City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Tulare City Council meeting for Tuesday, July 21st. As we start our meeting, we will start with our Pledge of Allegiance, which will be led by Police Captain Merrill. And then please remain standing after the Pledge of Allegiance for our invocation led by Noel Stout.

Good evening, I'm Pastor Noel. Will you pray with me, please? Heavenly Father, we thank you for the privilege of living and working in the Tulare community.

We ask for your wisdom and discernment to guide our mayor, our vice mayor, and city council this evening. Grant them unity, integrity, and insight as they make decisions that affect our neighborhoods. Bless this city, our families, and our work together. In your name we pray. Amen.

Thank you. Item three on our agenda is public comment. Members of the public wishing to comment on any item not appearing on the agenda may address the City Council at this time. State law prevents Council from acting on any matter not on the agenda. However, your comments may be referred to staff for follow-up. This is also the time for the public to comment on items listed under the consent calendar or to request an item from the consent calendar be pulled for discussion purposes. Comments related to public hearing and general business items will be heard at the time those items are discussed. In fairness to all wish to speak, the public comment is limited to a total of 15 minutes with each speaker allowed three minutes, unless otherwise extended by city council. please begin your comments by stating your name and providing your city of residence for those that wish to provide public comment while attending the meeting remotely press 9 on your phone to raise your hand or click raise hand in the webinar i do have a series of yellow cards which i will start with and i have a general comment from albert aguilar good evening mr aguilar welcome thank you mary

Appreciate it. I'm going to make a quick announcement to all of you that don't already know, but Grandma's House is having a reopening on August the 6th, and you're all invited. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to go ahead and download a flyer, but I do have your email addresses, so I'll be sending it to you. And you're all welcome to attend. What I really hear about is regards to the Cesar Chavez Park committee that has not following what you all went ahead and designated to do back in the July or May 5. There was an order that was put out by the city manager, Mark Mondale, indicating what the committee's scope and goals were. Specifically, it states on here, develop and distribute a community survey to gather broader public input. I'm here to tell you that no survey was distributed whatsoever. In order to go ahead and get a copy of that survey, you had to know that the survey was on the city website. AND ACCORDING TO THE INFORMATION THAT THE COMMITTEE RECEIVED AT THE LAST MEETING, I BELIEVE IT INDICATED THERE WAS ONLY 211 PEOPLE THAT WENT AHEAD AND REPLIED TO THE SURVEY, AND MOSTLY BECAUSE SOME OF THE PEOPLE ON THE COMMITTEE CONTACTED WHOEVER THEY KNEW TO GET ON THE CITY WEBSITE AND COMPLETE THE SURVEY. DISTRIBUTE MEANS TO SEND OUT, TO GIVE. out information that wasn't done uh also there's been a lot of issues too with the way that the rules the handbook and rules are not being followed back in uh february the 8 16 2010 excuse me because i knew glasses the city council went ahead and adopted resolution uh 22 to 2022-52 It is the handbook of the City Council for the rules and procedures for the City Council and also for all committee members. And those rules are not being followed. All you got to do is take a look at the video and you can see that they're not being followed. What are those rules? Your agenda specifically follows those rules. Every agenda the City Council has, has those rules outlined on the agenda. And all I'm requesting is if you make rules, let's follow them. What do we teach our kids? Follow the rules. So we all should be doing that. Okay. Following the rules. And I asked the members of the committee to go ahead and extend the time instead of making up their mind as to what recommendation they're going to be making. But I guess my recommendations were ignored. What's it going to hurt to go ahead and extend the time and reach out to the people that live in the community and let them know what do they really want okay 211 surveys it's not nearly close to the population that we have in the city of Tulare which is almost about 70 000. thank you very much for your time talk to you later thank you Mr Aguilar the next yellow card I have is for Robin Jones

Good evening and welcome.

I apologize, my printer breasted. I was trying to get all this together. So good evening, Mayor. Thank you for this opportunity. My name is Dr. Robin Jones. I work with the California Department of Corrections as a psychologist. I want to bring to your attention the current situation in my neighborhood, specifically next door. There is a Vrbo. It's a rental property. Unfortunately, there's illicit activity coming from that property. Numerous calls have been made to the police department. They've They've acted accordingly. And what I and my neighbors would like to see is something a little more, a little stronger happen going on. It's overrun with weeds. It's ill-kept. I had to hire a pest control company because I had severe ground squirrels. I know other neighbors have complained of pest infestations. That's a health hazard. I smell marijuana. I've never smoked any kind of drugs in my life. And last week we had an arrest. There is seven cop cars outside my house, which looked like it was on my property. So I would like to bring that to your attention and to council's attention to see what can we do to address this issue. And I know that my neighbors are also going to be speaking on this as well. But that's their comment. Those are my concerns. The drugs, they elicit all night long. We've called Vrbo. They've taken it off the market. But when we called them earlier this year in February, they took it off the market, but they put it back on. And now it's on Airbnb.

Thank you, Dr. Jones. You're welcome. With that, the yellow card we have with your staff, the yellow card has your email and your phone number. Yes. And with that, what we do is we will pass this over to staff and our code enforcement, our staff, police chief department representatives will surely get in touch with you to talk further more about the micro elements which you shared here tonight.

Thank you. I really appreciate that. I was going to ask because in my I don't know who's going to be reaching out, but I would like to reach out to my neighbors and say, okay, when did you send this email? When did you talk to this person? What information do you have that we can add to this to send to the city? So it doesn't look like we're just pointing fingers. Um, so hopefully by the time the person calls me, I will have that information. with logs, pictures of license plates. One guy had an ankle monitor and I was in my yard and he says, hey, I hope you don't mind if you have an ankle monitor next door. I'm thinking, okay, no, I work for the prison, but that's the way you want to live. Oh, anything else I can help you with?

During public comment time, we limit, so that's why we can't inquire. Yeah, a little bit more with that, but we'll turn that over to staff to be in touch with you.

Thank you very much. I appreciate your advice.

Thank you for coming tonight. Good evening. Jay Brock.

Good evening, Mr. Brock. Welcome. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Councilmembers, and staff. Appreciate the opportunity to be here. My Mrs. Jones neighbor live in the 3,500 block of Dorset Court, the home that she's referencing at 3505 Dorset Court. I've lived at that neighborhood since November of 24. Shortly after moving in, I noticed that they were making a conversion to the home. It's essentially a single-family home made into a duplex. And then shortly thereafter, when the rental started, obviously, short term rentals, people come and go quite frequently there. A lot of traffic, people up all hours of the night, walking around. Mainly concerned for my neighbors, several single women living at home, or one of them is at home because her husband works in Southern California. And then on, as she mentioned, on July 13th at 2.30 in the morning, I woke to, by say, a police department surrounding and calling out people at gunpoint from the home. even those that were potentially just there as renters being ordered out and they took somebody into custody for robbery in Visalia or false imprisonment. I believe that most rental properties are required to have a business license and if a business in your community was frequenting criminal activity, I'm sure that the city would look at that business license that they had. Thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it.

Don Nottoli, Mr Brock Thank you do have the yellow card, and I think much as what was mentioned before our staff will surely be in touch with you. Don Nottoli, Okay. Don Nottoli, that's the yellow cards that I have. Don Nottoli, I will. Also, of course, anyone in chambers is welcome to make comments quickly, which was a lot of information Q and a, that came to myself council. The city staff is if by chance you are here, or if you're attending for the data resiliency center issue with the fair board. that meeting is at the fair the fairgrounds over at the jockey club at the fair it's it's not here tonight there was some just want to confirm that with folks if anybody is here i believe that meeting starts at six o'clock but um that's not on the city that's not a city council on the city council agenda that meeting is over there regarding that center. I also, with that, is if you're here on that issue of sharing your concerns or conveying public comment to the city council, by all means, you're absolutely welcome. And I will continue and have that available. I just wanted to also pass over to our city manager, Mark Mondale, to address a little bit more if anybody or a group of folks are here regarding the fair board data center issue.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just a little bit more specifically, it is in the boardroom. The address is 620 South K Street. So, you know, the city really doesn't know much about the project. It's a state related project. The state is working with, as we understand it based on newspaper articles, working with a data center company to locate these types of facilities on a variety of the state fairgrounds throughout the state. They issued a press release today describing the project a little bit. It's a variation on a data center it appears it would have a lesser impact than what you might typically see in a data center obviously the biggest concerns are typically groundwater consumption and electrical energy consumption there are a number of other factors that are environmental factors we have the same concerns and questions we have staff there tonight to listen to the presentation we will likely send them a letter asking for them to be more involved with the city on their project the reality is however There are certain entities like state, the state where they don't necessarily have to follow local permitting processes. And so our city attorney's office is researching, you know, what do we anticipate the level of city involvement or permitting they would have to go through with us versus what level of sovereignty that they have related to permitting. Regardless of the answer to that question, we would expect them to have to go through the CEQA process that all projects go through of a certain scope and scale. And that would be the opportunity for any citizen or interested party, including the city, to be able to comment on their environmental documents and raise questions and or concerns. Staff will continue to provide council updates on that project and post information as it becomes available. We will likely direct folks more to the fairground website, assuming they continue to post information. I think the only other caution I would give folks is data centers are you know, I'm not sure who's the expert on data centers, but I think we mostly understand, you know, data centers are a technological, uh, certain, a certain degree of necessity, you know, as, as computing has continued to grow in the cloud, as you save your photographs on your cell phone and throw those up on the cloud, that's where, that's where those things go is the data centers. And as AI becomes, uh, more prevalent, uh, the computing power associated with that occurs in data centers. So it is, it is, uh, something that is starting to become more like a necessity to a certain extent in society let's not be advocating for them i'm making people aware of why data centers exist what i would also say however not all data centers are created equal right and so there's continuing push on data centers on technology so that they're not using groundwater for example for cooling they're not uh they're self-generating energy or reducing their energy footprint and they're trying to mitigate environmental impact so what i would say to people is maybe don't assume immediately that it's a bad thing i think it's let it let us all understand what is the project what would the impacts be what assurances are we going to be given that it wouldn't be and are there any community benefits that would come from the project besides just revenue for the fairground so we're trying to keep an open mind but we are also being very careful in and how we are reviewing their information and making sure that we're protecting the interests of our citizens on behalf of city council perfect

Continuing back with public comment, is there anyone in chambers who also would like to make public comment? Okay. Do we have anyone on the phone? Okay. Yes, sir. You're welcome to come up front. If you just would please introduce yourself and the city of your residence. You don't have to give your address, just your city.

