City Council - Regular Meeting

The 03/05/2026 special meeting of the Sanger City Council is called to order at 05:35PM 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, roll call.

Mayor Gonzales? Here. Mayor Pro Tem Martinez? Council member Hurtado? Council member Montelongo? Here. Council member Melendez?

Thank you. Item c, agenda approval.

Mister mayor, if we could remove item e one from the agenda today. Thank you. Okay.

I'll make a motion to approve the agenda minus e one.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed. Hearing none, that motion passes three to zero to being absent. Item d, public forum. There being nobody in the audience, we will move to item e, the closed session to item e two.

Thank you very much, miss Mayor. We have one item this evening. We have item e two, conference with legal anticipated litigation, deciding whether to initiate litigation pursuant to government code section fifty four ninety five six point ninety four. Number of cases, one case. Thank you.

Thank you. For the closed session.

Returning from closed session, city attorney. Thank you, mister mayor. There's no reportable action in closed session. However, I would note for the record that council members Melendez and Martinez arrived at 05:38 and participated fully. Thank you.

Thank you. And there being no further business, this meeting is adjourned at 06:18. The 03/05/2026 regular city, regular meeting of the city and city council is called to order at 06:18PM. Under Brown Act code government 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, opening ceremonies. The, invocation will be done by pastor Guerra. I'll leave the flag salute, then we'll have a roll call. Please stand.

Bow your heads, please. Lord, thank you for each member and leader in our community. We thank you, Lord, and ask you to grant our leaders our leaders' wisdom as they come together to make decisions for our community. Although we as a community will, at times, face challenges, Lord, help us to lean on you for strength. I also ask you, father, to protect and bless our community leaders, our first responders, as well as our community members. Give us all guidance, peace, and unity. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

Ready? I pledge allegiance to the flag of

The United States Of America

Item c, agenda approval, additions, and or deletions.

Mister mayor, did you wanna do roll call?

Roll call. Yes. Roll call. Sorry about that. Leave it.

Mayor Gonzales?

Here.

Mayor Pro Temp Martinez? Here. Council member Hurtado? Council member Montelongo? Here. Council member Melendez? Here.

Thank you. No item c. Agenda approved by additions and or deletions. Do we have a motion? To approve. Do have a motion to approve?

I'll second, mister mayor.

Do have a motion and a second? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed? Hearing none, that motion carries. Item d, ceremonial matters, a woman's history month proclamation.

Thank you. Thank you, mayor. I would like to read today's proclamation in honor of National Women's History Month dating March 2026. Whereas American women of every race, class, and ethnic background have made historic contributions to the growth and strength of our nation in countless recorded and unrecorded ways. And whereas American women have played and continue to play critical economic, cultural, and social roles in every sphere of life of the nation by constituting a significant portion of the labor force both inside and outside of the home.

And whereas American women have provided the majority of the nation's volunteer labor force and have been particularly important in the establishment of the early charitable philanthropic and cultural institutions, and whereas every American woman of every race, class, and ethnic background have served as early leaders at the forefront of major progressive social change movements and whereas American women have served our country courageously in the military and whereas American women have been leaders not only in securing their own rights of suffrage and equal opportunity, but also the emancipation movement, the industrial laborer movement, the civil rights movement, and other movements, especially the peace movement, which have created a more fair and just society for all. And whereas despite these contributions, the role of American woman in history have been con consistently overlooked and undervalued in the literature, teaching, and study of American history. Now there it be resolved that the city, Sanger City Council hereby proclaim the month of March 2026 as National Women's History Month in the city of Sanger and encourages all residents to celebrate the vital role, women in American history, and recognize their ongoing contributions in our community and nation. Thank you.

Thank you, council member Hurtado. We'll go ahead and move on to item e, a presentation of, fix our roads presentation by Diana Gomez.

Good evening, mayor, council members, mayor Pro Tem. So I'm here to present our presentation on fix our roads. It's a citizens' initiative that, in a sense, replaces measure c. So we are what we're proposing is, first, just a little bit of background. So overcoming infrastructure deficits of the nineteen seventies and the eighties, incomplete freeway systems, isolated rural communities, unsafe and congested roads, deficient structures and severe potholes.

And even though we've had Measure C for a while, we still are trying to overcome those deficits. Promises made, promises kept. Dollars 8,000,000,000 was leveraged in local transportation improvements over the last forty years, but we've had a proven track record via the 1986 and 2006 measures, see regional transportation program. Collectively, the measures provided more funding for local roads than highways. The critical mandate to continue local funding is this consistent reliability.

Local jurisdictions require an uninterrupted dedicated funding source. Diverse needs must have a plan reflecting highly varied urban and rural community needs. State shortfalls, as we continue to see with California, continues to face major statewide transportation funding challenges. And the multipliers, local dot dollars are required to leverage matching state and federal project funds. Data driven designs by some of so our group is made up of leading transportation professionals.

Georgina Vivien, president of VRPA Technologies, Henry Perea, a former Fresno County Board of Supervisor, Malcolm Dougherty was the former Caltrans director and Caltrans district six director, myself, a former Caltrans district six director Mike Leonardo, a former Caltrans district six director and FCTA executive director and Tony Boren, the former Fresno COG executive director. The solution is fix our roads initiative. Fix our roads Fresno County is a citizen led initiative extending measure c's legacy. It focuses on delivering residents the number one need, better roads. Key promises: it's a twenty year life span, just like the last two successful measure Cs, providing accurate forecasting of transportation needs the massive input potentially to deliver up to 8x the financial impact to improve our streets and roads.

We have accountability built into it, designed with a rock solid citizens' oversight measure and retention of proven FCTA oversight. And it achieves all of this without increasing taxes. Our 2026 blueprint is focused on Fresno County's number one need, targeted priorities, vast majority focused on delivering better roads. It's limited to a strict twenty year lifespan matching the twice proven Measure C model. It's designed to deliver up to 8x of financial impact for local streets and roads by leveraging matching dollars and is built with the rock solid citizen oversight and accountability measures.

It would be a 3,190,000,000.00 investment in Fresno's future Fresno County's future. And the breakdown is 18% would be transit, and we are looking at a reimagined program. 82% would go to fixed local roads program, 50% to road repair, 16% to improve local transportation, and then 16% for major streets and highways to reduce congestion. We wanna deliver critical upgrades across all communities. When you look at our urban priorities, upgrading Shaw and the 99 Interchange because of safe, con safety congestions, widen Jensen Avenue, improve Herndon Avenue corridor east and west of Blackstone, upgrade urban freeway interchanges and add auxiliary lanes, Blackstone corridor improvements, and also looking at smart corridors.

The rule priorities are improve Academy Avenue and widen Millerton Road for safety purposes, improve and widen Reed Avenue, Manning Avenue, Shaw Avenue, and Academy. Upgrade rural intersections to full interchanges, widen out Dixon Road and McMullen Grade, and enhance West Side connections to Interstate 5. So these are some of the priorities that you would see in the plan. It's an unprecedented connectivity across the county. A comprehensive infrastructure plan covering Clovis, Fresno, and all our rural communities.

We want to highlight some small corridor projects strategically placed on urban freeway systems to increase safety and and prevent congestion on State Route 4199168, And 180. And we have clearly mapped out tier one and tier two projects connecting our entire region, so we do have an entire list of projects. The other thing that we want to look at is transit reimagine, smart, affordable, and mobility. We are allocating over 700,000,000 for transit by protecting the vulnerable, keeping fares affordable for seniors, students, people with disabilities, ensure consistent transit service for students for citizens who rely on it daily, fund consolidation and reimagining studies to create cost effective mobility options, and allowing agencies to leverage local transportation improvements and subprogram funds, but we do have money set aside for transit. And, unfortunately, there is two competing visions for Fresno County, but the difference for between fix our roads and the alternative Fresno County Transportation Improvement Act, it's simple, more for roads, less to waste.

What we are looking at is a twenty year, horizon. We have proven success. Fresno County voters support a twenty year term that made the past measures successful. It's accurate. A twenty year window ensures highly accurate forecasting of actual transportation needs.

It radically reduces the tax burden costing 3.9 compared to a 7,300,000,000, which means in the last ten years, it almost multiplies by two. And polling confirms voters prefer not to extend taxes to future and unborn generations. We want to reduce congestion and improve safety. Fix Our Roads easily allows jurisdictions to expand and manage roadways to ease congestion without enormous restrictions. It invests in major corridors to active actively reduce congestion.

The other plan strictly prohibits jurisdictions from adding lanes unless they are designated solely for bike or bus lanes. It offers negligible funding for major corridors, and it abandons the highway and major road systems to an LA style congestion and increased accidents. This funding guarantees local flexibility. Fix Our Roads allocates the most dollars to the county and each city for road improvements. Higher annual minimum guarantee for local jurisdictions gives Fresno County and its cities a flexibility to adapt road repair and improvement spendings to address their biggest needs.

The other plan allocates fewer dollars to the county and cities for road improvements. It has a lower annual minimum guarantee. The other thing is allocations are hard set by special interests and cannot adapt to residents' unique and challenging changing needs. Fix Our Roads reimagines transit and maintains investments while applying significant increases in accountability for services provided. Recreational trails are eligible to receive local improvement funding.

In the other plan, recreational trails are strictly banned from receiving funding. It overinvests almost 29% of the budget to transit. It demands no accountability for increased ridership or decreased cost per trip. Pixar Road will maintain the current Fresno County Transportation Authority. It preserves a forty year track record of fiscal responsibility and keeping promises to the voters, and it also leverages up to 3,000,000,000 or more in matching funds otherwise lost to Fresno County.

The other plan completely eliminates FCTA and its forty year legacy of successful oversight, and it virtually eliminates the potential for matching funds. And matching funds are critical so we can leverage state dollars and other federal dollars. The risk of an alternative thirty year gamble. It abandons our highways and major corridors providing negligible funding with significant restrictions. It enacts a 45% increase in transit funding with zero accountability for adding riders or reducing costs.

It allocates over $1,000,000,000 in transit funding without a single project identified yet. It nearly eliminates the ability to secure state and federal matching funds and restricts local agencies. And the biggest one, it eliminates FCTA's proven forty year track record of public success. So our next steps are we will be collecting signatures, continue public outreach, and getting, getting this on the ballot. We do have a a website.

