accountability, transparency, and a lot of change. in the city level. With the lawyers, with city manager, with staff, with HR, there needs to be a lot of change. And that's all I will say tonight. Thank you.

Thank you. Moving on to item six, our consent calendar. All items are approved by single action. In the item may be removed from the consent calendar for separate discussion upon request from a member of the public staff council member. Are there any. I don't want to be pulled from the council members.

I actually had a question okay. So on 6.6, there's obviously some questions. So my question to legal is, could we potentially approve the street closure, but then revisit the cost?

So the council can discuss and visit the cost. with this item if you pull it from the consent calendar.

I don't want to impede on their event, though.

We wouldn't have to continue the item. I'm saying we can pull it from consent, have a discussion, and you can make a decision on if you want to entertain the fee waiver request or what your options are and what the necessary. The fee is built into the staff report, so it's built into the action.

Okay. Okay. So would it interrupt their event?

The discussion itself won't. If you wanted to push the item, I think it would interfere with the . What's the date of the event?

Can we entertain? Could we pull it?

Do you want to pull it?

I think we should pull it and have a discussion about it. Okay. As long as it doesn't interrupt anything, yes. No, no.

We'll be pulling item 6.6 for further discussion. Does any other council member have any other to pull?

Yeah. On that note, can we entertain the fee waiver on the discussion?

That would be when we pull it.

I already pulled it, so we can discuss it.

Okay.

Are there any other members from the public who wishes to pull an item from tonight's agenda?

I'd like to pull the minutes. And I don't know the item number. I apologize.

I think it was 6.2 with the email that you sent me.

Thank you. Yeah. Okay.

So... Item 6.2 and 6.6 will be pulled from the consent calendar for further discussion. Do we have any additional items to pull from the consent calendar? Seeing none.

I'm sorry. I do. 6.4. Parks, Recreation, Beautification Commission and Senior Commission. Are there any reports for the month of August 2026 or representatives here?

We will be pulling 6.4 as well. There's anybody else from members of the public have any item to pull us as well from tonight's agenda Seeing then item 6.2 6.4 and 6.6 will be pulled from consent calendar for further discussion To have any do we have any else to pull anything else from the consent calendar? See none. I I see no additional items to be pulled from consent calendar. Do I have a motion to approve consent calendar 6.1 to 6.6 with the exception of 6.2, 6.4, and 6.6?

I'm sorry. We need to take public comment on the consent items that we're going to move for first.

Thank you. So we would open up to the public now. Thank you.

I'm requesting for the minutes to get pulled because on there, it discusses a project called the 9th Street Improvements and Area 6B Water Main Replacement Project. My question, just to give some... Oh, I'm sorry.

We were going to do public comment on 6.1, 6.3. Oh, okay. And we said 6.2. 6.2 is our pool. Right, so the items that are moving forward are?

6.1, 6.3, and 6.5.

And so public comment on any of those three items? Or on the other items, 6.2, 6.3? And 6.5. 6.5, right.

So am I okay to talk? Yeah? No now you're going to we're going to be pulling any of these for the ones are being motion to pass so we're going to be any comments from 6.1 6.3 and 6.5 does anybody have any of the comments. Seeing none. Do I have a motion to approve consent calendar 6.1 6.3 and 6.5 some. I have second. We'll be conducting a roll call. Council Member Mora? Aye. Council Member Jack?

Aye.

Council Member Hernandez?

Aye.

And your Mayor Pro Tem votes aye. It's approved with a 4-0 vote. Now moving back to we're pulling item 6.2 for further discussion.

I'm learning about all this adult stuff. Okay, so in the minutes, it references a project that I couldn't find any place where council actually authorized for these projects to be combined. I actually didn't even see where council approved the second project that got combined with the 9th Street project. So I'm hoping that maybe somebody, I've sent emails, I'm trying to figure out like if if I can get that, but I'd like to know where that is. But 9th Street Project was a project that was $3 million, and I don't know what the other one is, but maybe, I don't know. I don't know if it's four or five, whatever it is, million. Somehow those got combined. In March of 2025, at first I want to say I am very, very supportive of the hospital. That development is 40% hospital and health care, and it's wonderful. And everybody, I think, in the whole community is behind that. The other 60% is retail and apartments, and that'll be done, like, you know, for profit, but, you know, through the Del Porto health care. I don't think the things that I'm questioning have anything to do with Del Porto Healthcare District, so I just want to say this. So March 2025, Mayor Mike Clauzel got attacked on Facebook in regards to the 9th Street video that he put out there. I, you know, as a fan, I jumped up and said, hey, you know, kind of leave this guy alone, right? Like, it's a big project, blah, blah, blah, blah. He called, said thank you, appreciated my support, and he sent me a picture of the 9th Street project at the time. And then later, when he got beat up again, he called me in September, September 23, 2025. And he said, Kat, I had to pull that project. And because the hospital came along and we needed to upgrade to facilitate for the hospital, which I'm all on board with. In fact, as long as everything's on the up and up, that was the right thing to do, 100%. I have no discrepancy with that. However, that project then went, which did get upgrades, from 8-inch pipes to 10-inch pipes, and we don't need 10-inch pipes for what we were doing. So it got those upgrades, and it possibly got other upgrades, but the only way to check is to see what was originally in that design in March 2023 to what the design is now. So my question, I know I'm talking a lot. I apologize. I will put it in email as well, but How did we get here and how did that project, if it was never authorized by council to have two projects combined, how did that go? If there was a workshop in February saying that that project was unfunded, how was that RFP already out in the public? Let me finish, let me finish. So it was out in RFP. And then when we had what we figured was going to be the right project, how was that determined for the first time ever in Patterson history without receiving a full educational series or workshop or something to the community as well as council? How did that end up on our consent calendar

Could we ask a question? Because we're a minute over.

Okay. And then two weeks later, another consent calendar item, close to a million dollars for the same project, This is where I would really like to know how we are doing our finances, and why aren't we talking to council? They're trusting you guys to put things that are big like this not on a consent calendar, and so are we. We don't pay attention to those things, and I just want to say, I love what you're doing, and I fully support it, and I know our community will. I just want the processes not to be so broken that council members authorize things they did not mean to authorize.

OK.

There's a lot to unpack, I know.

Well, there is a lot to unpack. Your concerns are understandable. My, I just want to point out that it didn't sound like you mentioned that there was anything necessarily wrong with the minutes, but that there was content in the minutes that you wanted clarified.

Yes, there's a project in there that I don't believe is an actual authorized project. Okay.

And so that project and the discussion on that project is not agendized and is not this current item is if there's like errors in the minutes, right? If somebody's name is in there that's not supposed to, if it says an action was taken that wasn't, And so if you sent an email and you want more information on this, and even in this moment, if council directs that they want more information on this project brought back at a future meeting, we can absolutely bring an update and we can discuss that. It is just not for this moment and on this item.

But you can't accept minutes for a project that didn't exist.

That's not what the minutes are for. So the minutes track what occurred at the meeting. And if, in fact, an action was taken regardless of whether the existence of the project was there, if the minutes reflect that that action was taken, the minutes are still okay. And we can look at the issue of a non-existent project getting approved or getting passed or there being some gap in the information, that can be addressed separately and would certainly be an important issue if true, right? And so we can, I think if you sent an email to staff, it's something that can be looked into and answered that way. And if council wants to bring it back for a discussion, we can do that.

How about we let staff tell us if there was some authorization? That's not agendized right now. Okay. All right.

Thank you. Is there a way we could probably set up a meeting just to clear this out? I know I did have a discussion with our engineer. She kind of explained some of this and some information. But I think it would be good just to clarify all the details. If we could set up a meeting, it would be great. And then we'd take it from there.

I'm not saying that the hospital is doing anything wrong. I'm saying that the steps that they took should have been discussed with the council and given council an opportunity. But there was no presentation on this project to the community. So I appreciate it. I do not want a person-to-person presentation, because that means the community doesn't get that same presentation. I want a presentation on the project And an explanation of how this ended up on our consent calendar. I understand. Who our city manager and our lawyer are responsible for putting a $10.13 million project on our consent calendar.

I understand. Thank you.

I'm sorry, Kat, can you give me just one clarification? There's six meetings listed in this one consent item. Do you know the date of the meeting that you're referring to? Tiffany has the information? Okay, thank you. I just want to make sure that we know which meeting you're referring to. Thank you.

Roque and Fernando have both received emails from me. Okay.

Thank you moving on to council member more pull item 6.6.

We should we bring it back to the action on 6.2.

Is this would be OK with this answers to move forward to the agenda is re agenda is this in the future for more information just to clarify.

So there hasn't been anything identified that is wrong with the minutes that are presented. And so I just want to be clear that the council wants to continue approval of these minutes until after a clarification is made on the item that Kat was discussing. I'm asking that if that's what you want to do. or if you want to continue.

I have a comment on that, because I'm trying to go through the minutes. As she mentioned, I would like to know what date specifically, because I'm trying to find the particular item she's talking about, and I'm not seeing it on the minutes so far. Okay, thank you.

So none of these minutes are for a June 16th meeting?

So we don't have, just to be clear,

So June 16th was the first meeting. And on the last one, they approved under that same under that same project in the last meeting. It was $988,000. So they separated out the project and made it actually two different ones and still didn't present that. And both items were on the consent calendar.

I do understand your concern, but I think the main question is, you know, are we comfortable moving forward right now and this for time to 6.2 to address the minutes? and bring it back in the future with somebody else to make sure all these questions are answered by the staff member with the presentation. Are you guys OK with that?

No. Can I please? Yeah, go ahead. The question is, she mentioned a specific project, and she was pulled a minute. And we're trying to see the item. So our counsel indicated it's on the 16th, because it's not on the minutes that was pulled. So we're just trying to make sure, because we have to move forward. So if the item is not on this minute, then the minute should be OK. To approve. I'm trying to find out, and you say the 16th was the first meeting.

There's two items that were on the consent calendar. June 16th was the $10.13 million, and then the $988,000 was from either the last meeting or the meeting for that, which the minutes reflect that.

So just to, we need a vote on this item. We either vote to move forward, right, or vote to reconsider this, correct?

In continued approval of the minutes, or you can vote to approve the minutes. There hasn't been an error identified in the minutes. There's been a request for a clarification of information that was provided at a prior meeting or that wasn't provided at a prior meeting and why it wasn't provided. There's no indication that there's anything wrong with the minutes being presented. And there are six sets of minutes here.

I think the concern is if we accept the minutes as written and there is an issue with this consent issue, is it going to impede anything?

No, even if the council decides If they look at this and say that this should have never been on consent, it should have been an open session, it does not change what happened at that meeting and what reflects in the minutes.

So, I will move to approve the minute and what we'll pull.

That would not change the nature of the minutes, though, which is what is being approved. Whether there was a statutory violation or a policy violation or anything like that is not a matter for this particular item. and should be addressed, but it does not have any effect on whether the minutes are accurate. It's whether they accurately reflect what occurred at that meeting. And there's been no indication that they do not.

I'll move for us to go ahead and approve the minutes.

So just to clarify, are you, are the council comfortable moving forward at this item with approving 6.2, approve of the closed session, regular meeting, and special meeting minutes of August 10, 2026, August 13, 2026, and August 18, 2026, and August 21st? Are you guys comfortable moving forward?

I am, because the item is not in this minute.

I'm fine with that as long as we are looking into the concern. Yes. Perfect.

So do I have a motion to approve consent calendar item 6.2? So move do I have a second a second, okay? Councilmember Mora, aye Councilmember Jack aye Councilmember Hernandez aye And mayor Pro Tem votes aye the motion to approve consent consent calendar 6 1 2 passes with a 4-0 vote MOVING ON TO ITEM 6.6, OR 6.4, COUNCIL MEMBER HERNANDEZ.

I WOULD LIKE FOR THE COUNCIL TO REVIEW PARKS RECREATION BEAUTIFICATION COMMISSION AND SENIOR COMMISSION REPORTING OUT THE PROCESS FOR REPORTING OUT ON A MONTHLY BASIS, IF WE CAN ADD THAT TO A FUTURE AGENDA? IS THAT, COULD WE DO THAT RIGHT NOW? COULD I DO THAT? YEAH.

OKAY. THAT'S ALL THE ISSUE.

COULD WE ADD THIS SECTION 6.4 TO APPROVE THE FUTURE AGENDA AND DO I HAVE A MOTION FOR THIS SUBJECT 6.4? I MOTION. Do I have a second?

I'll second.

Motion 6.0 has been motion to move forward for next meeting to approve City Council Commission's report for the month of August 2026, Parks and Recreation and Beautification Commission and Senior Commission. Do we have a consensus? Do we have a motion to have a second? Let me vote. So, Council Member Mora? Aye.

Aye.

Council Member Jack? Aye. And Council Member Hernandez? Aye. And Carlos votes aye. The motion passes with a 4-0 vote. Thank you. So moving on to item 6.6. Council Member Mora, what questions or concerns do you have from this 6.6?

