City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay. The 02/05/2026 special meeting of the Sanger City Council is called to order at 05:11PM under Brown Act code government brown under Brown Act government code section five four nine five three c two, the legislative body of a local agency shall publicly report any action taken and the vote or abstention on that action of each member present for the action. And a b roll call.

Mayor Gonzales?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Martinez? Here. Council member Hurtado? Here. Council member Montelongo? Here. And council member Melendez? Thank you.

I'll accept the motion to approve the agenda. Motion.

Second.

There have a motion in the second. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed? Hearing none, that motion carries forward to zero, one being absent. Public form, there being nobody in the, audience. We'll move to item e, closed session. Chen?

Thank you. Very quick. It's the closed session. So can we go section five or nine five seven point six? The

Thank you, sir. We'll go to closed session. They were returned from closed session at 06:17PM. And, any city attorney? Any report?

Thank you so much, mayor. There was no reportable action taken in closed session. Thank you. Thank you. There'll be no further no further business, this meeting is adjourned at 06:17PM. The 02/05/2026 regular meeting of the Sanders City Council is called to order at 06:17PM under Brown Act government code section five four nine five three c two, the legislative body of a local agency shall publicly report any action taken and the vote or abstention on that action of each member present for the action. Item b at opening ceremonies. Pastor Paul do the application. I'll leave the flag salute, and then we'll have a roll call. Please stand.

Let's pray. Heavenly father, we we thank you for this evening. Lord, I thank you for the city of Sanger and for all those that are here today, Lord. I ask for you to bless them all. Bless their families and their neighborhoods, God, that we are all one big community. And, God, I ask for your blessing upon our council, our mayor, and all of the staff, Lord. Lord, I ask your blessing upon our first responders and all that they do for us so then that we can live in peace and and feel safe every night. God, we I ask your blessing also upon every everything that's gonna be shared here tonight, that everyone feels heard and understood as they come to speak. We pray it all in Jesus' name. Amen.

Black salute. Ready? Salute. Roll call.

Mayor Gonzales?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Martinez? Present. Council member Hurtado? Here. Council member Montelongo? Here. And council member Melendez? Here. Thank you.

Item c agenda, approval additions or deletions. And we have a couple. One will be g 14, item c. We'll move to another council meeting and item h two.

So to be clear for the record, mayor, item h two is being removed from the agenda? Yes. And item g 14 is on the agenda, but subsection one c is being removed. That's correct. Thank you so much.

I'll accept the motion with those, exceptions. So moved.

Second.

The motion is second. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed? Hearing none, that motion carries unanimous. Item f, public forum. This portion of the meeting is reserved for members of the public who wish to address the council on any matter not listed on the agenda and within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city council.

Each

Mayor, I apologize. I just noticed an error on this. We do have a presentation, a a brief one tonight

Okay.

From Sanger Fence.

Okay. Sorry.

So then we'll go to item e, presentation. We'll do public form after.

Good evening. My name is Austin Rentoria. I'm a part owner of Sanger Fence Company Inc, now officially doing business at Sanger Construction. We changed our names here construction. This past year, we added a new vertical to our company. We now do solar installation, primarily commercial throughout the state of California covering a range of sites from, Calusa County down to Kern County.

Is it on? Mhmm. Next slide.

K. If you recall or have driven by L Street, you've seen our first building going up. We anticipate to move in sometime in June. Very exciting for us. However, with this new vertical, we are already maxed out in space. So if you recall from our first site plan, we had a phase two building that was gonna be four leasable units. We are currently maintaining the same layout of the site plan, but now we are proposing next slide. A second story addition

one more slide.

Second story addition, to that building that will house more offices for our new staff. Now we're gonna maintain the storefront glass facing 7th Street with its own parking lot as you saw on that site plan. No changes to egress besides addition of an of a new entrance. The second store will only be accessible through the Sanger fence side of the property, maintaining privacy for our employees and make sure public has enough space in the front on 7th Street to park their vehicles. Next slide, please.

The four leasable units are maintaining the same layout. This is a mock up of what they'll look like. Don Pig and Associates will be doing development again for this project. We've gone through all ADA compliances already, and we'll be submitting those to the city for approval. That includes EV charging stations, ADA bathroom compliances, and ADA door and exits as well as ramps. There will not be any additional changes to the scope of work besides the second store addition. And like I said, that will be adding approximately 3,000 square feet on top of the existing blueprint, to house additional offices for our staff. Thank you for your time. Any questions?

No. None. No questions for me. I just wanna say thank you, man. I think you guys are gonna make improvements to that empty dirt field that are is very welcome for the city of Sanger.

Yes. And Thank you. You're very welcome. We look forward to building out the rest of downtown, and I think it's gonna be a good look for it.

Oh, yeah. Yes. Good job.

Thank you. Thank

you, sir.

And we'd have, investment report real quick from the finance director, Virginia.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. The purpose of tonight's presentation is to receive the investment report for the quarter ended 12/31/2025. Finance staff hired Optimize Investment Partners in July 2024 to help improve the investment returns for the city and to ensure compliance with California government code by ensuring safety of principal and sufficient liquidity for operations. Ongoing portfolio management activity will continue to be performed in connection with Optimize Investment Partners, the finance director, the finance manager, and the city manager. For the adopted investment policy, the Finance Director is required to report the type of investment, financial institution, date of maturity, amount of investment, current market value, rate of interest for all securities with a maturity of more than twelve months and the statement that all Citi investments are in compliance with the Citi investment policy and all applicable provisions of the California government code.

The total cash and investment portfolio book value held by the city as of 12/31/2025 was $51,846,739 The cash and investments held by the city include the following components: Managed investment portfolio of $30,735,812 State of California Local Agency Investment Fund of $14,507,587 California asset management program, whole investment fund of $34,303 cash time deposits of $6,425,359 and accrued interest on investments of $143,678 Earned interest is the interest earned on investments over a specific time period. Accrued interest is the interest that an investment has earned but hasn't yet been received and paid interest is the interest that has already been received as payment by the city. Cash and investments held by the city and the trustees continue to be invested in accordance with the government code and the council investment policy. During the quarter, one federal agency bond in the amount of $1,507,995 was purchased and one medium term note, corporate note in the amount of $1,507,230 was purchased. Two U.

S. Treasury notes in the amount of $3,000,000 matured. Two year treasuries were yielding 3.6% at the beginning of the quarter and at 3.47% at the end of the quarter, which is a due case of 13 basis points for the quarter. As of 12/31/2025, the weighted yield to maturity on the managed investment portfolio was 3.62%. At the end of this quarter, the weighted average maturity of the managed investment portfolio was two point six four years.

The Federal Open Market Committee meets approximately every six weeks and determines the level of the federal funds rate. At the December 10 meeting, the committee decided to lower the target range for the federal funds rate by a quarter percentage point to 3.5% to 3.75%. The current fiscal impact considering the projected timing of cash receipts and disbursements and the structure of the pooled investment portfolio, the city should be able to comfortably meet overall cash flow needs over the next six months. There is no direct fiscal impact by this action. Ongoing fiscal impact, there is no ongoing fiscal impact by this action.

That concludes my presentation of the investments ending in 12/31/2025.

Alright. Thank you. It's a lot of numbers. Do we have money or not?

Green board and the green so far. We're okay.

Alright.

That's good.

Thank you. Alright. Anything else? No. Okay. Now we'll go we'll move to the public forum. This portion of the meeting is reserved for members of the public who wish to address the council on any matters not listed on the agenda and within the jurors within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city council. Each speaker is limited to three minutes. Speaker shall address all comments to the mayor and the council as a body and not to any particular council member or member of the staff. Speakers are asked but not required to state their name and address. The council is prohibited by law from taking any actions on items not on the agenda. Is there any public comment?

G 14 is not on the agenda. I get to speak to it. This is a failed attempt.

14 is still on the agenda. I thought it was taken off. That's subsection one c. Okay. Then I'll talk about that. We would you can certainly talk about one c if you prefer.