And if you want to, take a picture of the QR code, you can see a lot more about, our plan and request a petition or, again, to review the complete plan. We also provided to the members, to the mayor and the council members an actual breakdown by city, by county of what each one would be entitled to, based on our plan versus the thirty year the thirty year plan on twenty years. It also breaks down the percentages for fixed local roads and transit as well. So with that, I'll end my presentation. And if you have any questions, I'm more than happy to answer.

Great. Thank you, Dan. Real quick. If if FCTA is not gonna be the oversight, who's gonna do it in their plan?

I believe they are talking about having Fresno COG, do the the oversight. Oh, okay.

And, when when you talk about the the the all that money going to transit, that's just the bus systems for, like, Fresno and Clovis. Correct?

That is correct. I they're the ones that have, most of the transit dollars would be going to the new cities.

Because I know we don't have a bus. But, and this is on this will be on the November ballot. Correct?

That's correct.

Okay.

That is our goal. Okay. And and even though there is the two ballot measures, our goal is to, you know, continue to work with them to see if we can come to an agreement to have one on the the ballot. I mean, we are still open to sitting with them, working with them. We have tried, and so but so we are moving forward.

Okay. Thank thank you. Yeah. Pro Tem, do you have any

comments, concerns? No, miss Gomez. First, thanks for, coming to our meeting tonight. I I know you're doing this basically on your own time, and and I appreciate you volunteering your expertise as well. You know, one of my favorite slides on here was showing who's, you know, putting this together, and there's a lot of Caltrans directors putting this together.

And I know the competing, measure doesn't have that expertise. Sangars most certainly has benefited from measure c. I mean, all you have to do is simply drive on one eighty, And the, you know, the accessibility to get to Fresno for, you know, to go to Fresno State, medical appointments, things like that is dramatically different than even when I was going to Fresno State. So, it certainly has been a great thing for our community. But, you know, conversely, you're almost a victim of your own success because I've heard the argument on the other ballot.

Well, the freeways look fine. They look great. We don't need money for freeways anymore. And it's like, well, the reason why they are great is because we invested all this money into them, and we're gonna continue to invest them on this measure, to make sure that the freeways stay that way. So, I think you're doing a a phenomenal job. I I wish you the best of luck. I've studied this. I've attended a a COG meeting, in the past, and I've heard the competing measure. And and I've researched this measure, and this one clearly, benefits the community of Sanger hands down, than the community measures. So please, continue the good work, and appreciate you coming here.

Thank you.

Councilmember Hurtado?

Thank you for the presentation. Just I

had a

real quick question about the citizens, oversight committee. Who gets to appoint those members, or who's in charge?

Well, we don't have a citizens oversight committee because everything would be handled under the FCTA. We don't have a oversight, committee like the way they did it on the on the, Fresno COG process.

Okay.

Yeah. Once the measure passes, it re all the money would be reverted to the FCTA. And so FCTA is made up of elected officials from within the Fresno County, and so it would go through that process. So if it passes, then we remove ourselves from the process, and it goes over to FCTA.

Thank you.

Councilmember Montalongo? Great presentation. In 02/2006, I was actually on the steering committee representing Eastside Cities. And one of the things that we really, focused on is the one eighty, not just the inside of the city, but also one eighty and receiving that money. And it was a very challenging time to to to fight for one eighty. You know? They way they wanted to leave it and so on and how to get the buy in from Fresno into Clovis. And Harry Armstrong, for example, who was a big component of one sixty eight and bringing in the Sanger and saying, you got, we want. You got the one sixty eight, we want the one eighty. The 180 was promised to come to Sanger not as an expressway, which it is now, is to fully see it as a freeway.

And we have the, the data, and I know with Caltransfer the data of how much cars are going through there each and every morning, afternoon, and evening, which is a proven factor that it should be now a free weight company in the Sanger and beyond. It's supposed to go to Cove. So the other ones, if they get their way, we're done with one eighty, which is not even finished yet Right. To my knowledge. And and that's that's disappointing for these side cities, and I'm pretty sure for the West Side as well.

So this is humbling and nice to see what you have here, and I hope that we get this going. I know it's gonna be about because of Fresno. The mayor is right that they want more of the transit, and it'll be the citizens of Sanger and the county of Fresno that's gonna pay for the transit, including Fresno. But I know several Fresno council members are in agreement with this one, which is a good thing. And so I just we gotta move on and work look for success and get this approved and and get it going because it's it's a win for everybody. It's a win for inside the city of Sanger getting more money. It's a win from $1.80, which to me is a big one for Sanger when it comes to economics. So I appreciate your time here. Thank you.

Well, thank you.

Thank you. Councilmember Mlanders, do have anything?

I just wanna say thank you for coming out here and presenting this. Options are always good, and we have a full house. So I'm pretty sure we all got it good, and hopefully it passes and gets put on the ballot.

Sounds good. Thank you very much.

And and you know what? I thought this this was really, really super important because measure c pays for a lot of our roads, guys. And, you know, I thought it was important to have Diana come here. And then, also, the competing measure will also be here. So next next meeting, when you guys come and listen to them both so you can be well informed when you guys go and vote. Okay? Thank you.

Alright. Thank you. Thank you.

We're ready to move on. Public forum. This portion of the meeting is reserved for members of the public who wish to assess the or address the council on any matter not listed on the agenda and within the subject matter jurisdiction of the council. Each speaker is limited to three minutes. Speakers 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 action on items not on the agenda. Is there any public comment? Please come to the podium.

Good evening, counsel. My name is Moses Hernandez, longtime resident. I wanted to address, the comments that the city attorney made last last city council meeting, when he spoke on behalf of your body and addressing the concerns over the police department or the bad actions of certain officers. And, I think I think we have a great city attorney. I think he's, professional.

I think he, well spoken. I think he he likes he does a good he likes his job, and I think he wants to do a good job. The thing is that he he doesn't know Sanger. And people that have been here in Sanger for a long time, they remember, when Measure s got introduced into the city. And it was primarily focused around the the gang the gang epidemic or the gang phenomenon that was ensangered.

It was I mean, people people that lived here long enough, they know the chancla. They know the certain neighborhoods, the little sex. Anyway, the Measure s got introduced as a way to, you know, what can we provide as a city to combat that? And, initially, as I remember, it was to, you know, foster nonprofits, foster, programs, youth programs.

Mister Mayor, I'm sorry. It's on the agenda for h two.

It's, I'm not I'm not I'm not talking about the that that measure as I'm talking about the comments he made, the last city council meeting where he, you know, he kinda met mentioned that, you know, you guys are now free of thought. You guys have taken everything. You you guys are putting the safe measures that no repeat action will happen, like like what had happened with, officer, Torrance. And now we have another thing that happened in the police department. It's been on the news.

So I wanna say, you you know, you you you I'm saying that the the the root cause of what's going on with our police department is actually the measure s And now how we've act I voted against the not having a sunset on it because I just think that's really bad. Like, you're gonna have a tax that is never gonna end. You know? And that that having that slush money, that extra funds, why don't we have a budget that actually meets all the needs of our law enforcement, of our safety? You know, we have to have another separate fund, a a separate tax.

So I I just wanted to just bring that up to your attention. I think, you spoke really well, and I think you have a you you care about your job. You care about the city of Singer. But if you wanna really look into it, it's actually that measure s that we passed. That's the problem.

Thank you. I just wanna just remind everybody, speakers 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.

Well, I also wanna address the video as well what he's talking about to Shannon. How dare you give credit to chief Reynolds and Sanger PD? The only people that deserve any credit is us victims that stood on that courtroom stand, Brenton Wallace, Mike Songern, and Karen Escobar, also to the FSL detective that interviewed me. Not Reynolds, not Sanger PD. Since 2016, there has been complaints to Ballast about Torrance. Did Ballast do anything? No. All he said was we don't file complaints. Also in 2018, Ballast said nothing again when yet another victim came forward about Torrance. He's just as guilty.

He allowed this to continue for years. When they had a chance to stop this sexual predator, they did nothing. And because of their incompetence, they ended up bringing more victims. And now there is a yet another sexual predator still working there, officer Johnson. What are y'all doing about that? And how dare you sit there and lie and tell the people of Sanger that Sanger PD and Reynolds played a big part of putting away torrents? During sentencing, we didn't want them there or need them there in the courtroom. We didn't need the ridiculous impact statement. Reynolds didn't even come to speak to those victims when court was over. They ran off and couldn't even face us.

Not a sorry. Nothing. They only showed up to make themselves look good. We will not be silent. This isn't over, and we demand change.

Good evening, panel. My name is Selena Ruelas. I am one of Torrance's victims. I want to address Shannon and the panel and the chief, everyone, as a group, as a whole. It's very shameful, the credit that everyone has taken for what Torrance has done I mean, for for us as the victims, what we have done.

It took a lot for us to go up there, stand trial every single day, face him every single day. Our kids seen us go up there having to do everything that we did. And to this day, we're still dealing with it. We're still dealing with it by what's going on in the department. There's no change because the root is still there. The root is still there. And until we can get that out, until we can fix the problem, that's when we'll see change. That's what we're asking for. That's all we want. We wanna move forward but in a healthy way.

It was very difficult, very, very difficult to face him. It was very difficult to come home. And my kids asked me, mom, why are you crying? And for the chief to go to sentencing and say that the department has been victimized. That is not true.

I don't know how they fell victim to Torrence's actions when they covered it up for so long. If it wasn't covered up, a lot of women a lot of women could have been saved. A lot. The pain that we go through, it it's it's a lot. I wanna live in a town where we're gonna be safe, we're gonna be protective, and our words are gonna be valued, and we're gonna be heard.

Because after all, we we aren't we one? I just ask that you guys really, really look in-depth into the problem. Because as long as that problem is still there, we're not gonna see no change. And I will tell you, us as victims will not stop fighting until we see something because we know more than you guys think. And we're gonna keep going, and we're gonna keep going. And we're gonna stand strong, and we're gonna stand firm together. Thank you guys for your time. Okay?

Thank you.