So I know that we, in the past, have not charged for this event. And that I know that we updated fees. I understand all of that. My concern is that when it comes to the schools, I feel like we should do better at collaborating. So what I would like to know is, I know this is based off a fee schedule, I'd like to know what our actual cost is for this and see if there's any way we can collaborate in a better fashion with them. So I don't know if this is, like I said, I don't want it to, impose on their event. But I think that there's a little bit of work that we can look into.

So there's a direct cost breakdown in the staff report.

Is that based off a fee schedule?

This is based on actual costs to the city.

Okay. So if this is actual cost, when did we stop wavering it and start charging for it?

one thing i would um i guess that i can clarify on my part is i don't know to how many previous years the previous system uh the city manager was either waving or choosing different routes but when i was appointed to the city manager position i was um I did discuss with council on many items during closed session and others the the conditions of our when I took over the the budget where the budget was where we're headed and how we took a big hit for the initial year when I as I was taking over the city manager position so the role was that if it's in the policy we're going to charge its as long as in the policy and the procedures regardless of what was done in the past unless there was communications with Council that we were wanted to wave those items so not just with with the Patterson high school on the homecoming but that that was equitable to everything that was coming forth to the city manager's office or not to any events that were coming through whether a nonprofit pro-profit we were going to charge what was under the policy and take everything on a case-by-case scenario if Council so chose to waive fees under the basis of why they want to be away fees and for reason is that they wanted to well way fees but my role was to assure that we were doing a cost recovery on all items that was applicable under the policies and procedures.

So I have a question. And looking at the breakdown analysis of the course on Council Member Mora, do you see any area right there as you're looking at it? Is there anything that you see? Because I know this is a student event. And at the same time, looking at the course associated with it, this is staff time. Uhm, I see the encouragement permit fee. Come pick up so the most of the cost is actually under city staff labor. Which is on the bottom for 1742. That's really the biggest cause. So is there anything councilmember that you see there that is weatherable?

I FEEL THAT, AGAIN, WE COULD COLLABORATE ON ITEMS OF THIS MATTER. WE CAN COME UP WITH SOMETHING THAT IS, YOU KNOW, IF IT'S MAYBE SPLITTING THE COSTS WITH THEM OR BEING CREATIVE giving the students some support. That's why I was hoping we could pull it and kind of have a discussion on what could be fair and reasonable. I want to be mindful of we're not just going to waive everything all the time, but having the conversation of how can we participate in this event. So that's why I was hoping to pull it and have the conversation offline to see where we could cut some costs here. Is that an option or do we have to do this right now?

Can I add one more thing before you answer that? Looking at the 15% administration fee, what is that? It's on the bottom.

Oh, on the bottom.

IT SAYS THERE'S A 649.

YES, UNDER OUR, I DON'T KNOW IF IT'S COST RECOVERY FOR THE STAFF TIME TO PROCESS EVERYTHING AND HANDLES ALL THAT, THERE IS A 50% COST THAT GOES WITH THAT. YES, THAT HAS BEEN APPROVED AND adopted through cost recovery on the process. Not the specific items, but then there's also all the process part of it. The 15% is what was for cost allocation that was deemed to be appropriate for fee on processing.

I understand. I have a couple questions here really quick. Like, you know, since we're going to, the goal is to hopefully have a good communication with our school district and us. Is there any way we could, somebody's staff could come back in? Because we use their facilities, they use ours. Is there any way we could probably do just an idea out there? Say like, you know what, we're going to do a total of $50,000 a year, you know, and it would work vice versa. So once that credit runs out versus the city or them, then we would be able to pay the difference. And that would be some sort of way to kind of collaborate both things you know we would have a fifty thousand credit from the school district and another fifty thousand from us so we could kind of work by you know side of side so in this case hypothetically speaking it would be those five thousand dollars more or less with those fifty thousand dollars just an idea that we would have they would have a remaining forty five thousand dollars yeah I don't know but I mean I do understand at the end of the day they do want to lower the fees is it doable

I think it's going to take some more discussion. So is there a way to table this, the fees? Can we table the fees for now until we have a discussion, but allow the event to proceed?

I mean, once you approve the road closure, it's approved, right? And so coordination with the school district on any kind of Cooperative agreement for utilization of each other's services or facilities would certainly take some time. Yeah, that's it. That's a big discussion I right now in this moment So this homecoming parade is scheduled to take place on October 16th. The next City Council meeting here is October 6th I don't know that ten days is enough time for them to not know what's gonna happen and They're not here, obviously, anymore because I think she had to go to work, so she commented on it earlier. What the council can do at this time is approve it as written and ask direct staff to reach out to the school district to try to see if they're open to a coordination effort. You can reduce the fees based on if you have a colorable reason for wanting to work with the school's district in particular. So typically, if you're going to have a fee waiver, there needs to be an articulated reason that sets it apart from anyone else who's going to be charged the same fees. Or you can waive it and move forward, but we'd still want to articulate a reason of why we would want to waive it specifically for this event in the school district.

So if I pull it strictly for fees, they're still going to know that it's approved. They're still going to be able to proceed. We just need to get it back on next meeting to make sure it's documented, correct? Yes. OK, then I'd like to do that.

So just to clarify, we will approve as written to come back in the future, October 16, to negotiate or work with school district fees.

I mean, my recommendation would be to approve it as written and then work with the district on a potential refund for a coordination effort. Because if you approve the closure and we can't come to an agreement, then the closure is going to happen and the city's not going to be able to recoup any fees. So if we approve the item as written and direct staff and potentially one or two council members specifically to coordinate with the school district in the meantime so that we can ensure that it occurs and to discuss a reduction or a waiver and what that looks like. And then you can do that offline. It doesn't even have to happen at the next meeting.

I have a question. Who pays for the homecoming parade? Is that the school district? Do you guys? I don't know.

I'm not aware if it's the school or actually under what funds or the high school does. I'm not aware of it, and I'm not sure that during the application.

The district would pay for it. However, if the school district chose not to pay for it, then it would fall upon the boosters and the PTA, To try to fund that so that's been my concern is that if the school district chooses not to pay this Then the money comes from the kids So The program needs to move on

WE CANNOT DETERMINE WHAT THE SCHOOL DISTRICT IS GOING TO DO, BECAUSE IF THEY'RE GOING TO PAY, THEN THEY WON'T BE HERE AT THIS POINT, RIGHT? AND THEY NEED TO MOVE ON. SO WHO APPLIES? WHO PUT THE APPLICATION IN? THAT'S THE COUNCILMAN? IT LOOKS LIKE...

SO WHO IS THE ORGANIZER? ASB REQUESTS PERMISSION TO CONTINUE.

SO...

Hi, good evening. My name is Mariana Plasencia. I currently serve as ASB president, and I'm here to talk about our homecoming parade and what we hope to continue to be a partnership between our schools and our city. Patterson is special because our community shows up for kids. This parade is not only important to our high school students, to our ASB members, because a lot of people confuse it, right? They're like, oh, well, it's just for ASB. It's a, you know, kind of people associate kind of homecoming being a popularity thing. It's not. This homecoming parade is something that happens for the entire community, right? It lines up from the high school going down Las Palmas all the way up until the circle, and we circle all the way back. When you show up to that homecoming parade, you see little kids from Las Palmas. You see Patterson High School families outside supporting their kids, right? And it's not just ASB. It's something that we put together that brings community together, not just Patterson as a community, right, but the high school community. We have, you know, all the clubs, right, for example, the Mexican-American club, right, ASB. the Polynesian Club, the cheer team, the football team. I mean, it's a community event, right? This parade cannot take place if we're being charged $5,000, right? We're focusing that money to hopefully be used for our education, for anything else. $5,000 for a parade, for a 30-minute parade, for that matter, for a road closure is... in our opinion, a little ridiculous, right? It's a partnership that should be done between our schools and the city. This is the city of Patterson. This is the city that shows up for the community, shows up for families, shows up for kids, right? And so homecoming isn't just a school event. Our families line the streets, local businesses support us, city employees come out to watch, and many of the people working for the city that day have their own children, grandchildren, family members, or friends participating in the parade. This is a parade that has gone for generations, Back since, you know, before I was in high school, before, I mean, I'm sure some of you guys were in high school, right? These were events that take place. And this is not only an event that takes place, you know, it's something that people look forward to every year, right? There's people just as the Apricot Fiesta Parade, just as the, you know, Downtown Christmas Parade. These parades are something that happens annually that these people look forward to and bring their families to as annual traditions. And the city began charging the school for homecoming, and I hope we don't automatically make it the new normal. In the packet, it is a recommendation to charge us $5,000. Please stand with us and let that $5,000 go to our education. Patterson High School and the city serve the same families and the same children. We should be partners. Homecoming celebrates our athletes, band, cheerleaders, clubs, student leaders, and classmates. It gives younger kids something to look forward to and gives our families something to be proud of. We're not asking the city to create a new event or spend money on something just for us. We're asking you to continue being a part of something that already brings Patterson together. Please look at this as a community partnership rather than simply another event that needs to be charged a fee. Because when Patterson shows up for its kids, our kids learn what it means to show up for Patterson. Thank you. Thank you.

I would like to add that I do understand both of the concerns. I really do. You know, the way we could probably, a way to kind of work together, save some money. But the question is, how are we getting, we need to move forward. It would be a good idea to move forward with this and we either sit down and discuss this and renegotiate or give them a credit so we don't have them, put them on hold. Are you guys okay to move forward in that direction?

I think we need to move forward. However, the question for me, by the way, I do appreciate your passion. I was a PTO president, so I know what it takes to raise funds to support our kids. And I'm all in for the students. My question is who applied for this and what funds do you all have available to you at this point? Because when I look at the funds, it's basically to pay for employee. The city is not making any money out of it, but we definitely would want to partnership with you. But I want to know how much money do you have available to cover the cost, and how do you plan originally to pay for it, if any?

Right. So past year, Dr. Gauna, our superintendent, and Dr. Sherwood split the cost, right? And then the year before that, I believe it was just Dr. Gauna. And, of course, if, you know, we proceed, obviously we have the funds. It's not something that, you know, we just are hoping, oh, hopes and prayers. No, no, no. We have the funds. You know, ASB does have, you know, an open PO for the entire year where we can pull out money as needed for events and things like that. Obviously, like I said right now, Dr. Gannon and Dr. Sherwood have pulled money from whatever we have available to us. So that's what's been happening these past years. But we're hoping that this year we can hopefully get it waived or do some sort of partnership with the city so that when we pull those funds, we're It's not so expensive for them because a lot of this money that we're using for this parade, which is a 30-minute parade, could be used towards education or something bigger for the students.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. So, Council Member Moore, are you okay moving forward at this time?

I'M OKAY WITH MOVING FORWARD AS LONG AS WE ARE MAKING SURE THAT WE ARE DISCUSSING THIS AND LOOKING AT EITHER SOME SORT OF COLLABORATION. AGAIN, BEING MINDFUL OF THE COSTS THAT IT TAKES, BUT I THINK THAT FOR SOMETHING LIKE THIS, IT'S AN ANNUAL EVENT THAT'S VERY IMPORTANT TO OUR CITY. SO I WANT TO MAKE SURE WE TALK ABOUT IT. OKAY.

Perfect. So do I have a motion to approve consent calendar item 6.6? Oh, sorry. My bad. Let me open up to the public.

Thank you. I just want to point out what she said. Dr. Gana and the other representative from the school district paid from their own pocket the fee is what she just told me. So that did not come from the school district. They paid for their own pocket because the fee was put on them. So this concerns me because that means that school district will have a hard time putting that money each year. And as they get into more financial struggles, that's going to get even harder. So my bigger ask is because it's not just about the school district, it's about our community. This community has been built around, for whatever reason, where I come from, the city has parades. They have events. They have all kinds of things that are city. Funded and we don't have that here. We only have Events that are done by volunteers and then and the city partners that with us So my ask is that we look at what other cities do which is a public benefit program. It was something that miss Maura and Gabby would talk to me about last year when we did the Little League MOU and instead of having commit you know different groups come to recreation to try to figure out like hey how can we work together with the city instead have a public benefit program that's that runs really well in other cities where they can do an application and if it needs to go further for instance like needs to go to fire or any of those things but there is an ability for certain kind of things that we do like apricot fiesta and this homecoming parade any of our like long standing that they already can go through the process and give us the information but we can almost be on an auto approval or something so that way we don't have to have the community come every single year to fight Council we can we can put a process and an application behind it So that's my thought is that if that's something that you guys would consider I have already started writing up what that would look like and I'm I Will offer it to Council and to share with the city. Yep. Thank you

So I had a couple suggestions I guess maybe for for this so in Tracy They charge about $1,200 for Things, but they don't charge their high schools, and they have multiple high schools do it But I think that in there Areas probably the same distance if not longer so 5,000 in a smaller city seems a little crazy to me and then as far as helping like staff it Maybe the Sheriff's Department can loan VIPs To help with the different, you know areas the road closures, but those were just some suggestions.