I will. Thank you. That is a failed attempted hit job. It stinks. You know, what's what's funny is on the agenda, it deals with a lot of other companies, but it specifically deals with the chamber of commerce. I guess we'll get the rest of it when we do that, but this is a failed hit job.

Are you Any other public comment?

Good evening. In this binder right here is a full copy of the transcripts from the Torrance trial. Since the city refuses to uphold their public commitment to transparency, I will. Any member of the city or any member of the public that would like to read or check this out is welcome to contact me. We all heard a large settlement was paid out to one victim last week.

I would like to know how these settlements were paid by the citizens of Sanger and what they actually bought us. It did not buy us transparency, accountability, or change, and it did not buy justice for the victims. What it did buy was an NDA, so the victims could not bring their story to us, the taxpayers. The silence protects only Sanger officials. They used our money to protect themselves in a secret.

When it hit the news, the last settlement to the media, the same city officials used our money to write $5,250,000 check but refused to speak on camera about it. So instead, our city manager, mister Olson, issued a written statement saying that after the Torrance conviction, their focus is now on compensating the victims without telling us that it was even the not the only settlement that week. There were five, and there are five still pending. So much for transparency. Florence was convicted in January 2025.

Since then, have any of you spoke to the victims, looked at the transcripts, and read them for yourself? If your focus was solely on the victims in this town in January, why did it take a lawsuit not filed until 06/27/2025 to deliver that justice to one victim? Why Why was the public not told about any of this? What are you hiding? Perhaps it's that Sanger PD knew Torrance was assaulting women in 2018, and the same officer who knew and protected him then is still in charge on our force.

Sanger PD knew then the lie under oath in a federal courtroom, and it's all proof right there. I know you're gonna cut me off. What did I do? I lost my place because I'm irritated. Anyway, we're still being lied to. At the trial, the DOJ stated that Torrance's pattern was to isolate and assault his victims.

Great. Thank thank you, ma'am.

I figured you were gonna do that. That's okay. Somebody else will come up.

Okay. Finish it.

That's fine.

Evan Carter. Also wanna speak to g fourteen, number c, letter c. And we talked about transparency. There's a lot of rumors. There's a lot of facts. A lot of issues going on between the city and the chamber of commerce. And I think it is time for everybody to lay out on the table exactly how they feel and where they wanna go forward from this moment on. And I'm gonna ask that everybody on the dais tonight, with the exception of the city attorney, it's time for council comments and city manager comments to publicly tell the public what their vision is for the future relationship between the city and the chamber of commerce.

Thank

you. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Moses Hernandez, District 4 resident, longtime Sanger resident. 2025 was a bad year in terms of gang violence. Sanger made the news a couple times, gang shooting, gang stabbing, gang fights. You know, from those that were reported, Sanger live on their page, you know, they had numerous incidents throughout the year 2025.

I say that because you guys will be facing a awarding grant money, you know, for measure for measure r to organizations. And I just wanna say that perspective matters. You know, where you guys choose to put the put your money, you know, the city watches and they talk, and they choose and they and they're either gonna think you guys a joke or, you know, they don't take you seriously. So, you know, just reflect on this past year. Also wanna comment on Tuesday. I was, there with STEM Academy. We were one of the organizations that, applied for the grant. We didn't get, we didn't get nothing. We got scored really poorly. We were confused about, some of the statements that were made on that Tuesday.

So we're we're kind of a little upset about that. If you guys know about STEM Academy, we're a music studio. We also do science. We also do art. We're here for the community.

We want we've been, you know, surviving since COVID, and we've been resilient, resourceful, and trying to figure it out. We wish to have the city as a partner, and that'd be great. But I also wanna speak about on Tuesday, that Tuesday meeting, about the hostility that was, that was channeled by our city manager towards our our our supporters, calling them calling us a pack, being, hostile towards the democratic process, cutting people off when they're speaking, telling people not to speak, actively maneuvering the committee. So that was really kind of, it was my first interaction with the the city manager, and, I was it was dis distasteful. Thank you.

Thank you.

I wanna finish what my friend Kelly started. The DOJ also said the only thing that Torrance victims had in common was the terrible misfortune of living on the same beat in Sanger. I would also argue that every citizen of this town has the same misfortune in common with those victims. It's time for Sanger to tell us the truth. We have already paid almost $6,000,000 for it. And just like the jury found Torrance's crimes to be so egregious that they shock the conscious, our officials are handling the mess they created in a way that is all that also shocks the conscious by lying to us and spending our money to do so. Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah. Good evening, people. Hey. There's so many things that gotta be said. Try and keep it real short here because I got so many items. First of all, we heard a little bit about the finances. So what's up with the are we still in the deficit? How much are we in a deficit now? Not nothing's been said about that. You know? That's important. How about what's the status on on the the office rentals over there? I noticed that the building was sold or is for sale, then it's sold. Are we still in it? And do we have the three suites filled up yet?

Because for the longest time, for almost a whole year, you only had one in well, you didn't have anybody in there. Then you had one one suite full, and I don't know. We're over $50,000 on that right now. I haven't really looked at it too close. So what's up with that, being in a deficit?

And, also, last year, as some of you guys know me, that I've been harping on that crossing on Bethlehem Academy for forever before the little kid got hit and the other one injured. And, I've been I've been on you guys for that forever. Anyway, the news a news person came by and interviewed me about it, and she says she was gonna go directly and talk to, Nathan Olsen after she spoke with me. I guess she gave him a call. And what I understand is at that meeting, mister Olson had said that they finally got a contractor after all these years and that this job should be completed at the end of the summer.

Go look at it right now. It's still nothing's done. To his defense, he didn't tell me what summer. So my question is, is it this summer, or how many more people do we gotta get killed there? And then, also, I heard there was a nice word said about Tom Flores at this recent thing he had. Really nice. And he deserves every every bit of it. What I don't get is if you really believe that, why can't we just put a little plaque that's entering in this saga? This is this is a home of Tom Flores, hall of famer. What's wrong with that?

You speak well about it. Let's let's see what you can do about it. And it sounds like we're gonna have this is 14 c, it sounds like there's going be a little power grab over here. If you have one individual that's in charge of everything out here, that's basically a power grab. It makes it easier to ignore community input importance when you have one individual making all the decisions here. That's wrong. And I don't I just I just think that Sanger, you gotta start waking up now. You had we gotta do better. This is terrible what's going on. I here, there's another lawsuit with another officer.

So, again, more money. And is our insurance paying for this, or is the city of Sanger putting out all this money? Some of those answers you some of those questions you could answer by the end of the day, so I hope you do. Thank you.

Any other public comment?

Good evening. I took my press pass off because I'm speaking to you as Cheryl said, the chamber, chairman of the board of directors. And I know that the item got removed, okay, once he did get removed, so I can address it at this time, is that to make you aware that when you leave leave someone in total power over contracts to know how we've been treated. And I haven't spoken to anyone about it, but I have to let people know. K?

Last year, we were negotiating our contract for it to be renewed last year in April and May 2025. And at the time, our former president and CEO was there. We were promised a $120,000 for our contract and an office across the street in one of the new new buildings that you guys were leasing, and we were gonna be adding some, adding some events to our contract. As soon as our former president and CEO resigned, we were treated he I was ghosted like we're in junior high. I emailed numerous times to see if I could have a draft copy of our contract and what we were agreeing on to continue the negotiations.

I was ghosted the whole time. Next thing I do, I wake up, and what do I see? I see it's on your consent agenda at your last meeting in June to just leave the leave the leave the item the same. Leave our contract the same, only just extend it. Okay? Do you call that fair negotiation that there's no more talking, no more sitting down with us or letting us didn't even let us know that our contract was being put on the consent agenda. The only reason I knew is because I report on what happens here. K? So I don't think it's fair to put one person in charge of our contract because they have an agenda against us. Alright?

Now this agenda item just popped up. So already already, there's been an email, and I have it here if you wanna see it, that our city manager sent to our president and CEO that said, good afternoon. I will be making some changes to next year's contract that expires in June. First and most importantly is the city will do the July 4 celebration in house so the chamber will not be responsible for the event. So he's already removing items in our contract, but he's just dictating to us. Did he contact me, the chairman? No. Did he contact our board? No. He sent this email to our president and CEO, our current one that we have.