Well, we all got to listen to the pitch for major c. It does a lot of great things. And I'm not complaining about what it does. I'm complaining about what it doesn't do. If anybody has had to drive on Bethel Avenue between Woods and 180 heading north, that road is torn up. And all it does is get a patch after every rain. And when it's raining, half the road is underwater. That's a safety issue. That's hydroplaning. So as far as I'm concerned, they have between now and November.

If they want my vote, they better fix that damn road for a change. My understanding is our supervisor had one of his staff members go out and ride on it, and they still haven't done anything about it. So if if you know, it's a safety issue.

Thank you.

Good evening. Just a concerned citizen listening to these women speak brings to mind that, we do have another problem with another officer. You guys know who it is. Accused of sexual misconduct. Not really exactly what was all involved in that.

But if you know of that, last meeting, I brought up the fact that he's getting TDY money to go places. So that tells me that he's still working. Even though these are allegations, you're taking the chance that this guy isn't really doing bad, and you're sending him out to other communities? He's already by by looking at those checks that I asked about that is supposed to be going even in this month in March, nothing's been done to him. You even sent him to a I believe you even sent him to some kind of course for whatever.

I don't know why. But that tells me again, doesn't sound like you are too interested in what's going on. And speaking of the last meeting, I believe our our city attorney was was wrong when he said that people were coming up and saying, you know, we wanted more than three minutes, which we don't have it here in Sanger right now. But you did the city's attorney did say that other cities only have one to three minutes. That's both.

There's other cities that have up to five. There's even some that even has thirty seconds, which we don't want that. So you were must you shouldn't be saying stuff like that if you're gonna be speaking out aloud like that to us. Well, we're we're getting a we're trying to we're trying to trust you people, but when you get stuff like that, it's hard to trust you people. And then as far as the donating time, we don't have it, but it it's done.

It is done. Santa Barbara does it. So just be careful with your comments that you made. You know, the other thing that really got me on him was that back in was it August or something like that when our our city manager hired his son, his company, to to do our auditing, and I said it was conflict of interest. So the question was presented to our city attorney, is there a problem with that? And you look straight at the city manager, and you said, no. A week later, you get the job that you're sitting in right now. But we have to be careful with what we say and how we present ourselves because people do notice that. You're all looking like, no. I'm full of it. Uh-uh. It happened.

Any other public comment? Seeing no other public comment, public comment is closed. We'll move to the consent calendar. Matters listed 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 the audience or council member may request an item be removed for the consent calendar, and we will consider it separately. Counselors, any items you guys wish to pull? No. And the audience, is there any items you wish to pull? Number two.

Anything else? Okay. In regards to that consent calendar, do I have a motion to approve, all the items except for item g two?

So moved, mister mayor.

I'll second.

We have a motion and a second. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed? Hearing none, that motion carries unanimous. Item g two.

Public works director Esperanza, would you like to come up? And then is there anything specific you have questions on item g two?

Couldn't speak in the first.

My name's Kevin Carter. Sometimes I'm really surprised not so much about what I hear at the council meeting, but what I don't hear. And this comes up. I think it's every month. Might be every meeting to to move this this thing forward for emergency repairs. And I have nothing against fixing the sewer farm. It needs to be done. There's no doubt. But never has the amount of money that we're spending been discussed that I remember. And tonight, read the thing.

There's nothing about how much money we've spent. I've got a copy of this year's budget. We started out the year with a little over $5,000,000 with a beginning fund balance. We're gonna end up well, during the year, we're gonna we're gonna take in, 6,000,000. We're gonna spend 8,000,000. So we're already going over 2,000,000 in the whole deficit spending. So at the end of the year, we're gonna end up with a $3,000,000 carryover going into next year. So my question is we need to discuss what money we've spent so far. I have no idea. Have we 2,000,000, if we spent 10,000,000, I don't know.

But I think the discussion needs to be had. It's how much we've spent, how many dollars we we anticipate spending to get this project done. And I know we can't get an exact figure. We can come close. We got a good idea so we can make some plans on how we're gonna pay for it if we're gonna spend more than the $3,000,000 carryover we have. Don't wait till we get all done and say, oops. We spent $5,000,000 more than we have. What are we gonna do now? Let's be prepared, guys. Thank you.

Simander.

So I believe we're somewhere with I think we're gonna be around 4,000,000 when we complete and should be done here pretty quick. The issue with that is the plant was not maintained for many, many years, and we lost our ability to bond or anything. So to get the plant up to operating specs, we had to rebuild it. So but my understanding, the the fund balance still covered it. Do you have anything you wanna add to this, Esperanza?

So like I said, we should be finalizing this, and then we will start phase two, which will be the compliance piece to get with the state. So we just have our our standards for wastewater discharge have been updated. We're working with the state, and I think we have three years to get compliant once we get the plant rebuilt. So there might be some more work coming up, but that will not be done under the emergency. It'll go out to a a public bid to what we need to do for that. So that's what the that's what the apartment's working on currently.

Well, the the is the reason why it keeps the period on here, is that something that we have to continue?

The law requires under emergency order that it has to keep coming back.

Okay.

So we're just we keep bringing the same thing back, every two weeks to be compliant with the law.

Thank you. Question? Go ahead.

Miss Rosales, I was it the last meeting, the meeting before that you did the presentation? The last meeting. Right? And it was a very intense of what we're spending and what we're doing. It gave a really good vision versus what we have on here. And I don't know if other people saw it, but it might be good that the council gets it again, you know, because I know a couple of us weren't here. And if we could put it on our city website, then they could see. It it gives a much more detail than what this is, and you did a fantastic presentation with it. So I appreciate that. Thank you, mister mayor.

You bet. Is there any other public comment in regards to item g two? Seeing none, public comment is closed. Bring it back to the council. Do have a motion to approve? Or you have any questions? Any further questions? I'm sorry. Craig, it was good.

I'll make a motion to approve. We got

a motion to approve item g two.

I'll make the motion. We have a

motion and a second. All in favor, say signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed? Hearing none, that motion carries unanimous. Item h one.

Designing that item will be doc the the doc, the director of economic development.

Good evening, mayor, members of the city council. Doctor Goggins, the community development director here at the city of Sanger. Before you tonight is a request to authorize the city manager to execute a limited development agreement between the city of Sanger and the county of Fresno. This agreement specifically concerns tentative track map number 6493. As you are, all aware, the city council, through the various GPAs, rezonings, we're in the process of completing the primary approvals for this project.

And while the local entitlements are set, the formal annexation process with LAFCO is current is in the current stages of recordation. This agreement would serve as a necessary bridge to allow the project to maintain its momentum while the annexation paperwork is being processed. Just a little bit of backstory to the purpose for this agreement. Under the Fresno County ordinance code, a developer cannot obtain permits to begin work on land that is in the process of annexation. This often creates, kind of a dead zone, that ranges anywhere from six to eight weeks, can be sometimes three to four months.

Where a project sits idle, despite having all the city approvals, it hasn't been fully annexed yet. So there's this kind of in between stage. By entering into this agreement, we would allow the developer to begin limited work, specifically grading and installation of on-site and off-site infrastructure at their own risk. That's very, very important. It's in with that, with their own risk, I'd like to highlight three key protections, within this agreement.

First, the developer assumes all financial risk. If the annexation were to fail for any reason, they are legally required to return the land to its original state. Secondly, all construction must meet City Of Sanger standards, not county standards. This ensures that the infrastructure we will eventually inherit is built to our specific requirements. Finally, our city building official will have full authority to inspect the work, ensuring total compliance with our ordinances even while the land is still technically under the county jurisdiction.

Ultimately, this is a proactive step to facilitate this project. It demonstrates that the city of Sanger is committed to removing unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles and supporting the local housing supply. If this, is not approved, and it's not authorized, the the developer will be forced to wait months for the LAFCO process to be completed, which will eventually delay homes new homes being delivered to our residents. Myself and staff, we've we've looked over this agreement. We find no downside to it as it protects our long term infrastructure standards while keeping this project on schedule.

Therefore, staff recommends that the city council authorize the city manager to execute this agreement. I'm available for any questions. Thank you.

Great. Thank you. Is there any, questions from the council? Mayor Pro Tem? No. Don't. Council member Hurtado?

I don't have any right now.

Council member Hurtado, do you But we'll go to the public. Is there any public comment on on this item each one?

Okay. Yeah. He was speaking of this project that he wants done. I'd like to know exactly where is that location and how much territory is it. I don't don't know what that is, and I feel his frustration. It's gonna take months and months to get it done. Can you imagine me waiting five years to get the crossing done at a cat on Almond and and Bethel? So I feel you, dude. But I just like to know what what the diameter how much how much property are we talking about?

Doug?

Certainly. So this is, this total project is gonna be, eight, 89 total acres with 530 total, single family dwelling units. It is, gonna be another item tonight, the Chiljin Basin. So over on the South kinda Southeast Sanger, the Bethel North area. Currently, it's just ag land that we're gonna be annexing into the city. So we're gonna have a single family home development coupled with a stormwater basin that's gonna support in total about 450 acres infrastructure in that surrounding territory. And how many

how many homes is that again?

So for this project, 530 total single family dwelling units.

Okay. Awesome. Well, thank you. Is there any other public comment? Seeing all the public comment, we'll bring it back to the council for item h one. Does anybody have any additional comments? Doctor Doctor. Gobbins, is

it gonna be I noticed that the track map says phase one and phase two. This agreement allows them to begin grading the whole thing, or are they just gonna start on phase one?

So they're gonna start, how they have it set right now is they're gonna take dirt, from the south side where the basin is, and they're gonna move it over into phase one. The aim, generally speaking, Lavko will take around six to eight weeks. This was just more of a proactive effort to try to keep, from them just kind of waiting. So, but like I said, it's gonna be, primarily for phase one, and, it's it's just, this is something that, we didn't want them to have to wait any longer. So it's a little bit different.

But like I said, the the main thing is that it doesn't put, the city at risk, for any any such reason if annexation were not to go through. And it kind of, insulates us, but then also, allows the allows the developer to do limited grading work and kind of let let some of the kind of foundations kinda get started for this project.

