City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. Good evening, everyone. I'm going to call this special meeting to order at 5.04 p.m. This time we have no disclosures pursuant to Government Code Section 5495.3.8.3. Roll call and declaration of conflicts, please.

Council Member Bedoya.

Present. No conflicts.

Council Member Evans.

Present. No conflicts.

Council Member Nygaard. Present. No conflicts. Mayor Pro Tem Abercrombie.

Present. No conflicts.

Mayor Ariella.

Present. No conflicts.

Thank you. We have a quorum.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Members of the public can participate in tonight's meeting remotely by visiting cityoftracievents.webex.com and using the information provided on the screen. This is also available in writing here at City Hall as well as online. With that, we'll go ahead and move on to item four. Staff report, please.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Desi Lopez, your Deputy City Clerk. On March 19, 2024, the City Council adopted Resolution 2024-042, establishing a process for appointing members to city advisory bodies. The policy requires the full council to review applications, conduct interviews, and make recommendations to the mayor in open session. One term on the Transportation Advisory Commission expires April 30, 2026, and recruitment for this particular policy Advisory Commission ran from January 27th to February 27th of 2026 and yielded one application. If selected, this applicant will serve a four-year term beginning May 1st, 2026 to April 30th, 2030. Through this item, the Council will establish interview protocols as they are not specified in the policy and conduct interviews which include the following. The proposed process includes city-led questioning, timed responses, and a brief discussion. The council must select interview questions and staff recommends using the previously approved questions that have been placed on the dais for you and also in the agenda packet that was published on March 30th, 2026, as they do remain relevant. The suggested process is each council member asks one question for a total of five questions. Allow two minutes per question for a total of 10 minutes per applicant, which they will be timed. Interview applicants in alphabetical order by name. Allow up to five minutes per council member for follow-up questions, if any, and allow up to 10 minutes for council discussion. Following the interviews, the council will make recommendations to the mayor, who will then nominate a candidate for council approval. If not approved, this process will continue until one person is approved, or if the Mayor may opt to reopen the recruitment. The applicant meets residency requirements as verified by the City Clerk's Office and personal information in the applications were redacted. There is no fiscal impact for this particular item. The action request of Council this evening is that staff recommends that City Council by motion 1 establish interview protocols to fill one vacancy due to term expiration for the Transportation Advisory Commission and Two, conduct interviews of one applicant for one term expiration. And three, upon conclusion of the interview, appoint one applicant to fill one vacancy due to term expirations or opt to reopen the recruitment. And that's my staff report.

Thank you, Ms. Lopez. And just for confirmation, there was one applicant for one open position?

Correct.

Thank you. Do we have any additional council questions?

Mayor, I just need to ask a question of our clerk on my packet.

Go ahead. for the questions. Do you have any additional questions while Councilmember Nygaard looks at that?

Okay.

Seeing none, then we'll go out for public comment on item four related to the Transportation Advisory Commission. Do we have any members of the public like to speak on this item? We have one. With that, we will allow four minutes. Please proceed. Good evening. On one second, can we?

Is it on?

There we go.

I was just wondering, I was here when they appointed for parks and recs, and there was only one person, which was Todd Lieber, and he served on parks. And tonight we have one person, and I believe looking online, it's Mr. Silva. Is there a reason why we're going through the whole process and not doing the same thing with one? Just a question. That's it. Thank you.

Thank you. Any additional questions or comments? Seeing none, this time we'll go ahead and close out public comment. Oh, excuse me. Do we have any additional comment on WebEx?

No, Mayor. No hands on line.

Okay, with that, we'll go ahead and close out public comment for Item 4. Return to Council for discussion.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to suspend the rules and appoint Mr. Silva to the Transportation Commission.

And just for clarification, Mr. Silva is the incumbent who is applying for the sole position. I would be in support of that. Do we have any discussion related to that? Okay, do we have a second? I'll second. Okay, we have a first and we have a second. Roll call, please.

And to clarify, I just want to make sure we're making two motions. You're making a motion first to suspend the rules and a second to approve Mr. Silva. Correct. Correct. Okay. So can we get motion first to suspend the rules and a second motion to approve Mr. Silva? Make a motion to suspend the rules first. Second.

Okay, we have a first and second. Roll call, please.

Mayor Pro Tem Abercrombie?

Yes.

Council Member Evans?

Yes.

Council Member Redoya?

Yes.

Council Member Nygaard? Yes. Mayor Areola?

Yes.

Thank you.

And I make a motion to appoint Mr. Silva back onto the Transportation Commission. Second.

Okay, we have a first and a second with Council Member Evans. Roll call, please.

Mayor Pro Tem Abercrombie?

Yes.

Council Member Evans?

Yes.

Council Member Redoya?

Yes.

Council Member Nygaard? Yes. Mayor Areola?

Yes.

Thank you.

Congratulations, Commissioner Silva. We look forward to more great work from you.

But here we go. We're getting fancy here. I'd just like to thank you for my reappointment. I've done this for a while now, a little over 12 years. I've helped move our transportation division forward or commission forward. One is the students ride free on our buses, K through 12. That was something I was very proud to spearhead and get through. And we keep that going. I'm very proud of spearheading our sharrows on our roads, like on Bessie Avenue and that area and our bike lanes. That was the sole reason why I got involved with the transportation commission in the beginning. And then it kind of expanded from there. But I'm very thankful. I've worked with many city councils and mayors and staff and getting this done. This doesn't happen with one person. And then of course our airport, what we got going on out there, you know, I was, and help getting $16 million out there. And if you look at our airport today and what's going on out there, we've improved it, and it's a very active airport. And with that, on May 16, 2026, which is a Saturday, we're having our Family Fun Day out there in cooperation with the aerobatic competition that goes on out there. which is a very fun day. I see a lot of positive responses on our city of Tracy site and people looking forward to that. But most of all, I look forward to working with the council, city staff, my constituents on the commission, and just moving Tracy forward. It's a very fun commission to be on, and I thank you for your support very much.

Thank you, Commissioner Silva.

Thank you, Mr. Silva.

That will move on to item five related to Measure V Residence Oversight Committee Appointment. Staff report, please.

Hello again, Mayor and Council. Nancy Lopez, your Deputy City Clerk. Again, as I stated before, I'm going to condense it so I don't put you guys through the whole thing all over again. As mentioned in the previous staff report, the suggested process is the same for this item as well. Three terms on the Measure V Residence Oversight Committee expired on February 28, 2026. Recruitment for this ran from January 26 to February 27 of 2026. and yielded five applications. Of those five applications, one requested to be withdrawn prior to publication and another one requested via email this morning to be withdrawn due to illness. So this evening you'll be only interviewing three individuals. One of the selected applicants will serve a two-year term beginning April 1st and ending February 28th, 2028. The final selected applicant Yes the final selected applicants will serve a three-year term beginning also April 1st and ending February 28th of 2029. Through this item again we will establish the protocols as stated before and the applicants do meet residency requirements and personal information has been redacted and there is no fiscal impact for this specific item. Staff recommends that council, by motion, one, establish interview protocols to fill three vacancies due to term expirations for the Measure B Residence Oversight Committee. Two, conduct interviews of three applicants for three term expirations. And three, upon conclusion of the interviews, appoint three applicants to fill three vacancies due to term expirations and establish an eligibility list or reopen the recruitment if necessary. And that concludes my staff report.

Thank you, Ms. Lopez. And just to confirm, there are three open positions, one two-year and two three-year positions, and there were three applicants.

Correct.

Thank you. Do we have any additional council questions? Seeing none, we'll go out for public comment on item five. Do you have any members of public that would like to speak on this item? Seeing none, we'll go ahead and close. Do we have any on WebEx?

No hands on line, Mayor.

Okay, we'll go ahead and close out the public comment portion for item five and return to council. All right, council, we've done this several times, so I'm going to ask each council member to select one question to ask. I will ask the first question. I will give everyone two minutes to answer questions, and then I'll provide one minute for closing. Do we have anyone who's ready with a question I'd like to ask? Mayor Pertem?

Five, please.

Okay. Council Member Bedoya, do you need a second?

I'll take question number one.

I'm taking question number one. Okay. Question number two? Okay. I can take six. Okay, number six. And Council Member Nygaard.

I'd like number three.

Okay, so we will have questions one, two, three, five and six and a one minute closing. So I will I will move to establish interview protocols to fill three vacancies for the Measure V Residence Advisory Committee as follows. Each council member will ask one question for a total of five questions. Interview question numbers one two three five and six will be asked of each applicant. Each applicant will be allocated two minutes to respond to each question for a total of 10 minutes per applicant. Three applicants will be interviewed. And that's my motion. I'll second that. OK. We have a first and second. Roll call please.

Mayor Arreola?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Evercrombie?

Yes.

Councilmember Villalba?

Yes.

Councilmember Evans?

Yes.

Councilmember Nygaard? Yes. Thank you.

All right, applicants, we will go ahead and start. Will you please disclose who's the first applicant?

The first applicant will be Rosario, and then the two remaining applicants will follow me out this back door.

All right, Mr. Arulapan, if you want to go ahead and join us here, and we'll wait until the other two applicants are out of chambers.

Good evening, Mayor and Councils.

Good evening, Mr. Arulapan. One second, please. Are we ready? All right. Good evening, Mr. Rupan. Thank you for joining us. Do you have any questions about the process we just went over?

No, I'm good. Okay.

All right. With that, we'll go ahead and get started. Again, thanks for joining us. Question one, you'll have two minutes to answer each question. Do you please share your experience, training and interest in serving on any committees, commissions or boards? Include any involvement you have had in serving with local community groups such as task forces, service clubs, fraternal groups or other volunteer groups.

Yeah, so currently I'm an incumbent member of Measure V. I'm serving for the last three years and I reapplied for the same position right now. Apart from this, I involve so many community things. I'm already a commissioner in San Joaquin County for human resource. On top of that, I involve in a lot of community issues, community engagement, social events, through the Tracy Reach as a non-profit organization. I bring the community together, not only the Indian community or Desi community. It's meant for all, everyone to join together, enjoy together. So that's what's my aim, to bring the people together so that it bonds the network, builds the network, so Crazy City can build with the youth and with the experience and exposure.

Thank you, Mr. Lupan. Council Member Bedoya.

Sorry. Mr. Ruben, welcome. Why would you like to serve on the Residence Measure V Oversight Committee?

Yeah, it's a good question. So I've been already being part of this committee and I was working closely with the staff and we worked on like a couple of projects keep going on. The multi-generation legacy and the aquatic center, the three project going on with Measure V funds. So I'm involved in the projects. The legacy is almost done. Multi-generation is still going on. The aquatic center is on the pipeline. We all know that where we stand, we have planned for 2028. So these are the projects which helps the community to utilize this for the community. BECAUSE TRACY IS PRETTY MUCH A VERY OLD CITY, AND IT NEEDS A LOT OF THESE KIND OF THINGS FOR BRINGING TO THE PEOPLE. SO I'M SERVING THERE TO MAKE A BRIDGE BETWEEN THE CITY AND THE PEOPLE, WHAT DO THEY NEED, WHAT ARE THEY LOOKING FOR, WHAT IS THE BEST SUIT FOR THE PEOPLE, SO THAT I CAN SERVE THERE, BRING TO THE CITY COUNCIL ATTENTION, SO THAT WE CAN RECOMMEND TO THE CITY COUNCIL, SO THAT THEY CAN WORK ON THAT ONE.

THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. COUNCIL MEMBER NAGARD.

Good evening, Mr. Rolopan. Thank you again for stepping forward in this to serve again for our city. My question to you is, if you were selected for the Oversight Committee, explain your understanding of the roles and responsibilities you would have as a committee member.

Yeah, if I'm selected, my role will be like, I cannot make any decision or anything, but we can advise to the city council. based on the projects we are involved, based on the projects City is working on, what are the projects Measure V is funding. So those projects, we can give a recommendation. We can listen to the public hearing based on their input, based on our expertise. We can give a recommendation, advice to the City Council to make a decision on those. Thank you.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you, sir. Appreciate you serving and wanting to continue to serve. Please explain your understanding of the city's general fund versus enterprise fund.

So basically, the Measure V, we get the funds of 0.5% from the sales tax. That is the funds being allocated for the Measure V. And this fund's being utilized for the various important projects, whichever the public is looking for. And such projects right now, as I mentioned, three projects on the pipeline going on, Legacy Field, MultiGen, and right now the Aquatic Center. So these are the projects. Through this fund, we measure it. I mean, we fund it. And basically, the 0.5, that is the only resource we are getting in. and the project we already allocated the funds and everything and uh for aquatic center the city already allocated like 45 million and for this resource to get the resource almost like another 10 years like a 30 37 20 27 37 we need to have those funds to collect to build this project and we don't have any other resource other than getting from the sales tax AND PRETTY MUCH THAT IS THE RESOURCE AND WITH THE FUNDS WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO WORK ON WHAT ARE THE MAXIMUM WE CAN EXTEND. OTHERWISE WE NEED TO BRING IT TO THE CITY COUNCIL WHERE THEY CAN BRING SOME OTHER RESOURCE TO FUND THIS MEASURE WEEK.

THANK YOU. NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU. COUNCIL MEMBER EVANS.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU AND THANK YOU MR. RUYLAPAN FOR SHOWING UP TONIGHT AND JUST WANT TO SAY I APPRECIATE YOU BEING SO GENEROUS WITH YOUR TIME FOR OUR CITY AND STEPPING UP. MY QUESTION FOR YOU IS IN YOUR OPINION, WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE MEASURE V RESIDENCE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE?

MEASURE V IS NOT LIKE A REGULAR COMMITTEE MEMBER. THIS WAS STARTED LIKE TO SPEND CERTAIN MONEY TO BRING CERTAIN PROJECTS TO THE COMMUNITY. And related to the parks and recreation part of those, as I mentioned, the three projects, ongoing project, whatever the public, the community is looking for, to bring there, to make them entertained, and to make them involved in the projects, those projects which are identified by the city and the people input, SO THOSE ARE PROJECTS WE, THROUGH THE MEASURE V, WE FUND IT AND WE, MEASURE V COMMITTEE WORK ON THOSE PROJECTS AND GET INVOLVED IN THOSE DEVELOPMENT AND, WHAT DO YOU SAY, DEVELOPMENT AND THE PROGRESS.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU, MR. LUPON. THIS TIME YOU HAVE ONE MINUTE FOR CLOSING REMARKS.

So as I mentioned, I'm pretty much involved in all the community issues, community welfare, bringing the community together. On top of that, I'm having the Tracey Reach. I know I've been doing that for Tracey Reach, a non-profit, for the last three and a half years in the Tracey city. And we host events, like almost I use the 12 events I host so far in the last three and a half years. I know various occasions you are part of that event. And this is for the city, you know, for everyone. It's a free event. Pretty much I host everything. And mainly to bring the people but to public to involve and get network so this society and the city can know where we stand what we are what we can achieve how we can improve the trade city in the future thank you all right thank you mr lupan you're welcome to stay um and i'll ask staff to bring out the next applicant please thank you

They're on their way.

Thank you. All right. Good evening, Mr. Fernando.

Yeah. Last name Fernando.

All right. Well, we're going to ask you a series of questions. You'll have two minutes to answer each question. At the end, you'll have one minute to close. Do you have any questions for us?

No, I'm not.

All right. We'll go ahead and get started. Again, thank you for joining us. Your first question is, please share your experience, training, and interest in serving on any committees, commissions, or boards. Include any involvement you have had in serving with local community groups, such as task forces, service clubs, fraternal groups, or other volunteer groups.

Well, in the past, I did some missionary work, so I'm kind of comfortable. I've seen the REPORTS AND I'VE SEEN WHAT THIS COMMITTEE DOES. SO I HAVE THAT INSTITUTIONAL KNOWLEDGE, SO I COME FROM THAT BACKGROUND. AND IN THE PAST, PRIOR TO THAT, I PARTICIPATED IN SOME OF THE CHURCH ACTIVITIES AND ALSO FOR THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, I WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN SOME OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH WELFARE PROGRAM AS PART OF THE I.T. INITIATIVE. SO THE MEDICAL AND THE ALL THE SERVICES, THE COUNTY SERVICES WHICH WAS IMPLEMENTED ACROSS 59 COUNTIES. I WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN THAT PROGRAM. SO THAT'S THE BACKGROUND I COME FROM.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU.

COUNSELOR BUDOYA.

NEW SPEAKER ALL RIGHT. MR. FERNANDO, WELCOME. WHY WOULD YOU LIKE TO SERVE ON THE MEASURE V RESIDENCE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE? THERE WE GO.

I THINK I DID SO LAST YEAR. AND I HAVE A BIT OF UNDERSTANDING, SO I WOULD LIKE TO SEE FROM THE PAST WHAT THE DECISIONS WERE MADE AND MOVING FORWARD, LIKE, WHAT'S COMING UP SO I CAN CONTRIBUTE. I mean, again, the institutional knowledge that I have, so that will help me to contribute.

Okay. Thank you.

Appreciate it. Thank you. And for the next question, Mr. Fernando, could you speak a little closer into the mic? It's a little difficult to hear you. Council Member Nygaard.

Good evening, Mr. Fernando. Good evening. Mr. Fernando, thank you for joining us tonight. My question to you is, if you are selected for the Oversight Committee, explain your understanding of the roles and responsibilities you would have as a committee member.

AS A COMMUNITY MEMBER, AGAIN, THE SAME THING BECAUSE OF MY PAST EXPERIENCE, I GUESS. SO I HAVE THAT KNOWLEDGE. SO AND I DO, I MEAN, I CAN CONTRIBUTE BACK WITH THE KNOWLEDGE WHICH I HAVE IN THE PAST SO I CAN CONTRIBUTE FURTHER. SO.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU. MAYOR PROTEM. THANK YOU, SIR.

THANK YOU, SIR. I APPRECIATE YOU BEING HERE TONIGHT. CAN YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE CITY'S GENERAL FUND VERSUS THE ENTERPRISE FUND? I'M SORRY?

I DON'T KNOW.

OKAY. THAT'S FINE. THANK YOU. MR. FERNANDO FOR BEING SO GENEROUS WITH YOUR TIME AND BEING WILLING TO STEP UP AND OFFER YOURSELF FOR A POSITION LIKE THIS. MY QUESTION FOR YOU TONIGHT IS IN YOUR OPINION, WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE MEASURE V RESIDENCE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE?

I THINK IT'S AN INDEPENDENT BODY. SO THE MAYOR AND THE CITY COUNCIL MAKE THE DECISION, AND THEN AS AN INDEPENDENT BODY HAS A RESPONSIBILITY TO MAKE SURE THE FUNDING IS SPENT AS AN INDEPENDENT BODY, SO KEEP TRACK OF THE FUNDERS HOW IT'S BEING spend, I guess.

Good. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Fernando, you have one minute for closing remarks.

Thank you for your time. I know you guys have a lot of information, so I'm just trying to help out as much as I can with my little bit of tiny knowledge, which I gathered from my past experience, though.

All right. Well, thank you so much. You're welcome to sit and join us. As we have one more applicant and staff, we can please get the third applicant.

Thank you.

Thank you. Hi. All right. Good evening. And is it Mr. Ramakrishnan?

Ramakrishnan. Balaji Ramakrishnan.

All right. Well, thank you, sir, for joining us. This time we're going to ask you a series of questions. You'll have two minutes to answer each question, and at the end you'll have one minute for closing remarks. Okay. Do you have any questions for us?

Pardon?

Do you have any questions for us?

No, I'm fine, yeah.

All right, well, go ahead and get started.

Yes, sir.

Could you please share your experience, training, and interest in serving on any committees, commissions, or boards? Include any involvement you've had in serving with local community groups, such as task forces, service clubs, fraternal groups, or other volunteer groups.

Yeah, yeah, sure. Yeah, basically, I'm a techie guy, and I support volunteer, many volunteer organization. Even I, in a position called Vice President and Secretary in Bay Area Tamil Association, which is a whole Bay Area Tamil organization, in that I am kind of like two, three years I was part of it. And I did a remarkable job. I purchased land using the money wisely. a public money and responsibly i use the money so that's the reason afterwards that is like a 22 23 24 afterwards i i'm a friend of rosario so i'm participating in the tracy reach group and i have i'm running a tamil school and international language i'm running a voluntary in tracy schools in what I can say, the Kimball High School. I'm running a Tamil school, so I have a lot of nonprofit organization experience, and I serve the community, and I will come for the people, and I responsibly work for all the community organizations. All right.

Thank you, Mr. Ramakrishnan. Council Member Bedoya.

All right. Mr. Ramakrishnan, how you doing? Yeah. Why would you like to serve on the Measure V Residence Oversight Committee?

Mr. We community committee see here the the Tracy Tracy is growing faster and the infrastructure and how the Tracy City and communications between the people and Tracy City is important key role and using the money wisely and how transparent we are providing the money to the city people the benefits so like for example in Tracy at least how the park is water park is going to come in and roads and infrastructures growing and other benefits or other extensive communities if you want to add so for that the massive community the the committee it's giving like more funds how the auditable funds how how i can perform audit how i can use the fund and how i can communicate to the city people how the city is working for the people and how organically we are working. So I can use that committee and auditing for that fund, everything for the purpose I am interested in that committee. Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Council Member Nygaard.

Thank you. Thank you for joining us tonight. My question to you is, if you are selected for the oversight committee, explain your understanding of the roles and responsibilities you would have as a community member.

As a committee member, if I elected for this role, I will be responsible for monitoring the funds, how it is going in and out, from where it is coming and how it is using wisely, and what is the benefit, extended benefits to the people, it's going to the core people. where they require. So that fund, and that is a kind of auditable, how I can provide reports, how I can publish the reports from the using city magazines everywhere, and so that the people will be aware that Tracy City is using the money wisely to the people and the benefits of the people. So likewise, I will be in the part of the committee.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

Good evening, sir. Thank you for being here. Explain your understanding of the city's general fund versus the enterprise funds.