Hello, Alexander Tapia, resident Tulare. Moved here when I was 10 years old, from Lindsay originally. But I got a lot of love from my city. Even going to the military, I chose to come back here. Just to keep it short and sweet, so this isn't an AI data center complaint fest. I really hope if this gets overturned, you guys really seek funding into the youth. There is a lot of things that this youth needs that could really impact the future and help out. our future generation and ultimately lead to better scholars. Like we need better parks. I played soccer at Maple the other day and I rolled my ankle on the pothole. I rolled my ankle on when I was 10 when I went there, you know? So these things should really be addressed. Even on the West side, there has been no progress on the West side. I come from the West side and I had to move over here and I can see that around here in downtown Slayer is getting dilapidated. So before this becomes a complaint fest, I really do hope that you guys could give back to the community and realize that we are working hard and that we do respect you guys. You guys are doing a good job, but we want to see a light. We want to see a light at the end of the tunnel, but it just seems like you guys want to give us out to the highest bidder. And with that, thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Anyone else in chambers who'd like to make public comment? Okay. With that, I'm going to move forward on the agenda. We're going to go to item four, presentations. And I don't know if you've been looking around the room, but we've got some really awesome representatives here with us tonight, and we're going to learn more about that. New employee introductions. Mr. Mondale, where are we starting?

I think we're going to start with Janie, our HR director.

Good evening, Mayor, Council members. What we have before you are our new employee introductions. We have hired 40 employees between January and June of 2026. Of the 40, 39 were vacant positions, and there was one that was a new position for fiscal year 2526. Going forward, we will make introductions on a quarterly basis. The city manager, he'll announce their names and their department. I'm sorry their names and their classification or their title. And we ask that once he announces their names that they come up to the podium. And turn it over to him.

Great. Thank you so much. Jenny. We're really excited council. You know, 1 of the things that I found very interesting is I'm now doing. I don't know if you'd call them interviews, more like orientations with all our new employees as they come into the organization. It's a great chance to meet them and understand why they're coming to Larry, where they're coming from. And it's been really fascinating. One of the things, the constant themes that I'm hearing is uh many of them are coming here because of all the exciting things the city is doing they see the city growing to see the city investing to see the city fixing things and they want to be part of that and so i'm very encouraged by that um i'm going to name them i'm going to probably do a bad job of this so i apologize if i ruin any of your names hopefully it'll be enough for you to understand so we're going to do it by department we'll do community development first derek okubo assistant planner come on up Is that close? Okay. Sarah Torres, permit center supervisor. And next we're going to do our community services department. We have Michael Garcia, librarian. Armando Guzman, parks manager. There he is. and Brian Youngblood, Parks Maintenance Worker One. Now we'll go on to engineering. Gabrielle Filippo, Construction Coordinator. Gabrielle. Amana Emdad, Engineering Assistant. Adrian Salazar-Lopez, Engineering Assistant. Now we're gonna go to fire. We have Christopher Huerta, fire captain, recently promoted to fire battalion chief. Gabriel Olivas Rosa, firefighter. Andrew Olmos, firefighter paramedic. Luke Potter, firefighter. Jose Ramos, firefighter. Noah West, Firefighter. And now we'll go into the Police Department. Annalisa Fraga, Public Safety Dispatcher. Kevin Croes, Police Captain. Yes, that's right, Cruz. You didn't put that in my job description. Kevin Navarro, police officer. Everardo Robles, police officer. Elijah Rookman, police trainee. Officer, no. Oh, as of today, wonderful. Joseph Woodard, police trainee, officer.

Oh, okay, wonderful.

We also have Davion Whittle, Police Officer. And now we're gonna go to Public Works. Jeremy Gomez, Solid Waste Operator. Oscar Gonzalez-Gutierrez, Solid Waste Operator. Jennifer Proach, Department Assistant One.

that council rounds out all of our new employees how about a round of applause yes so mr mayor did you want each of them to make a speech or we're going to skip that tonight yeah now i think quickly on on of course myself on behalf of the council is welcome to the city of tulare and thank you for bringing your strengths your skills your talents to this organization of everything that we could talk about. And sometimes we talk a little too much about things. It doesn't happen without your power. You make it work. You're the one that gets us from here to there. So with that, coming to the wonderful community of Tulare, we extend our handshake and our love and appreciation. And thank you. Welcome to Tulare.

Thank you.

It's good to have you. Extra time.

um thank you thank you Yeah. Well, yeah, I don't think it's going to be fun. You know, huge. It's a lot of fun. Yes, it's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. I'm sorry. Sorry. This is

Okay, with that I'm going to move forward on our agenda 4.2 Tulare Chamber of Commerce annual report and TBIZ update. Good evening, Mr. Fraga and Ms. Donnett. Good to have you. Good evening and thank you for having us. I am Jacob Fraga, Board Chair of the Tulare Chamber of Commerce.

Perfect. And I am going to turn it over to Donnett for our report.