Okay. So the basin and phase one. Mhmm. And probably not phase two. Because phase one is like I mean, this is a big project. I mean, good lyric goes from north to Annadale.

It is.

There are there's been a lot of, work, to try to, that that's the other thing is that there's so many moving pieces with this. There's so many, you know, parties involved in kind of getting this thing started, and they're all ready to go. They're all really excited to, to get this thing going. And so part of kind of the aim was to, how can we keep from the dead zone kind of happening.

So no. That's fine. I'm glad they're excited to to begin, so I appreciate it. Thank you.

Any other comment?

No.

So it is in my district, and I've been trying to follow, what Lennar's doing and so forth. I think this is a good thing as long as we have safety components for us. I don't wanna overdo something where then we're gonna get caught up, or we, the city, is gonna be liable. So I appreciate you saying that to us and to the public, but I would recommend that we really have a staff member keep on it and make sure they're abiding by the contract and what the contract entails. And we do we can to get Lavko as soon as possible.

But you're you are right. It's, you know, probably six to eight weeks. And then but this is this particular one's exciting. It's a it's a huge project. And I was gonna ask the same question, like, which what's gonna be phase one and phase two or part of the, when you talk about the basin, does that mean they're gonna build that temporary basin? Because, of course, we're talking about the new one that's gonna be talking about today.

Certainly. So they, they have their their aim is to take some of the dirt and kind of lay the for the grading aspect of

it

itself. The I I think with them, what what the biggest problem was that they have, a road that they wanna take some dirt from one parcel and move it on to another. And the ability to do that, they couldn't even lay any of the groundwork until either LAVCO annexes it or we're able to find some way to kinda bridge that gap. But, yeah, the the their aim is to have that that south side parcel where the, Post Children Basin is, to move that onto the North Side to start to get that,

Thank you, Mary. Do you remember who Lender is?

No. I don't have any questions. Thank you.

In regards to item h one, do I have a motion?

I'll make a motion to approve. I'll second, Mr. Mayor.

We have a motion and a second. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed? Hearing none, that motion carries unanimous. Item h two.

Hey, mayor and council members. So item h two is the award of the, public safety sales tax monies. The COC commission met for the February meeting, and the ARC had recommended at that meeting that they select set set free church for 31,000, Young Life for 33,000, and Boys and Girls Club for 36,000. The ARC, the review committee, was comprised of two members of the COC and both the police and fire chief. During public comment in that meeting, there was a lot of discussion.

So at that time, the COC decided to continue that item, so they could go back and and take a look at the they wanted to go back and have another look at it. So after consulting with with legal and stuff, I had sent out, the chair Al Alfara, kinda some direction to make sure we were still being compliant with the Brown Act. And, so we discussed that at Tuesday night was the, the COC meeting. We had a conversation at that night. And, basically, to keep in spirit and comp and comply with the Brown Act, we had several options they could do.

The first option would be to request the, ARC reassess its recommendation in light of additional information, if any, received as a result of public comment and continue the meeting. Number two, they could reject the ARC recommendation in whole or in part and provide a substitute recommendation to the city council. Three, provide an additional assessment through an ad hoc committee. Four, make no recommendation. Or five, adopt the ARC recommendation.

As they were going through and discussing the options, several members posed that they were gonna stick with the ARC recommendation. So at that point, I instructed them that I needed a, a motion, and then we had, individuals wanna bring back public comment. And according to the memo that we had sent out, if they chose option five, and I read this during the meeting that if the alternative in the alternative, the city oversight committee can simply adopt the ARC recommendation. The public hearing does not need to be reopened as the member or as the matter was continued from a prior meeting where the public already had the opportunity to provide comments. So we did not open public comment.

We went to vote, and it passed, four one. I believe it was a a four one vote to accept the recommendation. So that's what we're here tonight to see if council wants to accept and do that. But it would be, again, $31,000 for Set Free Sanger, $33,000 for Young Life, and $36,000 for the Boys and Girls Club. Thank you.

Thank you. Mayor Proterran. I'm not I don't have any questions at this time. Councilmember Hurtado?

Yes. Thank you, mayor. I just wanna make sure that my I'm portraying my concerns now and letting the community know where I stand, and that is with our nonprofits. That is with our, drug and gang prevention, nonprofits that are helping the community, that are helping our youth be engaged in all areas, whether that be sports, counseling, education, math, science, art, music. Every, every single one of those things makes makes kids, you know, turn away from drugs and and, and gangs because, you know, it gives them that opportunity to explore a new skill or a diff something different that they haven't been exposed to.

Having more variety in our community is beneficial for our students. It's beneficial for our families. And, to me, I think this process was not fair. I think the ranking is not sufficient. I definitely want more clarity and more answers to why, certain organizations are not meeting, you know, prevention intervention.

And I also believe that, you know, they have been, you know, taken away the opportunity to express, you know, what their programs do and how that actually know, how their program is set up and how it addresses prevention, intervention. All of that all of those things, to me, I think that Set Free Church, Sam's Academy, Boys and Girls Club, and Young Life should all be awarded evenly. I'm just gonna say that. I'm gonna open it up to public comment. Thank you.

Councilmember not too long ago. No. Councilmember Melendez? No. Okay. Okay. We'll, open up for a public comment on item h two to anybody who should speak.

Again, Jorge Hernandez. I'm gonna be, reading some comments from, director, Jerry Valadez. It's regarding the COC meeting on March 3. Most of us were totally blindsided. City manager came prepared with, handouts, a lawyer on Zoom, and, basically shut down any possible conversation and more concerns that we were bringing up to the COC.

But it seems like the manager had already done his work beforehand. So we wanna just clear clearly point out that that was a violation of the Brown Act. That meeting on Fairbury, nobody we were all with the understanding that this was to be, dealt with at the next meeting. Not that it was a continuation to be continued. It was, when that meeting, was done, the minutes were noted, and we were to move on to the next meeting.

That same meeting, this manager actively worked to change that that committee's, mind. We presented our case. We presented our concerns, and and three of our c o the COC members agreed to give us something, and we were gonna be okay with that. But it seems really clear, like, this manager is really working not against us, but he's working for others. You know?

And and we just wanna really point that out. It's not really that fair. Just on the stuff on the on the rubric itself, these were some on our agenda, the agenda that you guys have that you guys can, pull up on your phone or or you guys have a copy. You know, we we like to ask why only page two of the scoring rubric rubric was included in tonight's council packet. Without page one, the full scoring system and criteria are not visible, which makes it difficult to fully understand how the applications were evaluated.

Eligibility requirements, the application itself, background on the on the background instructions, one of the, preliminary, requirements, the baseline that you had to meet was first that the program would was served, primarily Sanger residents, that the efforts have been made the efforts have been made to seek funding from sources other than the city, so you the city can't be the sole funder, and that funding or nonfunding partnerships have been established. So on the application, the ones we were able to review, we just wanna point out and it's not to not to talk bad about any of the organizations. We just stuff that we, kinda found out when we were going through the application. So, one, SEFRI did not answer the question regarding how many youth would be served. Young Life listed unknown when asked what percentage of their operations would be funded by this grant.

Seeing, like, how our application met at least the baseline requirements, we were kinda surprised that, know, we were awarded nothing. So that's it. That's all I gotta say. Thank you.

Thank you.

My name is Elizabeth, Barrera. So another important part of the proposed process is the submission of financial documentation. After the COC meeting, mister Olson asked to speak with our director. In conversation, our director mentioned that baptisms baptisms and, evangelizing not allowed were taking place through Set Free. And, city manager Olson responded that Set Free's financials were all messed up.

And so how were we to prove, what money they were using? This raises an important concern. How can additional public funds be approved for an organization whose financial records cannot clearly be verified? For example, when you do a search for our, organization online, our financials pop up right away. So do the others.

But it appears that, you know, when we're search when I searched for because I searched for everybody. So it was when I searched for set free, nothing appears. There's, the only result that populates is set free inc in Buffalo, which reports just over 111,000 in revenue, an amount that clearly cannot represent all of Set Free in the country. The same issue arises when searching for a tax ID or EIN for Set Free Church in Sanger, which churches are automatically considered tax exempt and are not required to apply for a five zero one c three status. The IRS the IRA IRS states the organization typically still needs an EIN for banking reporting and receiving funds.

However, no verified EIN for SEPFRI appears in publicly available records. For this reason, I do respectfully ask the city council to carefully review the eligibility requirements, the missing information and applications, and the lack of verified financial documentations before approving the recommendations. I also wanna mention that prevention starts at a really young age. The, activities that I've seen, the other, the other organizations, they're high school. By high school, we're already too late, guys. So we need to start young. STEM Academy, we have from three years old, we have two adults. So we catch them at the very beginning. You know, they develop essentials life skills. They gain a sense of belonging and self worth.

Our mentors, we have UC Davis. We have doctorates. We have a two Grammy Award winner. I mean, what kind of mentors do you guys want? So we understand that not every organization will receive funding, and we accept that outcome. We do. What we are asking for is a process be fair and apply equally to everybody because, ultimately, this is just a matter of principle.

That's it.

Thank you. Thank you.

Hi. I'm Ashley Gibson with Set Free Sanger. I am the new appointed youth director for there, and I just wanna give you a little update. In the last two weeks, we've actually had two I'm also a school teacher, teacher, so I have connections with principals. I've had two principals reach out to us, and I've had two students that have OD'd. So and they are calling us for the help that help and to get help in their schools. We're actually going into the attenuation schools to meet with them to help make awareness of antidrug and prevention. Now with the finances, I'm not the best one on that, but I do know things are changing and set free is growing, and they and I take full accountability that I'll make sure it's done correctly.

Thank you.

Okay. Hey. I agree with what that lady was talking about is that prevention should start at at the elementary schools, not, like she said, in high school or even beyond because bad decisions are have been made already. That's why some of these people went away. Why do we wanna wait for our kids to get to that point before we even consider helping them out? Sam's Club is a different branch. It's a different animal than two of the ones that are winning. Two of them are are are faith based. Sam's Club has is has the music. It's got the arts.