Thank you Thank You, Ilana

Siobhan Alves-Patterson. I just wanted to comment really quick. I think this kind of goes back, the Alfano, Irwin times. I mean, we look at between the city and the school district, and we want to make sure it's balanced, it's fair, and we want to make sure one's not getting more than the other and whatnot to make sure that it's equal. And I see the importance with that. So I'm just wondering if we've done an analysis to see overall, because I know that we use their schools for some of our recreational activities and vice versa. So what does that look like all in all? And is one in the red and one is in the black? How can we help make it more fair? And regarding events like this, I know that the public benefit program has been mentioned. But I think the idea that what Modesto has is essentially it's through the park and rec. There's a budget. And so it's not creating a whole new entity. And you have a budget for your special events and whatnot. And what kind of people are collaborating with you? Are you co-sponsoring the event? Homecoming rally you know which things and people apply during a certain window of time each year annually you know your budget and You choose from there. There's not a separate entity to have to worry about it's through the program already set up And I think that might be something to look into thanks guys Thank you very much myself Okay, we do have a couple comments online mayor person we have one more on I

Hi, Mark Dizon, City of Patterson. Just a quick question. So I was looking at the breakdown of the cost here. And the biggest cost here, line item here, is city staff, right? City staff labor at $134 per hour. So you have street closure and also street opening. So you guys are saying, is this really at cost, this $134 per hour?

THAT'S TOTAL COST OF WHAT IT COST THE CITY FOR HAVING THE TOTAL COMPENSATION, I BELIEVE. I CANNOT CONFIRM ON THAT TOTAL COST, BUT I BELIEVE WHEN YOU'RE SEEING THAT IS THE TOTAL COMPENSATION, WHAT IT COST THE CITY TO FUND THESE EMPLOYEES AT AN HOUR-LATER RATE. I'M LOOKING AT IT SAYS 13, THEN ONE HOUR.

SO IF I'M READING THIS RIGHT, BASICALLY PER PERSON, has an hourly rate of $134 per person that's closing the streets. Is that correct?

yes the the 134 is that that is what our rate is for our maintenance workers to be what we charge out per hour is okay but that's a fully loaded rate though yes just their salary correct okay i'm not going to say that i know that for 100 but that is the fully loaded rate because that's what the city is going to pay is the fully rotor rate okay like some other kind of like benefits and stuff yes okay because i'm like i don't think some or

That would be great if someone from the city actually earns $134 per hour as a salary. Like, damn, that's great. OK. Because I'm looking at these, just looking at those two line items, it's basically 60% of the total cost. Right? So that's the biggest line item. So if there's something that we can work on to lower the cost, it's definitely those two line items. But just that. Thank you. Thank you.

Madam Clerk, is anybody online?

We do have a couple of comments. Candace, you can go ahead and unmute yourself.

Hello, Kansas Y Rock City of Patterson. I have not had children in the Patterson Joint Unified School District since my now sophomore was in first grade. So after first grade I pulled her out. That being said, we have attended, I would say, every homecoming parade since we have lived in Patterson. So I want to absolutely echo the fact that this isn't just a Patterson High School event. This is an event for the entire community. You see every employee at the bank, at all the banks in the circle, run out to watch the parade. You see family members, and you see people like my family who have zero children in the Patterson High School, and yet we still attend that parade. So I don't want this to be looked at as like, oh, we should just be working with the school district. You should be working with anyone that's willing to put on a community event because last I recalled, the city doesn't actually do any parades of their own. So the three parades that come to mind right now for me are the Homecoming Parade, the Apricot Fiesta Parade, and the Patterson Christmas Festival Parade. That being said, is this going to affect those other parades as well? this this fee schedule.

So it if I can point out just because it's come up several times. The city is actively putting together a sponsorship and waiver policy to bring forward to Council and it's pretty close and so that hopefully before anymore pervades for events occur something will be in place but until then they would have to be taken on a case by case basis because there isn't a specific policy and just because council reviews and reduces or waives a fee for one does not necessarily mean that it will affect all others, but there does have to be an articulated reason such as it serves the community as a whole. It isn't everyone is invited. It isn't a paid event. Things like that are all taken into consideration. And so No, not necessarily. It would not affect other future events.

Okay. So then thank you for that. So I think as someone that has, you know, done my best to pour into the community and help provide things for our community to go to, I love the idea of a public benefit fund. I love the idea of what former Council Member Alves stated about, you know, cities kind of just helping these organizations grow. Get these events off the ground, but I just want to, like, urge. City staff, because I don't necessarily think that this is something that should be on the city council's shoulders. Like, this isn't really something that they should be freaking out about or having to figure out right now. This is more like a city staff role, but if there are community groups. that are willing to put on these community events, like you said, where everyone's invited, the public benefits from it, AKA Apricot Fiesta, where the entire Central Valley comes to Patterson to celebrate our agricultural roots. Like that's huge. The Christmas Festival, it's the only, citywide Christmas event that goes on in December. So there are things that I think, and homecoming parade should be one of them, that should be automatically included in the city's budget. So I know it's a little too late now because we've hemorrhaged so much money in legal fees this year, but if the city put aside a certain amount of money specifically to cover our three big parades, granted if someone else wants to bring a parade to town you want to bring national ice cream day parade to town where you just pass out ice cream cool great that's awesome you know maybe you can get in line for these funds but there are three current parades that have happened the christmas festival parade i'm hearing on 100 years apricot fiesta parade over 50 years Homecoming, who knows how long homecoming parade's been going on. So I just think that there are traditions that we should not deter. And I will be sorely disappointed if the city charges our children for literally a 30 minute parade. It's the fastest. It's not even a hard road. We're over 30 seconds. It's not even a hard road closure, you guys. There's literally no barricades. You park city trucks at each of the spokes and on the roads that they have to shut down to come down Las Palmas. And if it's all you need is a vehicle, I bet I could find three car clubs right now that would sign up to do it. So just consider that other people would do it if the city is not willing to. Thank you.

Thank you, Candice. Madam Clerk, is anybody else online?

Yes, we do have another comment. Kyle, you can go ahead and unmute yourself.

Hello everybody city staff. Kyle Guido from Patterson. So just to reiterate what Candace was saying I know for a fact that this parade isn't going on since my mom was in high school and she graduated in 88. This is a longstanding tradition that's that goes on in this town every year same time of the year. And I don't know if If Council or city staff has ever gone to. A Patterson Little League game or a junior Tiger game or even a high school football game, but we are Patterson is written throughout all of those organizations. This is not a. This is not a school event. This is a community event. We bleed. We are Patterson, so please consider that when you make your decision. Thank you.

Thank you Kyle.

We have another comment. You can go ahead and unmute yourself.

I'm just going to make it really quick. I'm Pam Thorkelson from Patterson, and I am multi-generational here in town. My parents went here, my grandparents, everybody. And, you know, as our town has grown, you need to keep the traditions that we all grew up with alive. That's what made Patterson so special. And the idea to charge these kids for something that's been going on for all these generations and to have something that's 30 minutes lost because of finances is I think would be a great injustice. And to the young lady who spoke from the school, I just want to commend her for her passion and for the things that she said, because that's exactly how I felt. And the idea, I mean, I would be at my house and I would sit and I would watch him getting ready for the parade. And I did all of that, and to see even the idea that that may be lost because our town has grown and losing some of that passion would make me extremely sad, as I know it would many of us who grew up here. And we've got to keep these traditions alive through our kids. It's important. Anyway, I said my piece, short and sweet, and I thank you all for listening.

Thank you very much for your comment. Madam Clerk, is anyone else online?

There are no other comments, Mayor Pro Tem.

Okay. Moving forward, Council Member Moore, are you comfortable moving forward at this time with the approval as written to negotiate with the school district fees?

Okay, I'm going to say it again. I'm okay with moving forward, but we are going to immediately have a discussion about seeing how we can collaborate. Okay. Yes, I'm okay with that. Okay.

Perfect. So do I have a motion to approve consent calendar item 6.6?

I'll motion.

Do I have a second?

I'll second.

Motion has been seconded. Seconded. Councilmember Mora?

Aye.

Councilmember Jack?

Aye.

Councilmember Hernandez?

Aye.

And your mayor votes aye. The motion approved to consent calendar item 6.6 passes with a 4-0 vote. Moving forward to presentation number seven, 7.1. Approve fire department organizational realignment of eliminating the fire prevention inspector position, authorizing the addition of one assistant fire chief, incorporating a community risk reduction division, and approving the assistant fire chief job description and salary range, and revised job description for fire marshal, Fire Administrative Manager, Code Enforcement Supervisor, Code Enforcement 1 and 2, and Graffiti Abatement Technician, which include as title change. Staff Report, Fire Chief Okola.

Good evening, Mayor Pro Tem, Council. CITIES DEAF AND CITIZENS OF PATTERSON. I HAVE A SMALL PRESENTATION FOR YOU HERE TONIGHT. I'D LOVE TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS AFTER THAT. SO WHY ARE WE HERE TONIGHT? PATTERSON FIRE DEPARTMENT IS GROWING, RIGHT? THE CITY IS GROWING. THE CALL LOADS ARE MORE ROBUST. SO OVER THE PAST NINE MONTHS THAT YOU GUYS HAVE GRACED ME IN THIS POSITION, WE'VE BEEN LOOKING AT OPPORTUNITIES TO ADAPT AND BECOME MORE RELEVANT TO THE FUTURE AND THE PRESENT THAT WE'RE CURRENTLY IN. SO WE'VE COME UP WITH THE DEPARTMENT ORGANIZATIONAL RESTRUCTURING THAT IS BASICALLY ASKING YOU TONIGHT TO APPROVE AN ASSISTANT FIRE CHIEF POSITION AND THE CREATION OF THE COMMUNITY RISK REDUCTION DIVISION WHICH IS ENCOMPASSING CODE ENFORCEMENT AND FIRE PREVENTION. SO THE RECOMMENDATION, ADOPT THE RESOLUTION TO ELIMINATE THE FIRE INSPECTION SPECIALIST POSITION, CREATE ONE ASSISTANT FIRE CHIEF POSITION, FUND THE POSITION THROUGH CFD 2022-01 WHICH IS THE PUBLIC SAFETY SERVICES REVENUE ACCOUNT AND MAINTAIN NO IMPACT TO THE GENERAL FUND. as we move forward as best as we can. Why the changes needed? Community Risk Reduction Division is going to be created. The fire department assumed the code enforcement responsibilities month, month and a half, two months ago. And the current span of control exceeds the accepted management best practices of five to one. Additional executive oversight is needed to support growth and service demands in the community. The core roles and responsibilities of the community risk reduction. Sorry, I'm keeping up with that. Sorry, public. Data collection analysis. If you haven't known me or got to know me, I'm huge on technology, which I know it doesn't seem like I am. But it allows us to get the analytics that we need to provide to you folks as council and citizens to actually understand what we are doing on the street. Public education is huge for us right teach residents and businesses about fire safety disaster preparedness home escape planning through school programs workshops and outreach engineering and mitigation promote structural safety designs home hardening vegetation management in areas that we needed for defense defensible space and then installation of safety technology like smoke alarms and What's the other one carbon dioxide detectors? Code enforcement and inspections, right, will enforce state and local fire and life safety codes through regular building inspections of commercial, industrial, and high-hazard properties to prevent violations. Economic incentives, encourage safety compliance and behavioral changes using grants, rewards, or penalties and fines for code violations. And then last but not least, emergency response integration, align the department response capabilities, pre-incident planning, and specialized training with the specific risks discovered during community risk assessments. There's a quick look at the proposed new structure. Obviously, you can see the org chart there, the fire chief up top. The assistant chief is what we're here for tonight to basically run the community risk reduction division that is encompassing of the fire marshal and the fire prevention division, the code enforcement division, And then we're also adding a community risk reduction technician, which is a former position under the code enforcement section, which was the old graffiti removal abatement folks there. And we are going to allow them to work in the community risk reduction division with a little bit more task, but a little bit more flexibility to adapt to the changes that are happening and not solely focus on graffiti removal and abatement. And then you have your operational side basically over there to the right, your battalion chiefs and your engine companies, et cetera, with our firefighters all the way down to the bottom. The cost of fiscal impact, the proposal is fully funded through CFD 2022-01 and does not affect the general fund. The fire inspection specialist account that has been frozen for a year and a half, we're going to eliminate that so we get a cost savings of $150,931.13 there. The net additional cost of the assistant fire chief is $109,581. The additional CFD revenue that we're pulling out of the account is $164,462.66. The remaining revenue after the funding that is still in that account is $54,958.85. Some benefits to the community, right? Restores an appropriate span of control, strengthens community risk reduction efforts, and improves oversight of fire prevention and code enforcement. This also enhances organizational efficiency and accountability and supports the continued growth in the city of Patterson. Uh-oh. Where did the last one go? There it is. All right, so council action requested. We're asking you tonight to approve the organizational restructuring and authorize the addition of one assistant fire chief position. If there aren't any questions, that's all I have for you.