So do we get a chance to talk about it? No. We're just being told what's going to happen to us. K? That is not how you negotiate. At least that's not how I all the previous city city managers before this, that's how we that's not how we negotiated. K? With Brian Haddix or Tim Choppa, this is not how it went. Alright? So I want you to be aware of that. Yes. There's more to this story than what's on the black and white pieces of paper here, and we all know what the other parts of the story are. You wanna give me a call, and we'll talk about it. Alright? So remember, the chamber's been here over a hundred years serving this community and bringing in all the other communities around the town around from other towns and doing a great job of it.

And I would hate to see that you would, as a council, want to look at the illusion of what's real and not pay pay attention to what is real.

I actually just have a question. I wanna know how you guys can promote Jason Boust after I reported Torrance's abuse to him in 2016. I called him to my home, and I told him he could look at my surveillance cameras. Just about about ignored me, had my family harassed repeatedly. We couldn't leave our house without being pulled over, stopped by son.

Same thing. My dad was sick and dying, and he they had his he and his officers spotlight my dad's room every night, harassing us constantly to the point where I left town. And you guys keep promoting Jason Bausch. He covered for him, And all he did was hurt more people had Jason Bausch had stopped him when I reported it. The important people that were assaulted after I reported it wouldn't have been hurt.

It would have been stopped. Whether you like it or not, you're facing one of the victims. Because when I thought I was free and I had gotten away, he found me out in at Pega Bond Inn, and he raped me. So thank you, because you guys keep that SOB on the on duty or whatever. And I'm sorry.

I'm a little pissed off right now because I I haven't really said it out loud, but my lawyer just told me that I could, the Wagner Group. He shouldn't be working for this city anymore. He covered up he's costing the city millions of dollars all because he refused to look at my surveillance cameras, to review my footage, would have shown him harassing me, would have shown him trying to pull me out of my home, my mom having to protect me. And that's the man that you guys have working on this police force.

Commander?

Oh, nice. Wasn't he chief for a minute there? I may have been gone from this city, but I have not let go of anything. I've watched everything that comes up on the news. And I have my friends here, my family here. Michael is a friend of mine, a family friend. I want him fired. He deserves to be fired. This is not right.

Hi. My name is Sarah Watson. I didn't plan to speak tonight until I heard the brave woman who went before me. I'm also one of Torrance's victims. I testified in the federal trial. One of the life sentences that he's serving is relative to crimes that he committed against me. I also reported him in 2018, and that investigation went nowhere. I was never contacted after that to even tell me what the outcome of that was. And all of the evidence that was used to convict Torrance was right under Sanger PD's nose the entire time. The fact that they didn't even call me to get a statement from me after receiving a written statement.

I was documenting it the entire time. I have five pages of documents that the FBI has, that Sanger PD had, that I still have a copy of. I'm happy to give them to you of what he was doing in March 2018. And everything that I put in those notes was something that Sanger PD, all they needed to do was look at the dispatch records. That's all they needed to do.

So I'm I'm looking at all of the millions of dollars that are that are going out, and understandably, the the public can be upset about that because they don't understand what we all went through, and they don't understand how it's possible that it went on this long. Well, I'm here right now the same way that I was in a federal courtroom, the same way that I was with the sheriff's department, the same way that I was with internal affairs and the same way that I was with Sanger PD since 2018 and telling you and telling all of these wonderful people that are listening to us that we don't have to have victims like this. We didn't this didn't have to happen. You could have stopped it and you didn't. And I think that everyone here, with all of this money going out, deserves to understand what's being done to make sure that this never happens again.

Because at last account, there were in the thirties of us. That is one woman is too much. And for this to have gone on this long and to be this pervasive and for the people that that were supposed to be protecting us by policing torrents to still be in control out there, there is a problem. And I'm begging you. Help us, please.

Thank you.

My question is for all you guys. You have kids. You have girls. And if you do, I think you don't know how it feels. If I think all you guys, the city manager have to be gone because he don't know what he's doing. You you even you you hear here how she's crying? No. You don't have feelings. You have to have feelings, and you you gonna bring the police. Do you think I'm gonna believe what the cops call the cops? Something is happening in my house. Do you think it's gonna I'm gonna believe? I have kids in my house. I'm not gonna believe in you guys. I'm not gonna call the cops.

Why? Because it's gonna be a rape and you guys. Do you think I'm gonna believe in you guys? No. I have kids. I have five kids. I'm not gonna believe in you guys anymore. You're not doing anything. You know you're not doing anything. Where are you guys in your pocket? Where are your money in your pocket? You're not doing anything right. You can feel you don't feel you don't have feelings for nothing. You just grab the money and spend it. You see this town is ghost town.

We don't have nothing. Nothing. If you come to Zenger where you see bars and bars for drunk people, all the drunk people comes in Zenger, we have a lot. You hear the lady, she's crying. You don't know how to feels when somebody raped you. You don't know how to feels. I do. And it's hard. And it's hard. And you come you guys come to see and bring the police again. You guys crazy. Why you have in your mind to bring again a police? Guys, they're you have to be fired and fired. Like, wouldn't nobody do anything to send her. You guys put the send her down. That's what you guys doing.

My name is Sherry Gumber Carter. I'm a proud citizen of Sanger. I'd like to talk about the chamber for a minute. The Sanger District Chamber of Commerce has been around for a hundred years. And over the years, the chamber and the city have had a cooperative working relationship, which included negotiations between two parties two parties.

And both have been benefited by working together. There have probably been some prickly personalities over the years, but the business between the two parties were solved with checks and balances in place so author authoritarian decisions could not rule. Is this city council willing to give their power to one person to make important and or monetary decisions which could affect the city with negative impact. This is a careless and unethical way to conduct business. Thank you.

Any other public comment?

Hey, city council. The reason I came in today was, about something I just, I did see in the agenda, and, it was taken off the agenda, so I won't discuss on that. So, I'll leave that one alone. But as I'm listening to some of this is, I look at the chamber. Right? I'm not sure what the future relationship may be. As far as the decision not being on the council's hand is I respect every single one of you guys. You all know me, and I do respect you for the decisions that you make. Myself as a taxpayer, I rely on your decisions to be the final. I respect our city manager and his thoughts and his approach to you guys, but I believe that the final decision should be in your hands.

Myself representing myself and a lot of tax payers here that trust me, I trust you. The decision should fall back on you. Now about the chamber. Right? I look at the chamber as something that their events are important, at a cost of just a few bucks per taxpayer here.

For $3, I couldn't go anywhere to an event, yet they host a few a year. If the city is looking at making plans, the city should be transparent what the plans look like. And without losing the events that the chamber does, you should put a financial and what it's gonna cost from the city manager's perspective. If it costs more and we have a chance of losing events, that should be part of your consideration. And so once again, as I truly trust the decision of the city council, I also trust the knowledge of the city manager. But once again, it's in the collaborative. I believe that the final decision should always be laid in your hands, city council. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there any other public comment?

Maybe may I remember the council? Wasn't planning on talking, but, wasn't expecting this type of crowd. Those on the the item that was taken out as far as the chamber, I've been an analyst with the county of Fresno for five years in the past, a lifetime ago. I was in charge of many contracts. I think it was it's been so many years. It was either 3 or $5,000,000 for the contracts. In that responsibility, I get to recommend yes or no to keeping the contract to our director of that department. And then that director goes to board of supervisors and makes that recommendation to them, decide yes or no. It wasn't my decision, final decision. It wasn't the director's final decision.

It was the elected officials' final decision because you guys are one who charged the money. They elected you guys. So I hope for not just the chamber, but any other contract, you guys keep the responsibility to decide yes or no whether or that person or that agency is there to keep their contract. And the last thing is you have two victims that showed up today. That took a hell of a lot of courage to come up here and talk about what happened to them. I hope you guys listened seriously. And if it's true that there's 30 plus other victims out there, total victims, that's unimaginable that would be allowed to go this long in this city. Accountability is the first thing that's up there. I'm not sure that that should be up there anymore. Transparency is up there.