It's got the science. It's got something else that other kids might wanna reach out to. They probably wouldn't fit in with the groups at at at the other two locations. They people like them with different ideas, different values, or whatever, they need something too, and Sam's Church provides that. It's something that the other ones don't. So you're actually, what you're saying is that you're gonna wait for the kids to turn bad, and then we'll help them. This is preventive. This is gang prevention. This is drug prevention. They would have known when you get them young, it sticks with them.

So I see some of this this chart here, which you based your points on. I see some x's, and it says prevention, nothing for Sam's Club or nothing for Sam's Academy and intervention. And prevention is stop something from happening. Well, they do that by having the kids go music, whatever they're doing instead of being on the road. You stop them already from being out to the gangs. Intervention is when they mess up, I guess. And, well, how are you gonna handle that? What are you gonna do to minimize that happening? Well, I'm sure that Sam's Club has something in there that says if you mess up a lot here, we can't have you. I don't know, but it's there.

So I don't know why you give them nothing. They do something. And if you go down the list here, which I'm running out of time, I can make an argument on all of it. It's it's crazy what you guys are are are saying that they don't deserve anything. Ensuring the program effectively prevents gang involvement and makes lasting changes through interventions by having the kids there is why that sentence should apply to them. Yet you give them one point. It's a lot of that that goes on this list here. But I wish you guys would reconsider that and just just be I don't know, man. I don't know what what's with Sam's. Why why are you so against that?

I mean, they're young kids. Let's stop it at the ground level, not wait till it's over. I mean, that's what you're you're you're giving money for that, actually, is what you're doing. Set Free Church basically has the majority of them have been in trouble already. I bet you if you ask set set free individuals, if they had a chance to do something like like Sam's code, they would do that before they made those bad mistakes.

Evan Carter. I attended the MeasureR meeting the other night, and sometimes I feel like it gets lost that this is our town. Sitting through the meeting, Apparently, this item was tabled from the previous meeting. It was tabled. And it seemed to be decided that the public spoke well, it did.

The public did speak at the previous meeting. Seems like it's already decided that the public was not gonna be allowed to speak at this meeting. First, I feel as our town, we should have the right to come down and speak as long as we're polite and we don't use bad language or do anything unruly. So my question is, apparently, public input was not required at this time, but was it allowed? Could have it been allowed at the meeting? And if it could have been allowed, who makes this decision? Is it the the committee chair? Does the committee vote to see if we're gonna allow public comment, or does city staff make this this judgment? Thank you.

Is there any other public comment? Seeing none, public comment is closed. City attorney, can you kind of address that, the tabling and then the public not being able to speak? Because, obviously, we don't go to these meetings, so we're out out of the, COC.

Thank you, mayor. Yeah. So let's talk about the tabling or the continuation item. Sometimes those words are used interchangeably. Technically, tabling does not mean that the item is shut down, never to be picked up again. It basically means, hey. We need more time. We need more information. Let's just put this on the table again until we put it back up on the agenda. And when it comes back on the agenda, we'll we'll continue our conversation as we had from the last time.

So in this particular case, my understanding wasn't there, but my and I don't wanna be accused of lying, but I wasn't there, but my understanding was public comment was open. Everybody from the public had an opportunity to speak. The COC re, requested the item be tabled or continued. It was then renoticed on the agenda so everybody was aware of what it was going on, and then the item came up and they finished their deliberations and then took action. I will also point out too that there's another opportunity for them to be heard.

So and that's tonight. So if anybody has an operate wants to be heard, they can certainly be heard tonight. So, I'm fully supportive of public comment, but I'm also fully supportive of the people's business going forward. So then the the next question was, mister Carter, thank you. Always come up with interesting questions. And he put his finger, I think, on a very key point. Well, if we don't have the right to do public comment at this, was it a legal avenue, and who has that avenue? And did I get that right, mister Carter? Yes. So here's how it works.

The if public testimony is closed, it's closed. However, the chair can choose, but is not required to reopen public comment at any time unless a majority of the board members present override that. Or in the event that the chair is not interested in reopening public comment, three public, three members or majority of the, of the board can make a motion to reopen public comment at that time. So it is not a choice of staff. It is up to the COC itself as to what it wants to do.

It is not required to reopen. It could or any three council member or no. Sorry. Until where I sit all the time. Any three committee members could have made that motion if they were so inclined to do. So there's a difference between is it mandatory versus is it permissive. It is not mandatory. It is permissive, but only if the right circumstances can be met. I hope that answers the question.

Thank you. Yeah. I know I know we hired you because you know the law. And although, you know, it said that you don't know Sanger, but you know the law. And so that's why you're sitting there. But, did you did you guys have any any questions, Daniel? Yeah. I have an additional comment.

You know, looking at these metrics and and some of these scoring tables and then the recommendation from the the ARC, and I think it was mentioned what was the how did the resolution or the recommendation pass for the Yes. CLC, for the four to

one? Which I Correct. So

it's like, I can remember a few short years ago sitting up here, and public comment was, you guys do whatever you want. You don't listen to the committee. You guys do whatever you want. You need to listen to the committee. And now kinda conversely, now we're hearing you guys the committee has it wrong. You guys need to get up there. You guys need to reconsider and change it, which is totally understandable. I I get it. That's why we're here. That's why we're the city council.

These these are recommendations that come to us. So I'm a little concerned with you know, the Sam Academy score wasn't horrendous, wasn't anything negative, but I I don't see what the committee was seeing by granting them $0.00. You know? It's a it's a well known organization. They've been here for a very long time.

And I think Set Free Boys and Girls Club and Young Life, I think their core values deep down, I think they would say, you know what? We don't mind sharing what we were awarded or considered. Because, like I said, if if Sam's Academy has been here for a while, and and and I I but I'm just I'm just I don't know what the committee was thinking. That's that's what I'm trying to figure out. I don't know if there was something glaring and blatant that they're like, it shouldn't be a penny.

So but then again, I don't have the information or what they were feeling in order to grant them a full 25% and split it evenly. So, I mean, I'm considering you know, we've had some thirties, thirty six, thirty three, 31. Make them all 30. That leaves an even 10,000 for Sam's Academy. And that way, they can participate in this program as well because we do need diversity.

I mean, I know they all do different things, but as my council member colleague mentioned, you know, STEM, music, arts, there is value in that. There is an inherent value in that, and I and I respect that. So while I I don't feel comfortable going the full 25% across the board simply for the fact that I don't know what the ARC was thinking, I'm I I would support and recommend, 10,000 for SABM Academy and a 30, for the other organizations. Thank you. So I won't make a motion this time because I would like to, get into, council comments.

Councilmember Hurtado?

Thank you, mayor. First, I would like for some of the comments that were made or questions from the public to be answered by the city manager. Throughout the, application process, there were some issues that were identified. What are your like, what has staff, what does staff's vetting process look like to make sure that they're qualified, and eligible to receive grant funding from the city of Sanger?

So outside of the COC's ARC committee, they're the ones that I have nothing to do with the gradings or the rubrics or any of that. I just go to I attend the meetings on behalf of council. So comes in. They look at it as a group. They sit down and discuss. I don't know what their conversations were, on why why this went on. Right? But they looked at the grant guidelines, and then they gave scores. And it's a recommendation. They gave a recommendation. I don't know if they gave a good recommendation. Right, wrong, and different. It wasn't my job to grade these things. Right? So and the the one gentleman said I kinda sounded like I was talking against Sam Academy.

But I can understand we might have thought that. But if you're not here and when they were when people were talking, members in the audience were like, well, when I was 20, I needed a job, and Sam Academy gave me a job and brought me in. Well, that's a great story. That's awesome. But that's has nothing to do with this grant. I had members of the board say, well, during COVID, my my my daughter went there to learn music. So, yeah, I wanna give Sam Academy money. That's not the foundation of what this is for. So, I was merely trying to get people to stick to the criteria or stick to the facts and take the the emotion and the feelings out of it. And and I just reminded them, look.

You have a certain responsibility of how these grants are awarded. So I was just simply reminding them of their obligation. That that was it. That was it.

Yeah. The city manager, if I may add, I understand, like, the, like, the actual the greeting and the committee coming together, the chiefs and and, the committee members coming together to, you know, have the scoring, right, and ranking of, you know, the nonprofits that are seeking, you know, funding. However, I'm asking specifically, like, the actual I'm I'm sure staff has to vet these nonprofits, right, that they're that they're legit, that they have their, you know, their correct filings, that they, are you know, established and, you know, legally, know, eligible to receive funding from, you know, municipality, for example. So I that's the vetting that I'm asking for. Was was staff able to do that and and, you know, to address some of the comments that were made to

Yeah. I did not direct staff to go in and verify all their backings because they they attest to it in their applications that they're compliant. The one thing I did have that maybe was the statement of accounting financial audit for set free for the year of, '24 through '25. So it's basically the findings that they they were audited and that there was no issues. Like, we get when we do our audit, so I do have that. You know, I I'm I'm really looking for we're gonna this is a conversation we're gonna have next week. And like I said, you know, for me, this this is a good thing. Like, we're giving money to the community. We're trying to help kids out. It shouldn't be the way it's been.

Like, I shouldn't be losing sleep over how these things are getting graded. It's sad. And then we got we even have people out in the community that you you have worked together in the past pointing fingers at each other. I mean, we're we're in fighting over something that's supposed to be a good thing for the community. You know? And then I'm the bad guy because I'm trying to just kinda rein it in. I mean, that's fine. I'll take that hit. But, I mean, the the the requirements are very clear. They're very clear.

So and then I have to trust that when the COC, which is, you know, a body to you, and they pick their two members, and they pick, you know, the chiefs, and they go through and do their due diligence. And I believe if I I wasn't here the day they graded. I was out. But I think they spent, like, almost all day in this room grading these things. So all I got was a final grade. Right? So so, I mean, I I don't know if I can answer any any more of that.

I think, just a concern for, you know, making sure that there's transparency and accountability of where our funding is going, who it's going to, and and throughout. Right? I mean, I think that, eventually, you know, this has to transform into something more structured, that's something, that's measurable as well. And I think that, I I would like to hear from the the chiefs. I think there's a lot of unanswered questions and a lot of uncertainties of of the types of conversations that were, you know, held during the vetting process and the ranking or the rubric, the scoring.