Enterprise funds, it will be running based on, I will say, some budget and scope of the work will be there for enterprise funds. And there will be a lot of funds, a lot of budget allocation for each year. Whereas the city funds or anything, it is collected based on the property tax, other tax from the people. So it is a kind of a every year, it can be like a deficit or it can be like a over surplus or like that. But whereas it is a kind of a, I will say unpredictable amount every year it will be there. Whereas the enterprise funds, it will be like a solid fund and there will be like a scope of the work, everything will be there. So in this fund, it is whatever the available fund, we have to change our scope and we have to finish the work and we have to how much maximize the benefits we can provide to the public. So that is one of the major differences I am seeing in this. Great. Thank you very much, sir. Thank you. Council Member Evans.

Thank you. And thank you, Mr. Ramakrishnan, for stepping up and being so generous with your time and giving it to our city. Appreciate you doing that. My question for you tonight is, in your opinion, what is the purpose of the Measure V Residence Oversight Committee? What is the purpose of Measure V Fund? Purpose of the committee.

Okay. So the purpose, as I said, Tracy City Fund, we can say like... collecting the funds from the property tax and other taxes and how the infrastructures like police or water, all the facilities which we are going to give to the public, like infrastructures, I will say like roads and Tracy Ellis Park and Tracy Hills extension to the, what I can say, the warehouses, all those things, how the fund is going towards to that benefit of the community and benefit of the Tracy people. So other than that and how we are auditing that. So transparently we have to provide the fund in and out and what I can say like the fund where the source is coming from and we have to provide, we have to use the fund wisely. That's what I will say, yeah. Thank you.

Thank you. Now you have one minute for closing remarks.

Yeah, closing remarks. Thank you. Thanks for being selected me for a committee as a representative. As I am a volunteer for community for Tracey Reach and Bay Area, I will be give my maximized my time and effort for benefit of the Tracey people and benefit of the Tracey City Council. And I will give like a maximum, what I can say, whatever the knowledge, whatever the fund I'm handling, I will responsibly working and responsibly facing the people and publicizing or whatever the city manifestos, I will follow that and I will work for the city. That's the maximum I can promise at present. Yeah.

Thank you so much. Yeah. You may go ahead and take a seat. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Returning to council for further discussion. So I want to thank all of the applicants for coming out, taking some time and participating with us. I know there's a lot of other things you can be doing. We're so grateful that you take the time to serve your community. But this time I would like to go ahead and just confirm that there were Two three-years and one two-year.

That is correct.

Okay. So at this time, I would be moving to support the reappointment for the three-year term for Mr. Arulapan and Mr. Fernando and the two-year term for Mr. Ramakrishnan.

I'll second that.

Okay. We have a first and a second. Do we have any further discussion?

No, just other than to say, so I guess the answer is yes. Go ahead. Just always great seeing what great quality community members we have. And just want to say again, thanks. It's always really neat to be part of this process to just see who's willing to step up and give their time. And it means a lot. So just want to say thank you.

Any additional discussion? If not, all right. We have a first and a second. Roll call, please.

Mayor Arreola?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Abercrombie?

Yes.

Council Member Vidalia?

Yes.

Council Member Evans?

Yes.

Council Member Nygaard? Yes. Thank you.

All right, well, congratulations, gentlemen, and we look forward to having good work from you on our Measure V Commission. Okay, well, we're gonna go ahead and take a two-minute recess. All right, we are returned from recess at 5.48 p.m. At this time, we're going to go ahead and... Excuse me, staff report, please.

Hello again, Mayor and Council. Nessie Lopez, your Deputy City Clerk. On March 19, 2024, the City Council adopted Resolution 2024-042, establishing a process for appointing members to City Advisory Bodies. The policy requires a full Council to review applications, conduct interviews, and make recommendations to the Mayor in an open session. Three terms on the Planning Commission will expire March 31st, so tonight, 2026, and recruitment ran from February 23rd to March 23rd, 2026, and yielded six applications. Through this item, the City Council will establish interview protocols as they are not specified in the policy and conduct interviews, which include the proposed process includes city-led questions questioning time responses and a brief discussion. The council must select interview questions and staff recommends using the previously approved questions that have been placed on the dais for you and also in the agenda packet that was published on March 30th, 2026 as they remain relevant. The suggested process is as follows. One, each council member asks one question for a total of five after selecting the interview questions. Allow two minutes per question for a total of ten minutes per applicant. Interview applicants in alphabetical order by last name. I do want to note that we have two applicants that are running a little behind. They should be here shortly. And I know Mayor is already aware of that. We're going to allow to five minutes per council member for follow-up questions and allow up to ten minutes for council discussion. Following interviews, the council will make recommendations to the Mayor who will nominate a candidate for council approval. If no candidates are approved, the mayor may choose to reopen the recruitment. The applicant materials all meet residency requirements as they were verified by the city clerk's office staff and personal information has been redacted. There is no fiscal impact for this specific item. The selected applicants will serve a four-year terms beginning April 1st, 2026, and ending March 31, 2030. The action requested of Council this evening is that by motion 1, establish interview protocols to fill three vacancies due to term expirations for the Planning Commission, Two, conduct interviews of six applicants for three term expirations. And three, upon conclusion of the interviews, appoint three applicants to fill three vacancies due, again, to term expirations and establish an eligibility list if it is necessary. And that concludes my staff report.

Thank you, Ms. Lopez. This time we'll have for public comment on item six related to planning commission applicants. Do we have any members of the public like to speak on item six? Seeing one, We'll allow four minutes per our guidelines. Please proceed.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I think I kind of expressed my feelings earlier that I thought public comment was going to be after to listen to the applicants, but I understand that once we started the procedures, we have to follow it. But I'm here to speak because as a Tracy community advocate and also sitting on a commission, I highly recommend one of our commissioners that's reapplying that's out here in the audience. And also I've gotten to know Commissioner Matt Strouts. I've been to a lot of the meetings, very respectful, very professional. I know he does his homework prior to meetings, and I know he's really involved in our community. There's also, I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Chavez in the past few years, also very professional, very knowledgeable, on hands with the community, lives here in Tracy. Actually, everybody lives here in Tracy. I don't know Ms. Biles. She's out in the audience. I did read her application, but I strongly recommend that you look at these three applicants because they do do their homework. And I feel as a Commissioner of Transportation and Planning that we do our homework. And I could speak for them because just being involved in the community and being at their meetings. for council to feel comfortable so when we make a decision that if it does come to council that we made the best decisions in the homework that you're confident because there's some things that we're not previewed to when doing the commission meetings that comes ultimately to you on some policy and when it comes to money but actually the planning and the research and the homework not just because of commission, but being an advocate out in the community and listen to the input. They're very well respected out in the community as well. And that's how I could say that I'm confident just with experience with them that they're really good. Again, I can't speak for the other applicant speakers. I just read their What do you call it? Application? Applicant? Application? So sorry. But anyway, I'm rambling on. But unfortunately, we're not able to listen to all before I give my input. But I highly recommend them. I feel that you want to trust the people that you select to bring the best decisions to you prior to your decisions. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. English. Do we have any additional speakers on item six? Seeing none in chambers, do we have any online?

Not online.

Thank you with that we'll go ahead and close out the public comment period for item six. But this time before we go to discuss interview protocols I'd like to ask all of the applicants to please step outside into the hallway. Just the planning commission applicants. Thank you. All right, Council, we know the protocol, so I'm going to go ahead and ask question one. Does anyone else have any questions that they'd like to select?

Mayor, I'd like to ask question five.

Question five for Council Member Nygaard.

Mayor, I'd like to ask a question that is not on the list. I want to ask why is it important for a growing city to have a planning commission?

Why is it important for a growing city to have a planning commission?

Correct. So, Mr. Mayor, after discussing with the city attorney, I need to make a motion to suspend the rules so that we can ask questions that are not on this because technically these were established. And so I would make a motion that we suspend them. As I see it and as suggested.

yeah so our understandings were previously established protocols but we can that's why we asked the mayor pretend had a similar request so we figured that's why we asked everyone to leave the room and yes just a simple motion to suspend the rules and then followed by a motion to approve the new questions sure would you like me to make the motion i made a motion to suspend the rules first on our team motion do you have a second i have a second okay we have a first and second to suspend the rules related to the suggesting questions roll call please

Mayor Pro Tem Abercrombie?

Yes.

Council Member Evans?

Yes.

Council Member Bedoya?

Yes.

Council Member Nagy? Yes. Mayor Areola?

Yes.

Thank you.

Council Member Evans, can you please repeat that question?

The question is, why is it important for a growing city to have a planning commission?

Thank you.

Council Member Bedoya? Yes. So it's labeled as number four, but it's the second number four? It's actually question seven. What will you do to foster teamwork and cooperation with commissioners? How would you handle a situation where fellow commissioners are going to be on commission parameters? Is it typo?

Right, it's labeled weird, right? Yeah, so it should be seven.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it should be seven.

I see the misnumbering. Okay, so what would be number seven for Council Member Bedoya and Mayor Potem?

And my question I'd like to add is, please explain your understanding of the general plan. Okay. So I make a motion that we add those two additional questions, the one from Councilmember Evans and my question. Second.

Okay, we have first and second. Roll call, please.

Mayor Pro Tem Abercrombie?

Yes.

Council Member Evans?

Yes.

Council Member Doya?

Yes.

Council Member Nygaard? Yes. Mayor Arreola?

Yes.

Thank you.

All right. Thank you. So I will move to establish interview protocols to fill three vacancies in the Planning Commission as follows. Each council member will ask one question for a total of five questions. Interview question numbers 1-5, re-numbered 7-8. And new questions by Councillor Evans and Mayor Pro Tem Abercrombie will be asked of each applicant. Each applicant will be allocated two minutes to respond to each question for a total of 10 minutes. Six applicants will be interviewed to conduct interviews for six applicants for three vacancies. We have a first and we have a second by Mayor Pro Tem. Roll call please.

Mayor, I'd just also like to confirm that the two applicants who are on their way, if we could request that they be interviewed towards the end of the process.

Understood. I'll accept that friendly amendment. Thank you. Okay.

Thank you so much. Okay. Mayor Ariella?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Abercrombie?

Yes.

Council Member Redoya?

Yes.

Council Member Evans?

Yes.

Council Member Nagard? Yes. Thank you.

All right. Thank you for hanging in there with us. So with that, staff, who will be the first applicant?

Marina Biles.

Can you please bring Ms. Biles?

I guess I'm the only one who came prepared. Always my talking notes.

All right, well, good evening, Ms. Biles. Just as a reminder, please speak directly into the microphone. We're having a little trouble earlier. So this time, we're each gonna ask you a question. You'll have two minutes to respond to each. At the end, you'll have one minute for closing remarks. Any questions for us?

Nope.

All right, thanks for coming tonight. We'll go ahead and get started. Why do you want to be a member of the Planning Commission?