I'm not sure that should be up there anymore. This closed door session you had, the middle item had to do with another victim. I happened to look it up. It's another victim that you guys were negotiating. They're only at 03:30 a day at the somewhere in the courthouse. They're having a, a settlement discussion, and then they were supposed to come to you guys, and you guys supposed to say yes or no. There was no action taken, which tells me you guys said no to whatever it is they're asking for. I'm not sure why that is. It doesn't sound like you guys were really thinking of the victims. I'm sorry to all the victims that are out there, and I'm praying for you. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there any other public comment? Public comment is closed. Go get a item g, consent calendar. Matters under the consent calendar are considered routine and will be enacted by one motion and one vote. There will be no separate discussion of these items. If discussion is desired, a member of audience or a council member may request an item be removed from the consent calendar, and it will be considered separately. Counsel, is there any other items you wish to remove?

Yes, mayor. Item a?

G eight. G eight.

Anything else? Is there any items that the public wish to remove?

Yeah. I'd like number three, six, and I believe you just said eight, if not eight, and, 14. 14.

David, regards to the consent calendar with the exceptions of item g eight, g three, g six, and g 14, do I have a motion to approve? So moved.

I'll second.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? Hearing none, that motion carries unanimous. Item g three. So any questions, Laura?

Mr. Rocha, did you have a specific question on g three?

Just just a little background on it, more more information on it. I I I know it's good for you people to be sent to any places out of state wherever that can help the city of Sanger. My question, though, is how many times has mister Gonzales been there? Second would be, what has been the outcome since he's been there? I mean, I hope there's been a big outcome.

I mean, just just just let us know. And, also, the thing that bothers me the most is one time when, there was an event to go to, Atlanta, Georgia, I believe it was, for some, some Hispanic type of I don't know what it was actually, but it had to do with Hispanic. Maybe a Hurtado council member would know more because since she attended. But when it was offered around, who would wanna go? And Frankie or mister Gonzales had said that, where is this gonna be at?

He said it was they said mister Olsen said it was gonna be in Atlanta, Georgia, I believe it was. And what bothers me, mister Gonzales, is he kinda looked, tapped on the table and says, I just came from there. No. How long ago? It doesn't matter where you go. It it's the subject that matters. Well, that's why I questioned you going in, something good must be happening in Washington DC or something because you you don't have a problem going there again. So, yeah, that would be the thing. I hope you come back with a good report.

Right. Right. I and I do report every time I come back, about what happened. Basically, it's it's, called a one voice, and I'm a I sit on a board to counsel the governments at Fresno County and to deal with strictly transportation issues. And every year, as as a board member, we go there once a year to advocate for our for our county for transportation dollars to help fix our roads or a bridge or a widening of, 41 or even the one eighty.

That that was all money that we go there to lobby for. And, I also was on was on that board, when when we went to advocate for the veterans, veterans extension on Highway 99, which got approved finally after about twenty years of lobbying there. So these these transportation dollars are very important to everybody, basically, in the nation, and we're all vying for money from one pool. So, you know, it is important for us to go there and and basically lobby for our region. Last year last year, I went, and it was not a city of Sanger project, but it had to do with Pine Flat Dam.

And we were looking for money for a for a study to raise the dam twelve twelve inches a foot, and that would that was going to increase the capacity of of Pine Flat Dam by, I think, a 120,000 acre square feet acres of water. So, you know, it it is very important that that we go and Sanger have a seat at the table because if not, we're gonna get forgotten. And, that's why I go and, and I come back with a report every time I go on a trip. The one in Atlanta was for the National League of Cities. We go to a a California League of Cities event probably twice a year, but this is on a national stage.

And, you know, I I get to go there on behalf of the city of Sanger and, again, come back with with different, different ways of doing business, you know, and make some more connections with with the rest of the country, not just the the region of Fresno County or the state, but this is on a national level. And I come back, and I give a report after every trip I go on. So after I get back from this one, hopefully, mister Rocha, you'll be in attendance, and you could hear my my beautiful report. You bet. Okay.

In regards to I o, is there anything any other questions from anybody? The public comment is closed. In regards to IMG three, do I have a motion to approve? So moved, mister mayor. Do I have a motion?

I'll second.

And a second. All is in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye. All is opposed. Hearing none, that motion carries. Item g six.

Yeah. This project took forever too. Thank god it's maybe not done yet because I hear there's extra work that needs to be there, which brings to mind as much time it took to build this place and monies that was involved. You thought all that would have been included, but I guess we rushed it or something because there was what is there? Eight items that seven items, whatever. I don't remember now. That still needs to be done. I mean, that happens with construction. I understand. But, I mean, they were talking millions of dollars here, so let's be a little bit more careful how we do it.

But the the the thing that I I didn't see on this is that the project wasn't done on a timely basis, and I I believe that we were supposed to be reimbursed for time that it took to build this thing. We had a contract. That's what they are for, you know, four corners in the contract, and it wasn't done at that time, is what I understand. And they were supposed to pay us on some kind of formula, I don't know, per day. Where are we with that? I I maybe I saw it in here. I don't know, but that's what I'm here for. How much do they owe us, and when are we gonna get paid?

Thank you. Senior manager?

Yeah. Final payments going out. We did receive a credit of $210,000 for past days on a, a reduction in the final payment of $210,000.

Thank you. Is there any other public comment? So in regards to item g six, do I have a motion to

approve? Just just to add to what the city manager says, it's actually on the it's actually on the staff report under, eight on page 69 versus 210 that we agreed between the city and them to give us the the credit. This is what it is in the staff report. Move it. I'll make a motion to approve.

Do we have a motion?

Mister Mayor.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed? Hearing on that motion carries unanimous. Item g eight.

Councilmember Hurtado, did you have anything specific to this one?

Just, I want a presentation. I'd like typically, I I personally like when, you know, the eighth the company involved comes and presents. I think it's helpful, at least for me. I'm more of a visual person in seeing how, this is gonna be used and implemented in in both of the fire department and, police department. So just wanna get an overview again, and, I may have some questions after. Thank you.

K. I'll get start briefly till the chief gets up. But this is basically a closed circuit AI. If anybody's familiar with, ChatGPT, you can go in and get AI. But this is a a closed loop system so the PD can put all their documents, policies, laws, whatever they want. They load into here, and it assists the officers when they're filling out reports and looking up codes and different things. They can use it like an AI tool, but it's not connected to any outside source. It's all internal to the Sanger PD and fire policies and procedures, and I'll let the chief take it from there.

Correct. Thank you. So, speaking on behalf of, chief Reynolds, tonight, before you is a contract, request for the use of a system called BlueVoice, which, is a closed loop, what you said, closed loop artificial intelligence knowledge and decision support based system for both PD and fire. Right off the bat, we can tell you that this is sole source because there's no other company that is like this, that we can find, that exists at this time. The the technology, like, the city manager discussed is what they consider closed loop.

And much like what he said with ChatGPT and Copilot and Gemini, I think, that are out there, this is only strictly what we put into it. There's no outside sources. And so, for example, like he mentioned, any any kind of policy we have, any law that we put into a penal code can go into it. The fire codes can go into it. NFPA standards can go into it.

It's all what we put into it, and it's eligible to be used at the drop of a finger. We are you know, we need to make decisions instantaneously on occasion, and, the information sometimes isn't readily available. For example, you know, on the on the fire on the fire side, you know, sometimes I have to recall what the dose is for a pediatric I weigh six kilograms for epinephrine and what we can do for that, you know, so we can ask the AI that, and it'll pop it up right there. That stuff, also translates over to the police department as well when, they're looking to build reports or they're looking to, reference to their penal codes or whatever they need, department policies, that's at the touch of a fingertip. This platform is available not only on a laptop computer, but also on a desktop and then, of course, on a on a phone.

A smart any smartphone can take it as well. This, again, does allow for a rapid it's a voice activated system to access any type of policies, procedures, laws, any type of first aid protocols, community resources. It could be even a a phone Rolodex, if you remember Rolodex back in the day. It does improve decision making, especially during high stress, high critical incidents. It does enhance firefighter and officer safety.