Good evening, Mayor Isherwood and Council. Oh, wow. This Portuguese voice really projects. Sorry about that. Anyway, we are happy to be here today to do, first of all, our annual report that we've been doing for probably decades here to City Council on behalf of the Chamber, and then our first report for an annual report for TBIS. So here we go. This is just to give you a little overview of the leadership of the Tulare Chamber of Commerce. So you first will see our Chamber Board of Directors with our executive officers at the top, and then our staff team, which includes staff both at the Chamber Office and at the T-Biz. And we are, of course, committed to delivering on the core competencies of creating a strong local economy, promoting the community, representing the interests of business with government and providing those business engagement opportunities. We still find that even in the digital age, people like to get together to do business and make connections. So I always say my grandfather's chamber has never gone away. And of course, we have our mission statement. Our Tulare Chamber of Commerce exists to serve its members and citizens by advocating for and engaging in efforts to encourage economic opportunity and business prosperity. This is how a chamber impacts businesses and the community. And I'm not going to go into all the details because I know you can see all that. But specifically with marketing, networking, credibility, we have people who join the chamber just because they want to be able to have that chamber plaque on the wall. and education, the resources that we provide, and also advocacy, which I think as all of you know, this Chamber of Commerce is very focused on advocacy and what we can do to assist our local businesses and represent them and all of the area as your voice of business in Sacramento and DC. We are a catalyst for business growth, a convener of leaders and influencers, and a champion for a thriving community. At the heart of everything we do, you will find them listed within these categories of business and community resource center. Advocacy relocation, I'm just going to go all over the place here. Guidance for emerging entrepreneurs, that's a new one. We probably have always done that, but with the focus of TBIS, we added that as well. Our community connections, our leadership programs for both adults and youth. our promotion of our community of course that business attraction retention and expansion which is a partnership effort and then we have our websites below we're going to talk a little bit more about visitor information as we go on This is our screenshot snapshot I always say of what we've done in the last 12 months, so that would be 631 members is where we currently stand 55 ribbon cuttings groundbreakings and celebrations to Larry is on the move, so thank you city manager and city council. for all you're doing to support that. And then 75 networking events. So a lot of different events and activities that will create those opportunities for those business to business connections. We had over 75 events. You can see some of the different signature events that we have, like Crush Party, State of the City and County, which by the way is August the 21st. And we just had our Salute to Dairy event, largest Salute to Dairy ever. we had 125 more people than we normally do so it was a great event of celebration and of everything that the dairy industry does as far as impact here you have a snapshot also of a lot of the different either committees or activities initiatives that the chamber does under economic and business development and everything really falls right into that and community promotion too These are the people we view as partners in economic and workforce development, along with the Chamber here in our area. A lot of partners working collaboratively to make things happen, and I think we've really seen that, especially in the last few years. We have artillery business and education Council, we will hit the 10 year anniversary. Of this committee in December and we're excited about all of the impact we've been able to collaboratively achieve working with our schools in the area, and I really appreciate to we have. I know council members, city staff that come out and support these events and have conversations with our youth. And I always say that your city manager is working hard on economic development as the leader to make sure that there are those opportunities for our kids to come back. And I think that's a really important message that we want to have our kids come back after college. We are doing all types of connecting activities in order to attract business and to our ready workforce. So maybe it's workshops, presentations, we partner with the city at ICSC Monterey, going to planner meetings, a variety of different activities to make sure that we are working hard on that element of economic development. And I know with the new economic development master plan that's coming out, Jennifer Gomez and I will be working on strategies moving forward. We appreciate that this Chamber of Commerce and this city of Tulare walk alongside each other and align because I will tell you that when I talk to my colleagues in California, that is not the case everywhere. We are actually probably more unique than anything else. And that's a really good thing. We have our choosetolary.com site, which provides a lot of information for people who are looking at doing business in here. The open sites actually automatically populate through our partnership with the Board of Realtors, and you can actually go online and do your business plan. We of course promote shop local that is shop small local but shop local here in our Community, because we have a combination of local, which I think is a great compliment to to Larry we have the outlet Center plus we have our small businesses so. Our message is always shop local before you go anywhere else we know it's easy enough to cross over that invisible line to the north, but remember that you're leaving dollars in. that community when you should try to leave your dollars in your own community, because every dollar that's spent here circulates five times over in our local economy. We also partner for tourism promotion. And I don't know where the 2024, I think I find a typo. That should be 2026 World Ag Expo that just happened. Our Sequoia Tourism Council is something that council invest in here. And we work on behalf of the Tulare City Council to be your representative. I actually serve as the co-chair on that committee for a number of years. And we are very aggressive in our promotion as well as Making sure that we are bringing people into the area we attend the travel and trade shows we help with the production of the annual visitor guide, and that is also an online guide. We make sure that we have a visitor information booth at world AG Expo so variety of different activities to make sure that when people are coming to the area. You know, we know they're going to come to the sequoias millions do every year let's capture some of that revenue and see those tourism tax dollars here in our Community. We have a very robust governmental affairs and advocacy program, as you can see up there, our board chair accepted our award in June. This is the ninth year in a row that the Tulare chamber of commerce has received the president's award. through the Cal Chamber for our advocacy efforts. And I am going to toot our horn a little bit because there was a shift in the requirements and they got a lot more stringent this year and we still made it. We were in that top 20 within the state of California. So only 20 chambers received this recognition and your Tulare Chamber was recognized. We develop Tulare's emerging leaders, and this is kind of a little throwback to a couple of activities with our leadership Tulare program. We are currently recruiting, as a matter of fact, right now at our office, we have an information meeting for individuals that are interested in joining the program for the next year. And we encourage folks to get involved. It's such a great opportunity to learn what's happening in your community, in your region, in the state, and even with federal connections. And we also want to thank the city. I think you see two very familiar city faces up there in this last class that was small but mighty. We are, of course, involved in many activities for promoting engaging celebrating networking educating all of that this is. Just a few I mean we would stay here all night, if we were to look at all of the photographs we have based on all of the activity that we have, but you can see kind of a snapshot of mixers ribbon cuttings events that we have had. We are also very involved. The reason you see that number of photographs too from World Ag Expo is because the Tulare Chamber of Commerce operates the International Business Center where we welcome guests from all over the world. And we do appreciate that our council and city staff show up for the international reception so that we can properly recognize and welcome all of those guests. We also are very good stewards of our community. We participate in a variety of different activities. We actually were the initiator of the Quilts for Patriots program with the Tulare County Fair. I'd like to use this opportunity as I look around at everyone, please nominate veterans for this honor. The applications are live right now at tcfair.org. This is a way to pay tribute to veterans who put their names and, excuse me, their lives on the line when they signed up to support and defend our country. And we also participate in a variety of other activities like the 9-11 blood drive. We are part of the sister city organizations or support those organizations. Just most recently, of course, when council member Sagala had his group, we were helpful in getting some tours done for them and doing that engagement. And of course, we work with our sister city for Angra as well. And this is our slide last year, July 2025. We were here talking about, hey, we're going to open in about a week. And in a second, we're going to go into the slideshow for the T-Biz to take a look at what we've been doing in this very busy year. And we actually did that celebration on July 31st. We were still working with a punch list. I think we might still have a little bit of a punch list, but we have been able to get people in and get furniture in and really create a lot of energy at the T-Bus. These are our community impact partners. They are businesses that contribute at a more significant level of membership because it garners them additional return on their investment. Plus they step up and say, I really want to be a supporter as a business and community champion and put additional funding into the chamber to support all of the initiatives that the chamber puts forth in its program of work each year. And at the very end of it, we are partners for economic and community success with our city of Tulare and very proud of that. Okay, we'll let go right to the next slide show, Melissa, sorry. Any questions or anything on the chamber? Okay, we'll move into T-Biz next. okay so Tulare business and innovation zone is open and operating i'm going to move through some slides that are going to show you kind of an overview of the different kinds of workshops and activities that we have had and some statistics with regard to how many people have come through we have used a variety of different outreach methods we really i would tell you probably didn't get up and running until a little farther into the fall with some of our activity because we were still finishing off what needed to be put in place. So TBIZ workshops help to develop our local entrepreneurs. And we had 408 attendees at workshops that were specifically just for the businesses that wanted to be part of those. That does not include all of the other activities, workshops, meetings that were held at TBIZ and those attendees, which is seriously a few hundred more, quite a few. So these are just some of the workshops we started as early as October with marketing fundamentals going to just kind of slide through to look at them. If you would like networking with a purpose, this is a great workshop done by valley strong and that's coming back again for its third run at the end of August. So we have partnered with Google. In a few minutes, you'll see one where we partnered with Meta as well to bring a workshop. Just consistent training. A lot of these sessions have had 30 people in their cohorts. We have done cohorts both in English and in Spanish. This one was a lot of fun, the boot camp. Also assisting our nonprofits because we know that they need assistance with a variety of different efforts for their startups and continuation we've always done that type of counseling at the Chamber office, but now we move that over to tbus. So we also partner with our community officials so that we can connect local businesses with city leadership. It's pretty easy to connect with these guys because as we always say, they've got our back since they share space with us and kudos to the entire law enforcement team. I was just talking with Fred that I'm really proud of our team that we have in both areas of public safety here in our community. And we do really feel like our public safety entities have our back all the time. We ended up adopting the business watch meetings and doing that programming. So Deanna works with the city police department staff to hold those workshops and bring up-to-date information. I hope a lot of people are watching and listening because I really want to push this as a great opportunity to get your questions answered on a regular basis. These workshops are held And the team from police and fire are always there, in addition to whoever our speakers will be. This was our meta workshop they came in, they sponsored the workshop they paid for space and TV is. put us as a co sponsor with them and we had a full house for this session, so we were really excited that they reached out to the Tulare Chamber of Commerce to provide us this opportunity. We also have a partnership with Civic. This is part of our goal to make sure that we are serving all of the communities within our area, especially our Latino population, because that is over 60% within our community. We have this great partnership with Civic. We've already had multiple different cohorts and additional workshops, and we're getting ready to go to the next level. Lots of workshops and we know that the the city's avanza program held a workshop at our location, they also have a session going on this week. And they have space now for include us and we'll be doing that ribbon cutting ceremony before the market opens on August the sixth at 515pm so come out to some Walt park and join us it's going to be a great celebration that night. 75% of our T-Biz tenants and workshop attendees are from the Hispanic community. Again, we're trying to meet that benchmark, which is 25% based on our EDA grant, and we have far exceeded that. Blank. Let's see what we got. And these are just gonna be a few more workshop pictures. This was a hosting of county planning commissioners. One of the other goals is to get as many people through PTBiz to see what we're doing here in Tulare, our neighboring communities, communities outside of the area as well. Kind of have an opportunity to show off what our city council and city manager have put in force in Tulare. I don't, there we go. We might be doing something wrong, Melissa. You're trying to get it to advance too. We have also had some expos, both for CDFIs and a small business expo. And these are going to be, I think we recognize this gentleman here at Business Watch. Yeah, it's still not working with me. This was a holiday event that we held, a networking mixer with a business expo. If you haven't had an opportunity for anyone who is watching or listening to this and you'd like to come and tour T-Biz and see this facility, please come by and see Deanna. She'll take you on a tour. It really is amazing. There we go. Maybe it's back. I don't know. Let's see. Here we go. And this is one of our graduating classes from one of our cohorts. Another session. Some of the stats, because I know those are always important there have been 50 T biz and Chamber trainings and meetings that have happened, and if a training had multiple sessions that's not counted on here so it's just counted as one. Training partnership, we've had partner meetings and rentals. So people who have rented the facility, and we have had meetings with the county coming in. We have had the tourism group coming in. We've had some banks come in and other entities who have rented the space. The city usage is 64 meetings or trainings or gatherings that the city of Tulare has utilized this building for. The SBDC has seen 95 clients. That's for multiple appointments. This really is a big number here in our community. That's a lot of people. When we were operating just out of our chamber office, it was just a handful. But this makes it so much nicer that SBDC has its own space. Our tenants and hub members are at 11. That is definitely a growth opportunity for us. And we are working on our outreach plans. And then the expo attendees were over 350 people that came through. Here's another smaller cohort that we had. This was with our partnership through Access Plus Capital. And this is the closing and the next big thing is the maker space. So we're working with city staff. We actually have a meeting coming up later this week to work on the elements of the maker space. And so stay tuned for more to come. We know that as we went into this and Mark and I had our meetings, it was going to take at least a couple of years to really. See that return and a lot of activity within the facility. I feel like we've done really well with what we have done in just a year's time or a little less than a year actually since October, but we can't wait to see what else comes with the maker space. And there's a lot of interest for that and everything else with regard to. Thank you for the opportunity and for the confidence that the city put into the Tulare Chamber of Commerce in order to manage this program to actually create the programming and to bring it to fruition. And that's a continued process. We're still moving. Thank you.

Council any Comments questions for yes.

Sure. 1st of all, I just wanted to thank you both for being up here, giving us a presentation of not only the great work the chamber does, but what you're doing with, but I just had a couple of questions and I'm not sure city manager. This would be. a different type of report that's generated but i'm just curious to make sure the budget is okay i know that uh when you guys first started t-biz took on there was going to be a budget in terms of cost for running the building and a number of things and it included you know having tenants and people use this want to make sure that they're there you know you're on budget uh in terms of you know you're not losing you're you're within the budget and things are going well we just want to hear if that's not the case um so we just wanted to find out you know overall

Well, I would say things are going well, but not as good as we would like to because the Chamber is definitely supplementing this program with its budget and it would be welcomed if the City Council would like to take a look at that and look at an opportunity to help with further support mark has already told me that we could submit a request and so we're working on that we wanted to get our first year of operation under our belt and so as we close out the books because we are you know doing all of the staffing all of that cost does come under the chamber but we knew going into this that fortunately artillery chamber due to some good planning over the last

9 years we were funded and had set aside some reserves so that when a project opportunity comes along you say yes to it because you know it's good for your community right so I'm not sure what the Avenue would be to kind of take a look at that because I do know that County Economic Development Corporation I think has finally gone kaput so I want to make sure that If we have any money there, we might direct it if need be.

I would love for that to happen, Council Member, because I definitely could justify that.

To review that, I think definitely would.

My understanding is the administrative, is that what you call it? Administrative Committee of the TCEDC. Yeah, they voted to bring to the board tomorrow morning the discussion about mothballing the TCEDC at this time. As I understand, they're not talking about rescinding all of their formation documents, but they want to sort of cap their financial exposure, make sure they can pay off those bills, and then they're going to ask a group of our local professional economic development practitioners to talk through what could the reimagining of that organization look like? So I have no idea how long that'll take. We'll be at a table for those discussions. Jennifer will be. So I don't know how long that will take. We do fund that organization. I think it's at about $40,000 a year. And so the dues that we've already paid on, my understanding is they were going to look at what their bills are and we'll probably refund a portion of those monies to us. And I think if if Danette ends up submitting some type of proposal to us, I'll get that to council along with whatever that balance is.

And then the last question or 2, 2 things curious to see if you guys are keeping data on business.

someone launches a business from you know the work at t-biz you know what those numbers may look like probably hasn't yet but you know curious to see that yes and the answer to that is yes we even have the number of inquiries that are made on looking at space and all of that there's a lot of information and i should mention part of the outreach plan has also shifted to uh or included uh reaching out to everybody who pulls a new business license in Tulare. And so we are reaching out to those folks to let them know about T-Biz, what's available for workshops, training, all of that for their launch of their business to assist and also for space.