You know, that's the best question. After reviewing all those questions, sorry. After reviewing all those questions, that was the best question. Everybody asked that question too. And my... BIGGEST DECISION WAS MADE ON THE STATE OF THE CITY A FEW WEEKS AGO WHEN I WAS THERE AND I SAW NO ONE AT MY AGE THAT'S THE FUTURE OF THE CITY. I'M IN LIKE LATE 40s AND THOSE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO ARE PLANNING WHAT'S TO COME FOR THE NEXT 5, 10, 15 YEARS, RIGHT? AND WE ARE NOT PLANNING CORRECTLY. I FEEL LIKE WE NEED TO INVOLVE IN DECISION MAKING and seeing how fast the city growing. I've been in the city for about 12 years. I live here and I plan to retire here. But yeah, even going to dinner, we go to Brentwood or Livermore or Manteca. And truly being on advice committee and bridge that gap between community needs and council decision and city mayor decision, it is why we want to be here.

All right. Thank you. with Council Member Nygaard.

Thank you for joining us tonight and stepping forward for this position. My question to you is, describe your familiarity with sustainability concepts that might relate to community planning. Yeah, community planning.

I have some good notes for that too. So when we're thinking of sustainability, it's truly focusing on long-term and how it benefits on both sides. Because it's not just what impacts a certain community, it's what impacts entire city, all community involved. It's not for specific area, it's for all. And I know it might be not the popular opinion when it comes to sustainability because a lot of us have our own decisions and our own prejudice per se. It is truly important to be very objective and with no bias going into any decision making for a long term planning. I work as a project manager for a really big corporation AND I MANAGE ENTIRE REGIONS AT A TIME. I WORK DIRECTLY UNDER CEOs, DIRECTLY UNDER DIRECTORS, AND BALANCING ALL THOSE DIFFERENT PROJECTS IN ALL TIME AND BEING EFFICIENT AND BEING ON BUDGET AND BEING TIMELY AND RESPECTFUL TO YOUR PEERS AND YOUR OPINIONS AND RAISING YOUR VOICE IN THE RIGHT TIME AND THE RIGHT PLACE WITH THE RIGHT OUTCOME. THAT'S HOW WE CAN CONTRIBUTE TO LONG-TERM INVESTING IN THE CITY WHERE IT COMES TO, LIKE, LONG-TERM PLANNING, NOT JUST TODAY'S BENEFITS. HOPEFULLY THAT ANSWERS YOUR QUESTION. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

THANK YOU. COUNSELOR EMBERDOY.

ALL RIGHT. MS. BOWLES, WELCOME. WHAT WILL YOU DO TO FOSTER TEAMWORK AND COOPERATION AMONGST COMMISSIONERS? AND HOW WOULD YOU HANDLE A SITUATION WHERE A FELLOW COMMISSIONER IS GOING BEYOND THE COMMISSION PARAMETERS?

So teamwork, I lead a team and I lead a team across the country. Not every day you get to jump on the plane and go fix problems. A lot of times you truly have to work in that collaborative environment where facilitating everyone's opinion truly matters to outcome and base your outcome on unbiased opinions. So that was the biggest learning for me as a project manager back in the day and that's how I start leading a team. If we do have a, oh. They have a TV and they can hear it. So it's the same.

That's true, they do.

Our apologies, Ms. Biles, we did stop the clock. So we'll allow you to go ahead and proceed.

And if we do have any conflict, it's truly addressing everything in the moment or redirecting conversation in a positive matter, or if needed, we can always pull it aside and professionally address it outside the meeting to ensure there's no repeated behavior in the future. All right.

Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Evans.

Thank you, Mayor. My question for you, first of all, let me say thank you for stepping up and being so giving of your time. Why is it important for a growing city to have a planning commission?

We see growth so fast in the city. And again, I live here for 12 years. And when I purchased the home, it was nowhere near to what it is now. We crossed over 100,000 people so fast. My child just graduated Kimball High. I don't have a huge land here or anything. So planning commission is truly here to be the bridge between the community needs and and the city planning. It's truly reviewed how we use the resources surrounding us and where we go with it for long term. It is all in sustainability, back to Dottie's question. It is all what we want for the next generation to see here. AND IT'S UP TO US. LIKE NOBODY ELSE BUT WHO, RIGHT? IT'S THE COMMUNITY WHO HAS TO GET INVOLVED AND UNFORTUNATELY OUR COMMUNITY IS AGING AND OUR TARGET NEW COMMUNITIES, WHAT, 35, 45 ON THE CITY MEETING? AND THAT'S US. AND IF WE DON'T STEP UP NOW, WE'RE JUST GOING TO HAVE NO TIME AND IT'S GOING TO BE PICKING UP PIECES. WE'RE GOING TO TURN INTO AN We have to balance our growth in industrial. We have to growth in housing. We have to see growth across all benefiting parts of this community.

Thank you. Mayor Patel.

Thank you for applying. Appreciate you being here. Please explain your understanding of the general plan.

I actually wrote that down. Like that's something I'm not very familiar with and I'm still kind of learning through that one. But I understand that the commission serves as advisory board for city council and we make recommendation based on general plan for the city and we would represent the community input for that. To me, general plan was it's like a long-term vision for land use, if I'm understanding it right. Again, it's new to me. I'm not super familiar, but I tried to do my homework. I want to make sure I'm familiar enough to make reasonable decisions. But if something I don't know, I'm willing to put work in it and step up to where it needs to be addressed.

Thank you.

Super vague. I'm sorry. It's super vague.

No, that's fine. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Biles. You now have one minute for closing remarks.

So my purpose for applying for a planning commission is truly to get involvement from, again, I'm in the zone one. I feel like zone one doesn't exist when it's participation in the community. They own their own planet. They don't know what's happening in the rest of the city. So I feel like us being part of the city now, that's the growing part. We just had a dense housing put next to Costco not that long ago. We have new buildings going up next to Mountain House, to Bridge Mountain House and Tracy together. So voice matter for the community and I feel that us who needs to step up I want to be involved now because it's never better than now. I work from home now. I can invest as much time as needed in the community in the future.

Thank you Ms. Biles. So you were welcome to sit and join us and we will go ahead and bring in the next applicant. Thank you.

Mayor, I'll go ahead and get the next applicant, which will be Nasir Boakye-Boateng. And all the applicants are now here. So it looks like we can go in order.

Good evening. Good evening, Mr. Bokey Boateng. Boateng. Okay. I will try my best. Good evening, sir. At this time, we're going to go ahead and each ask you one question. We'll have two minutes to answer each question. At the end, you'll have one minute for closing remarks. Do you have any questions for us? Not at this time. Thank you. All right. Thank you for joining us. We'll go ahead and get started. Question one. Why do you want to be a member of the Planning Commission?

Thank you very much, Mayor. I think that being in the Planning Commission is an opportunity to serve the community in a unique way. The Planning Commission does three things. Works to bring the short-term goals, the long-term goals, and the ongoing community needs TOGETHER IN CONSISTENCY. THAT WORK REQUIRES A LOT OF THOUGHT AND DETAILS, AND I'M THE KIND OF PERSON WHO LIKES GOING INTO THE DETAILS OF PLANS, TRACKING THEM, MAKING SURE THAT WHAT WE ARE THINKING ABOUT IS WHAT WE ARE DELIVERING. AND I'M REALLY INTERESTED IN BEING ABLE TO SERVE THE COMMUNITY IN THAT PARTICULAR WAY. THAT'S WHY I WOULD LIKE TO BE IN THE PLANNING COMMISSION. THANK YOU.

Thank you for joining us tonight and for serving our community. My question to you is, describe your familiarity with sustainability concepts that might relate to community planning.

Thank you very much, Councilmember. So when we think about sustainability, it's treated as a side issue. But sustainability is actually a kind of thing that makes sure that the value that you're delivering is permanent. So for example, my kids, are really good at trying to be helpful. They'll go and try to cook something in the kitchen, but then they leave a mess behind. So you added value by being able to prepare a meal, bring joy to the family, but then you leave a mess behind that is not cleaned up. In business and in development, there's a lot of things that people think about. Is this financially viable? Is it going to be profitable? Is it going to deliver whichever goals that we have? It makes it very difficult for us to step back and ask, is it going to deliver the right impact? And are there some negative impacts we are not thinking about? So then we think about the people who are going to be receiving whatever we are delivering. Is it the value being mitigated by some negative impact we've not thought about? Is the environment being harmed? even though we are adding some other value to the system. So sustainability isn't a foreign thing. It is asking us to take another step when we think through the good things we want to do and make sure that we are really adding value, we are not having any negative outcomes, and if there are any negative outcomes that are seen, we are being identified, we are being responsible, and we are resolving those problems. So that's how I think about it.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Bedoya. Okay. Mr. Bachi-Boteng, welcome. Thank you. What will you do to foster teamwork and cooperation amongst the commissioners? And how would you handle a situation where a fellow commissioner is going beyond the commission parameters? Thank you very much.

I think nobody intentionally tries to go beyond parameters. So the first thing that I'll understand is if someone is going beyond the parameters, it's because they probably are not paying attention to the room. They are trying to achieve something that we are not all thinking about. And those are the opportunities for teams to grow. Because if you're all thinking the same way all the time, then why are we a team? We can't just be one person doing the job. So I see it as an opportunity. So the first thing that I'll do is try to understand why the commissioner is going beyond parameters. Is there something that they've seen that the rest of us are not seeing? try to also draw the attention to the scope of our work. Because sometimes you can go a bit beyond and it's harmless, but there are legal constraints and you could go and do something that can be harmful in the process. So first assess the situation. identify if there's an immediate risk. If there's an immediate risk, obviously try to put a stop to it. Maybe ask for a recess. Give us a time to take a breather and actually think through. If there's no immediate risk and it's just a mouth thing, try to start a conversation, understand where they are coming from, and try to discover what it is that they are seeing that the rest of us are not seeing so that we add value overall. And if it so happens that we discover something new, and that's something positive. I wouldn't assume it is intentional, but if it still happens to be intentional, then we will have to also go through standard procedures to be able to help address it. At the end of the day, we are all accountable to the community, and we hold each other accountable.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Evans.

Thank you, Mr. Boateng, for being here and appreciate you being so generous with your time and stepping up again. My question for you tonight is why is it important for a growing city to have a planning commission? Thank you very much.

Ideally, in a perfect world, we wouldn't want to have a planning commission because that becomes an extra layer of bureaucracy. So why have it? It's just because that being able to develop in a way that is sustainable, that actually has long-term value, is very hard and it cannot be done in an ad hoc way. We actually have to think about the evolving needs of the community. We have to find a way to communicate it in a consistent manner. We have to make sure that those guidelines that we've set, that we've communicated, we are sticking to them. We also have to understand when our needs have departed from the original goals, be able to PROVIDE FEEDBACK TO THE RELEVANT AUTHORITIES IN THE COMMUNITY AND MAKE SURE THAT WE COURSE CORRECT. THIS IS A VERY COMPLEX PARADIGM. AND THERE ARE DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE COMMUNITY PLANNING PROCESS THAT DO THIS. STAFF DOES A GREAT JOB. IF YOU HAVE HEARINGS AND YOU HEAR FROM THE CITIZENS, A LOT OF MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY HAVE REALLY THOUGHT THROUGH WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES OF OUR PLANNING, WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES OF BUSINESS, WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES OF COMMUNITY. A LOT OF THESE THINGS ARE KNOWN. But at the end of the day, we need some sort of process where we distill all of this together to provide actionable solutions that can add long-term value to the community. That to me is the only reason why we should have a planning commission. And if you're not delivering that, then probably don't need one.