It reduces errors and potential liability exposure and increasing efficiency by allowing forms and other documents to be completed in real time and routed electronically right off the right off the gate. There are guardrails in place. Own there are only certain folks that will be able to put things into the system. For example, the police chief and I will be the first level of that. There are definitely guardrails relative to patient information. There's no HIPAA information being stored in this at all. No patient, demographics. Nothing like that will be stored on this at all. It's just strictly, when I say medical type stuff, it's just protocols, not patient information. Again, there are departments that are using this in California, right now.

They're very, some departments, not very many fire departments are using this right now, but there are police departments that are using this in its branch now quite, quite frequently in in most departments. Aside from that, the, contract is for three years. I believe we get the first year for free, but the second year, there are costs associated with that, and there are, funds available, through the measure r, public safety tax that we can use for that. Aside from that, I'm happy to answer any questions that I might be able to answer.

Go ahead.

Yeah. Thank you, for that. For the actual when you the bullet point where it says it's, you know, helps improving decision making during high stress and, time critical incidents, can you give us a a few scenarios on, like, what what, scenarios would would be would you use this to, help you?

Sure. Like I mentioned before, I I can't speak for the police department, but I know that, chief Reynolds had made a a comment at the COC task force, which actually I didn't fail to mention they did approve unanimously to move forward. For example, like active shooter, and just the certain policies that are and procedures that we use if there was an active shooter incident, god forbid, you know, in our in our community. There are things that we can use in the field for fire related hazmat, for example. You know, what's the upper explosive and lower explosive limit for ammonia?

What's a safe distance available for a gas leak with a one inch main? You know, those are the types of things that we could ask it right off the bat and not flip through a chart at two in the morning trying to find where that's at. So that's the type of stuff that we would ask right away, and that's the that, I think, not only increases, our efficiency, but also makes our decisions a lot easier right off the bat.

Okay. I think just the only concern I have with this is, like, making sure that, like, when you're out in the fields directly, not using this to, you know, make those decisions on the spot whether or not, you know, there's a high stress, incident or critical time. I've, you know, heard through the news that there's, you know, been reports of, you know, medical professionals during, like, mass shootings that, you know, have difficulty making those decisions. And although there's technology, in the medical space where, you know, it tells you how to take you know, this is more, like, patient related, but, like, basically, you recall, you know, the doctor having to make a decision which patient is more high priority, and there are technologies. But at the same time, that doesn't mean that whatever, you know, AI is telling you is reliable enough because there's also, you know, morals and and and diff different scenarios and and things that really impact during that time.

So just making sure that also we're not using this as, you know, replacing decision making, but also but more of a tool to help you, you know, get get your job done essentially and whether that be saving a life or, you know, whatever it may be. So I think I just see it that side. That's how I see it. But, yeah, that's all I have for now.

So absolutely. Like we said, it's improved decision making. It just may it makes that decision that much more available to you to make. And and, you know, the human element cannot be removed from decision making, no matter how hard we try. The, the ability of AI to recall information, I think, is a benefit for us to make decisions. When it comes to medical care, I I speak from my department. We have no issues with that. We we rely on our our brains right now to, recall that information, but we also have a protocol book in the ambulance that we can refer to if we need to. And so, and then when it comes to triage, there's an acronym for that. It's called START.

For example, if there was an issue with the triage and we need to remember what the START acronym was, we can say, what's the START acronym? It can tell you simple triage and rapid transport. Got it. And then we can move on. So there is a way to use it. And then, again, you're right. You definitely cannot remove the human element out of decision making in critical instance.

Yeah. We used to call it in military. Was called force enhancement or force most multiplier.

Force multiplier.

Yep. And, you know, any tools that that will help you do your job, I'm a 100% full. But, though, we'll go to the public, see if there's any public comment in regards to item g eight.

Know, this this is good. This is a good deal that's coming around now. It's it's new. But because it's new, especially when there wasn't any other place to look to see if there's another outfit that does the same or whatever they do, price, whatever. Since it's so new, it sounds like this is it.

We either take this or not. What I would like to know is if there was any research done with the same program here on another city the size of ours just to see what they how they how it's been working out for them for the last six months instead of just jumping in, not really knowing them or hearing a lot about it, which is good. You know, the salesman, they're gonna sell it to you anyways. But our officers, right now, they you know, a good officer relies on in instinct and experience, which is I hope that doesn't go away. I don't know if it will or not.

You start depending on other outlets. You know? That's something to be concerned about, though. Not that we don't have to take have this AI. It's just to remind our officers that, hey, still. Still trust yourself. Trust your instincts, because things do change. AI won't see that. You know? They time from time. They don't hear what's going on too or different situations. So as long as we don't lose that experience in our officers, you know, maybe they had to be reinforced that, please don't lose this this talent that you have because it's it's well needed for themselves and for people like us. Stress part? The stress part? Yeah.

I could see actors shooting. Every day is a stress part for these guys. You know? They come out there getting dressed. It's, oh, man. I gotta get up there again. Hope everything's okay. That's stressful. So, hopefully, to help combat that, that you understand that these people can be overworked. And maybe like I I've always said before, twelve hour total rule and maybe ten hours rest between the last time you're out to the twelve hours would decompress them a little bit, make them relax. Don't have these guys running sixteen hours or whatever the case may be. That's when you get into bad situations, and I don't think AI can help you on that one.

Thank you.

Good evening. I'm a 25 Sanger member, resident and, a health care professional of over sixty years. I'm really concerned about the privacy potential violations that this system entails. Nobody's spoken to how you're gonna protect patient's personal information in this AI system. The chief spoke to it.

He addressed it. Oh, it won't happen. I think this body already saw instance where confidential information was made available to our previous police chief and staff, and it wasn't rapidly addressed. So what mechanisms are in place to protect personal information? Is there gonna be a yearly audit of records or any other system in place to ensure that if somebody slips up, that's gonna be audited and removed in order to protect people.

This this is it's just from my experience, it's a little too loosey goosey for me. So I hope you take that into consideration. I appreciate mister Rocha's comments about looking at similar systems in similar sized cities and find out what they're having done. AI is currently making health care recommendations for insurance companies, for Medicare. And as a health care professional who did utilization for over fifteen and a half years, you need more than a book to tell you how to make a medical decision in complicated, complex cases. So take that into consideration, please.

Thank you. Is there any other public comment? Seeing none, public comment is closed. Chief, can you address those?

Certainly. To the first point, the we just didn't jump in fee first with this program. We did look around, police chief especially. Most notably, he contacted the city of and I wanna say it was Templeton, but I couldn't be for sure. But, here in California, spoke to them, the police chief, they love it. We did speak to other departments as well. Similar size and larger cities are using this, and so it's been it's been, out in the field for quite some time and tested and seem like it's working really well. We don't, we don't have a current fire department locally that would that's using this right now. We'd be the only ones, so full disclosure there. However, I have spoken to other fire chiefs in in other cities, that are similar to ours, maybe a little bit bigger, but, they're utilizing it, really well.

The second point I wanted to make and to the the woman that spoke, completely understand, her concern about HIPAA. I I spoke about a little bit ago. The system will not allow us to put patient confidentiality information into it. We're gonna build it that way, so we can't put a patient name into it. No demographic information that's gonna be allowed into it. That's a strict HIPAA violation. We begin we'd be break we were breaking the law. We're not gonna do that right off the bat, and so we've got that in place. And to speak of AI in the health care setting, I can tell you, that, it's very common now in health care systems. She would hate for me to say this, but my wife does this type of work.

My wife is the director of clinical research and medical operations at Regional Medical Center, and I can tell you that, that, AI is very prevalent in the hospitals as of today. This technology is not new to health care, and so it's just starting to make its way to to my line of work in emergency medical services. So we're we're comfortable with this the way that it is, right now. I completely appreciate her perspective on audits. That's a great idea. I think we will take that back with the police chief to make sure that we look at yearly on what's being put into the system to make sure that it's, it's appropriate. But, again, there are safeguards in place that, prevent, anything that goes into it, with, any type of confidentiality. It just doesn't it's not gonna work that way. Thank you. Thank you. What about the council?