And the last thing is I appreciate the goal you had set for 25% immigrant sort of community. I just wanted to kind of make sure that maybe if you can take a look at differentiating a Latino individual versus an immigrant, they're very, they're different. So when you say 75% Latino, I mean, that could be me. It could be, you know, I'm not an immigrant. It could be a lot of, and it's not saying that you're not helping, but for me, I just like to see specifically, you know, if you can differentiate between an immigrant sort of, you know, trying to establish a business. And, you know, there's Latino businesses all over the, members all over the city. So I differentiate them a little different.

That would be very easy for us to do. And I could probably tell you that of that 75%, that's at least 75%, just because we know the people that we're working with who are in the T-Biz and who have come to the workshops. And it's really been, you know, a great process of developing new relationships, not just for the chamber, but for our community as a whole, because we view this as it is a partnership with the city. So all the relationship development is for all of us working together. And we work closely with both Jennifer and Gladys. And then Deanna's over there. We also now have Anna there. as well as Liliana doing some part-time there. So we've assembled a good team, and now we're just continuing to work on making sure people are aware of it and getting more folks in to utilize the services. So thank you again. Thank you for the questions.

Real quick, Dr. Jones, you had mentioned you had a question real quick.

Yeah.

I'd like more information on the WILTS program and the benefits. Okay.

Sounds great. All right. Thank you, Donna. Thank you, Jacob. Thank you. All right. Moving forward to item five communications.

Others of us.

Oh, sorry. Go ahead.

Okay.

I looked around.

Thank Donna on your way. Just thank you very much for what you do. And thank you for the report to Council. from my standpoint, you're doing a very good job, and we just need to recognize that. Thank you.

Likewise, I'd like to thank you very much in the chamber. Actually, when I retired from teaching 20 years ago, I would never be sitting here today if it wasn't for the support of the council and the activities that I participated in, leadership to Larry, ambassadors, et cetera. And I have attended several classes at TBIS, and they've been excellent. So thank you so much.

Hal Hallstein, On it you're you're very much appreciated it's just when I try to move forward, you see what happens when I miss certain things yeah Thank you. Hal Hallstein, Okay, are we ready item five communications.

Yes, Council, you recently received two letters from Mr. Alberto Aguilar, who was here earlier discussing his interest in the Cesar Chavez renaming park effort. For one of the letters was an appeal to the school district to have their own set of meetings to discuss what the park should be named. And the second letter was the city council advising them of his interest and demand for the school district to hold those separate meetings. That's all.

Okay.

item six council reports and items of interest mr vice mayor harrell thank you mr mayor on july the 10th the shelter ribbon cutting the thing that was most impressive there was to see folks that came from the temporary camp working at the shelter that was fantastic to see that they had turned themselves around and they were there now i hope the same for the rest of them then on the 15th the cesar chavez committee councilman seagal

Just a couple of items. First of all, I just wanted to once again congratulate all of our new staff. As the city manager mentioned, I'm glad to hear that because of the work that is being done by everyone, staff, council, city manager, that folks see that Tulare is a great place to work at and to live. So congratulations to them. Also wanted to piggyback on what Ned had said that I'm excited to see that Teleria Avanza is going to start, I guess, a farmer's market at Zumwalt Park starting August the 6th for 12 Thursdays. There will be live music with some entertainment that's going to be free and open to the community, so everyone's welcome. I understand there's 30 plus vendors that includes food. nonprofit information. I believe the city might also have some tables out there. So it's a great, great space for folks to come out and looking forward to that ribbon cutting on August the 6th. The other item I just wanted to bring up in general, I know that there's been, I just saw that there are a lot, I heard, I got a little note that there are a lot of folks at the fairgrounds regarding the data center conversation and that that's sort of been prevalent in our area the last couple days. There was a great, a big turnout also at Kings County, at Kings County Fairground when they were discussing that. And I do know that there's been a lot of press and news that's been reported on it. I'm hoping that at some point the council can have a discussion on that Uh, so that we can kind of understand what it takes to have something like that. I, I personally would would want us to have a opposition to any data centers in the city position, but that's something that we would have to discuss down the road. But I just wanted to acknowledge to all the people who have posted on social media. We've reached out to me and. A number of I'm sure a number of other council members about this and and confusion, right? You know, everything that not everything that happens in the city is under the city's jurisdiction. In this particular case, there's a fairgrounds board that's appointed by the governor. And so they decide what happens within within the fairgrounds. So they will decide what moving forward what they like to do. But I do think that the city staff and I really appreciate the staff. I think it took actually a public records request to get information. So I hope that they are more transparent. by putting that information on their website so that general public can take a look at that. And then finally, I also just wanted to mention that I appreciate the vice mayor chairing Cesar Chavez committee on renaming the park and going through that process. And I look forward to the remainder of the process that's been laid out for public input at the parks commission, which we requested. them to have a special meeting in the evening because the parks commission meets at 6 30 in the morning and there's not i think they've only had like five people go to their meetings in 10 years so i just want to make sure that they um have a public they have the meeting in the evening so that was something we asked of them and hopefully they can can do and uh there will be other steps for public input ultimately the council will decide on what happens with that with that issue so thank you

Curt Brown, Councilman madaris. Curt Brown, Over the course of the last two weeks on January 10 I also attended there, excuse me, thank you July 10 I attended the homeless shelter ribbon cutting July 11 the Atari police explorer fundraiser I attended that that was a very nice event she Thank you. governmental affairs on July 13th. I attended and represented the city on July 14th at the Rosa Brothers ice cream plant ribbon cutting. And on that same day, attended the mid Korea GSA meeting as the city council's representative.

I too attended the July 10th ribbon cutting of Tulare Cares via July 11th explore dinner fundraising dinner. And July 14th, I represent the Council at the Chamber Ambassadors.

Yes. This month, as I represent the Council on the TCAG Board, we didn't have a TCAG meeting, but TCAG was dark for the month of July. We'll reconvene back in August. And as many of the events that everybody had talked about, I'm attending as well. Exciting time to be there and support. of the different actions in our community. One thing I wanted to touch on quickly, and I think for those that are here in the public chambers and those that are listening online, is between communications, council reports, and the issue on the data center, is being the mayor in this role, being on council and being the mayor, out in the public, and in front with people in the conversations of actions that take place in the community. I'm accessible. I try to follow social media, my phone, my email. I get just to be open to the public and of course to address community issues and questions. However, I kind of plea with the public and with your neighbors, relatives and friends to be civil in that process. Because when an issue comes up, I really don't appreciate being called at my home, my work with foul language, F-bombs, getting being accused of bribery, telling me what a worthless individual I am, I'm killing Tulare. all over an opinion on like a data center that had come up very emotionally driven. I'll take your call. I'm happy to hear your piece here at the council meeting, be out in the community with meetings, but please be civil. Be civil when that happens. You can have a cup of coffee, a handshake, and share and absorb those opinions. But when people, I think, really take it over the line of extensive foul language, threats, and just above and beyond accusations, please remind your fellow folks, if you would, to be civil in doing so and happy by all means to engage and work through this process. So I just wanted to share that and look forward to what we have tomorrow and what we're doing in our community. I'm number seven.

Mr. Mayor, for you from Vaughn, I thought you would bring this up, but I just also wanted to thank Jennifer and staff for the Rawhide game event. Oh, yeah, great introduction. I had the privilege of throwing out the first pitch along with the mayor, and it definitely showed the mayor throw a strike, and I threw the ball into general vicinity, so I'd like to thank the... I think it was about a six-foot-five catcher with a nice reach that made it more... more like within the range of the plate. But I also want to thank the staff. It was a great game. Unfortunately, our local team didn't do well, but had fun and appreciate seeing the mayor throwing right down the middle.

Yes. Thank you, Jennifer. And it was great to spotlight our community over there in Visalia. Good times. All right, consent calendar. All matters listed under the consent calendar are considered by the council to be routine and will be enacted in one motion without discussion. If discussion is desired, that item may be removed and considered separately. I believe I do have a request already, which is to please separate item 7.7. Council, any other request?

Well, I think Just for clarification, 7.7 is being removed for a purpose.

So it is, which is request to remove 7.7 is Mr. Harold needs to recuse himself from that.

I think we have to state that publicly. That's the only one indicating that.

And if the council, if it would be okay, I'd like to provide some comments on that item.

Yeah. And I don't mean as mayor, I knew that ahead of time, should the individual announce that rather than myself?

It just needs to be disclosed to disclose it isn't as material, but just that there is a conflict of interest that we've identified and that's why we're pulling it.

I mean, to speak for you, that's okay.

Yeah, Mr. mayor, I will have to refuse myself on this item because I have properties within 20 feet of this intersection.

Okay, any other, uh.

no mr mayor but if there's no other ones then i'll move to adopt a consent calendar uh 7.1 through 7.13 with the exception of 7.7 and that one's separate i'll second that we have a motion and second for consent calendar 7.1 with 7.13 with the removal of 7.7 all in favor aye any opposed

Approved item 7.7.

You said you were going to say something waiting.

If there's going to be discussion, he will need to remove himself from there. I apologize council member.

That's my understanding.

I'm happy to give some more.

I don't want to debate it, but I on a consent calendar item.

I don't think he has to if there is discussion about it, then it. It's no longer considered a consent item. Okay.

The council, do we have action on 7.7 or discussion? I think the city manager said he was going to say something.

Yes.

So, well. As soon as I move to adopt it, and then there's a 2nd, then we have a discussion. They go counsel has said if there's discussion, so we have a motion.

So, did you adopt the other items? I'm sorry. Yeah, I did. Okay. So, as soon as council member Harold leaves, I'll enter the discussion.

Oh, and I'm always there for a second.