Thank you.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you, sir. Appreciate you stepping up to help out. Can you please explain your understanding of the general plan?

Thank you very much. The general plan is a very complex document. So I'll first confess that I don't have a detailed enough understanding of the general plan. It has multiple components, different elements addressing different parts of our development vision. The general plan is like a sort of our development constitution because it really looks really long term and tries to anticipate overall what we are trying to build as a community. It's broken down into specific areas and there are some parts that are also expressed in specific plans. So the way that I see the general plan is that it's a reference guide that helps us to be able to direct the overall planning vision and all of the activities. In addition to that, it's an opportunity for us to really reinforce the long-term value we are trying to deliver. So being able to consistently keep the general plan up to date, address whether it is in line with the ongoing needs of the community, is also another way that I interact with the general plan. But there's a lot for me to learn about being able to understand the vision of the general plan, operationalize it, and also evolve it over time. Great. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. With that, you have one minute for any closing remarks.

Thank you very much. I really appreciate the opportunity to be able to contribute in a meaningful way to the community. I've always found a bit of need to be able to do this. Typically, the structure that you try to focus on other things and then one day you decide to see what you can give out to the community. I believe that, on the other hand, it's actually better to really engage with the people, our neighbors, and try to build something great together. I'm really interested in being able to develop balanced, long-term, actionable solutions that help to be able to add immediate value to the community. engaging in great conversations to make that happen. And I'm really glad to have been given the opportunity to do so for the past four years. Thank you very much.

All right. Well, thank you, Mr. Boateng. You may take a seat, and then we'll go ahead and write the next applicant. And staff, who will the next applicant be?

I just want to confirm that.

And was that Mr. Chavez?

Yes, Mayor.

Good evening, Mr. Chavez. Thanks for joining us. Good evening. We're going to each ask you a series of questions. You'll have two minutes to respond to each, and at the end, you'll have one minute for closing remarks. Any questions for us?

No questions.

All right. Appreciate it. Thank you. We'll go ahead and get started. Mr. Chavez, why do you want to be a member of the Planning Commission?

That's an excellent question. And again, I want to take some time to thank you, Mr. Mayor, the City Council, as well as City staff for being present today. I'M A FOURTH GENERATION TRACY RESIDENT. I'VE HAD THE PLEASURE OF GROWING UP IN THIS TOWN AND SEEING THE CITY EVOLVE OVER THE COURSE OF GENERATIONS, AND I SEE SERVING ON THE PLANNING COMMISSION AS A GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO VOICE THE NEEDS OF THE NEXT GENERATION THROUGH DIFFERENT DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENTS, SEEING HOW THE CITY GROWS, AND giving back in a greater way. I've also had the pleasure of serving on the Youth Advisory Commission as an adult commissioner, seeing all of our high school students thrive and become empowered to give back to the city. And I've been giving back to my community in a volunteer capacity as well through St. Bernard's Youth Ministry as well as the Tracy Breakfast Lions Club. The way I see Tracy is as a town with a rich heritage that has a lot of potential going forward, especially considering what DIFFERENT ENTITIES IN SACRAMENTO ARE TELLING US STATEWIDE. A FUN FACT I LIKE GIVING TO SOME OF MY FRIENDS IS THE DELTA STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL PROJECTS THAT WHILE AS A STATE CALIFORNIA IS GOING TO LOSE TWO MILLION RESIDENTS, THE CENTRAL VALLEY, SPECIFICALLY THE NORTH VALLEY, will be taking on a migration of 2 million residents inward. Tracy is going to be at the front of that in addition to our infrastructure countywide. And I would like to serve as a voice for my generation and a voice for Tracy residents on how we can adapt to that change effectively, responsibly, and sustainably.

Thank you. Council Member Nygaard.

Mr. Chavez, I appreciate you coming forward and applying for this position. I really love your energy. I have a question for you. Describe your familiarity with sustainability concepts that might relate to community planning.

THAT'S A GREAT QUESTION. THANK YOU, COUNCILWOMAN. SUSTAINABILITY AND COMMUNITY PLANNING COMES DOWN TO ONE CONCEPT TO ME, LUNGEVITY, WHICH IS TO SAY HOW ARE WE GOING TO UTILIZE OUR FUNDS AS A CITY, TAXPAYER DOLLARS, TO IMPLEMENT PROJECTS THAT BENEFIT NOT JUST ONE GENERATION BUT THE GENERATIONS THAT COME FORWARD. THIS CAN BE IMPLEMENTED THROUGH BICYCLE LANES, INCREASING WALKABILITY IN OUR CITY AND ADAPTING TO PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE AT THE COUNTY AND STATE LEVEL. AS A PLANNING COMMISSIONER, I UNDERSTAND THAT WE HAVE A LIMITED AMOUNT OF RESOURCES IN OUR CITY, AND WE HAVE A DUTY TO SERVE OUR RESIDENTS AS WE SEE FIT. AND EACH DECISION AND RECOMMENDATION THAT I MAKE ALONGSIDE WITH MY COMMISSIONERS NEEDS TO BE SUSTAINABLE, NEEDS TO BE SMART, AS THEY TOLD ME IN HIGH SCHOOL. IT NEEDS TO BE SPECIFIC, MEASURABLE, ATTAINABLE, REALISTIC, AND TIME-BASED. I KNOW ALL THE HIGH SCHOOLERS REMEMBER THAT FROM GRE FIRST QUARTER. BUT SUSTAINABILITY TO ME MEANS USING RESOURCES CONSISTENTLY AND RESPECTFULLY WHILE THINKING 10, 20 OR 30 YEARS AHEAD.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU.

COUNCIL MEMBER BUDOIA. NEW SPEAKER ALL RIGHT. MR. CHAVEZ, WELCOME. What will you do to foster teamwork and cooperation amongst your commission members? And how would you handle a situation where a fellow commissioner might be going beyond the commission parameters?

Once again, another great question. Consensus building is really important for many civic bodies, and I understand often there is going to be disagreement that needs to result in action. As a commissioner, I will be committed to building consensus where I can, REACHING ACROSS TO PLANNING COMMISSIONERS WITH DIFFERENT VISIONS FOR THE CITY OF TRACY AND FINDING COMMON GROUND. I'D LIKE TO DEFER TO SOME OF MY EXPERIENCE WORKING WITH THE STATE TO COMMUNICATE THIS POINT. I USED TO WORK FOR A MEMBER OF OUR STATE LEGISLATURE THAT REPRESENTED RURAL CALIFORNIA WHERE ACCESS TO WATER, TO INFRASTRUCTURE, AND TO JOBS WAS CRITICAL. And we had this back road called LaGrange Road that ran from Merced proper all the way into Sonora. During my tenure, I had to work with three Board of Supervisors bodies to build consensus on whether or not LaGrange Road ought to be reclassified as a state highway and be assumed under Caltrans. Because as of 2025, this road had 24 accidents and 12 fatalities, the majority of which were concentrated in Merced and Stanislaus Counties. SO, WORKING WITH MY DISTRICT DIRECTOR AND STAFF, I MANAGED TO CALL THE CHAIRMAN OF ALL OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS AND EXPLAIN THE NEED FOR RECLASSIFICATION. AND THANKFULLY, TUWALLEMI COUNTY AND MERCED COUNTY came together as a body and produced a unanimous resolution per body recommending that we reclassify the back road. Now, are there competing needs in reclassification? Will resources be demanded more highly of Tuolumne versus Merced or Stanislaus? Perhaps, but as a representative for this community, I made it a point to try to build consensus and express the need for change. That's one example in my professional experience that I hope to bring to this commission.

Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Evans.

Thank you, Mr. Chavez, for being here. I appreciate you being so generous with your time. My question for you tonight is why is it important for a growing city to have a planning commission?

Once again, great question. And aside from it being mandated by state law, it's important for a growing city to have an active planning commission, to have a planning commission, because There are many elements of growth that are competing for hegemony, I guess. There's my political science coming out from college. You have, for example, an industrial base in Tracy that is GROWING PRETTY RAPIDLY. YOU HAVE A BUNCH OF PEOPLE FROM THE BAY AREA, FROM NORTHERN CALIFORNIA, FROM SACRAMENTO, THAT ARE MOVING TO THE CITY AND ARE DEMANDING HOUSING AFFORDABILITY. AND YOU ALSO HAVE EVERYDAY PEOPLE, HIGH SCHOOLERS, COMMUTERS, THAT ARE IN NEED OF AFFORDABLE FOOD AND UTILITIES. AND AS A PLANNING COMMISSION, AS A PLANNING COMMISSIONER, I WILL BE IN A POSITION WHERE I WILL HAVE TO MEDIATE ALL OF THESE INTERESTS EFFECTIVELY AND EQUITABLY. WHAT BETTER PLACE TO DO IT THAN IN A GROWING COMMUNITY. AS TRACY IS GROWING AND AS IT IS NO DOUBT GOING TO BE RECEIVING A HIGH POPULATION OF RESIDENTS MIGRATING EASTWARD, IT'S IMPORTANT TO HAVE COMMISSIONERS THAT ARE FROM THE COMMUNITY, ROOTED IN WHAT TRACY WAS AND WHAT IT IS AND WHERE IT IS GOING. I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO ADVOCATING FOR THOSE COMMUNITIES WHERE NEEDED, AND WITH TRACY, IN PARTICULAR, WE'RE IN A GREAT SPOT, ESPECIALLY WITH VALLEY LINK TAKING OFF IN THE TRI-VALLEY, AS WELL AS IMPROVEMENTS TO 205 AND 580 BEING MADE. AS A CITY COMMISSIONER, I LOOK FORWARD TO WORKING WITH COUNTY ENTITIES AND STATE ENTITIES TO BE THE BEST REPRESENTATIVE I CAN.

THANK YOU. MAYOR BURTEM.

CHAVEZ, APPRECIATE YOUR TIME. THANK YOU. CAN YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE GENERAL PLAN?