Thank you very much, Chief O'Connell, for the presentation. Do any council members have any questions, concerns, or comments from this item?

None for me. Then thank you for your presentation.

I have a comment. The color I just want to say thank you so much for sitting in with us and breaking down the process. I've always believed in transparency and you sat down you broke everything and you The same line item you presented in the special meeting is exactly the same thing that I'm looking at because public safety is important and they also need to know. So thank you so much and great presentation.

Thank you.

Are there any members of the public present who wish to provide a public comment? Please state your name.

Hi, Yolanda again. So this is for both chiefs. I'm curious why code enforcement is under fire, not sheriffs, and why they're handling abandoned vehicles and not the sheriffs.

Yes. So code enforcement was under fire before I got here. And I think it was just right before I got here. Correct me if I'm wrong, Fernando, right? Like a year before I got here in 22.

Yes, that's correct.

Yeah. So they've been passed around for the last four years between different leaders in the in the community. And we came through some suggestions and we looked at the overall organizational structure and we thought it was best to reabsorb them. We had some extra staff come available due to some other things that happened in the fire department. So we're bringing them on our back under our umbrella to to basically. look at the future and get some more stuff. We work very close with the police department, so there's no disconnect. I can tell you that. We're hand-in-hand together. They're actually stationed over there, and then I frequently visit over there, and I work with Chief Hill all the time. So it's a collaborative effort, to say the least.

That's nice to know. Thank you. And a suggestion. So you know how the Sheriff's Department, the county has the VIPs? I would love to see something like that more Patterson focused. And maybe, since you guys work hand in hand, maybe it could be carried over to fire. Because I've heard code enforcement is overworked. And so maybe there's opportunity for volunteers to help with vehicle abatement or other private property citations or so forth. I know some cities do that. So just a suggestion. coming from a former vehicle abatement officer for 11 years. That's my pet peeve. Thank you.

Got it. And I can answer your vehicle abatement question. The vehicle abatement process is a collaborative effort both with the sheriff's office and code enforcement. We've come to a rule of agreement that we would handle the incidents on the street. Not all the time, but mainly we handle the incidents on the street where vehicles parked on the street for more than 72 hours, expired registration, as you know. It's been primarily done by our CSOs. We have two CSOs positions here in Patterson that take care of that, but we have, for lack of a better term, I guess, focused on areas that we saw as concern and our traffic units got involved and kind of blitzkrieg the whole area there and just went berserker and towed a lot of vehicles, made a lot of citations. So it's been a very collaborative effort with the code enforcement as far as vehicle abatement. The reason for the code enforcement not being under the sheriff's office is very simple. The city of Patterson contracts with the sheriff's office. And thus, I am not a city employee. And I don't oversee the city employees. I can't manage those city employees.

So again, coming from a CSO who did vehicle abatement, I drive all around Patterson several times a day doing all the different things that I do. And I see them everywhere. And it's very frustrating. So I would just encourage more proactiveness, especially for the beat officers, because they're literally everywhere. So just.

Duly noted. Thank you. We hear you. Please be patient, but we are getting there.

A quick suggestion, sorry. Yolanda, would you be open to sitting in for a meeting with Chief Hakala so that we can review your suggestion that you have and your insight? Thank you.

I'd be the first.

I'd be the first, not the...

I know I put myself just a lot of doing a lot of activities and I know I'm super busy, but I went through the whole background for VIPS and I really wanted to be more local. I didn't want to be going all the way to Ceres and doing, I want to help my community here. So I'm already backgrounded and stuff. And because I know how to cite or not, I went and cite as a volunteer, obviously, but I know how to check for vehicles and tag them. I would be more than happy to be one of your first volunteers. So it bugs me that much.

Thank you.

Awesome. Thank you.

Chief Hakama, thank you for taking my call yesterday. And I really do love what you're doing. As everybody knows, I love technology. And so the stuff that you described for me that you want to put in place is super... I can't believe Patterson's actually going to do it. Like, it's pretty cool. I don't know if that's something you want to talk about, but... The questions that came afterwards to, like, members of Apricot Civic Watch kind of trying to figure out all these things, how will it catch those things? And one of the questions that came up was, so if something was built without a permit, but it was built to code, would the software be able to catch that? I'm guessing not, but you would be able to catch everything that's not to code, right?

No, and again, Kat, thanks for the question. The future is ours. We have so many available opportunities right now. And I challenge everybody in here, be patient. But our goal is to educate. We want to educate before we enforce. So with technology that's here today that we're looking at for the future is amazing. It's going to do great things if we push that way. But I can tell you right now, our goal is going to be the education part of it, just to let people know what they are and what they're not doing right or wrong so they can fix it before we have to go out there and force it. It's robust. Don't get me wrong, right? But you have the right team in place. The Patterson Fire Department is on the cutting edge right now, and we're pushing forward with the support of city staff, my police chief, and everybody here around me. So we look forward to the future. And like I said, just please be patient. It is the world we live in.

Yeah, no, I'm just really happy you guys are doing that. Code enforcement has been an active conversation with my group. So thank you.

Janice James, Patterson resident. I'm trying to figure out why graffiti abatement technician is part of the fire department and not part of the city maintenance. And that doesn't make any sense with me. So if you could clarify that.

Yeah, so graffiti abatement removal was under code enforcement before, and not the city staff from Public Works. It is directly tied to a code enforcement function, the way people report graffiti in the town. And I can tell you the member that does that That city in this room is very proactive. He goes around through every park and catches it before it's even notified. So that side of the graffiti room is bar none. But it is falling now into that community risk reduction division where that individual will be able to grow in the future as the city grows, as the department grows, and the divisions grow and grow with the programs, basically. So it is directly tied to code enforcement, not to public works.

Okay, so you're saying there's more funding and more staffing in a fire department doing that as a code enforcement than it is a city maintenance to have that under their umbrella?

It's more beneficial, I can tell you. I can say that. And the grant opportunities and the things that we're going to be doing here in the future, it falls right in line with the structure.

Okay, thank you.

Mark Dizon, City of Paterson. So just a couple of questions. So Chief Hakula, great with the code enforcement. Ever since we moved here a couple of years ago, we have some stuff built here, and we actually apply for permits. We want to make sure that we follow everything up to code. It's just weird. Like recently, we had like a fence built, and I don't know, the code's kind of weird here, where you need to have like opacity or something. But it is what it is. We follow the code. All right, so I'm all for it. Yeah, giving you a chance, checking everything, everything up to code, great. So one thing, though, with code enforcement that's kind of weird is it seems like you guys are waiting for people to snitch your neighbors rather than being proactive. I know you can report stuff there anonymously, but still, I think it's better if your code enforcement people actually look for it rather than waiting for people to report against your neighbors. It's just unproductive, if you ask me.

Absolutely. I appreciate that question. Proactiveness and looking is what we're doing. We're rebuilding right now. So the streets is where we're going to find this stuff. So you're probably going to see us in the streets here in the near future. And I can tell you, since I've been placed with this task, we're making a difference. And they're very hard.

tasks to complete with some of these properties i can tell you that there's a lot of hoops we have to jump through because of who owns them and who's in charge of them but we are making a difference and i can assure you that the future looks bright okay then one quick question in your presentation when you when you know that cone enforcement i may be wrong but i thought it noted like commercial it didn't say like houses just it says commercial is that wrong did i read it right or wrong

Yeah, I'm trying to remember what section you were looking at.

I don't remember which slide, but it says code enforcement when you were describing it, and it says commercial. I didn't see like households.

Yeah, code enforcement has everything to do with everything inside the city.

Okay, so it's not just commercial, also households, you cover it.

Correct. Okay. And some of it's building too, so don't forget there's building enforcement as well, right? So the building permit process versus code enforcement and all that other stuff.

Gotcha. OK, perfect. Last question. So we're eliminating the fire prevention inspection inspector position. So that being eliminated, which role is going to take over? Is that code enforcement?

Negative so that position has been frozen for the last year and a half, right? So that's a basic entry-level fire inspector position That has not been filled and when you look at things Administratively and operationally, right? So I'll take I'll use myself for an example, right? I started as a firefighter I've been doing business inspections in the fire prevention world my whole career So you get to the top of the ladder, but guess what? Sometimes you get to work at the bottom where you started so now with this assistant chief position myself and the fire marshal you now have three people that are able to do fire inspections in the city limits once the workload gets created and as the city grows we will start evaluating part-time fire inspector full-time fire inspector etc based off of the workload gotcha okay that's all thank you thank you sorry quick question chief hakala how many code enforcers do you have currently Currently today, we have one code enforcement officer, two that was just promoted a couple months ago, and one code enforcement supervisor, and one contract part-time code enforcement supervisor through a contract agency, and we're working on a second part-time code enforcement officer.

Thank you.

Moving forward, Madam Clerk, is anybody online who wish to provide a public comment?

We do have a comment online. Candace, you can go ahead and unmute yourself.

Candace Wyrock, City of Patterson. I have had good experiences with code enforcement and I've had not so good experiences with code enforcement. I like the idea of them having someone to report to. So it sounds like that's kind of the direction that this item would put them. I think that the graffiti abatement work, I have not a single bad thing to say. I personally consider myself a graffiti abatement volunteer because I love seeing graffiti around town and being able to report it. I hate seeing graffiti around town, sorry. But I love that when I see it, I can instantly report it. And it seems as though our graffiti abatement officer is on top of it because it's normally fixed within 24 hours, which I think is fantastic. Prior to him, there was an older gentleman that had that position and bless his heart, he is sweet as pie. But I would put in graffiti abatement requests and it would take months or sometimes even longer than months. At one point, I did have to approach Former Mayor Deborah Novelli, she was mayor at the time, I had to approach her at National Night Out and say, hey, I put in a graffiti abatement form six months ago for gang graffiti, not just average, you know, stupid kids writing their names on stuff. actual gang graffiti on a major public road and it hasn't been dealt with. So I'm grateful to see the huge improvement in workload that has happened with the newest graffiti abatement officer. But I do think the negative experiences I've had with the code enforcement, I think have been because of the workload. I think there's just too much going on in our town. There's just too many residents, too many people doing things that they probably shouldn't. Like, for example, sacrificing baby animals in their backyard, which has happened to me. And so I just think that there's too much going on. There's way too much. And that's likely why they aren't maybe being as proactive as they could be. So if there's technology or something that is gonna streamline that process for them and make the workload a little easier, I think our three code enforcement, including the one that's like a contract, I think they are fantastic. I have nothing bad to say about any of them. I just think that they're way too overworked. And so if you're saying that there's something that could help them streamline their processes and make things more effective, then I would say absolutely 100% let's go. Thank you.

Thank you, Candace. And just to reiterate, you know, we here at the fire department and probably the police department, we hear problems all the time. That seems to be the biggest issue is somebody has a problem. They bring it to us. And what we're looking at now is taking that word problem and turning it into an opportunity. Right. So opportunity to grow, opportunity to get better, opportunity to get smarter and more efficient in those in those areas. So instead of just the negativity that we always get, it gets brought towards us. You know, we're going to turn those into opportunities so we can all be successful. Thank you for your comment.

Madam clerk is anybody else online.

There are no other comments there.

See no any additional comments we will close public comments now. Any final comments or questions from the council before we close this item. Do I have a motion to approve fire department organizational realignment of eliminating the fire prevention inspector position, authorizing the addition of one assistant fire chief, incorporating a community risk reduction division, and approving the assistant fire chief job description and salary range, and a revised job description for fire marshal, fire administrative manager, code enforcement supervisor, code enforcement one and two, graffiti abatement technician which includes a title change so move we'll have a second okay motion has been seconded requires our vote call robo council member mora aye council member jack aye council member hernandez aye and your mayor pro temp votes aye the motion to approve consent calendar 7.1 passes with a 4-0 vote moving on to item seven point two discussion and direction regarding the data center study and possible action regarding public participation in the study process staff report community development directors dice and city attorney's office

Thank you, Mayor Portem. I will open this item. I'm sure you've all recognized that there is no staff report associated with this. Instead, we have a brief PowerPoint presentation, and we are hoping that this will be more of a discussion amongst council and involving comment from the public. The purpose of this item is to discuss the approach to the data center study and how we move forward in discussing and figuring out the impacts of, potential impacts of these data centers, potential regulatory scheme and how we're going to deal with them moving forward while we have this moratorium in place. And so while we're at the very beginning stages of this and we understand that the council has requested that there be an increased public participation in this because of the complexity of this issue and how it affects everyone in Patterson where this goes, we do not have answers to specific questions related to how this process is going to work and whether data centers or how they're going to be allowed or regulated this is specifically a discussion on the approach to this study and the level of public participation and how what the council wants to focus on to give us some direction so that we can come back next month with some additional information or potentially some action related to the public participation process. So with that, I do want to pose kind of an unorthodox idea. The beginning of this presentation focuses on what staff has been doing so far to gather information and kind of the potential impacts that we've been focusing on and would like council input, public input on Any gaps that are identified in that or additional information to be looked at in prioritization of potential impacts or next steps? And that is separate from the second portion, which is going to be a discussion on the level of public participation and how we're going to deal with that. And so I would request that maybe we do two public comment periods for this discussion so that it doesn't get mixed up and we don't lose sight of these things. So I'm going to turn it over to the community development director, and then I would like a public comment period after him. And then when I handle the public participation side, potentially another public comment period so that we can keep this focused. If that's all right with you, Mayor Pro Tem. Mayor Pro Tem.