Feel much better with him. I can speak more freely now. Oh, I'm sorry. Council, this this proposal comes out of a traffic study of a subdivision project. where it was recommending that there be a three-way stop at the intersection of Turner and Foster. And as we know, this has really been a difficult intersection for many, many years. Long term, we are working on some resolutions of this intersection and others in that area. And with the construction of the project, the subdivision, there'll be some additional improvements. But in and of itself, it makes a lot of sense, I think, to do this three-way stop. However, in talking about this with a few other folks it it dawns i mean it comes to my attention that turner drive heading all the way out to almost porterville is almost miles and miles of open roadway where there are no uh stop signs and cars really fly down that road in fact I think most of the accidents or damage that we've seen is really cars coming down Turner Drive heading north and approaching Foster Drive and kind of running right through that intersection. And so one of the thoughts that we've had at the staff level was maybe we should examine putting the possibility of a four-way stop at Turner and Tahoe. and so our thinking was rather than just move forward with approving this change if we go ahead and if council is okay with us going ahead and hiring the consultant to do the analysis for a potential four-way stop at turner and tahoe we might be able to look at both of those things together and bring you some additional information and possibly even approve both projects if they make sense to do so so My thought is, maybe we just delay this decision for a little while. If you feel comfortable giving us direction to pursue that other analysis, we can come back with a little bit more detailed information for you to consider. I haven't talked to the city engineer. The 1, I probably should have talked to about this. I would ask Michael, do you see any real urgency in addressing this issue this evening? Or does it make sense for us to.

Just a couple of points that same traffic study that resulted in this recommendation did look at that intersection at Turner and Tahoe. And at that time, the warrants for an always stop were not met at that location. Couldn't say that hasn't changed over the probably years since that study was done. The other point being that the there's already existing stop. At Turner and foster, and I believe we have a stop ahead advance warning. There's things we could do about making sure that's the largest size stop ahead sign that is available. We have also. undertaken with Edison upgrading the existing light at the intersection of Turner and Foster just to provide better illumination at night. So we certainly could look at putting this off and seeing if warrants are met at Turner and Tahoe, but my recognition would probably be to go ahead and move forward with this on its own.

Tahoe is a Itself is a 25 mile per hour speed limit. I mean, that's a residential area. Is that correct?

Yes, Tahoe currently has a stop for both directions. Eastbound, westbound, 25 mile an hour local.

But Turner, north and southbound is not a stop.

No, Turner, I don't recall the speed limit at that location, but it's probably close to 55, 50 miles per hour.

There's been a long time stop sign on Turner coming up to Foster Drive. correct turning right though is a uh you can go right away without stopping at that intersection it's a yield yes yeah it's a yield so there there won't be necessarily a dramatic change from the turner side um at that intersection it'll be more of the foster drive people coming around on mooney boulevard and then getting on to Foster Drive, they're the ones that will have to adjust to a four-way stop. Is that accurate?

That's correct. And we would also have supplemental stop ahead warning signs for traffic on Foster. Being a new stop, that would be very important. And as Mark indicated, that stretch also is a fairly lengthy stretch of road without stop signs, especially if you're coming south on Moody Boulevard.

So it's your recommendation to go ahead with what We've indicated here, and it's our city manager recommendation to do something else, which is somewhat of a unique situation we have here today.

I would say if the timeliness of this is very important, I'll defer to the city engineer. If the city engineer feels like we can tap the brakes on this for a few months and look at some, there's some other issues that I haven't disclosed that I'd like to talk to the city engineer about. If he feels like we can afford to give it a little bit more time, I'd like just to delay the decision.

Yeah, I think the only pressing timeline would be eventually a notice of completion will be required for that subdivision and they won't be able to get it until until it is resolved. But that that should be some ways off.

Okay. So you want to the request then is to table this for a couple of months to do further research under the circumstances.

I think 3 months is probably what it would take.

Okay. I'd make a motion to you.

Let me ask a question here. So I thought this particular area was going to be realigned. Yes, ultimately. So what we're doing is just putting in stop signs. No other infrastructure that we have to tear out later on. So just a pole with some stop signs and then maybe before you get the intersection, stop ahead or type of thing, right? That you would put on there. Correct. So, okay. That was the only thing that I was just saying. We're going to do something big and then tear it out later on because I'm looking at a map right now that's going to be realigned eventually. Um, and that, that, how that would impact. But, um, um, I guess I just want to, I mean, my only concern is that, that if there, um, have been any sort of accidents that have been documented that, you know, putting in, putting in it now versus later could make a difference. But if it's not like crossing Mooney, uh, per se, uh, then I would be open to it. But that's my only sort of hesitation in There have been accidents that this could help curtail those accidents and we're ready to do it sooner than later, but. That's that's the only kind of hesitation I have.

I would, I would, I'll defer to the police chief and the city engineer, but my understanding is that there are relatively frequent accidents in this area. Now, to the extent these stop signs would avoid that. I don't know that, but I suspect they will assist in preventing some of those. I'll defer to these gentlemen.

Absolutely we we've had fatalities there. We've had a. single vehicle rollovers. We've had, oh, I think a bus was struck before. There's been quite a few accidents there.

Thank you. And I think that would be my only hesitation to delay it. So that would be something that, I mean, I'd be prepared to vote on it today, but that would be my only hesitation.

Gee, now we have a third opinion. So what's the recommendation now?

Oh, yeah, to to do it now.

It's it's council's prerogative. I, I would, I would stay with my recommendation because there's other factors and I recognize that there have been accidents. But I'm concerned that doing this improvement may result in some other difficulties, which is why I would like to have a little bit more discussion of the city engineer nonetheless. It's counsel's prerogative and, you know, 1 way the other life will go on. If you approve it going forward, I'll still have the conversation. We'll still examine. Tahoe, and we'll still examine some other other issues that I think just creates. But if you think it's worthwhile to postpone for 3 months while we work all those out together and do 1 package versus come back and modify it. I'm okay either way.

Can you expedite it shorter than 3 months?

I don't know. We'd have to get in touch with the engineers to update their traffic study.

Yeah, I don't I don't think we could get it turned around in less than 3 months. Just that's just the pace of getting these studies done these days.

Yeah. So, Mr. the question I had is, I think, as as the vice mayor stepped out, I had made the motion. I don't know. There was a 2nd on the original sort of what's before us. So, um. I would make the motion that we adopt what's before us. Today.

So I have three different motions at three different times, right?

Well, the original one I made, but I don't know if I got a second. And then Mr. Medeiros made one, so I'm making the one I made originally again.

I think you made a motion. It was cut off with discussion. Mr. Medeiros made a motion. You cut that off with the discussion. And now you have a motion. So I think it's really up to the chair in recognizing the motion. Is that correct? Unless somebody calls the question.

Correct yes, so it would probably be the cleanest for everybody. If whichever motion is actually pending, they remake the motion.

So, with that is, I'm going to look to further discussion because I have a council member that perhaps has not spoke on this issue. So I'm not going to recognize either motion at this time. And I'm going to say, if council members here, do you have any further discussion on this?

Would you like me to make the motion?

No. So, with that council members. I will come back to opening with no further discussion from council. Is there a motion that a council member would like to make?

Well, I'll just make my original motion to go ahead and adopt the recommendation to adopt the resolution, designating the intersection of Foster Drive and Turner Drive as an always stop intersection and authorizing the installation of corresponding stop controls. So that would be my motion.

Is there a second?

I'll defer to council members there. Because that's where we're at. What do you want?

I have a second motion.

Okay. So we have a motion and a second?

No. I wanted to hear what you had to say.

Okay. We have a motion and a second. All in favor?

Aye.

Aye. Okay. 7.7 is approved. Moving forward, we will go to item eight, public hearing. Comments related to public hearing items are limited to three minutes per speaker for a maximum of 30 minutes per item, unless otherwise extended by council. For those that wish to provide public comment while attending the meeting remotely, please press nine on your phone to raise your hand or click raise hand in the webinar. Item 8.1, landscape maintenance assessments for fiscal year 2027. Mr. Miller.

Thank you Mr. Mayor, members of council. Each year city council is required to set landscape maintenance assessments for the upcoming fiscal year. On June 16th, 2026, council adopted resolution of attention number 2026-050, setting July 21st, 2026 as the public hearing date to adopt landscape maintenance assessments for fiscal year 27 and directing the city engineer to file a required engineer's report with the city clerk. The public hearing will allow property owners within each of the 31 landscape districts to comment on the proposed fiscal year 2027 assessments for their district. The proposed assessments compare to the prior fiscal year as follows. Two districts are proposed to decrease an assessment. 19 districts are proposed to increase. Seven districts would experience no change from the prior year. And 3 districts have not yet completed any improvements requiring maintenance and therefore do not have any proposed assessments for the 19 districts that would experience an increase in assessment. None of the proposed assessments exceed the rate approved by property owners at the time of their formation accounting for adjustments were allowed. Therefore, with regard to proposition 218 requirements, they do not constitute an assessment increase that would trigger the need for a property owner approval by ballot. So at this point, it's recommended that council hold the public hearing and following that adopt a resolution confirming diagram and landscape maintenance assessments and levying assessments for fiscal year 2027 and authorizing the city manager or designee to execute the compliance certification and hold harmless statement regarding the assessment of fees.

Yes. Oh, hey, welcome back, by the way. Hal Hallstein, My apologies, I could have waited to start deciding for you to come back sorry about that. Hal Hallstein, Okay, thank you with staff presentation sorry but i'm pausing is there was an item in this, I was, I was looking for from my notes. Hal Hallstein, This is a public hearing, so I will open the public hearing for public comment on 8.1 resolution confirming diagram and landscape maintenance assessments district, as per the city staff is there anyone in chambers who'd like to speak on this item. John Potter, I don't have to have anyone on the phone. John Potter, Okay, with that I will close the public hearing for 8.1. John Potter, Council any questions of staff assessment districts. The one question I had, and my apologies for not submitting this ahead of time, it kind of clicked with me when you were giving your report, is when two districts are proposed to decrease. So remind me, kind of in the information of it, when it decreases, is that because the bids to maintain that district were less? Or how does it facilitate a decrease?

Generally, we build up a balance. We try to maintain two years worth of landscape maintenance contract costs as a fund balance in each district. And once they start to exceed that, eventually we kind of self-adjust by lowering the assessments, try and get them back in line and on that targeted balance.

And I continue with my apologies. I didn't do my homework on the two that decrease. What are the two that decrease?

I was afraid you might ask that.

That's why my disclaimer.

Yeah, I want to say the two of our older ones. I think one of them is Academy Estates. And the other one might be Autumn Glen. I don't have that in front of me. I apologize.

it's no it uh it's not in the report specifically the reason council and i think to mr miller the reason why i asked that it just helped in that knowledge is we assessments that don't have the ability to increase But a 2 is, if it's, it's more maintenance, or if it's meeting the goals and objectives, which is, I've sometimes asked if this assessment district is really maintenance in areas, or if it also allows for, like, replenishment of what was the original assessment design for? Is it meeting what the original goals were? So, by discounting it, is it being discounted because it's just a labor bid came in to maintain it? Or is it. Maybe not discount it because it allows room then to replenish what that assessment district was meant to maintain or replace and rehab.