I'd love to hear from you guys, and you you guys were part of that. And I'd definitely love to hear more because I think that, that will help with our decision. And, there's just a lot of unanswered questions, and I think it's fair for

I would like to make one comment. Mister Rocha, you know, his his comment up here was they should qualify because the kids are here. That keeps them out of trouble. Under under that guidance, then every youth sports team, youth football team, youth basketball team, track and field, we're gonna the kids are there. Kids are there, so they should get money. So it it it'll never end. We'll be giving a thousand dollars out to, you know, a 100 people. Right? So like I said, I thought they were following the rules. You know, they they came up as a committee, but, I'll go ahead and have, chief Reynolds step up.

Good evening, mayor, city council members council council member Virat Tordado. Specifically related to just mindset as we went into this rubric, the big key thing for us two things for me specifically, but overall, is is this an alternative program, or is it an intervention? And you can argue semantics. I think it's a fantastic program. Science, arts, music.

I have other ideas and places where SAM Academy fits into, our goals and objectives at the police department. We just haven't been able to discuss those yet. But when you look at, as, the city manager mentioned, alternatives, we do have Sanger high school football, youth football programs, other programs, martial arts programs, extracurricular activities that are alternatives to gang involvement. What we're looking at is intervention, and that means somebody able to step in if we need that resource plugged in. We we touched in the last roughly five months over 71 gang members.

This is the Sanger Police Department through proactive patrols and calls for service. And many of those people, we don't get a lot of opportunity with that individual maybe to change their course and disrupt that street gang to prison pipeline that we have. And that's ultimately what we want to avoid and disrupt. Having somebody that we can plug this child in with. And if Sam Academy is that intervention strategy where we could take this person who's teetering or involved in gang life and they have an interest in science, arts, or music, and they will either respond or allow us to show up at their doorstep and introduce this child to an adult mentor with an art, science, or music background that can change the trajectory of this child's life, then that's what we're looking at, and that's our mindset.

We simply don't see that at this point because we lack the collaboration, and collaboration is an objective of this grant. I would love to have an ability to sit down with those at the SAM Academy and talk about strategy of gang intervention. I've been here forty four weeks now. That has not happened. I have with other organizations, and that weighs heavy because collaboration is what we can't just arrest people. That's not the only answer. We need to get other intervention strategies, and that's just kind of the direction that my mindset was looking at this ruling. So if alternative is intervention, then you guys have a a very wide lateral decision to make.

Any other questions on that?

No. I I would like to see if chief would like to add anything. But, I mean, I I think I I appreciate you acknowledging that that, you know, their their program and their their nonprofit is beneficial to this community and that it does you know, they can provide interventions. And, yeah, it's it's good that you you can see that. And I just wish that they would have been fairly ranked.

I'm not I mean, you weren't even gonna correct me, but just in general, I feel like aside from the plan that you guys or the vision that you guys have with the collaboration with Saum's Academy, I wish that prior to that, we would have, you know, ranked them, you know, fairly and and, you know, in that process. But, yeah, Chirasco, if there's anything else that we'd like

to add. Thank you, chief.

Thank you. Good evening, council. I think I can I'm one probably one of the only ones here that can speak from a historical perspective on this grant opportunity and this grant program because I've been here for twenty five years, and I remember when measure s first was initiated. I was actually walking the streets on the on the association side, trying to push this measure across. When we talk about, the grant process over the years I've been involved in this, it has gone from basically having a couple of applications with no rubric and just trying to figure out what to do with money versus today, we have an actual established rubric.

We apply grant requirements. We look those over. We try to meet the intent of the grant of the way it's been written out, we and utilize a rubric to to grade that. I don't feel that it was graded unfairly or with bias because we look at each grant opportunity as its own individual program, but we stick to the grant requirements. And I think that makes it a lot easier when you look at grading, grant applications.

So that's all I really have to add. I'm I'm happy to answer any questions you might have, but, I do recall that this was, initially started as a program to to keep kids out of gangs, and the intent was there to, to keep kids, to intervene, to to, fund programs that, directly intervened in keeping kings kids out of, out of gangs and drugs. And so that's what I felt the grant, does today, and and that's where I I landed. So I'll answering questions you might have.

Last couple of comments just to wrap this up. Going back to the COC and and the procedures with, you know, allowing the public you know, I think there just needs to be better either communication or training or just being able to empower the committee to, you know, make the decisions that they feel fit during that time, you know, things are being presented to. Because, clearly, I think, unfortunately, Sam's Academy and people who wanted to speak at the last COC meeting were not able to, due to the conflicting messages that maybe potentially the committee could have been having, or maybe they just had a decision, you know, and they wanted, you know, to proceed with that. But, obviously, there wasn't a lot of dialogue, after, that second review. So that's something also that, you know, raises concerns for for me.

And, I think that it wasn't fair for, you know, the people that were there wanting to speak up and wanting to give their perspective and wanting to give their testaments to, you know, the the type of, service ultimately that they give to the community. I've seen personally in Sam's Academy. They've been very involved in our community, and they are deserving of, you know, an award as well because they have been trying to, you know, engage with the community. They've been putting themselves out there. They've been, advertising a whole lot.

And to to that, I mean, I just I I loved last year's winter program when they performed. I think that was amazing. I think that also, you know, inspired other kids out in the in the audience to to get involved with Sam's Academy. And, I do believe that it is intervention. It is prevention.

And, they are also deserving of funding to be, you know, continuing to serve, you know, our youth here and, hopefully, you know, taking them away from from drugs and and gangs because, ultimately, they do provide for our community. And, I mean, I'd be happy to split it evenly like it's recommended tonight, but that's up to to this council right here. And I'd love to hear from them. Thank you.

Council member Montalango.

In 2008, when the ballot first came out, the ballot read to recruit, hire, transitional police officers, firefighters, paramedics, nine one emergency dispatch workers, purchasing fire engine, ambulance, and other emergency equipment, maintain special anti drug, anti excuse me, anti gang, anti drug police units. It wasn't about nonprofits. It was the council that made this issue a bad issue in 2011 or 2012 who decided to say, I don't understand what that is. And so, therefore, we're gonna open up to nonprofits and give it away. And it's been bothering since day one from 2,011.

Those council members, for every reason, made this to me a mess because they didn't really justify or put why they didn't think this was supposed to go to the police units versus the public. And I hate to be that strong because ever since we've been doing this, it's been mister Olsen's fault. It's been mister Tim Cioppa's fault. It's been chief Gardner's fault. It's been chief Rodriguez's fault.

It's been fire chief Trasko's fault. It's the chief after him. It's been chief's fault here. It's the COC's fault because I was part of that. I was a COC, and we changed the metrics, everything, three times for the city council because they felt that we were doing it right.

So we're still back to square one. This is a very bothering thing to see when the original contact that went to the public was manipulated by council members. And I'm not gonna say why, but I know why because some of these people got millions of dollars, almost a million dollars. And they were here today trying to figure out what to do. And now we have sad to say, we have these organizations that are here today that have worked together for years and fought for each other to get the same amount of money, and now we're talking about church and state.

Now we're talking about it. Now we're talking about we don't want church involved. But while back, these same organizations were fighting for those organizations. I don't get it. And I'm watching just like you watch our faces. I watch your face. You're doing this. You're like, yes. This is the truth. I've been seeing it from 2008 on. It was a grabber. It was a money grabber. And I'm sorry to say, but how dare you say that it's not meant for high school kids? There's churches here. If this is the case and every church should have access to this, because they have after school programs for students to keep them off of gangs and drugs.

And if you wanna make it completely so huge, like the councilman said, you could go on and say chaperones of Cheyenne. You could go on and say the the softball teams, police and fire explorers, any service organizations, because that's what we're saying. But yet this council and other councils have put together pretty much like a policy to say this is the parameters and that we give it to people to do it for us, and then we're questioning it. And it's happening every single council, whether it be us or the council before us or whoever. It should have stayed this way.

And to be honest with you, we could still put it back this way we want to. We really can, and we would have to go through this ever again. And to be honest with you, I think the best thing to do is to give it back to the police where it belongs for they could put together what it says, an anti gang, anti drug police unit. Because this is pretty sad. If you wanna work together, work together.

But I'm sorry. When I'm seeing both, all of a sudden, I know an organization that used another facility organization. Now all of a sudden, what happened? So it's hard to say what is what am I take on this today? And I'm sorry I was being really, you know, vocal on this because I was passionate when I walked this. I remember when people said to us, this needs to stay where it's at. And look where we are. We're blaming COC. Now the chief and fire chief are incompetent. It's just keeps going.

What's my recommendation? I'm sticking to what they're saying because we put them there. We put these people who do our job. I'm the COC representative. I don't even go to their meeting because I don't wanna hear what they have to say until I see it here. I wanna hope that they do the thing, but when you talk about two highly qualified people are chiefs. I believe the chairperson who's sitting here today, highly qualified individual that has a business and carries on a great business in town. They're not in it for anything else. So I stand with the recommendation. And maybe next week, I will challenge this council to put it back where it belongs.

We wouldn't be here again. Thank you. Councilmember Melendez.

I have a question for the city attorney. I wanted to ask if the organizations that are listed on here to receive, funding tonight, if they all met the application requirement.

So the ones who make that determination are the ARC. The ARC reviews it for qualifications, and then they provide the numbers for this, into your staff report. Looks like their rankings got separated by a couple of pages, so they're on page one zero four on one zero eight. So I would ask the city manager who would have more knowledge about that. I'm assuming that as part or maybe the chiefs, as part of their review process, they look through all the application materials to make sure that they were present. I have not personally reviewed them.

Okay. I won't be asking. It's okay, Nathan. I just wanna say that I am a firm believer that our children are our future, that all children, including young adults, need support in everyday life. They need the support from us, and they need the support from our whole community. I also wanna, express myself and let you guys know that I don't feel full transparency was given to us. I feel that there's information that has not been disclosed. And I also am open to mayor Pro Temp's, suggestion.

Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. I'm like, mayor Pro Tem. I was sitting here with you when we were getting when we were getting berated about not following the recommendations of the COC.