That's absolutely fine.

Thank you. Okay, thank you. So I'll turn over the beginning of the presentation to Director Stice.

Thank you very much. This may not be the most exciting item to talk about tonight, but it's clearly one of the most important items for tonight as well as the coming months as we get deeper into our discussions, our public engagement process for considering what to do about data centers. We're talking about data centers tonight because we have learned across the country, the folks in the audience and online, no doubt, have heard about many of the horror stories, the drawbacks and the challenges and issues associated with data centers nationwide. These tend to focus in the areas of water, infrastructure, community impacts, public safety, There's a far larger list these tend to be the most common types of important issues that cities and jurisdictions need to deal with So the work completed thus far has involved a level of cities the city of Patterson's title 18 our code review Comparative research with what other California cities are doing and technical review with what's available in terms of public safety, what we need to know, what we need to assess and look deeper into, what are the infrastructure and environmental risks, as well as then regulatory analysis. So these are the four key components that I'm going to spend the first part of the presentation on as I move forward. It's important to announce and to state clearly what our code says about data centers and how they're defined. So our code literally reads that a data center means it's a facility used to house computer systems and associated components such as telecommunications and storage systems. It generally includes redundant or backup power supplies, redundant data, communication connections, environmental controls, that is, air conditioning, fire suppression, and security devices. Data centers may also include related office space and personnel. One of the goals and outcomes of whatever we do would be most likely to update our definition because it certainly warrants that being done because data centers have evolved since the time that our data center definition was originally created. Going a bit further into our actual internal code review essentially Patterson zoning code allows data centers by right meaning that if they are proposed in a industrial district in the city of Patterson any industrial district THEY HISTORICALLY HAVE BEEN ALLOWED SO LONG AS THEY MEET BUILDING STANDARDS, DEVELOPMENT CODES, WHICH ARE GENERAL IN NATURE. AND THAT'S CAUSED THE CITY TO HAVE LIMITED CITY REGULATORY CONTROL, VERY BASIC OR MINIMAL CONDITIONS OF APPROVAL AND ENFORCEMENT ABILITY. We've looked at our development standards internally. They're basic. They're limited. They don't specifically apply to data centers. They apply to general industrial development in general. And that's typical across the state. We're actually a little more advanced in that we actually have a definition and an explicit listing for data centers within our zoning code That's a good and a bad thing It's bad in that it the way it's currently worded allows them to be permitted by right and I'll get into that a bit more later Fortunately the city adopted the temporary moratorium to prohibit data centers until approximately June of next year So in looking a bit more closely at how our codes relate to other jurisdictions, more specifically, and what other jurisdictions around the state are doing, I was floored to see that actually there's not a lot in California regulating data centers. The regulations that are applying to data centers are back east. In California, for whatever reason, even though we're far more advanced technologically with up and coming data and technology, we're at the cutting edge of many sectors of technology, our planning codes and standards are lagging. Even in the city of Santa Clara, the heart of Silicon Valley, I'm sure every city, though, says they're the heart. They have like barely a paragraph addressing how data centers are to be regulated. And those standards are limited basically to what the facade will look like, what the lighting will look like. Very little, if anything at all, about how they'll be operated or regulated from a more critical standpoint. And looking elsewhere in California for detailed Development standards for data centers. I haven't found any yet there I haven't if somebody has them let me know I can't find them again They're they're available abundantly across the country That said the city of San Jose is aggressively pursuing data standards Development standards and guidelines at the moment. I'll go over that a bit more in detail in a few more slides and The standard changes, the development standards for data centers that are being affected at this time are pretty limited in terms of maybe defining a data center or changing it from being allowed by right to maybe being conditionally allowed, where it now involves a public hearing. That's the lion's share of the changes going on in California at the time. I expect it'll evolve further though as each year goes by. And then more regionally and in Stanislaus County, again, jurisdictions here are just now beginning to take a closer look at their zoning codes. I think that a lot of them are looking to Patterson for what we're doing. And so there just isn't a lot to draw from regionally or statewide. There are some anomalies in California. Hayward recently changed their code to now require that all data centers include a sustainability plan and a community benefits plan, which basically provides financial compensation back to the city for community benefits. THERE'S A NEW SENATE BILL 887 WHICH GETS MORE INTO ENVIRONMENTAL MATTERS, PUBLIC TRANSPARENCY MATTERS. IT'S PENDING LEGISLATION. WE WILL BE MONITORING THAT AS WE GO THROUGH OUR PROCESS TO EVALUATE OUR POTENTIAL CODE CHANGES. Sacramento, they're pretty advanced in the data center scene, so to speak, where they basically just have a higher level of review for larger and larger data centers. Their codes are still relatively simple. As we know, maybe members of the public have not heard, but numerous cities across the state are passing their own moratoriums, some for up to 10 years. Coachella recently prohibited them outright last month the city of Monterey Park banned them via a voter referendum in June. Furthering our discussion on the comparative research. I did find a lot of different ordinance material ideas and concepts from jurisdictions back east. Loudoun County, Virginia, probably the preeminent region for data centers. They're quite far along in experiencing the implications, the negative side effects, but as well as how to channel and harness potential positive gains that they could bring. So that's a different discussion, different topic, but nonetheless, one of the things I discovered. There's a lot of talk about what some of the Benefits are, for them, the property tax advantages, job training. One thing that was interesting to me was just seeing how When data centers are coming, they, of course, come with a need for improving electrical infrastructure. So consequently, a positive consequence has been that that's resulted in a lot of the modernization and greening of the electrical grids that support them. We're well aware also, though, of the drawbacks. Those are well publicized. We've heard a lot of the drawbacks and horror stories associated with data centers. We know that there's more quantification of what the potential impacts are. We need to do more. That will be a continuous process for us to go through. There's a lot to uncover. I'll touch on that a bit more from some of our internal dialogue about that. But it's key and it's important to state that we're somewhat limited in quantifying what potential impacts are. Environmental impacts may be without a specific project to actually analyze we to date have not received an actual application So we can't roll up our sleeves and go to work to evaluate it or how that project might affect a particular site So we're forced to look at it and answer that question more generally How do they typically affect the environment? How do they typically affect a community? What are typical side effects of a data center? So to elaborate on that a bit more, I mentioned that will become more focused and clear as we get further into that. The fire department from the city of Patterson provided a very good summary. I don't want to say summary. A very good list of issues and key items, key findings for us to be aware of. I've summarized them. And I'll just go through a couple things I don't want to go through their whole report time is short it's late but most importantly of the fire department provided key findings that that it data centers place demands and and challenges for the city's fire protection emergency response utility and fiscal impacts and specifically. major public safety concerns, including electrical infrastructure, backup generators, fuel storage, battery energy storage systems, and mission-critical operations requiring continuous service. These aren't really items that general searches for Impacts produced these were very detailed and well thought out determinations from our fire department to highlight the very specific and and and highly critical aspects for us to be aware of as we get into defining and creating the standards if we so choose to do that. I touched on Senate Bill 887 a bit. That's another area of technical review we'll get into, especially if it becomes law. It's not law yet. We're aware of it. We're tracking it. That's where we leave it at that point for now. Let's change page. I touched a bit on how in Patterson we have historically allowed data centers by right. where they come in with an application and we react to it based on very basic limited review criteria. A step up from that a higher level of review would be to allow them if the city chose to allow them by a conditional use permit where now it's up to the planning commission following a review period by staff, working with the applicant to work out obvious problems, obvious conflicts with city code, and to get a package ready in a manner that we think the planning commission might support. They don't have to. It's up to them to vote it up or down. That's the conditional use permit process. And those are conducted via a public hearing. where property owners that live or own property around a proposed project site would be notified of an opportunity to either comment, participate, or voice their support or opposition to a data center. And then lastly, by special exemption, there's a third. There's other matters as well by which data centers could be evaluated. These are three of the most common. I MENTIONED THE CITY OF HAYWARD. I DON'T WANT TO REPEAT THAT. I TOUCHED ON THE CITY OF SAN JOSE. THEY ARE GOING THROUGH THEIR PROCESS AND THEY EXPECT TO BE DONE AROUND DECEMBER. BUT I DID WANT TO BRING THEM UP AGAIN TO GET INTO A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THEIR PROCESS. THEIR PROCESS IS PRETTY ADVANCED. OBVIOUSLY MAJOR CITY OF CALIFORNIA. THEY'RE ALSO IN THE HEART OF TECHNOLOGY. THE TECHNOLOGY CENTER OF THE NATION. YOU COULD ARGUE THE WORLD. NONETHELESS, THEY RECENTLY BEGAN THEIR OWN PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT PROCESS, QUITE INVOLVED, EIGHT STEPS THAT I'VE SUMMARIZED, INITIAL STAKEHOLDER OUTREACH, COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT, WHERE WE, AND THAT'S GOING TO BE A QUESTION WE GET INTO AT THE END OF THIS PRESENTATION. Basically, listening to the community through different roundtables to identify the issues, concerns, and opportunities that the city ought to be and needs to be aware of as we consider where we want to go. Then they're conducting stakeholder workshops that will lead to public opinion and policy development. And then that will lead then ultimately to draft standards and review where the community will come together to review what the draft language is. Ultimately that would, after they work out kinks and achieve consensus, they would then arrive at a time when they can consider the policy for a final review, which would then lead to Item 7 for final adoption and get the regulations in place. And then following adoption, they would begin implementing those new standards. Their standards are going to include... a more broader term such as large energy use projects. There's a lot of reasons for that that we can get into more as we get further into our own process, however that may entail. There's several topics that the council may choose to prioritize. We've summarized six basic ones here. Water and wastewater, energy and infrastructure, public safety, environmental and health, land use and design, community and fiscal effects. This is not an exclusive list. Others, no doubt, will come to mind as we get further into this after hearing from the public and members of the city council. So one of our questions will be what concerns should staff prioritize to identify the highest priority impacts, identify any outcomes or standards that the council wants evaluated, and identify technical expertise or data council expects staff to obtain. That might be a typo there. Now, I believe this may be where I have, okay. So it's important to note here that whatever we do, it's going to require at least planning commission review, city council review, and that every meeting of those would be noticed. So the question is what optional engagement can staff DO TO SUPPLEMENT THESE HEARINGS.

BRIAN, I'M GOING TO STOP YOU BEFORE WE GET TO THAT PART BECAUSE I JUST WANT TO SPLIT THESE UP TO MAKE SURE WE GET CLEAR DIRECTION AND CLEAR PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN THIS PART OF WHAT WE'RE DOING. SO I JUST WANT TO TAKE COUNCIL BACK TO THE LAST ITEM THAT WE WANT TO FOCUS ON IS THE SCOPE OF THIS APPROACH. biggest impact concerns. If from what you heard today from Director Stice, there were any gaps in information that you would like to be covered, or if there are any prioritizations in the potential impacts or study points that were presented, we're looking for direction there. And of course, we want to hear from the public on what they may see in that presentation and what staff is doing now. Any comment on the public participation, I would ask to be held until we talk about that a little further on the next step.

Any council members have any comments, questions, and concerns on this first half of the presentation?

I think, I mean, we're not there yet. Because, I mean, looking at even the AB887, there's so much questions that we need. We need a lot of studies based on electrical and grid infrastructure. We need to know a lot more about water consumption, water usage. We need to know about generator, how the electricity is going to be generated. We need to know about public safety. We need to know about our roads and in any event whereby there's an abandonment of the project, how is the city going to recover and who is going to pay? There's a lot to discuss on this project before we even get to that level. I think that the monetary that we pass right now is a great way to allow the council and also the city manager and especially you, because not only are we going to discuss it here, we also want public information. We need to really hold a information night for our community so that they are very well informed and they have a stake in whatever process that we are going to be implementing. Other cities right now, you mentioned Bay Area, that's a big city and you know how many of them that are out there or not out there, but for our city, For me, the safety of our residents is crucial. Our water usage, electricity, so there's so much to discuss before we even get to that level. And that is something that I would like to see. Thank you.

I echo what Council Member Jack just said, but also, Brian, I think you added on your slides, or maybe not, the citizen initiatives. So I know that there's citizen initiative where residents draft a local ordinance as well, right? Right. and either prohibiting or regulating the data centers. Collecting that requires signatures and place it on before voters, correct? Correct. So what Council Member Jack just mentioned, I think opening it up even to a town hall meeting and getting a little bit of more information in regards to that as well would be a really good idea.