Right? And we do try to work with the parks department to identify any necessary special maintenance repairs that type of. Um, costs that would go into account for the, the projected cost for the coming year that would, you know, if we knew that there was a big project coming up in that particular district, we wouldn't have the same issue with, um. needing to lower assessments to keep the balances down. We're just trying to avoid also the accusation that we're building these massive pots of money too, right? And the property owners wouldn't care to hear that too, right? They wanted whatever balance of funds we're keeping for their district to be reasonable, not excessive.

No, and I think part of it, it's working for them, if you will. So if there's opportunity, like I said, repair and replace, but thank you. That's all the questions I have.

uh council members anymore just one question mr mayor um in regards to i know we've there's been some discussion in council over the years about other types of assessments for neighborhoods uh especially new developments so i just wanted to get a good idea if there are anything in particular with traffic calming i think we've talked about that about trying to do some assessments for future traffic calming in developments that are now being developed that are attaching to existing ones. So, for example, you know, I have pending with you guys a review of E Street from Barsley all the way down to the south in terms of like traffic calming, right? Just one big stretch. But there's a future development that's going to even connect to E Street all the way down to Page. So I'm just curious to see if you guys have had any further discussion on maybe a If legally we can do attach or add an assessment for that type of thing.

Yeah, I would probably defer to Thomas or Mark. That is part of the ongoing discussions with and we are definitely looking into it and would be bringing that back to council. For consideration, if you guys want to add anything.

Yeah. Yeah. So, within a new subdivision, when you activate a, all of the local streets would cover that. but like something on like E Street or an arterial, the developer would be required to construct that new portion to whatever our standards are, which is, as we've talked about, bringing an RFP out for development standards for our street typologies that tie into some of the things that you saw in the ATP a couple of meetings ago.

Council, do we have action on 8.1?

I'll make a motion to adopt a resolution confirming diagram and landscape maintenance assessments and levying assessments for fiscal year 2027 and authorize the city manager or designee to execute the compliance certification and hold harmless statement regarding the assessment of fees.

We have a motion and second. Any further discussion? All in favor? aye 8.1 is approved 5-0 moving forward is 8.2 resolution of necessity for APN 172-370-032 Mr. Gaffrey thank you mayor staff would request to continue this item we need to open the public hearing and then just get a motion to continue to the date certain of August 18th okay with that I will open the public hearing for 8.2 resolution of necessity Is it?

Do we take public hearing or just open it?

Yeah, we open it. If somebody wanted to speak, they can speak. We close it and then you a motion to continue, please. This this is so we don't have to re notice.

Is there anyone in chambers who wishes to speak on this item came here tonight or expecting to speak on 8.2? Okay, Madam clerk, do I have anyone on the phone? Okay. So with that, as Mr Gaffrey, as I as we said, we will continue the public hearing.

We have to make a motion for that purpose?

Yes.

I'll make a motion to continue it to August 18th, 2026. I'll second the motion.

We have a motion and second to continue this public hearing. I apologize, the date?

August 18th.

To August 18th? Yeah. Sorry, I'm just not hearing it right. To August 18th, the motion is second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Aye. This is continued 5-0. Moving forward in our agenda, 9-9, general business. 9.1, 2026 citywide speed zone study presentation. Mr. Millard.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. The city is currently engaged in the process of undertaking engineering and traffic studies necessary to update our citywide speed zones. And we have engaged the services of Wildan Engineering to help us with that process. Tonight, we have Nicole Spann from Wildan Engineering. She's gonna make a presentation on the findings of the studies. And following that, we'll have an opportunity for you to ask any questions, provide any feedback and then there's additional 2 council meetings where we'll hold a public hearing. And then the 3rd council meeting will be actually adopting the ordinance. And over to Nicole, thank you.

Nicole Spann, Okay. Nicole Spann, Well, good evening i'm Nicole span from wilden engineering i'm a licensed civil and traffic engineer and i'll be presenting the city of Tulare Tulare engineering and traffic survey done for 2026. Tonight I'll go over what an ENT is, why it's done, how it's done, what changed, and the next steps. So an engineering and traffic survey establishes the speed limits so that they are legally enforceable by the police department to use radar and electric speed measuring devices. Every seven to 14 years, the engineering and traffic surveys expire. The previous ENTS was completed in 2020. So that means that this survey expires in 2027. So a new survey is needed to be established to maintain those enforceable speeds. and the reason why you update an engineering and traffic survey is to maintain enforceabilities to make sure that the speed limits can be enforced by the police using radar they reflect current conditions conditions of roadway speeds volumes change over time so this just ensures that those are evaluated and reflect the new speed limits. And then to support safety and consistency, to review the collision, the speed habits of drivers, the volumes, and also try to avoid speed traps for drivers so that they can stay at the 85th percentile speed, which I'll describe later. So the posted speed limits are established to promote safe and reasonable travel while supporting fair enforceable speed limits. The process is based on how the majority of drivers will travel under normal conditions. So it's the drivers that establish the speed limit and not the other way around in a way. Engineering traffic surveys are set by these guidelines using the California Manual of Traffic Control Devices and the California Vehicle Code. And the ENTS are established by four different categories of data collection. So there's speed sampling, where we go out into each roadway segment and collect the radar to develop or to identify what the 85th percentile speed is. We'll do crash history and traffic volume data collection to determine what the crash rate is on each segment. And so we'll look at a three-year crash history to evaluate what those rates are. And then we'll also look at roadway conditions that have changed since the previous ENT or any conditions that are not readily apparent to unfamiliar drivers. And then lastly, this is a new section that was passed by AB 43 is safety corridors. So we looked at the crash history of fatal and severe injury crashes throughout the city on each segment to identify which segments could be established as safety corridors. And I'll go over why that's important in a later slide. Speed limits are determined by that 85th percentile speed that I mentioned before. And so the 85th percentile speed is the speed that is at or below where 85% of drivers are traveling. And so that is just the standard engineering practice of establishing what is the most safe and appropriate speed for drivers to drive on to avoid having a speed trap. And so the starting recommendation that we will establish is what is, you would round up or down what that radar 85th percentile speed is to the closest five mile per hour increment. So the speed limit is established in these options below. I'll go over them really quickly because it might be getting kind of in the weeds. So you'll round to the nearest five mile per hour increment, or you can lower from that five mile per hour increment, five miles per hour. reduction if there are any special conditions or conditions that are not readily apparent to unfamiliar drivers. You can also, without providing explanation for doing that five mile per hour reduction you may be allowed to round down so if the speed limit or if the 85th percentile speed is um 49 miles per hour you're it you would normally round up to 50 but in that case you would be able to round down to 45. and then um The last 1 is with the. Establishment of the safety corridors, so you can have an additional 5 mile per hour reduction on top of any of those 3 categories. So shown in that yellow. So just standard speed limits must be within seven miles per hour of the 85th percentile speed. And if it is on a safety corridor, then it can be reduced down from 12 miles per hour from the 85th percentile speed. then another option that you'll have available is to um that this was also established through ab43 to retain the current or immediately prior speed limit set by an engineering and traffic survey if it was established with under ordinance and it was established through an ENT survey and no changes have been made to the roadway lane usage, then the city may be able to just retain that speed limit that was set before. And so what changed, this is the map of the speed limits that we are recommending. We reviewed 161 segments, which included 84 centerline miles throughout the city. We reviewed crash history mid-block between 2023 and 2025. And then the speed data and the average daily traffic data was collected back in January and February this year. And so this shows what has changed in the recommendations. 63% or 102 segments have no changes. 24 segments or 15% have reductions in the speed limit. There are 20 segments that don't have posted speed limits out. But would be established with new speed limits we'd need to post new signs and then 15 or 9% would have those recommended increases. And so because there's 15 that were increased, so of those, 12 would increase by five miles per hour, two would increase by 10 miles per hour, and there's one segment that would increase by 15 miles per hour. And increases occur just because what I explained earlier is we're kind of bound by those limitations of the MUTCD and California Vehicle Code of just being able to go between seven miles per hour from the 85th percentile speed and so the next step so this is a just presentation on the ENT survey so tonight is not an ordinance adoption hearing the next city council meeting will be a public hearing and then following that would be the meeting to adopt the ENT survey the speed limit recommendations and then after that is adopted then the new speed limit signs can be installed and the enforcement records would be updated And so our recommendation is to just return at the next public hearing meeting or at the next meeting to have a public hearing with an ordinance to adopt the recommended prima facie speed limits. And then that is it. Rami, do you have any questions?

Council members, you have questions? I have one. Go ahead, Councilman Segal.

Thank you for the presentation. If you go back to, I think, slide 11 or 12, the one that has the maps.

Oh, I have a bigger one behind.

Yeah, that one. I'm looking at West because I appreciate the recommendation. I know I brought this up. I can't remember how long ago it was, but we brought up the idea of trying to keep West sort of consistent. And I read because of there being a crosswalk on Sonora, the recommendation was to do the 40 miles an hour across the whole segment. But then I look at, I see that from Tulare to Pleasant, it's going to go up to 45 and then there's an entire stretch from pleasant to prosperity missing there which i also see it's going to be 45 and what i'm looking at is is is all the listing yeah and i just want to see if we're consistent because we go from west um from bars you to sonora's 40 and then 40 40 40 and then once we get to prosperity It goes up to 45 but the maps, a little different here than what the so i'm trying to figure out which ones, the actual correct one, so if you look at the segment where it says West I literally said West right there that blue one that's supposed to be 45 but in the report it's 40. And then the segment above that is missing, so between pleasant and prosperity. But it also recommends that that be 45. So I'm just trying to figure out, would there be any hindrance for the entire West from... from barsley all the way up to prosperity just to be at 40 instead of 40 45. yeah i'll have to look at uh what that uh 85th percentile speed was on that right yes but it's missing that little segment right between um that and then and then and then the last one that i had brought up a while ago was prosperity um i don't think go back to that matter um the idea was i think coming into the city limits of enterprise i think it was at 55 and then it kind of slowed down and they had different different uh uh things so I do appreciate that you guys have considered at least what I'm looking at that prosperity from I guess that would be Milner all the way down to J Street or not close to J Street um that that's a good a 40 mile segment so I appreciate the consistency yeah I just was worried that you're like one block 45 and then the next block at 40 then you're back to 45 and

yeah i just want to make sure that was consistent yeah and yeah that is um one element that i do try to get to to keep it consistent so it's not like rollercoastering right but i do appreciate west because there are a lot of kids across there on sonora and i appreciate that

recommendation bringing it down to 40 and keeping that whole segment so that would be the only thing i would ask if if you could look at yeah the whole stretch so right here um i have on here that um west from pleasant prosperity

um you have a point of five so we have that five and we're using a special condition already um to reduce the speed limit from that 85th percentile speed which was 50. and it um unfortunately unfortunately is not a safety corridor it doesn't have the mid block uh killed or

What so would with the idea that the there's a big lot there things about 30 acres that i'm crossing my fingers or one day be developed. So would anticipating development and having more people walking down the street be sort of something that you can use to bring it down.