Councilmember Hurtado, do have any

Yeah. I I just thank you, to everybody in the audience that, you know, gave their comments, and I just had a question for the city attorney. Is there anything specific that the council can do to have the these, like, guardrails, so to say, in writing in policy, or is it something that is done, like, internally at these at the department level?

You know, that's a good question. One of the challenges we have, we have good news and bad news. The good news is is we have new tools faster than we've ever had before, and they're going very, very quickly. The bad news is is we have new tools that we've never had before, and it's developing very, very quickly. What I found in other jurisdictions is when we try to put guardrails on them, if they become so outdated so quickly, they're either not effective or they actually harm operations.

The other factor that's coming in is the state is changing your laws constantly, both on the state and federal level. So with these changing recommendations, my suggestion is that the council was concerned about that, and that would be to express the concern to your chiefs and to your city managers so that they know up from a policy perspective that this is the expectation. And the annual report, I mean, I've never heard of another jurisdiction doing that. So I think that's a good idea to have the annual circle back. That's one of the safety mechanisms that you're putting in there.

And I apologize for not saying this before, but the police chief and I already have a draft policy on our desks that we need to look that we've been reviewing. So the policy that we have, in place, of course, it's not in place yet, but the draft that we've been researching right now is is very detailed. And and before this is even booked to switch, the policy be put in place.

Other questions?

I have a comment. My comment would be talking about bringing it back. Will this you said it was a three year contract. Correct, chief? Will this be coming back to counsel? That way we can get a review if it's working for the department. And if it's not working for the department, maybe at that time, we could look into other companies or other AIs?

Well, we're as I understand, we're entering into a three year agreement. If it's not working out, I believe there is a clause that we can remove ourselves from. It's an our out clause that's normal, in our in our line of work. We can certainly report back on a yearly basis during staff communications on what our system's doing. We're I'm sure we're happy to do that or or brief the council through a memo, you know, that we've that we've done our audit or whatever the case is. But, again, that's not a that's not a problem at all. We're happy to come back and explain how things are going with any mechanism of our department. Not not someone say hi, but anything.

Okay. Perfect. Thank you.

Mhmm. Alright. In regards to item g eight, do I have a motion to approve? So moved, mister Mayor. We have a motion?

I'll second.

Motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed. Hearing none, that motion carries unanimous. Item g 14.

It concerned him, but he don't care. So anyhoos, what I'd like just a little explanation because I didn't do my homework. I wasn't feeling good today. I've had a headache all damn day, especially now. But just someone please explain what flock safety is and Interwest? Not sure what that is.

Yeah. So flock safety is cameras that were recently approved by the council. They are a way to assist assist police in getting the word out. Like, if we have a child abduction, let's say, and it was a white Chevy pickup, they can just throw that right into the system, and the flock cameras will flag any white pickup and notify agencies, not only our agency, but other agencies throughout the valley that have the flock cameras. So it's just a kinda eye in the sky rapid deployment.

It does not look at people in the vehicles. It uses distinguishing characteristics on the car itself, colors, identities, things of that nature. The reason for, and and I'll ask the chief if he can come up and and do more clarification on that. The reason I put it on the list is one thing we're doing locally to improve safety in town is when new businesses open, we're having them put in a flat camera as part of their project. So they pay the initial $500 for the camera in the first year of service.

After that first year of service, for minimal dollars, I think it's less than a $100, the city adds that camera to our system as we go out. So that's why this is on here just to keep us from having to bring it back to council every time a local person adds a camera and then it expires in a year. CSG, they do they can do inspections for us, code enforcement. They help us out when we're shorthanded or need additional help. They can look at plans.

Same thing as InterWest. InterWest looks at plans. These companies kinda do a lot of things in the same realm. But this way, we can narrow down the scopes for each of those, what they do good. And, I believe it was, Josh Goggins at our last meeting talked about we'd be looking at those contracts to modify them and try to, you know, lower our overall cost by maybe not having things in those contracts we don't need. So we're gonna be looking to tailor those more for how our business runs today. And, that that was it. We'd just be modifying the services to match our needs instead of having too much services on it. Chief, did you wanna say anything else about the flock system? I mean, that was a real generic presentation of it.

Yes. John Reynolds, chief of lease. Just an expansion on that. We did approve the flock camera system along with Axon and other things that were approved by the measure of funds a couple of months ago, I think. Only two, three months ago. It is exactly what city manager Nathan Olson said. Great tool for us, and the way it comes in with our existing preapproved contract funding is when a new business comes in, they pay their one year. We adopt it afterwards. So we already have access to the system that they pay for new businesses pay for. They have no knowledge of the system they defer to us.

We just assume their contract and cost, and it's if we choose to, we have that option at the end.

And city manager, I think there was a question about InterWest as well. Pardon me? InterWest?

Inner West, they do plan checks for us mostly. So when we have projects and all these buildings, then they can look at different fire plan. They can look at Right. Yeah. They just do they do plan checks for us. We don't have enough staff in house to keep up with all the volume coming in.

Any other questions from the public?

Alright. I'm gonna go and bring it

back to council because I do have a question.

Oh, it's Oh.

Oh, Kevin. I didn't see you up there. Alright.

Evan Carter, I have one question. These four contracts came up on the on the agenda. Do other contracts already have this feature where he can adjust them or cancel them without approval? Are these are these contracts unique to this situation?

You read my mind.

That's exactly what I was gonna

ask.

Okay. Good enough. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Oh, yeah. No. I I I agree with mister Carter. I was gonna say the same thing. Why are these on here as opposed we we approve contracts here all the time. Why are these four on here?

And just I wanna make sure the public speaks first before I start chiming in. Is that okay if we finish up any comments? Then I

can Now because it might answer it.

Okay.

I don't want another another person coming up with the same question.

Yes. I hate to give the attorney response, Kevin, but it depends. And it depends on how the contract was approved and what was in the contract. So under the municipal code, the city, manager already has authority to perform and maintain and ensure that the contracts are being implemented by the city council. So some of the contracts will have provisions in there giving the city manager authority to reduce or extend the term or to do these other sorts of things.

So those are already built in. Sometimes the resolutions themselves will have that excuse me, that information in there. However, as the departments have been going through their contracts and maintaining them, they've seen certain contracts where that's not the case. So what will happen then is to the extent that it's not there, this resolution will give them, the city manager, that authority, including the authority to reduce the cost or the services or to extend this authorized. So, basically, what city council does is approves what I call the material terms, like the guardrails.

And they're giving the city manager authority as to these specific contracts because it wasn't in the resolutions or whatever. The authority to say, okay. You can, like, the flock cameras. You don't need as many flock cameras this time. You can reduce. You can't go above the cap that we set for you. As long as you stay within these guardrails, you have authority to do everything. And that it can include, for example, authority to say, hey. These block cameras I hate to pick on you chief with the block cameras because they're great product. But, you know, these block cameras are not working out for us.

We wanna go a different way. The contract approved by the city council has termination provision that allows for that sort of thing. I'm gonna exercise that termination. Now as a as a practical matter, probably seeing the city manager come back before the city council flagging that issue sometimes, sometimes, or even seeking council approval even when he has that authority. Sometimes when he doesn't have the authority, he definitely comes back. So that's a very long way of saying it depends, and it's it's cleanup.

Thank you.

I don't know if I can add to

that. Okay.

You wanna take over me? Yeah. Okay. So there's no other comment was already closed. We'll bring it back to the council. Any other questions?

Never asked that question. Do

you have any comments?

My comment is when, we're talking about checks and balances, city attorney is on there saying that he will check everything to make sure that things are legal and are doing well. And our new attorney has told us many times when we hired him that he works for us and no one else. So he will definitely let us know because the people is what we go for. So it's not a problem for me at all. He may have the final, but you're gonna make sure the final is appropriate and legal. Otherwise, you're gonna come to us and say it's not, and we got it excellent. So I appreciate having that in there.