So, great job. I think we're definitely moving in the right direction. One thing I'd like to just be mindful of is the verbiage we're using with research and when we eventually write the standards. This marketplace is evolving quicker than we think. Not putting us in a box of just calling it data centers You know the large energy use projects resource intensive usages high resource demands all of those words are going to catch up with us eventually so if we can maybe look there as well I Agree, and that's where the city of San Jose's process will be I think really insightful and helpful in that area Not that that's going to be army Yeah, okay

I really appreciate the presentation, Brian. It does explain the whole aid process of the development and adoption center. I do have a question. Have you discussed any of these personally with another city staff from the city of Hayward, city of San Jose, where you guys could discuss, kind of learn from them exactly the detailed process of how it works?

I have not yet, but I plan on attending some of the San Jose meetings in person if they don't conflict with my schedule too badly here. If there are key meetings, it makes sense. But I will be reaching out to them. Especially, I mean, that hinges also on the outcome of tonight's meeting. Because we don't know yet what the council wants to do. If we do want to move forward with some form of standard adoption, obviously, yeah, that makes sense. If we're hearing, we don't even want to talk about that, then that would be a paused effort on my end. OK.

Can I ask one more question? And this is just making sure we have full transparency to our city manager. Have we had anyone approach our city right now requesting an application or anything that has to do with a data center? Even made any presentations that you are aware of because I think When we are focusing on the research we need to know anything that the council need to know Do we have any discussions of such?

Project there is interest and our community development department has been reached by certain individuals of interest of possibly submitting an application through the process that we we are currently right now with the more time it prohibits that that application to be submitted, but they they have reached out to our community will community development department seeking to submit an application.

Moving forward there's any open one us out from the Council in additional questions comments or concerns. And seeing none, we'll be opening now to the public. Please.

Cat Ritchie, Patterson. So Brian, what you were describing to me is almost like what county is doing, which is the CUP process. And essentially, people would apply, places would apply, and then it would go into like a special, like, well, we're going to look at this really close, right? But we have a responsibility still. So when it gets to that point, I think, if I understand correctly, you're thinking that there's plenty of places where this can stop at. It can stop at Planning Commission. Is that what you're kind of alluding to in that CUP process?

So what I'm saying is that different cities have different approaches, right? Ours currently is, how do I say this? We've got our existing code where the way it's currently worded, it's vulnerable in that we do not have a CUP process for data centers. We have a permit by right process. And so that's where we're vulnerable. We don't have the ability to conduct a conditional use permit process for data centers. We can review them from an architectural review standpoint. From a site plan review standpoint but we have very limited authority to regulate them from a land use standpoint because the land use maps of the city say basically. Data centers and a lot of different types of industry albeit far less uses. Can be in these various different industrial districts. So what saved us is the city council's decision to create the moratorium to buy us time to create more rigorous standards. to up standards to make them, to make any potential applications that come in subject to every possible regulatory constraint that we as a community feel they ought to be subject to. So I say that with a big caveat because there's been a lot of different voices we hear like ban them outright. So that's something we're trying to find out from the community. Is that a direction staff needs to invest energy and time in, or are we talking regulations? So when we know clearly what path we're being sent down, we can better focus our efforts on how we go about researching what next steps may be, because I see us at a big fork in the road one way or the other. And so if assuming, I don't even want to say assuming, if we so chose to go down the regulatory pathway to create the actual standards, that's one possibility. And there's a lot of different models out there. There are none right now in California, unless you've got something up your sleeve. But they're coming in San Jose and surely in other communities. We would need to rely on our own creation of policy and standards for what our community wants. We could look at what San Jose is doing.

Can I just comment?

Yeah.

Okay. So the problem that I have with going that route is at some point you still have to be able to say, You can exist in our environment if you do these things. But if you haven't done the proper studies to define what those things are, you're not going to be able to have the answers. And you're going to end up in a situation where we're leaving it to chance. If we do the studies to say that these things have these impacts on our community, then when a data center CUP, or however it is zoning, however you guys plan to do it, comes into an application, you'll be able to You'll have the information to be able to say, we can accept these things because they would work within our community. It's the same thing for why we created all the other types of zoning that we have in the past. We just have to now, and we'll have to keep, like, this is round one for us. Today, there's two different types of data centers that are being built. And so there's just so many studies that if we don't start doing those today, that we're not going to be prepared for when somebody does actually get ahead of us. And 90 days ago, somebody was ahead of us. They identified our community as a community that they could build a data center in because we had no proper zoning. And we had folks that were saying, no, that works for us. That's fine, right? So we, as a community, as a city, have to protect ourselves. When we did the moratorium, I addressed our legal. And I said to Doug, you know, Doug, I really hope that you are going to give guidance to staff on what are the studies that legal is going to need to have done to be able to defend us in the case that a developer comes after us and we say, you don't fit the mold. So... We're coming at 30 seconds. Okay, my concern is that... My concern is that I think actually this recommendation should be coming from a community group that we put together that I've sent a lot of information on who should be on this group and what the city needs to evaluate in order to safeguard ourselves. And I truly, truly believe that some of that leadership has to come from our city attorney.

If I can clarify one thing, regardless of the direction that the city goes in while we're in this moratorium, it will require those study processes because no matter what decision this council decides to come to with regard to data centers, whether it's a regulatory scheme, a ban, or something in between, we have to have studies to support that. There has to be a nexus between that decision and where we land. And so Those are going to occur. We are at the very early stages. So none of this presentation was, do we do this one or this one or that one.

I read that is. I think we all read that is. I apologize. OK, we've got six areas. Which one do you want us to focus on? And I'm like, oh, no.

No, it's all of them. They're all areas of focus. But what we want to make sure is that the public and the council are giving input on the prioritization if that is necessary, right? Are there certain impacts that we want to know sooner than later, right? That we want to know all of them, obviously, but are there certain concerns that the city sees as more urgent as a community, as a council, if there is direction there? If it's, no, go all out and review all of this and make sure you capture as much as possible, that's great, and that's what staff with the guidance from legal is going to do. With regard to the public participation process, I have An additional portion of the presentation and discussion. And that is absolutely going to be addressed. And there will be a second comment period for that in particular.

And I think the one thing I was trying to figure out tonight, the very thing is, because it's been 60 days. So I'm trying to figure out, so do we have a committee?

The council would have to form that. So we're going to discuss that next. That is a discussion to be had tonight. Okay.

Janice James Patterson. Everything is going extremely fast throughout the country on the data centers. And I really appreciated the work that was put into the presentation and the description of all the steps. But basically, what all of this work that has been done and will be done is all based on if we want a data center possible here or not, which I have never met anyone since the data center's issue have come up in any of my circles anywhere that say, I want a data center in my backyard. Let's go. It's going to be so beneficial for our community. We want it now. It can't go in here fast enough. There is no one I know that wants a data center. And if they do want data centers, they don't want it anywhere near where they live. So the impacts that have already been happening across the U.S. are detrimental to their to their communities. There's no benefits. Their prices of real estate have plummeted. Their ecology has gone total to crap. Everything about the data centers causes problems. I just saw an interview with a Texas landowner that are usually all big on these kind of things. And he is devastated that his multi-generational hundreds and hundreds of acres ranch is completely gone now. because there's a data center going in right along his property line. So he had nothing to be able to fight it, because it wasn't on his property. So it went through, and now his multi-generational property is gone. It's gone. We don't have that kind of land base here to say, oh, we can put it way out there. It's not going to affect us. No. Every area of our community will be affected very, very poorly in every stage. Water, ecology, natural environment, our property values, our education, everything will be affected because our EMS, everything. And we already have so many problems with our community to have any kind of like let's look at pros and cons. Well, by the time we do that, our zoning and everything, they're already going to have the land purchased. They're already going to be putting their roots in here. And then how are we going to fight them? We don't have the money. to fight them. That's why when you said California, I don't know why, because these communities have the money to fight them. That's why they're not in there yet.

We don't have that.

So Stanislaus County, especially Patterson, we don't have the money to fight once they have their roots in here. We can't let them even start rooting here.

Thank you.

Good evening, Siobhan Alps. I want to thank this council for being advocates for our community and standing for us and helping make this happen. This is an important part of the process, and thank you, Director Stice, for doing your homework and bringing this to us tonight. I understand that this zoning approach, and we want to, this is the first step into creating those studies so that we can put these types of facilities, depending on their size and whatnot, into special exception, hopefully, so that that's the filter that they have to go through for us to allow one or not. So I understand this is part of that process because our zoning is so broad right now. You mentioned San Jose, and it's nice that they're putting these things into place now when they're almost at 200 data centers. We're lucky where we are right now, and we haven't had that so far to impact us. We know that there is what a, what is it, how many acres? I want to say 1,000-acre facility out there, Project Zacharias. That's still a concern of mine and many others. that they don't pull that old switcheroo. What is protecting us from that massive facility and ensuring that that is not a data center? It is massive. It's looming right down the road. So I'm hopeful that we can look into what we are doing to put in place since they got their planning approval prior to these proceedings. What can we do to ensure our safety and our well-being because of that? And I look forward to the public input process later on. I know that will be comment for after the second portion of the meeting. But regarding a ban, I understand that we would have wanted it on the ballot, and I think we missed that deadline. But it might be something to look into in the future. Thank you, Ms. Hernandez, for mentioning that.

Thank you, Ms. Elves.

Next time we've got to bring some pillows because we're getting sleepy up in here now. It's been a long time. All the bars are closed again. I bring this up every time. We always stay past the bars. We're supposed to go and get drinks after this, and we never can. A question, and this might be for a city attorney. Citizen initiative, is that a process that city staff is able to assist us with? Because from my research on that, there's some...

portions of that process that are best Completed by an attorney or of some sort so city staffs the city cannot expend any resources and assisting with a citizen initiative the council members may Condone the initiative may support the initiative, but the city cannot expend resources related to a citizen initiative And so because it would be spending funds on a political initiative PROCESS THAT IS INTO THE CITIES. I SEE. YES, AN ATTORNEY IS absolutely advised for any type of legal process like that, but also the county registrar has a lot of really good information on that kind of stuff.

Okay, noted. Cool. Thank you. One of my things to consider as we're considering, I think this is a whole conversation about just considering what to consider and as we move forward, one of the big things I'm on is impact on utility, on utility payers. Obviously, this would be something to partner with TID on, possibly. That's as far as I got on this idea or recommendation is if something like this does move forward, I know there's always promises of we're going to use solar and XYZ. I have solar on my house. It don't cover the bill. We get a bill at the end of the year, right? So I could only imagine something like this is similar. I just wouldn't want any cost to naturally fall on residents paying their electric bill. I know that's almost out of the the city's cities control right that's a that's a private company. So something to help combat that or or protect the residents and then lastly now this isn't sound unambitious that we shouldn't you know full steam ahead on trying to protect us against data centers I think the overall idea is that nobody wants a data center just how do we say no legally without getting into trouble right is also preparing a community benefit package. If something like this does go through, I would want to be in a position where we're prepared that we have something that is going to support the community in a financial aspect from the developer or from the company that does come in. And if we get started now, hopefully we don't run into a situation where we see maybe we're losing this battle and then we have to put something together and then we get sued for making something up. So there's another thing I would want for us to consider at this time.

That's all.

Thank you, Marco. Madam Clerk, is anybody online? Oh, sorry, we have one more.

Thank you. My concern is maybe I missed something, but why do we need a data center?

Why is it necessary? So I don't think it's not an evaluation of needing one. It is an evaluation of the legal mechanisms that the city has to regulate them. Should the city allow data centers to exist within the jurisdiction? Or what are the legal justifications for banning them if the city does not want data centers at all, right? IT'S A REQUIRED PROCESS IN ORDER TO COME TO A DETERMINATION. WE HAVE TO EVALUATE THE UNDERLYING IMPACTS AND JUSTIFICATIONS BETWEEN THE CITY'S DECISION ON HOW TO DEAL WITH DATA CENTERS AND THE ACTUAL REAL FACTS AND IMPACTS OF THAT, RIGHT? SO THERE HAS TO BE A NEXUS BETWEEN THOSE TWO THINGS BECAUSE THE COUNCIL CAN'T MAKE ARBITRARY DECISIONS WHEN IT COMES TO THINGS LIKE THAT. SO IF THE CITY DOES NOTHING, What we have is unfortunately a code that allows them by right and no regulatory scheme and nothing that limits or places any additional safeguards for the public. And so that's why the moratorium was put in place so that we could take the time to figure that out and ensure that none come in in the meantime while we're figuring that out.

Okay, then normally when you build these things, years later people come up with cancer or some kind of illness or something like that, probably from those data centers, then what?