ABSOLUTELY. THANK YOU, VICE MAYOR. THE GENERAL PLAN IS BASICALLY THE STRATEGIC PLAN AND OUTLINE FOR THE CITY OF TRACY STARTING FROM WHEN WE WERE FOUNDED GOING FORWARD TO 2036, 2046 AND BEYOND. IT'S MY UNDERSTANDING THAT THE GENERAL THEMES OF THE GENERAL PLAN ARE THAT TRACY IS A CITY FILLED WITH RESIDENTS THAT LOOK TO HAVE A HOME BASE. IT ENCOURAGES AND IT SEEKS TO ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO COME TO OUR CITY TO RAISE A FAMILY, TO SET ROOTS, AND TO CONTRIBUTE ECONOMICALLY IN MANY DIFFERENT WAYS. AND IT'S MY UNDERSTANDING AS WELL THAT THE GENERAL PLAN IS UP FOR AMENDMENT. THIS COMING FISCAL YEAR. WE'RE LOOKING FOR INSIGHT FROM TRACY RESIDENTS ON HOW WE OUGHT TO ADAPT THE GENERAL PLAN GOING FORWARD. IT SERVES AS A BLUEPRINT TO GROW THE CITY, TO ANNEX DIFFERENT PROPERTIES AND TAKE IN DIFFERENT DEVELOPMENT PROPOSALS. AND AS A COMMISSIONER, IT'S MY JOB TO FIRST AND FOREMOST SERVE THE RESIDENTS OF TRACY WITH AN IMPORTANT CAVEAT. being in compliance with the general plan as outlined. I'm here as, yes, a decision maker with my fellow commissioners, but also as an advisor and a good steward of the plan that our forefathers set forth for us. And I look forward to seeing how the general plan continues to grow in alignment with Tracy and its population.

Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chavez. With that, you have one minute for closing remarks.

FANTASTIC. AGAIN, I'D LIKE TO THANK THE ENTIRETY OF THE COUNCIL AND STAFF FOR HAVING ME TODAY. IT WOULD BE AN HONOR TO SERVE ON THIS COMMISSION BECAUSE THE NEXT GENERATION NEEDS A VOICE IN THIS CITY. AND I KNOW THAT MAYOR ARIOLA HAS DONE A FANTASTIC JOB IN INCLUDING YOUTH VOICES THROUGH THE YOUTH ADVISORY COMMISSION, WHICH I CURRENTLY SERVE ON, AS WELL AS OTHER FORMS OF CIVIC INPUT. I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO WORKING WITH THE COUNCIL AND FELLOW COMMISSIONERS TO Make sure that Tracy remains livable and retains its heritage while utilizing its resources responsibly. As a city, we're only going to go up from here. So again, it was a pleasure. I thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Chavez. You can go ahead and take a seat, and then we'll go ahead and bring in the next applicant.

Next applicant is Prabhjeet Dale. I'll go get him now.

All right. Good evening, Mr. Dillon. Good evening, Council Members.

How are you guys doing?

Good. Thank you for joining us. So this time, we're going to go ahead and ask you a series of questions. You'll have two minutes to answer to each, and at the end, you'll have one minute for closing remarks. Do you have any questions for us? I'm ready to get started. Okay. All right.

Appreciate it.

Thank you. Starting with question one. Why do you want to be a member of the Planning Commission?

SO FOR THE PLANNING COMMISSION, YOU KNOW, SINCE I'VE MOVED INTO TRACY, ORIGINALLY I WAS HERE IN 2007 AND NOW I'VE BEEN HERE FOR THE LAST SIX YEARS. I just want to be a part of the growth of Tracy and make sure that it's moving in the right direction. I always think inside the triangle. I know before, when I was out here in 07, it was always have a green belt around Tracy. Don't let it infiltrate into the next cities. Keep Tracy within itself. And I've always enjoyed that about Tracy itself, just to be a part of Tracy and keep your infrastructure within. And so that's the thing. I do want to be involved with how Tracy grows inside the triangle. HOW WE SET UP OUR INFRASTRUCTURE, YOU KNOW, DEFINITELY BRING BUSINESSES IN. DEFINITELY WANT TRACY TO BE ONE OF THOSE CITIES WHERE TRACIANS AREN'T THINKING LOOK AT WHAT MANTIKA HAS BUT MORE LIKE OTHER CITIES ARE LOOKING AT US AND SAYING HOW IS TRACY DOING SO WELL. SO DEFINITELY LOOKING TO BE A PART OF THAT AND A PART OF THAT GROWTH AND IT'S EXCITING And, you know, seeing things that are already happening here and, you know, the sprouts in front of Ellis and, you know, the stores coming out inside of it and kind of developing the other side of Tracy as well. And then, you know, hopefully, you know, remaking into what the mall is. All that is very exciting. And, yeah, and, you know, I look forward to just being a part of that.

Thank you. Council Member Nygaard.

Good evening, Mr. Perjit. Thank you so much for joining us tonight and for, I appreciate you stepping forward for this position. My question to you is, describe your familiarity with sustainability concepts that might relate to community planning.

Sure, sustainability concepts. So my work is with the Social Security Administration and it has been for pretty much my career. And so being a part of their financial management team and making sure our resources are there for the future, it's always been a big part of us. Whereas for all the money that's taken in for social security, we make everything happen. Administrative, employees, everything is within 1% of what we bring in. And so there's a lot of heat and a lot of light on what we do. And so the management of our resources is paramount because, you know, we're responsible and to the American public. So everything that we do comes under, you know, a very strong eye from Congress. I mean, nothing of our rules, anything that we do has to go through Congress for approval before we can even, you know, redo some of the chairs or the computers. It gets sparse at times, and it's a little bit difficult, but, you know, we make it work. And so being able to bring that ideology here of, you know, working with what we have and, you know, finding ways to make it work, you know, I feel that, you know, suits me strongly since I've been doing it for so long. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Mr. Dale, welcome. Thank you. What will you do to foster teamwork and cooperation amongst your commission members? And how would you handle a situation where a fellow commissioner member may be going beyond the commission parameters?

I'm sorry, could you... Definitely, yeah.

What will you do to foster teamwork and cooperation amongst commission members? And how will you handle a situation where a fellow commissioner is going beyond commission parameters?

Okay. Yeah, building teamwork has never been a problem. I believe that you've been coaching here at Tracy Youth, and I've been an assistant coach for TYSL growing up playing team sports. But I'll tell you a funny one about, I mean, not funny, but real life is during COVID. I mean, I love my family, but the only conversation I was having was about Bluey and this cartoon and what this is going on, and it was lacking a little bit of an adult bonding of, hey, I need to have a different conversation. You know, you can't talk really, you know, my four-year-old's not going to have a great conversation about politics or, you know, current events. So, you know, here in Tracy, I was actually hosting four to five throughout Tracy Hills, a happy hour. I was like, hey, just come on over, have a drink. If you don't drink, there's water and soda. I was like, why don't we just, so it started outside under a tent I'd put up. And then we'd all get together, and then it just kind of grew. I mean, sometimes we had like 20 people at my house, just for an hour, just to, hey, how's it going? But as far as how that relates, that's just been me. I've always been someone easy to approach, come at everything with a smile. I'm always ready, give you an honest answer, being warm. But yeah, so it's just kind of natural. I'm always just... All my teams have always been doing things together. I mean, I still know my teammates from when I was six years old playing soccer. We have different groups that get together still. So having that bonding, and I think with anything, it's a team. You as a council, it's a team. You get to know each other. You get to spend time together. It gets personal at times. And that only strengthens the bond. So I look forward to just being myself with that. Yeah. So, I mean, if you knew me or if you knew anything, anyone about me, they would tell you, yeah, like prop gets things together. It makes it happen. And so, yeah.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dale, for being here and just appreciate you being so generous with your time to step up for something like this. My question for you tonight is why is it important for a growing city to have a planning commission?

Oh, definitely. It's very important to have a planning commission. Every city needs a vision. You know, we, as Tracians, we elect people to the board. We have the mayor. We have a vision for how the people in Tracy want to see Tracy. So having someone, you know, and then having a board filled with members from Tracy that represent Tracians and, you know, they know the districts because they live here, they work here, or they have a business here, So they know the vibe of the city and you start to understand, like, what are people asking for? You know, so coming with that, yeah, like, the planning commission is very important because now you get to bring forward the vision, you know, to complete the vision of Tracy. Like, this is the vision. Now, how do we get there? Because, I mean, everyone wants to live in a great place that has, you know, great education, great school district, great community, parks, recreation, after school activities. And then growth, like people don't want to drive to the next town to have things happen. They would prefer to have that within town. And so having that vision of, hey, this is what we're looking for, how do we get there? And if you don't have a plan, it probably won't happen. And so having a like-minded board OR A GROUP, EVEN LIKE A, IT'S NOT EVEN LIKE-MINDED. YOU KNOW, DISAGREEMENT IS GOOD BECAUSE IT GIVES YOU THE OPPORTUNITY TO HOST IDEAS THAT YOU PERHAPS DIDN'T THINK ABOUT OR YOU DIDN'T HOLD HIGH REGARD FOR. AND NOW YOU GET A CHANCE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THAT IDEA IS, WHAT THAT PERSPECTIVE IS. SO HAVING ALL THAT, IT'S VERY IMPORTANT TO HAVE A PLANNING COMMISSION THAT CAN TALK, YOU KNOW, IRON OUT IDEAS AND THEN MOVE THINGS FORWARD WITH THE VISION OF TRACY.

THANK YOU.

THANK YOU, SIR. APPRECIATE YOU BEING HERE. PLEASE EXPLAIN YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE GENERAL PLAN.

THE GENERAL PLAN FOR TRACY? YES. EVERYTHING I READ IS ALWAYS INSIDE THE TRIANGLE. I'M STILL SUPPORTIVE OF THE GREEN BELT AROUND TRACY, VERY SUPPORTIVE OF STILL BRINGING IN BUSINESSES TO HELP THE COMMUNITY, YOU KNOW, CREATE MORE JOBS WITHIN TRACY FOR TRACIANS WITH BUSINESS. SIMILARLY, you know, making Tracy from one side to the other connected, you know, with our transit system, buses, our bike paths, walking paths, kind of making Tracy, because right now it's a bit spread out when we now have the newer communities on the other side of Tracy. And so slowly bringing them into the fold and providing that infrastructure so that it's not these one-lane potholes look like swimming pools in the winter, you know, fixing all that to make it all into one. So definitely on board with making Tracy one, one city versus these fragments that we are currently dealing with. And, you know, and with that becomes the infrastructure of how do we get these roads there? How do we make walking paths? How do we have parks in between? Because, you know, it's not going to be a concrete jungle. It's going to be it's going to have to be a family environment. We're going to have to build it together. And at the same time, we're going to have to expand the business role as well. Just because having four million homes, nothing to shop at, no groceries, or getting a haircut, that's not going to help for most of us. But yeah, so in those lines, definitely on board with the Tracy plan for keeping it in the triangle and keeping Tracy sustainable for itself.

All right. With that, you have one minute for any closing remarks.

Okay, hey, I appreciate you guys hearing me out. It's been fantastic. I was just very excited. So sorry about barging in earlier. I just kind of ran from the parking lot, thought I was late, so I just kind of jumped right in. But no, I look forward to it. I'm really excited. I feel like Tracy is a great place to be. I love being here. My kids are here. They're all in different parts of the education system here. We first moved out here in 07 and we used to run Big O Tires when it was in downtown. So very familiar with running like the wine stroll. You know, we're always a part of that and expanding the downtown businesses. We're always on board with all that. And now I'm looking forward to, you know, kind of being on the other side and hopefully, you know, helping out the planning commission and being a part of growing Tracy and getting it to its full potential. So I really appreciate your guys' time. Thank you so much.