And, y'all, I see your point too, Mike, is you stick with the with the recommendation. And, you know, half the time, you know, I feel like, you know, instead of having these these, nonprofits or these these, organizations come and tell us how much money they want, maybe we should go to, you're applying for a $10,000 grant, and that's it. And then there'll be no look at look at what you're getting. Look what I'm getting. It would just be because I don't know if we could do that with any grants that we apply for. Like, say, I want x amount of dollars. They or reapply for a grant money. That's it. We're applying for a $50,000 grant. That's it.

We don't go and ask, well, I want a $100,000. It's like, no. But, anyway but I do see the I do see the, the worth if in the Sam Academy. And, I mean, if you if you make the the motion, Daniel, I will support it. You know? Yeah. Yep.

Alright. I'll go ahead I'm gonna make the motion. They're gonna say the resolution, and I'd like it's Been a while since they made a motion. Usually just second. No. Let me get this right. Okay. I'll make the motion to

Daniel.

I'm just gonna I'm just gonna wing it.

Here we go.

Daniel. I can make it for you.

I know what you're you want them to get 10,000. Right? Yeah.

Just in case you

go ahead, Daniel.

Yeah. Alright. I'll make the motion to, what he was talking about. Yeah. Toward, Mike, see, I can't follow the recommendation.

So I'll just

go ahead and and make the motion to to make the motion to award, Young Life, 30,000, Boys and Girls Club, 30,000, Sefri Sanger, 30,000, and, Sam's Academy, 10,000, which is an adjustment of what was recommended by the ARC.

Second.

Is that good, city attorney? Alright. That's my motion.

Second.

We have a motion to second. All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye. All opposed? Hearing none, that motion carries. Okay. Let's move on.

Item I, public hearing is, for the initiation initiation of annexation of real property for a regional storm drain facility facility located on the South Side Of North Avenue between Indianola and Bethel Avenue. APN 33208040 is now before the city council.

Once again, Josh Goggins, community development director, will take this one.

Good evening, mayor, members of the city council. Doctor Goggins, community development director here at the city of Sanger. Speaking tonight regarding the proposed preannexation and zoning for approximately 11/1942 acres on the South Side Of North Avenue between Indianola and Bethel. The prezoning ordinance before you tonight would facilitate that this parcel of land would be prezoned for annexation to allow for a regional storm drain basin intended to serve roughly 450 acres of future development. This property is currently, agricultural land in the jurisdiction of Fresno County.

It would be rezoned to recreation schools and conservation to allow construction of the regional storm drain facility. This proposed use is outlined in the city's 2035 general plan and adheres to the city standards already established. Infrastructure like this is essential for our community to grow because it helps manage flooding. It protects surrounding properties, ensures that future development is supported by necessary public facilities. Planning ahead for stormwater management is is an essential step that helps the city avoid preventable future problems.

Little bit of additional context. This is for the proposed track sixty four ninety three that I talked about earlier. This piece will be a reason for this item also being on with the city county at risk grading. Purpose was so that we wouldn't waste any more time. The intent was to put this on the agenda tonight as well as the at risk agreement instead of spacing it out more, wasting more and more time.

So the aim was to put this on the agenda tonight, so that this project can continue. This is really one of the final steps until we can get this annexed and into the jurisdiction of Sanger. For these reasons, I encourage the council to support this proposal and move forward with this annexation and zoning amendment. Thank you for your time. I'm ready to answer any questions you might have.

Thank you, doctor Goggins. I'll go ahead and, I don't have any questions. I don't have any. Any questions or comments that comes from? Okay. I'll go ahead and open it up to the public. Any questions from the public regarding this item? Alright. Seeing none. I'm gonna put it back to council. I do have a comment. Does it need to be a four person thing?

It needs to be an affirmative vote of three council members in order for this to be passed, and the it has

to be read word for word. Thank you. Sorry. Has to be read word for word,

waive the full reading.

And, of course, she's not here, so I gotta do it. Okay.

Oh, you let in.

Let's see. I

can certainly read it for her if you want, but I'm feeling that fast. I'm just telling

you. Good time.

Alright. Hold on. I'm rearing myself here. I I don't wanna read it from the agenda because I'm afraid that the staff report is different unless

it is or if it isn't.

The agenda is correct? Wave the reading. Alright. Hold on. I apologize, everybody. I'm scrolling here. Okay. So the recommendation is waive the full reading. Okay. I make the motion, to follow the recommendation, which is waive the full reading and adopt by title only.

Art ordinance number two zero two six dash o two, an ordinance of the city council of the City Of Sanger approving zoning ordinance map amendment number two zero two six dash o one for preannexation zoning from Fresno County's AE 20 exclusive agriculture to the city's RSC recreation schools and conservation zone district for approximately 11.42 acres located on the South Side Of North Avenue between Indy Nola and Bethel Avenues. The APN number is 332Dash080Dash40. That's the motion, and I made it. Is there a second?

Second.

Yes.

I'll second.

A second by, mayor Gonzalez. All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye. Aye. Which passes 40.

Alright. So where we at? We're at the item of the the one. Oh, okay. Item h. I two. Perfect. The public hearing for highway safety improvement program, project proposed crosswalk removals on Jensen And Holly Avenues and Jensen And Oakman Avenues is now before the city council.

I have to present this in light as Josh, city engineer.

Let me drop an issue. New mayor, members of the council. This is, what I consider a relatively minor procedural issue, but a little background on it. Back in back in 2019, the council was presented with the findings of what was it's called a safety analysis report that was funded under a federal program or state program, I think, to fund, looking kind of system wide at traffic, corridors in your city and finding systemic ways of improving traffic safety. We present we prepared that report.

Engineering department presented to the council. There were several findings out of that report. One of the findings was, that we looked at Jensen Avenue corridor for traffic and and, vehicular traffic and pedestrian traffic, concerns. So one of the things we saw was was a whole bunch of crosswalks that go across a lot of lanes of traffic. Most of them didn't have appropriate signage, didn't have appropriate markings.

And so, we started looking at what we could do to kinda, a, you know, keep keep pedestrians safer and then prevent, you know, future possible accidents that we wouldn't wouldn't wanna be seeing. And one of the things we rely on in any sort of traffic analysis is the manual on uniform traffic control devices that I've mentioned anytime I talk about traffic stuff. And one of the things when you're looking at uncontrolled crosswalks, which are common on Jensen Avenue, which means they're not controlled by a stop sign or, traffic signal, is you're trying to look at, length of the crossings. You're trying to look at speeds in the area. You're trying to look at, how many traffic lanes you're crossing.

And then where you can consolidate, they call crossings. So you don't just let everybody cross everywhere, and then it kinda, lose drivers lose, the ability to kinda treat those crosswalks with with, due respect. So one of the things we saw coming out of that is we may wanna reduce the number of crossings, and at the crossings we're keeping, upgrade those with flashing beacons, high visibility crawl you know, markings and signage and such. We also, at that time, did pedestrian counts, and we looked over, I think, a week of time at at all the crossings and saw which ones were really being used and which which ones weren't. Out of that, we included in the report to the council recommendation to to do those improvements that I talked about, at a lot of the crosswalks on Jensen Avenue that are currently unprotected, and then consolidating a couple of those.

And we, we used that study to apply for implementation funding. We were funded for this highway safety improvement program, this HSIP money. And then as a side note, that also funded about $1,300,000 of the Greenwood And Jensen Intersection improvements that we're currently working on that was funded better at least. We got two construction projects out of the out of that planning study, so that was good. Anyway, we're we're advertising for bids this pedestrian crossing improvements project.

We're gonna be putting up rapid flashing bookends, like I said, high visibility crossings, And then we're recommending removal of two crosswalks, one at Jensen And Oatman, which is a very, very long crosswalk, and then also Jensen Hawley, given the proximity to Jensen and Greenwood, which has traffic signal. So that project is advertising for bids, but, the California vehicle code requires if you're going to remove any existing marked crosswalks, you have to provide an opportunity for public comment, at least thirty days prior to the removal. We're anticipating we'll probably be in construction or at least have a contractor going late April, maybe early May. So we wanted to get the public hearing scheduled and notify that we intend to remove those crosswalks with the project. And then for the vehicle code, we've also posted notice at each of these crosswalks of the plan to remove as part of the project with contact information for myself if there are questions.

So I believe that covers my report. You can take questions if you have any. Okay.

At this time, I declare the public hearing open. Mayor Pro Tem, do you have any Yeah. Definitely. There? No.

We'll go to the public. Is there anyone wishing to speak from the public at this time?

No. All all this sounds pretty good. It's just food for thought here. When roads are taken away, whatever crossings, I would hope that the police and fire departments are involved in this because it could count. You know, if you shut a certain road down, there's no access, then I gotta go all around the big block.

People's lives could be at stake. Tops coming around, you know, they need to get somebody, and they can't because the road's closed off. I mean, I'm sure it's not gonna happen here, but I would just hope that food's worth that, that every time construction's being done around here or anything like this, that take a a deeper look to see, would it really impact somebody as far as safety goes? Maybe the ambulance can't get to them in time. I mean, seconds count. I mean, we're just going around the block. No big deal. But I I don't know where these roads are exactly, and I don't know what would entail if you take some of these crossings out. You gotta go it's gonna be a while to get there. That would just be it. I'm sure you guys are looking into that. But in case you're not, just food for thought.

Thank you, sir.

Is there any other public comment? Hearing no other public comment, the public comment is now closed. Any further discussion, counsel? It's good. Okay. In regards to that item, do I have a motion to approve?

I'll second.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed? Hearing none, that motion carries unanimous. Item j, city manager.

Good evening, mayor and council members. Just a few things. At the last meeting, we had a resident ask about, some of the payouts and things like that for some of our lawsuits. We are self insured on the first 50,000 in most cases, but we don't pay that in anymore. We get different the way they bill it to us, it it's a little convoluted.

But we roll all our legal expenses into one line item in the budget. So that covers payouts, legal, if we have to do any type of, eyes and things like that. But we budgeted, about 389,000, and we're currently, after eight periods, spent about 243,000 into it. So tracking okay, but that doesn't mean there's not some outstanding invoices. But right now, track tracking pretty good, on that legal expense.