So all we can do is collect what exists out there, what is known, right? And so any unknown information though potentially foreseeable, but nothing we can base it on now, is difficult to say what the impact is gonna be in the future, even what the recourse is going to be, and whether it's widespread or limited. That's very difficult, and it's not something, you know, the city can't operate on hypotheticals. We have to deal with the facts as they exist today, and it could be that more information, I mean, this is a very, very fast-moving and the evolution of these data centers and technology in general is moving at a very quick pace. And so it could be that during this process, more information is put out there that we previously assessed that needs to be reassessed during that process. So it's an evolution for sure, and we're at the very, very beginning stages of it.

Okay, my understanding is that they use a lot of water. We already have water issues out here. So now how is that going to work?

So we don't have all these answers right now because that's what we have to evaluate. And the fact is is that some of these data centers are recognizing the water issues throughout California and are beginning to bring in their own water or even are using mechanisms to reduce their water usage. And so those are all things that have to be looked at and considered and can't be judged or decided as a broad scope issue. We have to look at the particular circumstances as they may present themselves and the different types of data centers that are out there, and the usage, the utilities, the impacts they have are going to be different depending on the size and what they are. All things that we're going to be looking at. It's a big task. It's going to be a heavy lift, and it's not going to be quick, and we want to make sure we do it right.

So now, is there any way to get a breakdown

The advantages and the disadvantages of having a data center That will certainly be forthcoming as part of the process Is there anybody else present in the council chambers who wish to provide an additional public comment See none madam clerk is anybody online I

We do have some comments online. Candice, you can go ahead and unmute yourself.

Candice Wyrock, Cydia Patterson. So if I'm understanding, oh, first of all, okay, I came from San Jose. Like I escaped San Jose to come to Patterson and spent 12 years being grateful that I wasn't living in San Jose. And I've had to spend a lot of time in San Jose lately because that's where my daughter's orthopedic specialist is. So I just want to say that we should not follow in San Jose's footsteps. That city has been completely ruined from what it was when I grew up as a child. So I think someone mentioned that they already have like 200 something data centers. It's evident they're basically putting them anywhere that they can. And then they try and just uh disguise it as another homeless encampment at this point it's so bad so bad so i really want to want to make sure that the city is careful to not try and look like san jose um also my eight-year-old has been doing her own research on data centers and she came up with a speech that she wanted to read you guys tonight And but she's now gone to bed so she can't do that. So if you guys do a workshop, I would love for her to it's all her own. I didn't give her any input and there's some parts to it that I don't agree with, but I'm not influencing how she wants to express herself. But hearing her say these things really kind of makes me excited for our future generation. That being said, if I'm understanding correctly, currently we have to allow it under the way that our city code is written, but there's not really any obvious public benefit for allowing such a thing. So why don't we as the voters get to decide and do it the way that Monterey Park did? Is it that difficult? to do it that way. I guess I just don't understand. If you really want the public's input and think the absolute best way to do it is to put it out to a public vote and put it on the ballot. I don't know if it's a cost thing, like it costs us a lot of money, but if that's the case, isn't it going to cost a ton of money to do all the proper research so that the city doesn't get sued for banning it? Put it up to the voters. I guarantee that this community will rally together on election day and vote no or yes to ban them. I guarantee that. I haven't met a single person, just like someone else that stated, I haven't met a single person that's been in favor of them, besides likely the real estate agents that are going to get paid from it, the the land brokers um the business itself those are people that are going to be in favor of it but i'd say 90 of our community would be against it because there truly isn't a public benefit but there are a million reasons why it won't work or why it's not a good idea um okay thank you i'll leave you alone thank you candace

I just wanted to ask, how old is the kid? How old is your daughter or son that is doing the research? Eight years old?

Let's upload it. We do have other comments, Mayor Pro Tem. Angela, you can go ahead and unmute yourself.

Good evening, Council. I just wanted to start by saying thank you for the work that's gone into this presentation. Sarah Silver, And I really appreciate fires input on the factors to consider that was something that I had not come across in my research either, so I appreciate them, providing that information to the city to consider. Sarah Silver, And I would strongly urge the Council to look at immediately closing our vulnerability. Sarah Silver, and changing whatever it says. Sarah Silver, You know, allowing. data centers by right currently and changing that to special exception only, we need to at least have some kind of window or door that we can close if only to look at what they're offering. And the way that the market is developing and expanding, there may be things that we would find agreeable about a data center at a future time. Who knows? Right now, being vulnerable to them coming in and just saying, we're going to do it, all we need is one guess. I find that very terrifying. I think that the staff needs to look into how we close that window immediately. I also would urge council to, ask more of these people that are coming into our community we have historically not asked for anything from these builders we have not asked them to build schools we have not asked them to contribute to certain things and in other communities the city demands from builders and brokers that they build things for the community before they're allowed to sell Sarah Silver, That is not unusual, that is not uncommon, but here in Patterson we have never asked them for that the fact that we can legally ask for builders and. developers to come in and build a school or pay for part of a school like that is an option that our city has has not utilized. And in the case of data centers where such large amounts of money are involved, we should also, you know, maybe take a look at Hayward and other communities if they're offering that, but see what kind of community benefit we can get out of the deal. Also, we have traditionally. not gotten very much out of any of these deals, so I would urge the Council to direct staff to look at closing our vulnerability immediately and looking into what we can get out of these developers and establishments when they come into our community. We have been missing out on a lot, so thank you very much.

Thank you for your comment. Madam Clerk, anybody else?

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

Good night, everybody. My name is Adolfo Virgen. I am a Patterson resident. And I just wanted to say that council members Jack and Hernandez are right. You know, we don't have all of the studies. We don't know the way that an AI data center might impact our community. But nonetheless, it is my belief that we know enough We know that when these AI data centers are built, they jack up the energy bills. We know that when these AI data centers are built, they pollute the water. They can pollute the air in their construction through all of the trucks that will also damage our roads. And then they can also pollute our noise, subjecting our neighbors and our schools and anybody that walks by to an incessant hum. We know that these AI data centers do not even have the decency to provide any decent paying jobs for a large number of people in the areas that they are being built. This is a brave new world. It is new because these AI data centers are not like the data centers that had been built before. They're not like the ones that just store our emails and our data. And we must be brave and we must have the courage to come together and to pass whatever legislation we can to prevent their building here in Patterson, whether that be more moratoriums, whether that be very stringent regulation in the meantime, until we can put a ballot initiative to ban them from our city. Mr. Stice pointed out that there isn't that much regulation in California, not yet at least. But Louis Brandeis, the Supreme Court Justice, said that states are the laboratories of democracy. And I believe our city can be too. I believe that our city can be innovative, can be innovative. intelligent and go about it in a legal way. So let us be the trailblazers. Let us be the first in the state to try to attempt to get rid of this specter that could negatively impact our community, our lives now, and possibly for forever. And if there is ever a time where we see that they may be useful, well, then let future Pattersonites decide that by repealing any ban and any regulation. But for now, I believe that we must pass moratoriums. We must assess the most stringent regulations that we have that we can and eventually ban these things. Thank you.

Adolfo, let me just say I can listen to you all day. Thank you for that comment.

We do have another comment. Next speaker, you can go ahead and unmute yourself.

Can you guys hear me?

Yes.

Mercedes Carter, citizen of Patterson. I just wanted to say that I agree with Kendra, Councilmember Kendra, that when we look at updating our regulation or our code, that we look at it not just from a data center perspective, but that we also look at businesses that are gonna be a major draw of any of our natural resources, energy, anything like that. I think it's very critical. I would love to say, hey, let's just ban this, but we have to be real at some point. And I'm not saying that I'm for data centers. I'm actually against data centers for many reasons. that it's important for us to ensure that our code is addressed so that we have the ability for the city to be able to deny these projects without being sued in the future. So I think that's one important aspect of it. The other part of it is thinking of our community and the constraints that we already have. I know water is gonna be a big issue for us for a very long time, even though steps are being taken To mitigate the chromium and stuff like that, it's still going to always be a constraint. We are farming community even though we're growing, we're still a farming community and it's important for us to be able to protect our natural resources as much as possible. All the other stuff I agree with what a lot of people say Adolfo, as always, I'm the same way. I love hearing you talk and you're passionate about these things as well as other community members. And it's important to keep that in mind for those people in our community or outside of our community who have come. and thought that Patterson is a great place to build a data center, I would love to be able to understand what makes it that great. Is it because of the demographics and you think we're not going to push back as a community? Do you think we're so poor that we're not going to push back? I think that as a community, if we come together, we can demonstrate that we're a very strong community and that we're going to always be looking out for each other and trying to do what we think is best. To the community member who spoke earlier, Angela, you asked about how do we start holding builders accountable for doing things. I agree 100%. Patterson Villages was approved, and from my understanding is it was approved with the condition that they would build soccer fields. Here we are how many years later still waiting for soccer fields to be built. The mayor ran on the promise that he would get soccer fields. I specifically remember talking to him at one point when he was running for his mayor position, and he later in a meeting stated that he was working with the city to try to buy property to be able to build these fields. Why? Why are not we holding Patterson Village developers accountable for that if that was part of the agreement for this development to be built? So I think it's important to be able to do that, but also have the backbone to be able to hold developers accountable when they agree to do something. And as a community, as council people, it's important for us to make sure that we're safeguarding and putting safeguards in place. And I think that starting with updating the code to include anything that's going, any business that's going to be a major resource draw, not just from a natural perspective, but from a human perspective, our fire department, our non-existent hospital at this time, CITY EMPLOYEES, THINGS LIKE THAT, THAT WE HAVE TO BUILD AND SAFEGUARD FOR THAT TOO. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

THANK YOU.

ALYSSA, YOU CAN GO AHEAD AND UNMUTE YOURSELF.

HI, THIS IS ALYSSA, CITY OF PATTERSON. CAN YOU HEAR ME?

YES, WE COULD.

Hi, so I just wanted to jump on. I'm not going to go into all the detriments that data centers call because there's been numerous amazing speakers tonight that have already addressed the harm that data centers cause. So I just want to say I'm really thankful that the moratorium got put in place and extended. I think that these studies are incredibly important to find out the impacts. Um, I do agree with Kendra, Maura and others who brought up that we should extend it to all high, um, you know, the facilities that use a high amount of electricity. We absolutely need to include all of that. Um, but I think it can be a both. And I think that we can do the impact studies, adjust our zoning laws. and get it on the ballot to try to ban data centers altogether, just like Monterey Park. And I also agree that Angela has a wonderful point. We have so many warehouses and businesses that could absolutely be contributing more. We raise our impact fees or require these businesses to give back to our community if they're going to build large scale projects. Project Zack and Amazon is a prime example. Amazon has a ton of money. There's no reason that they shouldn't be paying for the damage that's going to be caused to our roads alone. I know Siobhan also mentioned that that project is such large scale there's a potential chance that they could go back on their word and say hey you know what instead of a warehouse we want to be a data center. And that was approved before this moratorium was put in place. So I know I was kind of the last one to speak but I agree with several people who spoke tonight. And thank you all for listening.

No other comments, Mayor Pro Tem.

Well, thank you for saying no other comments. I just want to take the time and appreciate every single person that came up here and spoke online and gave their comments. They're very good points of view. And before we can move any further, I do believe it's the due diligence in order to make sure we make the right decisions. And there's a lot of research still to do. So thank you for everybody's comments.

I have a question and I want to counsel to clarify this concern. If an organization received an approval of a certain project can they automatically just convert it into a data center? No. Because I want to make sure that is not feasible because I want to address our community member that have that impression that they can't just switch from building a data center a warehouse into building a data center. So you just have to be certain that that is not possible. So can I get that also from you?

When a project application is submitted, it is specific to the type of project that it is. And it doesn't go in so far as the design review of it, but it is the basic skeletal structure of what that project is, whether it's is it residential, is it commercial, is it industrial? What is the purpose of it? What is its footprint? and what use is it, right? The use is specifically contemplated in a project application, and so they can't just change their use. They would have to submit a new application for any new use, and this moratorium prevents that.

I will add that one of the biggest items when a project gets approved is its use. So besides the building size, the facade, the equipment, it's the use that is getting approved. So to change it, there's a whole process to go through that and not just done without the city's involvement.

I have a question. Are we done, Brian, with the presentation?

There's a brief last part. It's a couple of slides that leads to the second half. It's not as long, though.

It's brief. It's just for the public participation. Okay.

So then let me comment really quick on which concerns should staff prioritize. So I am going to speak for myself and say that I want you to tell me what I'm supposed to prioritize. So when you're doing the research, you tell me what's the highest priorities of the impacts, and then I'll tell you back what kind of is my priority. But until we get that data from you, it's hard to even give you that direction. Tell me how we're supposed to mitigate it. Tell me the risks and everything that we're supposed to be looking at. This is our chance to create policy for decades. So I want you to tell me so we get it right the first time.