All right. Thank you so much. And please feel free to take a seat. And with that, we'll go ahead and call the next applicant.

And the next applicant is Ram Kalaya.

I'll go get him.

GOOD EVENING, MR. KIDLAYA. PLEASE GO AHEAD AND JOIN US UP HERE. PLEASE JOIN US RIGHT OVER HERE.

NICE TO SEE YOU, MAYOR.

NICE TO SEE YOU. WE'RE GOING TO GO AHEAD AND GET STARTED. EACH OF US WILL ASK YOU ONE QUESTION. YOU'LL HAVE TWO MINUTES TO RESPOND. AT THE END YOU'LL HAVE ONE MINUTE FOR CLOSING REMARKS. ANY QUESTIONS FOR THAT PROCESS? ANY QUESTIONS?

I THINK IT WOULD BE NICE TO KNOW WHAT DOES SUCCESS LOOK LIKE FOR A PERSON IN THE PLANNING COMMISSION FROM YOUR PAST LIVES?

UNFORTUNATELY, WE CAN'T RESPOND TO THOSE BECAUSE WE HAVE TO HAVE EVERYTHING SAME FOR ALL THE APPLICANTS.

I ASKED THE WRONG QUESTION.

NO WORRIES. ALL RIGHT. BUT WE'LL GO AHEAD AND GET STARTED. SURE. ALL RIGHT. FIRST.

AM I ADDRESSING ALL OF YOU?

YOU'RE GOING TO BE ADDRESSING JUST THE COUNCIL. OH, I SEE. OKAY. WHY DO YOU WANT TO BE A MEMBER OF THE PLANNING COMMISSION?

YEAH, AS I STATED IN MY WRITE-UP, AND I THINK PRIVATELY ALSO WE'VE TALKED ABOUT IT, I THINK ULTIMATELY THIS IS A GROWING CITY, GROWING VERY RAPIDLY. The perspective that I would like to bring is I've traveled and done business in 17 countries. I've done product in many countries. And I think a global perspective, I think, would be something that I hope to bring to start off. Of course, I've done business in many countries. I think I mentioned that. Done product in many. I have an entrepreneurial background. Worked in Microsoft and other places. So I think, to give you an example, You know, Santana Row was created 25 years ago. No one else cloned it. Paris, we all go. But why would anybody come to Tracy to see the warehouses that are concrete? So if we don't think, and I'm going to live only another 12,000 days. This is for our kids. So we will leave our legacy behind. And when they drive on 580, they're going to see that, what we left behind. So unless we are careful and together do things, So that's my intention.

All right. Thank you. Council Member Nygaard.

Thank you for joining us tonight and for stepping forward for this position. My question to you is, describe your familiarity with sustainability concepts that might relate to community planning.

On a personal level, I drive a Tesla and I have solar at home and I have a heat pump. And then PG&E just raised the rates. So fortunately, I'm on them too, so they pay me as much as I charge them. So I went to Vietnam. There are two taxi companies. One of the taxi companies is electric. So unless we put native plants, unless we think about traffic, unless we make it a bicycle-friendly city, moving forward, there's going to be a lot of stress for people. We've all seen with jobs and such. Human beings, I think, need places where they are connected. It's not good enough to put just a few streets in downtown. I think if a family, let's say, wants to go shopping, takes a family, and then if they want to go to a small store, they can go on a bicycle. I cannot go on a bicycle lane in Tracy one full loop. I have to get down in some places, walk, or go on the sidewalk. So from a sustainability perspective, I think these are important. We also think we should have public places where people can get together and so on. Of course, we all know about the trees and all of those things and the pollution. I think we're impacted by other cities from a pollution perspective. I think we have to do our part. And work with the other cities, to be very honest with you. Why do we need to breathe bad air? Why does it have to smell? I've come to the city council many times. I live in Hidden Lake. It smells of rotten egg. AND I'VE WRITTEN LOTS OF LINES. SO, YOU KNOW, WE HAVE TO WORK TOGETHER. THERE ARE NO EASY SOLUTIONS. AND I THINK WE HAVE TO SAY IT'S IMPORTANT.

THANK YOU. YEAH. COUNSELOR ABDOYA.

ALL RIGHT. MR. KAITLIN, WELCOME.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

HOW WOULD YOU SEEK TO FOSTER TEAMWORK AND COOPERATION AMONGST YOUR COMMISSION MEMBERS? And how would you handle a situation where a fellow commissioner may be going beyond the commission parameters?

12 Angry Men was a good movie.

OK. OK.

If you haven't seen it, we should go see it. All right. Persuasion matters. Disagreement is good. Or rather, diverse views are good. I mean, I've done this all my life. And especially if they're multicultural, even more interesting. So inspiring humans is a very difficult thing. So communication matters. One is respect. And respect, we all know that's a word in the book. But respect is genuinely trying to connect with the human being, the inner part of the human being. That means we have to be curious about them. Many people work in teams. They don't even know how many kids, I'm talking about companies now, the other person has. Or a person comes from another country in a global team, They don't spend time saying, what do your children do? What do you do as a hobby? So I think we have to get to know each other, number one. Number two, I think inspiring people requires a lot of communication, persuasion, but more importantly, going from hearing to listening to understanding to assimilating and then playing it back to say, this is what I understood. Communication is for the receiver, not for the sender. So I'm an executive coach. And one of the biggest challenges people have is how do you deal with dissonance and how do you inspire synergies? So I'm hoping that I can bring people together to inspire. And I would not use the word compromise. I would try to seek synergies. Compromise is, you know, in the graph, it's the middle of the road. If you can create synergies of 1 plus 1, 11, then I think we're doing great. It doesn't happen always. And smile and laughter helps.

Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Evans.

Thank you, Mr. Kudlai. I appreciate you stepping up and just want to say thank you for you being so generous with your time as to step up for a position like this. And my question for you tonight is why is it important for a growing city to have a planning commission?

All the more reason. I think I came to this city 2015 and I live in Hidden Lake. Very blessed that somebody had the vision in 2000 to put a lake in the middle of nowhere. I happened to have a boat, and that's the only reason we moved here. We made the decision in five minutes. So things like this do matter. Vision does matter. And a builder, if I'm a builder, I will definitely want the shortcut. The burden is not on me to have that. And also, I think we have to be informed. For example, I wrote emails and said roundabouts are useful in many places because traffic lights are not particularly efficient. And that's been proved by the Energy Commission and others. So we need to sort of think through all these things because they do matter. And I'm happy to see that in Tracy Hills, they have a roundabout. I suggested that for this side of the city. It was too late because the builder already got approval. So Planning Commission really needs to have vision And of course, we need, Provine can be well planned and somebody put four lanes long time ago and the traffic moves slowly because it's all built by one person. How can we as a group do it? And that's a challenge. And that's where, going back to what you said, how do we share and articulate these things and listen to everybody? It's all the more important. I think every city needs to have, I mean, Steve Jobs, the city of Cupertino called him. I was just looking at the video again a couple of days ago. He was there. They asked him the question. This is Steve Jobs. He went there twice. And his vision is useful for the city. So I think very important. I'm glad there's one here. It's quite active.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you, sir, for taking the time.

Thank you, Steve.

Please explain your understanding of the general plan.

Of the city?

Yes.

To be honest, I don't know. I have asked a few questions in the council meetings, et cetera. I've sort of read the plan about, you know, I've looked at the different layouts, different zones, all of those things. To be honest, I don't understand all of it. To be very frank with you, there are too many colors in the PDF, and the PDF is pretty dense. I tried. I couldn't find, I could be wrong, and I didn't find a single bicycle lane, for instance, that can go around fully. or at least it was not, did not show up as that. So yeah, I wouldn't say I'm an expert on that.

Greg, thank you.

Yeah, you're welcome.

And then finally, you have one minute for closing remarks.

Well, thank you for giving an opportunity. I come to city council meetings and I make a lot of noise. So this is, I think, a much, and every time the mayor comes to some forum, last time was regarding the Altamont pause, I gave him a hard time. So, and I think he was very respectful and understood. My vision is this, simple. 580, we're all driving, we see concrete after concrete after concrete. It reminds us of the old New York, when warehouses were there, 50, 70 years ago. Why do our children need to see that? All we have to do is ask every company to put a facade, the new ones. And I think that's a planning commission job, to persuade them. If the new block puts it, we can give tax rebates for the people who do it, and persuade them, these are multi-billion dollar companies. And I think together we can persuade them, and it doesn't cost much to put a nice facade. Okay, we cannot make Paris today, but we can make something better. But we cannot say it doesn't happen here. It takes work. It might take 15 years. It won't happen in my lifetime. But I think we should start somewhere. That's really all it is. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me, and thank you all for your time, and thank you for all the good work you all do.

Thank you, and you can go ahead and take a seat. And then with that, we'll entertain our last applicant.

Matthew Shrout.

All right, good evening, Mr. Shaw. How are we? Good, thank you. We're going to go ahead and get started. Each of us will ask you one question. You'll have two minutes to respond, and at the end, you'll have one minute for closing remarks. Okay. Any questions about that process? No, just thanks for the opportunity. All right, thank you. So with that, we'll go ahead and start with question one.

Why do you want to be a member of the Planning Commission? I've kind of dedicated my last maybe 20-something years since I've been in Tracy as... to the community through youth sports as my kids grew up, through the high school as part of my job. And I got asked to be on the Parks Commission three years ago. Did that. I feel like I've done a good job there. And I think I just want to keep helping out the community and keep kind of going up. I feel like this is a good time to leave the parks and join a new committee and this one sounds intriguing to me as a land type person. I like to be outdoors and see how things grow and it just kind of seems like the next evolution. Thank you. Council Member Nygaarden.

Mr. Shrout, thank you for joining us tonight and for stepping forward and applying for this position. My question to you is, describe your familiarity with sustainability concepts that might relate to community planning.

First, I think that all new planning needs to be – has to deal with the environment, air quality, all the things that relate to the environment. I think it's a very important thing when you're looking at new buildings or – INFRASTRUCTURE OR ANYTHING. I THINK THAT'S A GOOD THING TO HAVE. I THINK ANOTHER THING THAT COMES WITH THAT IS PEOPLE THAT LIVE IN TOWN TO BE ABLE TO STAY IN TOWN. I STAY IN TOWN AND WORK. I LOVE IT. MY WIFE GOES OVER THE HILL. I'M NOT SURE SHE LOVES IT. SO I THINK THEY GIVE THAT OPPORTUNITY TO MORE PEOPLE TO BE ABLE TO STAY IN TOWN. BUT I THINK YOU NEED TO LOOK AT WHEN YOU'RE LOOKING AT THE THINGS THAT THE PLANNING COMMISSION WOULD LOOK INTO IS THE IMPACTS ON ALL THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF ENVIRONMENTS AND HOW IT'S GOING TO BE. BUT KIND OF MY BIG THING IS TRYING TO GET PEOPLE TO BE ABLE TO STAY IN TOWN WOULD BE A GOOD ONE.