Thank you. I'm I'm a really big proponent of checks and balances, and your city manager is as well. And there's been times he's contacted me, and I've told him no. And he said, got it. We'll go a different direction. So he's been keeping me in the loop, and I've been trying to keep us all in the straight and narrow. We've been working well to get the council within the parameters you've authorized. So we're big on checks and balances.

Alright. Thank you. In regards to item g 14 with the exception of g fourteen one c, do I have a motion to approve?

I'll make a motion to approve.

I'll second, Mr. Mayor. Motion and second. All those

in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed? All those, one abstention and, four ayes. So that motion passes.

So, mister Mayer, do you want good news or bad news? The the good news is I had called her up during the presentation to do item h one. So h one was done at the beginning of the meeting. My apologies. Unless you wanna hear it again. No. We can go on. Don't be worried. That's okay.

Mister mister mayor, if if I could, Will, because we are now here, if you could, as a city council, formally open up for comment, which

I

think was done, and then formally accept the report, that would be helpful.

Okay. In regards to h one, do we have any, public comment? Seeing none. We'll move it to the council. Do we have any, more further discussion on the, on the report? No? Thank you. That was a that was a nonaction item. Correct? Yes. Okay. So we'll go ahead and move on to the city manager communication.

Hey. Good evening again, mayor and council members. So everybody could see there's a lot of construction on West Avenue. We're in the getting ready to start the last phase of that operation. Start the paving here pretty quick. Concrete works wrapping up. Events coming up Saturday, March 7. We have the Blossom Trail Run. So I believe it's gonna turn out to be another record year for for runners. But there's two mile races, two mile walks, 10 k runs, 10 k not competitive walk.

There's things for kids. The fifth annual pet parade will be taking place as well, and that's in Downtown Sanger. Indian All Animals, I believe, are welcome. Let's see. Then the weekend oh, there'll also be, Zumba going on again for for the women's month. So we're, from council member Otado. She'll be having the Zumbathon going on during that day. And then we have the car show on the fourteenth coming up. Great event. Should be should be well attended. Tiny Tots. Registration's now open. Program starts the week of February 23. It's open from ages three to five. We'll be having different clinics for basketball, tee ball, and football.

Parents can sign up for the whole season or just do weeks at a time depending on how they wanna do that, but each sport is $50 fee. And that's it for today. Thank you.

Great. Thank you. And we item j reports and matters initiated by city council members. This portion of the meeting is reserved for the mayor and council members to make brief reports on boards, committees, and other public agenda, agencies and public events to initiate new matters and to request updates and to initiate new agenda items. Under this section, the council may also take action on any items specifically agendized and which meet other requirements for action. Mayor Proton.

Okay. Let me see here. Hold on one second. I think I lost my notes, but, you know, I'll just go ahead and talk. No.

I'm, first and foremost, I thank everyone for attending tonight's meeting. I know that there was a lot of, emotions being spoken today and and, a lot of, you know, heartfelt words. And, you know, just to say that, of course, we empathize with the victims, and officer Torrance is indeed a monster. And we pray every day for healing for the victims. And it hurts even more when it's when the when the perpetrator is someone in a position of trust, whether it be a police officer, a firefighter, or a teacher, or or someone that, you know, we expect to take care of us and and help us.

So we definitely are gonna ensure that this never happens again, and we will do anything and everything in our power to ensure that it doesn't happen again. And I do wanna say that the victims, who spoke earlier today, I admire their bravery and the courage of the one victim who spoke at the trial and and helped put that man away and and making sure that he'll never see, the light of day ever again for his entire life. Also, there was another question regarding the chamber and how we feel going into the future. You know, I've always felt this, that there is indeed a tremendous value in having the chamber of commerce, for your community. You know, promoting our community, it obviously helps with our economic development, providing assistance to businesses.

So there there is a future, of the Sanger Chamber of Commerce. I wholeheartedly always believe that. I understand they do have a board, and I I've you know, do understand that they do, their due diligence as far as, the operations and the responsibilities of the chamber. So I commend them for volunteering their time, to ensure that the chamber is is operational and functioning, effectively. That being said, I think I'd that's it.

I do wanna mention I'll I'll be amiss to say that, an item agenda item was removed regarding, the dispersion the distribution of funds for this, measure r, but we did have some people in the audience here that were representing some of the, organizations. I see Seth Frea is here, and I'd be a missus. Welcome back. One of my favorite teachers, growing up, mister Simpson, and with young life. So I definitely wanna say hi from the dais, and, the gentleman who signed my high school diploma is also behind him, mister Ratzlaff. So I welcome you guys back, and, hopefully, you guys will be back on the next agenda.

That's all I have.

Thank you. Councilmember Hurtado. Thank

you, mayor. I also want to thank everybody who came out today and, for the victims as well for sharing with us, tonight. I know it's not easy, and it's very, difficult and traumatic thing to go through. But just know that as your elected official, I'm here to serve you and and protect you as well. So make sure to make sure that we're accountable and that we're doing our job here, representing you all.

And I hope that, you know, this is that this is not repeated again. And, with that, I do also want to share a little bit more, and address Kevin Carter. I also, believe, you know, in our chamber of commerce. I know they've been here for a very long time. I've been a a strong supporter and a volunteer at a very young age as well.

So I know the, the time and commitment it takes to to run the chamber of commerce and to make sure that everything goes smoothly. So, just know that, you know, I'm also here to support. I know that we're they're in the transition phase. There's a lot of, things going on, but, you know, I know that things will get better as, new leadership is is coming in. And I just ask everybody for that flexibility and that understanding to be able to let them, you know, recover and and and grow and prosper and help our small businesses here in the city of Sanger.

With that, I do want to, mention that the item that was removed on the, on the city council agenda, regarding the the grants for the nonprofits. I do wanna request that the applications, the ranking scores, the letter of recommendation are attached in the actual staff report. This time around, I didn't see anything, and I wanna make sure that's on there so that the public is able to see. And especially if that when that comes back to the council, I wanna see it attached in the staff report. With that, I don't have anything else to report. Thank you all for attending, and I hope to see you guys here as well next time.

First

and foremost, it is my thoughts and my prayer and always have been when the criminal activity that happened against the victims here in this town by one of our officers. I came from that department, and it hits me hard to know that this happened. And to see that justice was finally being served and he's put away. To me, I'm hard nose when it comes to criminal activity and crime. To me, I would wish that they would throw away the key because there's nothing else you could do.

I am sorry and and hurt for the victims as well. And the hard thing is what can we say as a council or as an individual to make sure that our city attorney is okay with what we say? From a long time, I wanted to say a lot, and it was very difficult. And the reason why it's difficult for me, for this particular officer, is there was an incident, nothing like any that happened in the victims today, but there was an incident in my family regarding this officer before I became a council member. And so it touched a little bit there, but hearing the victims of what they went through and discussed what happened to them was no match of what personally happened to my family.

There's no match. I don't know if I could ever tell them that's gonna go away. It's not gonna go away. No money, no time, no sorrows, no forgiveness, or anything that I will ever say will make it go away. The cries are gonna continue.

The hurts are gonna continue. As far as what we're gonna do with our department, I believe in our department, and I believe they're getting help. And I believe it's a restructure. It's learning experience. And knowing that we will do our best to make sure that this won't ever happen again.

And I think we all said that, and I pray and hope. But I could tell you every day for the victims who we know now and who we don't know that may be coming, I'll always pray that God will be with them and try to give them the comfort that they're most likely seeking. But for the individual, I will never call him an officer. I will always call him a criminal. He will always be a prisoner.

And if they could throw away the key, throw it away. As far as the chamber, I'm black and white when it comes to contracts, so I believe in contracts. I believe in resolutions, and I believe in policies. So when I see things, I will let the city manager know if something goes on. I love the chamber.

I love what they have to offer. I love everybody that helps the chamber because there's tons of people that are not chamber, but they're volunteers for the community. Not for the city of Sanger, but for the citizens of Sanger. That creates what all we see with the chamber in the city. I think you guys seen what I have done when it came to budget time when I questioned the city manager pretty hard.