No, I think for setting the speed limits, it should be more reactory than anticipatory, just to avoid that speed trap of having cars just drive the speed that they're comfortable with. Once a development is established or built constructed, then after it's constructed, then you can go in. Do a quick radar survey and re, establish what that speed limit would be.

So, so just a final thought here. So, the on the West between pleasant and prosperity, it would be 50. is the 85 percent however you're recommending it down to 45 because of a special condition so that's the lowest it could go that's a little sick so you have a segment of 40 then once you hit Pleasant yeah you can there's nothing five right yeah the only I think um one option you have is um to

not like establish this ENT so you can just I think there are a couple segments on here that the previous ENT recommended 55 and the sign says 30 so that's 30 miles per hour isn't enforceable but it at least tells drivers what you think they should go but so that's an option just to keep it up or to set it at 40 but then it would not be enforceable by radar

Nicole, yes, that section you mentioned earlier the AB. Yes, there was a, you mentioned there's that 1. If the roadway conditions did not change, you can fall back on the prior survey. Would that apply to possibly?

Let's see. No, because the previous adopted speed limit is 45 miles per hour right there. So I think that's what happened previously was that that posted speed limit. The 2020 ENT set established it at 45. but you just kept those signs out so it's not technically enforceable along that segment because the ENT survey did not establish that 40 mile per hour speed limit.

With that, I'm just going to open this up for public comment on 9.1. Is there anyone in chambers who'd like to speak on this item for 9.1? Dr. Jones? For this item, I'll need you to come to the microphone.

First time, I don't mean to keep taking up this time. Hi, my name is Dr. Robin Jones. I'm a resident of Tulare, California. And my question is the traffic speed limit on Mooney between Prosperity and Visalia. And there have been a few times when I'm just sitting at the light waiting for it to change in the turn lane. and the traffic it is so fast my car rocks and i have a sizable suv um several of us have mentioned that there have been several accidents right there at patrick and um and mooney and it's it's i with i've witnessed two accidents myself and i've only been there for a year and a half so that's my concern the speed limit on mooney and i'll leave it at that Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you, doctor.

I can address that. That section from basically to Larry Avenue North is State Highway 63. So, Caltrans are the ones who establish the speed limits on that section.

Thank you.

Okay.

Do we have, clerk, do we have anyone on the phone with questions? Okay. Council members, any other comments? This is just to receive the report. presentation, we have a few questions on that. And then as you said, we'll come back with a public hearing for adoption of the ordinance.

Correct, yeah.

Okay, do we need to vote to receive it? Or is this just a presentation?

Ms. Clark, we do need to.

Council, do we have a motion to receive the report? We have a motion. And second, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Report received. Moving forward to 9.2, economic development quarterly and June updates. Jennifer Gomez.

Good evening, everyone. So yes, so as part of tonight's quarterly update, I also provided you your June bulletin. If you had a chance to take a look at that, you could see that community development staff have been definitely busier. A lot more building permits were issued in June. So things definitely pick up in the summer months. I just want to at least point that out to you all.

Okay. Report has 219 building permits evaluation at 18,648,795. Yeah, this report is in our, our. In our packets and public material and information, but as well in 9.2, is there anyone in chambers who'd like to comments or questions public comment on 9.2. Do we have anyone on the phone? All right, thank you. All right.

And so with our quarterly update, I didn't cut you off, did I?

No, you stopped. Oh, OK. You stopped. So I thought that was that was the part. My apologies. Go ahead with the June bulletin update. And so for just a call.

quarterly updates. As you are all probably aware, back in May, Chick-fil-A had their grand opening, and from the data that I was able to pull, they had over 100,000 visitors in the first two months. and those are individuals um so if i went there twice it would still just count me as once so 100 000 visitors in two months and then we also had poltley open their other new location over on varsity that happened on june 24th i haven't been able to pull any data on the number of people visiting that location though For residential projects, wanted to let you know that there were a couple more subdivisions that have now been completed. And so it's nice to see some developments coming to an end, but there are still plenty more that are under construction as well. And then through site plan review, we had several proposed developments come through. We have a home-to-suites hotel that's being proposed north of the outlets area. The Canton Restaurant over on East Prosperity near Mooney. Cartmill Crossings. It's a proposal of a mixed use of residential and retail as a lot of you may have already heard Marquez Brothers is looking to come to town here to add a facility a funeral home in the downtown area to fill a vacant building there and then which building is that um

It's the old Bank of the West on the North West.

There's a difference. What about the other one at K and Tulare Avenue on the Northwest corner that seems to have come to a halt?

Oh, is that the one that was under some construction? Yeah. I haven't heard any updates on that. So, yeah.

The developer is currently doing demo. They do have a building permit issued for their tenant improvements, and we're following up with them as to the site. But it's still just to be like a market or convenience store or something like that.

It seems to have come to a complete standstill. That's why I'm asking the question.

Yeah. Once the building permit is pulled for a non-residential project, they have six months to begin work, and then they have six months clock that rolls every time they receive an inspection. So we're a little constrained by building code in terms of when they slow down their work. But I'll ping Carlos on it.

And then, of course, then there's East Tulare Business Park for some service commercial area. that's being proposed as well. So a lot of activity coming through there. And then just to update on some of the projects and programs that we have been working on. As you know, the Inyo Avenue Streetscape Placemaking and Revitalization Project. We've had a kickoff meeting in June with our consultant, Zach Urban Solutions. And so it'll take about one year to get a final report on that project or that plan. And you adopted our economic development strategic plan back in June. And so I'm moving forward working with a consultant on identifying the different actions that we want to move forward with and bring that implementation plan before you in the coming months. Our 2025 annual report has been completed. The hard copies are now available and it's also available on our website. And the Spanish translation is just being in its final edits and so hopefully we'll have that printed relatively soon so that can be distributed and on our website as well. and then last week i submitted the three applications for those census tracts that you directed at a previous council meeting so that has been submitted and so it's just a waiting game now until we find out if they have any questions or if they're going to have the governor approve those recommendations And then back in May Gladys and I attended the icse Las Vegas Convention, where there were about 25,000 attendees there and with about 900 exhibitors and so it was a busy couple of days walking throughout the Convention Center trying to meet with potential retailers and site selectors and so. It was a busy active couple of days there. And that concludes my quarterly update for you.

Yeah, questions the 1st, 1, I'm going to try to. Reach out and attach it to your report. Do we have any update on the housing project across the street? by Mr Pimentel uh I mean I think that's that lot's been vacant for a long time and I saw some equipment I was going to go see there if there was any spider webs on the tires or but I'm just curious because I see that as an economic development for downtown so um well building permits I can't remember how far back that was but um Manny was indicating that it is an active project Well, I mean, and I think, I think for me, I want to understand what active means, you know, pulling a piece of paper, showing a drawing that just keeps pushing this thing down the line. I mean, I remember when councilman Nunley, Greg Nunley was on the council, he brought up some good ideas and we kept extending, extending, extending. So I'm just curious to see how far we're going to extend before something gets built.

Well, it's, it's, you know, we have an agreement with them, which we can give you in a weekly report an update on the project. We'll have to ask around and get some questions answered, but. Just keep in mind, like, we have an agreement and essentially agreement if I recall correctly talked about, they have to start construction or pull permits or something by a certain date. Which they did, but once they get into the construction phase, then they call, they fall under the California building code. And so, as long as they make certain amount of progress within a certain timeframe, then the city is obligated to renew their permit. So we'll figure that all out and send you information on that.

Great Thank you. And then the last 1 was, I think you had mentioned it when we talked about it, but who were in the governor's office. Are the opportunity zones looked at and recommended? Is it in his office or is it another office?

The applications start with GO-Biz and so that's who received it. And so they do an initial review and they make their recommendations to the governor and then the governor makes the recommendations then to the federal government. There is going to be a public review period. I don't know the dates of when that's going to be because they wanted to add additional time for public review. So they advanced the deadline to even submit our applications by a few days. But they said that they would be in contact with me if they had questions about our applications. And so I'm just kind of waiting and seeing if they do have anything or if I need to provide additional information. But I'm hoping something within the next month, we'll see some activity and direction from we've also submitted our sites to our lobbyists.

So they're aware of them in there.

right and so they're like in the one two three how we rank them right correct okay because i'm just trying to figure out um if i have a friend in the governor's office and see if they can help out okay yeah and on each application we were required to identify the other applications we were submitting and note on each application what the order of those priorities so all three applications are identical noting the priority of the three okay all right

Jennifer, thank you for the information and update. Good to hear of our community's economic development progress. With that 9.3 strategic plan status update, Mr. Gaffrey, back to you.

Thank you, Mayor.

That sounded thrilling.

There we go. Your mic was on.

Yes.

Perfect. Okay. So we're trying it out here with Zoom so that I can drive my own slides here.

And while Thomas is doing that, I'll add some of the excitement. This is something I'm very excited about, something we've been working on for a while. We've been talking about this for three years. waiting for the right time to implement this technology, this tracking system. Now that we got it up, I'll turn it back to Thomas.