NEW SPEAKERS. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

NEW SPEAKERS. THANK YOU. KATHERINE BUDOIA. NEW SPEAKERS. ALL RIGHT. MR. SHROUT, WELCOME. WHAT WOULD YOU DO TO FOSTER TEAMWORK AND COOPERATION AMONGST YOUR COMMISSION MEMBERS AND HOW WOULD YOU HANDLE A SITUATION WHERE A FELLOW COMMISSIONER MEMBER MAY BE GOING BEYOND THE COMMISSION PARAMETERS?

I think you've got to work together. I've been a part of a team my whole adult life. I've coached many staffs. I've been part of departments on the Parks Commission here. I think the first part of your question is you've just got to listen to everybody. Look at maybe how they see things. I'm a pretty fairly level-headed person, but sometimes I get stuck in my own views, and sometimes I need to listen to other people. As far as if they step overboard, then, you know, sometimes you have to take them aside and, hey, listen, we're going down the wrong road here. We've got to make sure that we're all in this together. We may not agree on everything, but we at least have to go down that road together, and you're kind of stepping out a little bit, and we need to make sure we're all in this together. So I'm a big team guy.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Council Member Evans.

Thank you, Mr. Shrout, for being here and appreciate you being so generous with your time trying to step up into a role like this. My question for you tonight is why is it important for a growing city to have a planning commission?

I think the biggest thing is to keep the plan that the city kind of policies and things that the city council has set forward to keep it going down the path we're looking at. I can see just in my little time with the Parks Commission and some other commissions I've been on where it's easy to get off of the main plan. So that's kind of how I would be is I'd want to make sure we're all headed down the same direction and to make sure that that city plan that we are okaying or pushing down the road follows in the line of the city policies and rules that we have or that we're trying to get to. Thank you. Mayor Patel.

Thank you for stepping up and giving your time, sir. Please explain your understanding of the general plan.

The general plan to me is the main document of the city. It controls the infrastructure, the housing, how the land is set up. I THINK IT'S THE THING THAT WE AS THE PLANNING COMMISSION WOULD NEED TO LIVE BY. I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT THAT WE HAVE A FIRM GRASP OF WHERE THE CITY IS GOING AS WE TALK ABOUT THINGS AT THE PLANNING COMMISSION. SO I THINK THAT'S THE BIGGEST THING FOR ME IS WHAT THAT DOCUMENT IS, IS KIND OF IT'S OUR DOCUMENT TO LIVE AND DIE BY. NEW SPEAKER. THANK YOU.

NEW SPEAKER.

ALL RIGHT. NOW YOU HAVE ONE MINUTE FOR ANY CLOSING COMMENTS.

The only thing is I'd love to continue to work with the city council, to work with the staff. The staff that I work with at the parks is awesome. As many of the staffs are, I've had to work with as my job over at the school. So, yeah, just to continue to grow and work with you all. So thank you.

All right. Thank you so much. Go ahead and take a seat. Council, I'm going to go ahead and ask to take a two minute recess to go ahead and review your notes. After we get back from recess, I'm going to allow everyone an opportunity to speak and I will be asking for each of you to provide your top three candidates. So we'll take a two minute recess. Thank you. All right, folks, we're going to go ahead and return from recess at 7.04. As I stated before, the recess, I'm going to go ahead and go one by one with counsel, allow you to make your comments, and I will be asking you to select your top three applicants. As a reminder, there were six applicants for three open positions, so I'm hoping that we can come to some consensus. Additionally, one thing I wanted to highlight is generally we use some names on an eligibility list. However, I think the planning commission is very unique in that this is the one commission where we never have few people to apply. We always have many people to apply. So I think if there were to be a future opening on the planning commission, I would want to reopen it. That's kind of my general thought. If someone would like to CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE. THAT'S KIND OF WHERE I STAND. I THINK SO. I THINK TODAY I'D PREFER TO JUST PICK THREE APPLICANTS FOR THE OPEN POSITIONS AND THEN NOT HAVE AN ELIGIBILITY LIST, BUT PLEASE FEEL FREE TO GIVE ME YOUR OPINIONS. YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE. WE'LL GO AHEAD AND START WITH COUNCILMEMBER NIGARD.

Thank you, Mayor. Really difficult decision here because everyone brought so many different skills and traits to this commission. Really enjoyed listening to everyone's experience and what they really envisioned for our city. It gives me really a lot of pride to just say we have such a great community. We have really talented people in this community that really want to serve and to be part of something bigger and better. So it just is really kind of exciting and very inspiring to see all of you stepping forward. That being said, it was really difficult in my, I loved all of you. I'm going to say that my top three were Mr. Bokeh Buteng, Mr. Chavez, and Ms. Biles are my top three.

Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Evans.

Thank you, Mayor. So I always go into this process thinking, well, this is going to be interesting. It On one hand, it'd be great if we had just some really great candidates and the other were just horrible because it'd make our lives so much easier. We'd just pick three and be done. But on the other hand, I know it's not going to be that way because Tracy has really talented people, and I always love hearing all the differences. The interviews were so varied, but all were fantastic. So I'm not just saying that. I take this very seriously. Because I'm always afraid I'm going to miss something or I'm not going to score accurately. So I score every question. I score your resume. And then I come up with a total, which is the fairest way I can think of doing it. Even that's not perfectly fair. So it's plus or minus. But you all scored really high. And it was very close. My top three were Mr. Boateng, Mr. Chavez, and Mr. Shrout. And I can go, as far as eligibility lists, I can go either way. I won't argue against your thoughts on that, Mayor. I do think maybe opening it up, if somebody drops off, it's a big role. So for other commissions, I may not feel that way. I think the eligibility list works, but planning is really important. So I'm okay with us deciding to reopen if the need arises. Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem.

Again, thank you everybody for coming out. Appreciate you wanting to step up and help our city out. I echo my partner's comments that a lot of great candidates are really great to see. My top three would be Mr. Shrout, Mr. Chavez, and Mr. Boateng. And My only concern about not having, I know staff correct me if I'm wrong, I think that we've had a few commission meetings canceled due to lack of quorum because of some people's difficulties. So my only concern about not having an alternate is if for somebody might have to drop off and then have to go through this whole process again, that could cause a delay in having meetings. So I MIGHT BE IN FAVOR OF HAVING MAYBE ONE OR TWO PEOPLE, BUT I'LL LEAVE THAT UP TO YOU. MAYBE JUST ONE. YEAH, ONE POINT.

ONE ALTERNATE. MAYOR AND COUNCIL, TO CLARIFY, CURRENTLY THE COMMISSION DOES NOT HAVE AN ALTERNATE. A LOT OF CITIES DO CREATE AN ALTERNATE. I'M SORRY.

ELIGIBILITY LIST. MY APOLOGIES. I SHOULD HAVE SAID ELIGIBILITY. I WOULD NOT BE OPPOSED TO HAVING AN ELIGIBILITY LIST.

EXCUSE ME.

THANK YOU, MAYOR. I THINK I'VE HEARD THREE CONSENSUS CANDIDATES FROM TWO OR THREE COLLEAGUES. LET ME START BY FIRST SINCERELY THANKING EVERYBODY FOR TAKING THE TIME. IT'S NOT EASY. IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU ALL DID YOUR HOMEWORK. I WANT TO AGREE WITH MY COLLEAGUES THAT YOU ALL CAME VERY PREPARED. AND EVEN ON THE QUESTIONS, YOU KNOW, ABOUT AS DENT AS A GENERAL PLAN. I COULD TELL WHO HAD A GOOD IDEA ABOUT THE GENERAL PLAN WITHOUT GIVING THE SUPER TECHNICAL ANSWER. THANK YOU FOR THAT REAL LIVED EXPERIENCE. AT THIS TIME, I WOULD LIKE TO SUPPORT WHAT I HEARD FROM MY COLLEAGUES. I THINK IT WAS MR. BOCHI-BOTENG, MR. CHAVEZ, AND MR. SHROUT. IF I COULD CREATE A NINE-MEMBER PLANNING COMMISSION, WHICH WOULD GIVE IT A MUCH DIVERSE THOUGHT BUBBLE, I WOULD SAY PLEASE COME JOIN. UNFORTUNATELY, THAT'S NOT THE POSITION WE'RE IN, BUT THANK YOU ALL.

Thank you, Councilmember. I really just want to thank everyone for applying. As Councilmember Evans stated, you all had very different interviews. You differently highlighted different things. I wanted to commend Ms. Biles. You had such a strong passion and really strong familiarity with the technical components. Mr. Buwake-Botang, such institutional knowledge and really strong assessments of value and impact. Mr. Chavez, great vision for future generations and strong governance experience. Mr. Dale, such excitement for growth in the city and focus on community building. Mr. Kudlaya, just appreciate the global perspective and insight on humanization. And Mr. Shrout, just such an incredibly strong record of service in this community. So you all brought something unique to this. At this time, My top three candidates were Mr. Boateng, Ms. Biles, and Mr. Shrout. But I believe in building consensus here at council, so I believe that leaves us totals for Ms. Biles at two votes, five for Mr. Boateng, four for Mr. Chavez, and four for Mr. Shrout. So I believe that's Mr. Boateng, Chavez, and Shrout as our top three. Just kind of wanted to see if any of our, the two council members who didn't speak on eligibility list, do you have any, any other position? Council Member Bedoya?

You know, good with what council decides, but I would be open to doing an eligibility list.

Council Member Rednagarden?

I agree. I wouldn't, I would definitely agree that it would be something that would be advantageous for if we did have someone who wanted to drop off.

Okay. All right. Then I think I'm open to the idea of having one on the eligibility list so that we don't have to go through the process if we run out of a quorum. So this time I'll be making a motion to appoint Mr. Boateng, Mr. Chavez, Mr. Shrout each for one four-year term beginning April 1, 2026, and ending March 31, 2030, and to fill a vacancy on the Planning Commission eligibility list with Ms. Biles, if necessary.

Second.

We have a first and a second. Roll call, please.

Mayor Areola?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Abercrombie?

Yes.

Council Member Ridley?

Yes.

Council Member Evans?

Yes.

Council Member Naggard? Yes. Thank you.

All right. Well, congratulations to our returning and new planning commissioners and to our new on the eligibility list. Thank you for taking the time. We look forward to working with all of you to to really build upon what we have going. Thank you.

And Mayor and Council, I just want to clarify on the eligibility list. that individual would still need to be officially appointed and approved by council should an opening arise. They won't just be able to fill in in case we don't have someone, a quorum attendance. Correct. That would be an alternate.

If someone drops off.

Yeah. If you all do want to explore an alternate position for planning commission, staff's happy to look into that. Wanted to clarify that.

Thank you. Understood. Thank you, Mr. Nafusi. With that, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn.

Second.

We have a first and second. Roll call, please.

Mayor Pro Tem Abercrombie? Yes. Council Member Nygaard? Yes. Council Member Vidoya?

Yes.

Council Member Evans?

Yes.

Mayor Areola?

Yes. Thank you. We're adjourned at 7.14. Have a good night, everyone. Check you out. All right.