So it is about contracts. We set the tone of the contracts. We approve contracts, and we give the authority for the city manager to fulfill that the contracts are fulfilled like they're supposed to be, honest with integrity, with the communication that we need to go back and forth. So that's where I stand. I do believe the chamber as a whole does well for our community, But I do have to remember, remind myself that every contract has to be abided by, and we have to make sure the city manager executes that contract for the protection of the city and for the protection of the council.

As far as items, I just want some clarification on. Can I just have a quick report on Almond Avenue? I know that a couple weeks ago, it was put out that it was scheduled for, construction, and I just wanna make sure that the timing is going. I know there's been some talk about it. I think staff knows, city manager knows that I've been very, I shouldn't say disappointed, but frustrated. But I now that it's kinda going, if I could just see where that timeline's going and and what's next, if the city manager okay with that.

Josh, you wanna take that one?

Yeah. Evening, mayor and council. I don't have the schedule hasn't changed in terms of what we were given at the initial start of construction, and I don't have the end date offhand. They did push their start date date back by a week because they had, I think, missed with one of their foremen or whatever, but we we gave them their notice to proceed. So my understanding is they've been out there doing demolition and the project's moving forward.

I don't I can send you what the current, end date is by our notice to proceed. I just don't have it handy. But, yeah, they they started a little slower, but when we tell them go ahead and go and if they have a reason why they can't get started, we still count count their days. So, like I said, I I can get you the current target completion date.

If you just give it to the Centimeters and if you give it to all of us, I just wanna be in the loop since it's in the district and the fact it's took it so long. And, I pretty much go there almost every day because it's close to the school where I work and everything. So

K.

I I do wanna keep an eye on it, and I know a lot of citizens called about it. So that's the reason why I'm asking.

Sure.

K. Thank you. I wanna thank you and the city manager for finally getting Bethel Avenue open from North Avenue. It was very, very long. And thank you for keeping me in the loop regarding some of the issues that arose from that area, and I know it was very long.

I there were some things that were out of our hands, but I'm sure glad this it's nice, to have it open. I went out there when it was getting open and did a a live video on it. It looks great out there by development, and so I'm just looking forward to the projects there going much forward. And, hopefully, we won't have any hiccups like that in other areas of the city. And then number four, I know that we already approved Lennar development in the next step that we're supposed to go to Lavkoye, I believe in. Is that progress still going?

Good evening, council members. Joshua Goggins, the community development director here. So, yeah, so it's currently proceeding forward. The basin piece of that project, we're gonna be bringing it before council February 19. From that point, it's going to be there'll be a second hearing.

And once that second hearing, the following council meeting, I believe that's gonna be March 5. From that point, we will then be submitting it to LAFCO. We're actually, gonna be trying to we are working as fast as we can to get that, completed. So from LAFCO, the expectation will be once it's submitted, between a four to six week, process for LAVCO to approve it. However, in the interim, to prevent on more time being wasted, we're currently working on a county city agreement to try to get work started on it, before the LAFCO annexation process is complete because they tell us six weeks, but sometimes and and, the past when I've had to deal with them, it takes longer than six weeks.

So we're taking proactive measures to get, to get, construction moving on that as soon as possible.

Thank you.

Well, lastly, this past weekend, a couple of us went to a gathering, pretty much meet virtually with our NFL Hall of Fame, Tom Flores. It was an incredible event for Iain Sanger, but it was actually broadcasted all over not just California, United States, and abroad. First and foremost, I wanna thank, Sanger Live for really helping put this together for Sanger, because other places had issues, but I know we didn't have the issue that other places have. It was great to see our hero, you know, speak to us directly from his heart and saying that how proud he was to be a Sanger Apache, how proud he was to see how Sanger is growing and doing from this home. I do ask that you keep coach Flowers and your thoughts and prayers, and there's a reason why this took place virtually.

But just keep them in your thoughts and prayers as he is home and resting and doing well, but just, you know, keeping your thoughts and prayers. With that in mind, there's people that talked about different things and how do we honor him, but there's many things we've already done. But there's something that I would like to see how we could do something special and ask them for the council just for the consensus to look at if staff could look at it and see if it's feasible and go on. Tom Flores Stadium is in District 4, and it's called Tom Flores Stadium. So next to Tom Flores Stadium is our water tower at Greenwood And 9th Street.

And I would love to see something on our water tower that reflects honoring our local hero, Tom Flores, and putting him up there. I'm not sure if you wanna put the Raider symbol, but, yeah, that's the name. And, of course, home of hall of fame, Top floors. So the council is okay to have staff look at it. I would love to have your support.

Good idea. Was good. The worst. You.

Light job? Yes.

Okay. I wanted to comment on Kevin's comment or or task. For the chamber, when it comes to the chamber, all of you know I'm your newest elected official, coming into office was not something that has been easy, and the chamber helped out a lot in the beginning. It exposed me to come out to events, meet a lot of my community members. It showed me how to interact with many of you.

So I do wanna let you guys know that I do show my support because they have been here for our community in what was it? A hundred years? A hundred years is a lot of years, so they must be doing something right. In regards to what is happening, with the officer, I just want I had one of my constituents come up and say that she has children, and I'm not pointing at anybody. But I don't want anybody to feel that it's not okay that we cannot trust our police officers because we can trust our police officers.

Regardless of this happening to us now, we have new leadership, and we are making a lot of changes as a council, as a community. We are growing, and we are gonna continue to make that commitment to you guys to let you guys know that Sanger is gonna be safe. And we are gonna learn from our mistakes, and we are gonna hold anybody that we are gonna give hold accountability to anybody that thinks that they can get away with anything because they're not. If you do something to any of our community members as a community, we are gonna rise together, if that makes sense to you guys. Oh, and then let me change the subject now.

I did get an a good positive update this afternoon about the splash pad because I've been working really hard with staff on that. So can I get an update, please, so every since I have a lot of people here, they can hear about it? So

the splash pad, the design has been submitted. The company, originally was told to have it completed by Memorial Day. I checked with staff today, and we're verifying dates. We don't have a hard date from the contractor yet, but it was implied it would be done before Memorial Day. But I haven't verified that yet.

Okay. And then I believe we also have a new director, or will he be introduced tonight?

Yeah. Thought we did that last time. Maybe not.

Oh, no.

Okay. Yeah. Doug Bolton's our new commune or our new, parks and rec director. He's been on board two weeks now, I believe.

Come on up, Doug.

Mayor council. Yes. Been a whirlwind coming in, and, it's but it's been wonderful as well. There's been some tasks to take on that we've already jumped right in head first on, also with the splash pad as well as the pool and some other opportunities that we're looking for as far as the community center is concerned. There's some grants that I've already started working on, looking into getting with those. So we're moving forward, quickly to try to do what we can to jump in and do the best we can to move forward. So, again, thank you. Day nine. So, hopefully, we'll see what happens in day 10.

So,

but, again, a great event we do have tomorrow. So those who don't know, we're celebrating at the community center a veteran who is turning 99 years old, who's a president of our community center and or of our senior center, excuse me, and we'll be celebrating him with the VFW and the mayor and a few other council members as well. That'll be a great event we're having tomorrow. So thank you very much, and I appreciate, the opportunity.

Thank you, Doug. Welcome aboard. Anything else? That's it. Okay. I just have a couple of quick things. I I remember mister Roach reminded me. When I went to Atlanta, I believe my my comments were that they were going to the Nelio conference in August. And I was like, wow. I don't wanna be in Atlanta in August.

Thought you guys were crazy. But but, anyway, you know what? Also too, there's a ribbon cutting for tasty buns tomorrow morning at nine 9AM. And, also, tomorrow, busy day. And then the birthday 99 year old birthday party. And then there's a an America Legion puts on a event. It's called the four chaplains. It's gonna be at the at 02:00 at the church by Jackson Grace Grace Community. That's it. Yeah.

It's at 02:00. If you guys have not been, please go. I mean, it tell tells a a story of sacrifice of four chaplains after their boat got hit by a torpedo going down, and they sacrificed their life jackets to save four four navy seamen, and they went down with the ship. So it's it's a very touching and moving ceremony. So if you have never been, I suggest to go. And with that said, with there are no other business, this meeting is adjourned at 07:59.