And then, additionally, we had another resident ask about travel and was asking if employees could come here and say what they're hoping to get out of it and present. Understand that, but it's it's really not, in their in their job descriptions. They have to come and explain why they they need training that we mandate and we pay for. That's also why we have supervisors and directors and managers to kinda go through and make sure that the training is something they need. And then we'd have to pay them overtime to come here just to talk.

Additionally, on that form, you had mentioned earlier about, some per diem checks. Those per diem checks are being, voided. Just for a side note. Couple other things. Is Henry left. Wish she was still here. So this week and a a letter went out for, to the Fresno County that city of Sanger supporting and appropriations to redo Bethel from the city limits out to the one eighty. So we sent that letter off this week. Thank you, Josh, for getting that in in time. Blossom Trail Run this Saturday.

It's gonna be a good time, so make sure you come on out. And then, budget wise, looking at some some expenditures. But but the two big ones that we can control internally are wages and benefits and service and supplies. So on the wages and benefits right now, we're about 69.2% of the way through the year, and we've spent about 52.4% of the budget. So we're tracking pretty favorably on labor.

And, again, when these budgets come out, we budget for every open position. And in different MOUs, people can buy out vacation and do different things. So when we budget to make sure we cover it, we budget like everybody's gonna take the maximums they can pay out. So there's some inherent savings built into that. We just wanna make sure we don't come up short.

But between that and then our supplies and services, which is how we pay for keep the city going on a daily basis, we are 75% through our budget through period eight, and we're about 43.2% spent. So we have some savings there. Doesn't mean they're gonna hold true to the end of the year. It it's it's hard to get a final balance because you still have all your revenues that come in. And even when we finish our fiscal year on June 30, we still get bills in for several months after that that roll back to that previous year.

So, right now, look looking wise, it looks like there's there's pretty significant savings coming our way. I can say that pretty comfortably. We're still working on numbers. Audit wise, we have, the '24 audit is on the books for April, April, and then we're currently working on getting the '25 audit on the books for May. And then that'll get our audits from a city standpoint completely caught up. So so some some good stuff. Lot lot of good stuff happening. But, that's it. Like, thank everybody for their time this evening. Have a good night. Thank you, sir.

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 agencies and at 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 into which meet other requirements for action. Mayor Proctem.

Thank you, mayor. First, I wanna, thank Josh for the Bethel Avenue. That was pretty timely that, mister Provost mentioned it, and then we already have a letter going out to them. So, hopefully, that gets resolved because, yes, it is. I hate Bethel Avenue. It's it's it's it gets rough. I do wanna thank the Centimeters for, helping me respond to a noise complaint. He responded back to the to the resident with a very detailed email, and I appreciate that. And, council member Montelongo helped me out with that as well to go out there to try to see if he can hear it as well because I don't have the best hearing, unfortunately. But, I I appreciate your work on that.

Also, city manager, thanks for your help with the I sent you a photograph of a picnic bench that was in pretty bad shape at the, community center. You could forward that on and see what we can do with about that one. I do need I would like to request an update on the stoplight at Indianola And Jensen. Unfortunately, there was an incident this week where there was a car accident, and I really would like to see where we're standing on that. I know that the stoplights on Almond are getting installed, and we ordered those light posts, like, months and months prior just to make sure we can speed it up. So I wonder if we could do the same. Thank you, Josh.

Engineers are gonna go ahead and make a comment on that. Yeah.

As far as the project status on that, you can recall we had our third of three closed session meetings to talk about the right of way for that. That was back in December because we had to acquire right of way property from three different property owners. And and our recommendation at that closed session was to take some routes that we thought were gonna be the most time expeditious. Council approved those, so we gave immediate, direction to our right of way consultant. That was in December 25.

The next month, we closed on the first property, in January. This last month in February, they were finally able to close on on another one that had a hold because of bankruptcy proceedings that were on that on that property. That was jammed up pretty good. And then on the third property, where we had to do a lot of assistance with the property owners to clean up their property title, the title company just approved the process of all those steps they have to do to get it in a condition where we can even acquire it, and the projected close on that property is hopefully this month, in March. So then we anticipate bringing you a contract back on that final property in April, which means then we can submit our right away certification package to Caltrans.

They're usually probably gonna take about a month and a half to get that back. So we're hoping to have the right away certified around June, May, June, which then means we can request authorization for construction probably in June, July, which means then we can advertise it. We're probably gonna be looking to advertise around August. And by then, by the time we award a contract, then all the equipment that we've already preordered also be here at that time. Then we get our contractor going.

They go down in the yard. They pick up the poles and the stuff, and and they go install it. But I know everybody can't believe how long these things take, but that's literally been sequentially in the months to close these properties, and each one of the properties said something wrong with it. And PG and E at the time PG and E has acquired their easements that they needed to do their relocation, so that's good. So our our pathway is clear. We just have these steps we gotta work through, But it it's a clear road ahead in my opinion. Okay.

Cool. I appreciate that, Josh.

Thank you. I knocked on wood. Doctor. Reparo?

Thank you, mayor. I just wanna, you know, thank give thanks to the, to the public for being here and and, being part of, you know, dialogue on the decision decisions we're making. So I appreciate your time and your commitment to, you know, bettering our community. I do wanna say that, things are are moving along, and, you know, we're trying to get better and and be do better. And I think that we need to start you know, as a city council, we need to start thinking about having conversations and maybe, you know, tossing around ideas around police accountability and, you know, protections for victims.

And, you know, one suggestion that I have is, you know, maybe establishing a community advisory committee that's focused on that specifically. But I also, like, wanna challenge you all to come up with, you you know, some ideas on how we can continue to build trust in the community and also, you know, bring, transparent transparency as well along, in that. So that's my my idea. I'm just giving you guys that, food for thought. And, I also want to, announce that this weekend is Blossom Trail Run, but it's also the women's history Zumba kickoff event.

I believe it starts at 11AM, so I did want to invite you all to be present. It's a free Zumba event, and a lot of kids are gonna be running in the community too. So welcome, everybody. The second one is neck the following week next week on the eleventh, we have our women's history reception at women's club at 05:30PM as well for you to join. And then, yeah, next would be the car show the following weekend. So just wanted to invite you guys out to those events. And, again, thank you for being here and being part of, the decision making process. Have a good night.

Council member Mapalago. Sorry. Can you laugh?

I'm glad you brought up the Zumba because it was pretty cool when I saw it last year when you had it out there. It looked like everybody had just a great time. You know? So I'm glad you're continuing to do that. Thank you for doing the, boom of the month. Every year you do it, it it just gets bigger and bigger and greater. So appreciate you putting that effort into it, everything. Most of my stuff I gave to city manager throughout the week, and I thanked city manager and staff for working on some of the things. I do would like to have, maybe a meeting with the city manager and our new recreation director and also our publics director to meet at a couple of, District 4 parks. Either my 11:00 from 12:00 lunch hour or after 04:00.

Maybe get get some dates going, and then we could go. And then I'll give you some clues of what's going on and what I wanna see and stuff, and we could just meet together. I appreciate that. Yeah. And at the same time too, I keep forgetting, but if I don't see it now, then I'm not gonna do it. I wanna do my tour of the, the wastewater, because I know a lot of the stuff that's happened since the last tour I've received, so I wanna go back out and just check for myself as well. It's a good education to do, so if you don't mind me, sitting that. And I know it should probably be between my lunch hour. So from eleven to twelve is fine. Just, again, just maybe a couple dates and then sit out to me, if you don't mind.

And then, you know, being with the the measure and everything and, you know, what we did, on the challenge, you know, I'll I'll put it on the table. You know? I'm willing to get a get a consensus to take a look and putting it back where it belonged. You know? And that's a consensus. That means going back to the original phase of putting, anti drug, anti gang back to a police unit where it was originally supposed to be. So that's my suggestion. I mean and it could be a three. It can have to be a three, but I'm just I'm challenging that. You know?

And then, for food for thought for the city manager, city attorney, We keep doing this. I know other organizations have always been told they cannot apply. So we probably need a very good legal brief on who can apply, who cannot, because I think we opened up a a big one. I really believe we did. So, so I I don't know. I think we should just make sure that we're okay and get another legal opinion, especially when we're talking about the rubrics and and all that stuff. If we wanna fix it, let's fix it now. You know? So other than that, that's that's it. Thank you.

Council member Melinda's?

I kinda wanna agree a little bit on like, maybe we can have our city attorney look into it. Is that something you can help with?

Mhmm. Yes.

And I will flag the city council that a lot of those parameters are set by the resolution that was previously set by the city council. So I can set up those parameters. City council has authority to change a lot of stuff.

Okay.

I think we just

Thank you. I also wanted to what was I gonna say? Oh, I did wanna meet with you too to do my district, get in the van, and drive around after work. I'll schedule that with you. But I also want a tour of the of the plant, how it's doing. And I also wanted to I know our budget's gonna come around towards the June. I wanted to know, city staff has plans to have the community get involved, the roundtable meetings. Make sure that's on calendar. I wanna make sure everybody's involved.

Yeah. We will have that.

Okay. If we can get those dates, like, at least a month in advance for me, please, because I have a full schedule right now. And thank you for everybody.

Alright. Thanks. I just have a couple things real quick. I know Bethel has always been a kind of point of contention, but I remember seeing Central Avenue between Newmark and Academy. Was that was was that is that still on the schedule? Or

Yeah. It's it's on the CIP list, and work's starting now, but it's actually there's more funding next year, and it's supposed to be completed in fiscal year twenty seven, twenty eight.

Okay. Yeah. Because I know somebody asked about that, that one of the last meetings. And, yeah, I did see the before and after pics of of that wastewater treatment plan, and it is very eye opening to what it was and what it is now. And, you know what? Thanks. I mean, I know we had to throw a bunch of money at it, but it was a problem that's been brewing for the last, gone twenty years. So thanks for getting that done in public works too. And there's a park, you know, where I go take a walk on Greenwood and and and, church. I just wanna say good job on trimming those trees.

They look they look awesome. Yeah. I always say it looks nice right there. So, you know, it the the hard work that you guys are doing doesn't go unnoticed. So I just wanna say thank you. And that's that's about it. So there being no further further action, this meeting is adjourned at 08:24.