I I understand Brian that. The formal direction and adoption has to come from Council and I. As for myself, the direction and adoption for me would be to prepare amendments to the municipal codes, zoning regulations if necessary, and even to the general plan. But after, of course, the research. For me, high importance would be, of course, water and the chromium six and energy and infrastructure. Our infrastructure is just really bad. It's like clay out there. Look at our roads. That tells you a lot. That's all I have for now. But just, yeah, to look for the preparing amendments to municipal codes, zoning regulations, and if necessary, the general plan. We all know where I stand with it. If it were up to me, I'd prohibit them. Thank you.

MOVING FORWARD.

I DON'T HAVE A CLICKER, SO I'M JUST GOING TO ASK FOR THE NEXT SLIDE, IF THAT'S OKAY. SO THE NEXT BIG ASPECT OF THIS IS PUBLIC PARTICIPATION AND THE LEVEL OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION THAT THE COUNCIL WANTS TO PROVIDE FOR. OBVIOUSLY IN ANY PROCESS TO UPDATE THE ZONING CODE, THERE IS A REQUIRED LEVEL OF PARTICIPATION, AND THAT IS THROUGH BOTH THE PLANNING COMMISSION AND THE CITY COUNCIL. where every meeting is noticed and there's public hearings for all of that engagement. Any optional engagement beyond that is supplemental but would not replace those hearings that would all still be required. Next slide, please. So I apologize, this is a little tiny. These are just some examples of optional participation models and you'll see that it is laid out in the different model, the primary value of that model, kind of the framework of it, and the load on staff, and that's usually related to meeting structures and things of that nature and preparing. And then your practical effect is just that for each of these. And so surveys and comment portals would be kind of your minimum public participation. Well, minimum public participation would be the only that's required, anything above that, next minimum would be survey and comment portal. You do staff-led workshops or open houses, so like town halls. These workshops, you guys have been through them before. They're separate from the council meetings and they're more of an open dialogue and discussion rather than an agenda item public comment forum. All required notice because the full council would be expected to be at those unless you had just staff there, then you'd obviously still want publication out there so that your community shows up. A council ad hoc committee really would just be two council members kind of in the background reviewing what everyone's doing and then deciding on a case-by-case basis what the public engagement is at each step of the process, rather than bringing it to council or having a full council there at these engagements. Your highest level is going to be a citizen advisory committee. That has to be created by counsel. There's an appointment process, an application process, and would involve, obviously, the highest level of community input. And I would request they would be Brown Act applicable. And I would request that legal counsel be present to help guide these meetings so that when there's questions, they can be answered in the moment and are not delayed to the next meeting. I have found that when there's an advisory committee or even workshops, having legal counsel present and a staff member present who can answer the questions in that moment rather than the citizens trying to operate on their own and coming with ideas, it really improves the process and helps guide it. The next one is just planning commission study sessions. And so this would be at the planning commission level and would really be more additional public hearings related to the proposed any proposed regulation or policy items related so we what we would like is direction from the council on kind of what level of public participation you want and so that we can help develop that and if it's something like a citizen advisory committee bring back a formal item for you to take action to create that because it is not agendized tonight so it's not something that would be created tonight that would take direction from council um the next two slides are inadvertently duplicative of the prior presentation so we get to skip two slides if we can just yep next one too there we go um So I kind of went over the pros and cons of this already, whether they want light, moderate, or intensive public participation. Next slide, please. And so really, that's what we're looking for. We can also discuss any potential hybrid models of what we went over, or if there's a different aspect of public participation that any council members have contemplated. Obviously, we're open for suggestion on that as well.

I DO HAVE A QUESTION. I MEAN, AS FOR ME, AS A PARTICIPATION CHOICES I WOULD INVOLVE, FOR ME, IT WOULD BE THE INTENSIVE CITIZEN ADVISORY COMMITTEE AND THE WORKSHOP. HOWEVER, I DID LIKE THE COMMENTS SOMEBODY MENTIONED EARLIER. I DON'T KNOW IF IT'S EVEN POSSIBLE, YOU KNOW, WE WOULD EVEN PUT IN A BALLOT AND HAVE THE COMMUNITY DECIDE IF THIS COMMUNITY WOULD WANT TO HAVE A DATA CENTER IN OUR CITY. IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?

A citizen initiative would be different than a council proposed ballot to put on the election cycle. I have not looked into that specifically for the data center ban, and I certainly can if it's something that the council wants to entertain. But I believe there's quite a few more stringent standards for the council to be able to place it on the ballot and still the required nexus, whereas a citizen initiative doesn't have that. It is literally the will of the citizens putting it forward and not having to have those justifications.

Thank you. Could it be on like a special ballot?

So regardless of where the ballot measure comes from, it is up to, so if it was a citizen initiative, it would be up to the citizens to request a special election or a consolidation with like the midterm primaries or something to that effect. All of it results in a cost to the city and action by council to still place it on a ballot as far as like the elections official processing any petition, right? It's really up to the citizens when it goes, whether it's a special election consolidation with a midterm or waited all the way out till the next primary. For a council-led petition, I mean, that's all led by council and how you want to place and when. Obviously, consolidation is the most cost-effective route.

So there's a couple things. I think that part of Brian's research should be what the risks are when it comes to a ballot measure because just because we voted in doesn't shield us from litigation. So that needs to be very clear on what that would look like if we did that. And that would be up to the voters. But they would at least be educated on what that would look like. I think a hybrid on the participation would be wonderful. TOWN HALLS ARE ALWAYS BEGGED FOR, PRETTY MUCH. EVERYONE LOVES TO PARTICIPATE IN THE TOWN HALLS. I DO LIKE THE AD HOC COMMITTEE. I DON'T HATE THAT. AND THEN OBVIOUSLY THE COMMUNITY WANTS A CITIZEN ADVISORY BOARD, SO WE SHOULD DEFINITELY LOOK INTO THAT.

AND ANOTHER ASPECT TO THAT IS YOU COULD HAVE A HYBRID OF A IT WOULDN'T TECHNICALLY BE A HADHOG BUT YOU COULD HAVE UP TO TWO COUNCIL MEMBERS ON AN ADVISORY COMMITTEE SO IT COULD BE A CITIZEN COUNCIL MEMBER HYBRID.

I THINK I ALSO LIKE THE INTENSIVE APPROACH WHICH IS BECAUSE THIS IS THEIR COMMUNITY. I THINK THEIR INPUT IS REALLY valuable and important, I would really want us to have So there's an advisory committee workshop. To kick it out. And then also to have if I'm kidding. You know to with as a member of with them the council involved. And also city staff. Because one of the things I've noticed and I say these a lot is sometimes people give information without knowledge. So I think that if we make a presentation to them and with information, making sure that they clearly understand what is involved rather than just listening to people without the knowledge, that will really help us get to the part that we need to be able to sustain the data center or no data center. But just give them the information and let them participate in the process.

I would go with intensive as well citizen advisory committee.

I'm going to take an additional public comments anybody have any additional public comments please come to the stand.

Seen and I don't clerk is anybody online who wish to provide a public comment.

We do have a few comments should bond you can go ahead and I'm yourself. Siobhan, can you unmute yourself?

Good evening. Sorry about that. My mom is in the ER. I have to go get her. I just wanted to comment and say real quick that I was initially really gearing towards the citizen advisory, the citizen committee. I still like that with various stakeholders in the community. It also concerns me, though, with the amount of time being that we're in the 10-month window i would just want to ensure with the stress on resources and staff time that the that process would move flow flow through so that we can get those criteria in place for when the 10 months is up that's my only key concern with that process i am really liking the idea of hybrid of workshop and council ad hoc i think that's a a great way to go as well. And then regarding the ballot measure, the initiative, we were looking into that a while back trying to see what we would need to do to put it on the November election. As you know, everything's been printed and sent off for this November. So it would have to be for the midterms if we were going to consolidate and that would save a bundle of money. then again, we would have that window of time of not a ban, but then we would have our other criteria in place, hopefully. So just some things to consider, and I appreciate everyone's comments and efforts tonight. Thank you.

Angela, you can go ahead and unmute yourself.

Hi. Sorry, I couldn't find the unmute button. Um, I, I think that the ballot might, might take too long. So I would, I would urge council to consider the workshops and the online input. You do have trouble filling advisory committees. Um, there aren't a lot of people willing to put in that time. But I think you could get people to workshops, especially if you included the planning commission study sessions where information was provided. And I think online input is always a good option. Thank you.

Thank you, Angela.

Cat, you can go ahead and unmute yourself.

This is for you, Christina. I know you said that you were going to look into if we were to move forward with some sort of no data center zoning of any sort within our city. My understanding is that I don't know that it's first off that Monterey Park, I would look into that. I don't believe that it was just a matter of that just being, you know, voting against no data center. I also don't believe that they are without litigation risk. And so I think my ask would be is that when you go to evaluate that if you can maybe share that portion of it with the community and council as far as what our litigation risk would be if we took that stance I'd appreciate that. And then my second one would be you know I obviously I obviously you know have built data centers in the past and have some knowledge around it. But I just want to point out to everybody that since I live in county and I'm on the outskirts, I would not be able to participate in any of these groups that you guys put together other than public comment.

Isn't there commissions that That that allow that They don't have to be in town residents.

Isn't there a couple this City Council will define the parameters for that so it's not a like a statutory or municipal code ban that is Fully up to the discretion of the City Council when creating the committee Cat did you still have a question?

No, that was it. Thank you. I think I talked way too much already tonight. Thank you.

Thank you. There are no other comments.

Thank you. Well, seeing no additional comments online or in public, we will now close the public comments. And any final thoughts, comments, or concerns regarding this item before we move forward from any council member? And

No, just expressing appreciation to everyone that commented tonight.

So it sounded like the majority direction was that we want to do an advisory committee. And so I just want to confirm that that's what I'm hearing. Is the scope of the advisory committee citizen specific, or do we want to include the two council member aspect as well? We just need to know what we're bringing for the next meeting in order to form this committee, or do you want options presented at the next meeting of how we want to do this? And we're happy to do that. That's not difficult to present several options on how the creation of the committee will and the parameters for eligibility to serve on the committee and how many members and all of that can be included in that action and discussion as well at the next meeting.

I think present us with options and then the parameters as to who can serve so we can make an informed decision. Okay.

I agree, I mean for me personal like to mention earlier the citizen advisory committee in a in a hybrid would be ideal, but if you could bring those options that we really fully understands in the community knows what's going on it really appreciate that. Moving forward so we can move.

May I also add, as mentioned by the callers, sometimes to fill these committees may be difficult, but also we need to put it out there to solicit those that really want to participate. This is their opportunity to be part of solution for the city.

I would like options, but to also add in some of the options to open it up for like certain miles outside of town or like, I don't even know if you guys would be opposed to like Grayson Wesley residents, someone like Kat that lives outside of the city limits. I don't know how that verbatim would fit in there.

We can work the language of the staff report and the agenda so that it is broad enough to allow a discussion on how we want to create that eligibility standard.

Thank you.

Do I have a motion to give direction regarding the data center study and possible action regarding public participation in the study process?

So moved. I'm sorry, we don't need a formal motion for anything. Formal. Yeah, it's just a direction of staff, and what we have, I think, is sufficient. Okay. Thank you.

All directions have been given to staff. Thank you. Moving to Section 8.8 on public hearing. Receive updates regarding proposed liens for unpaid mistletoe abatement and determine that no further action is required. Staff report, Finance Director Williams.

Good evening, Mayor Pro Tem, members of the City Council, and members of the public. I'm going to keep this very short. So this update concerns proposed liens for unpaid mistletoe abatement costs for two properties. Since the public hearing notice was published, both property owners have paid the amounts they owed in full. So as a result, the liens are no longer necessary and staff recommends that council receive this update but take no further action. So thank you.

Are there any members who have any additional questions, comments, and concerns on this item 8.1? None. Seeing none, we will open it now to the public. Anyone present who wish to provide a public comment on 8.1? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, is anyone online?

There are no comments online, Mayor.

Seeing none online or present, we will move forward. this information and moving on to item number nine nine point one councilmember Hernandez no updates at this moment I'm put to councilmember Jack San Joaquin Valley air pollution control district councilmember Mora not at this time And your Mayor Pro Temp has not met with EDAC at this moment. Moving on to...

Sorry, I do want to add that next week I will be attending League of California Cities, so I'm looking forward to that. And hopefully, because of my... Committees that I'm part of I'm hoping to bring back lots of ideas From the League of California cities down in Anaheim. I think you're also attending.

Yes, I am customer We will be attending next week for the late, California soon as in Southern, California looking forward to that looking forward to that Yeah anybody any other comment no number section number 10 other matters I And for me and other matters, I really want to thank everybody for the last minute notice and thank you for being patient as we move through this agenda. And one last thing I would... want to invite anybody on our district sees it here is online will be having a movie night on this Friday from 5 to from 5 to 10 PM on Ashwood Lane so and I want to really appreciate a Fernando made this possible along with our rec department Diana and Greg and along with the help of the council members so thank you very much and community members joy Kirk as well and who made some of this possible. So thank you. All right. And moving to number 11, we will now adjourn from a regular session. Thank you.