Yep. So this is a draft dashboard from the Achieve It portal. Um, and it will really help the community and staff and yourselves who and folks who may not be into the weeds on details of all of these initiatives and projects. Really see how each task rolls up into the, the big picture and also provides continuity for the organization and the overall strategic direction for some of these things that. um span longer periods of time so the um as staff change or elected officials change or commissioners change there's still this document to help map out the direction for the organization so you can see this quick kind of overview here of the the strategic plan themes and a kind of tracker status uh we're going to be updating this quarterly and then you can see for each category so economic development here it identifies the broad goals um that are in that um achieve it um chart that you guys had received a few months ago and then the big thing here that you can see for each topic area um it's got what the initiative is um whoever is the process owner will update a status of where it's at and depending on what it is um they may have also provided comments and so And then for some of the other ones, so this is infrastructure and transportation, we provided these little gauges to show that are where we're at in terms of meeting our goal on some of these initiatives. So right now showing, you know, we purchased the two electric garbage trucks. And then once we get our pavement condition index score, we'll be able to update our baseline one so that we can then track that as different roadway projects are done and the scoring is readjusted. Again, this is one you can see, so it's showing the pavement management system project showing kind of a note here from staff vendor field work complete and we're awaiting the draft report. And so we've gone, you'll see these for every category, infrastructure and transportation. Here is our public safety and emergency preparedness one with our projects like consolidating dispatch, some of our fire recruitment and retention initiatives, all the things that you've seen previously just now shown in this dashboard. So you'll get a direct link to this so that you can scroll through it at your leisure and then provide staff any questions or comments then. But I'm happy to walk through it in more detail now or answer any questions, whatever you'd like. The other thing that I'll add to this is, so again, quarterly reports. We just did one in June, so we'll have another one updated in three months. roll back to the spring when we had our strategic plan workshop there's a number of projects and initiatives that council had provided staff at that time and so they're either tracked in here in achieve it or they're going to be tracked in the council request tracker or they're in the capital projects dashboard and so i'll be sending out in the weekly report as well A a summary of what all those strategic requests that you had from the spring and how and where staff are monitoring those for their completion. And I would just say, you know, as you do a lot of stuff at the city and.

You know, as the projects are tied to the strategic plan that council is asking to the extent possible, we put them in a strategic plan. To the extent that they may be 1 offs or projects that are not necessarily part of the strategic plan, then they would be likely in other places. And part of that is also keep that in mind as we have limited resources financially and staffing resources. The projects that we could tie most directly and closely related to the strategic plan are the ones that we believe ultimately get the largest bang for the buck for the organization. Not that other projects don't matter. It's just. keep that in mind in terms of where our priorities are the strategic plan really ultimately becomes sort of the guiding principle of our priorities going forward some of the things are very easy to do that you ask for and we can jump on those right away but longer bigger projects uh you know to the extent they could be part of the strategic plan it's very helpful

Okay. Are you at the point looking for feedback? No.

Okay. Yeah, we can talk now or once you have it on your own. I am happy to, Jason and Melissa and I can do one-on-ones or you can just provide email feedback. We'll link it in a weekly report. Okay.

It's just when I hear pauses, I feel that's my cue to jump in. Okay. All right. Yeah. Council members, questions, comments?

Just real quick is this is this the 1 that's going to be accessible to the public?

Yep. Once we once we get the refinements from you, there'll be a public link. It'll be up on the website and you'll be able to share it as well. And whenever staff make those quarterly updates, it'll automatically populate.

No, I think it's great great information for those. Folks that might be a little more into the policy weeds and wonks about what's what's going on. But. I think I remember seeing one example where they talked about the different types of things the city was achieving, right? Not just the projects and programs, but with the fact that something that the mayor always talks about, potholes, would it be possible to put like a thermometer on there and say, hey, we filled 2,000 potholes. The fire department puts out a great stat every month. We've went out to 1,000 medical calls and we put out 200 fires or whatever. um or other things like you know we've removed uh 500 square feet of graffiti this month i mean something i don't call it a little more sexier but a little nicer that people can look at instead of like oh let me read this policy draft but like hey your city has done 200 potholes your city has removed a thousand square feet of graffiti you know things like that that we can put up that are we can be proud of i mean i really enjoyed seeing the fire department They're quick, you know, 2nd, 2nd day into the month, they release all the figures. So, I don't know if that's something that we could put that makes it a little more. Like, hey, let me go enjoy to see what our city's doing.

Well, I definitely the short answer is yes. And yes. And yes, I, I would say. I don't know if the strategic plan and this page is the exact best place for all of those things. I could tell you that. Our communications team, we just had a discussion yesterday about the fact that. You know, we have been posting at least once a week on a city social meet about 3 things that the city is doing, but we're going to start getting a little bit more proactive. And those efforts, because, and frankly, you know, we're seeing, for example, in social media, a lot of people are making comments about things that is completely inaccurate information. We know social media is not journalism. It's everybody gets to share their opinion, no matter how uninformed they are. They get to share that. And so, in response to that, we're going to be putting out a lot more targeted information about exactly the things you're talking about. and what i would encourage council to do is if you have those specific things you want to see or ideas just shoot me an email or melissa an email with some of those we've already developed a list of things we're working on but there may be others that you want to see and we'll make sure we're starting to push more of that information out on a regular basis i i too just uh

HAB-Jacques Juilland, complement the software that we're using for this. HAB-Jacques Juilland, The software really helps the presentation it's really huge it's really big it is deep. HAB-Jacques Juilland, And I think kind of piggybacking on what Councilman cigala said, and I think all Council members, we have constituents in the Community and say hey. HAB-Jacques Juilland, What about that project, and I think the part of you can link it and say to go into the strategic it's on the list, you know here's we're at the strategic plan. Um, all right, or where are we at with this project? It just, it provides a bit of the backup instead of the verbal to say it's on the board. And I think part of which I do absorb, like, like, like a performance dashboard kind of gives us somewhere. We've done this, this and this and this, um, same ballgame. But it too is is a person who's led large strategic plans initiatives. Um, this type of software really going in the right direction. It's good to see, um, our city staff putting that up there and also making it transparent. It's good stuff. All right. And Terry Sarah agrees. There we go. I also want to, I keep looking at you if we've got something else. Okay. I'm like gun shy tonight. Skittish. I want to look to the public. Anyone in chambers would like to make public comment on the brief update that we had on the strategic plan status update software? Okay. Madam Clerk, do we have anyone on the phone? All right. Hal Hallstein, So with that we are item 10 future agenda items none submitted one if I can use this i'm just real quick another update also wanted to let counsel know. Hal Hallstein, did meet with Brian back regarding teens on board it's an action we approved in the past, so in August meeting, we will be back in front of Council with the teens on board. Hal Hallstein, program ideas breakdown of what that looks like and get that in front of Council for your input review approval. and then two i just want to say regarding the speed study there was a comment that was in there my comments a little late coming back to it and i just want it talked about safety and consistency and of course i think we all agree we need more cops to help enforce that safety and consistency so on our pathway we get more police let's enforce those speed zones um that was my my two quick items staff updates mr orr welcome back Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Nothing to report.

I'm filling in for Trisha. If all works, nothing to report.

Of course, this Friday, you probably are aware and Mark will probably mention the International Agri Center interchange ribbon cutting. I can't stress what a big deal this is for a city to get a brand new interchange on a state highway these days is remarkable. If you just think about all the other cities up and down 99, it's hard to think of another one that was able to pull this off. So very exciting.

No, and thanks for mentioning that's Friday. Is it? 10, 10 o'clock.

Yeah, 24, 10.

Yes, comb your hair, brush your teeth, look nice, be out there for the ribbon cutting.

At the interchange itself, yeah.

Mr. Roberts? Yes, I'm pleased to present the city's first popular annual financial report or PAFR, which you all have in front of you on the dais. It's what you might call Cliff's Notes for the ACFER. And I just want to assure the member of the education community on the dais that I've never personally used Cliff's Notes. I always read the book. But this, you might consider the cliff's notes version of the, uh, of the paparazzi. It's really meant to be more digestible. There's some fluff in there, but it hits the, it hits the high notes of the, um, um, which we will be presenting the after that is at the, uh, sometime in August or the 1st meeting in September along with the single, the big results of the single audit.

And thank you for touching on this, because I think one is I have council members here. If folks want to know, what are we doing with the money? Where does that go? And the technical part of a budget that you walk through, this is a great presentation. Where it's being spent, how it's being spent, what did we do last year, year before, what's happened in planning? This, you say cliff notes, but to me, this is a great talking point with community members to easily share, hey, this is transparency. This is what we're doing with the money. It has visuals in it, graphs, and breakdowns. Like I said, it's an easy conversation point. Uh, with that, with the table, so glad to have it and I know myself will keep this, um, kind of with me at all times. So those conversations of what's the city doing with our money? Good question. And we got it and we'll have it and we do have answers for that.

And the electronic version will also be available on the Internet. So. Fantastic on the finance web page.

I just got nothing to report.

Uh, 2 quick things 1, as you can see Mario and I is not here. That's because he attended the fair board meeting. For us, they did opt to table their decision on the item, but they did take public comment. Mario did speak during public comment, letting the fair board know that he looks forward to whatever environmental document and secret process. They go through if they opt to move forward. So just want to let you know that. On a more fun note, I wanted to thank the HR team. So for the new employee introductions that you got, that was just some of them. But in six months, they've recruited and onboarded 40 employees. So it's a lean team over there, but it's a large volume of work that they do to keep the day-to-day city operations going. So I just wanted to give them a shout out.

Nothing to report. Just to add a little bit more information from what was said at the beginning of the meeting, we had the Tulare buyout at the ballpark on Saturday at the Rawhide baseball game. I handed out about 260 tickets to city employees and their guests. It was a bit hot that night, so I know not everyone was able to make it that did get tickets, but it seems like everyone did have a good time that was there. So perhaps we'll be able to do something like this again.

Continue working with Caltrans and the railroad, keeping 99 and the railroad area clean. Railroad came back last week and did a big cleanup. And continuing with the Tulare Care emergency shelter, finishing the last furniture, putting all the stuff together, making sure everything's ready for the move. Thank you.

Nothing to report. Nothing to report.

legal counsel nothing to report okay just a few things really quick uh a correction on my prior statement so the event this friday for the ribbon cutting will be at the international agri center at the heritage complex inside the bacon room at 10 a.m um speakers should get there at 8 45 and there will be a ceremonial photo at the interchange at 9 00 a.m so hopefully that is more clear i apologize for Getting that wrong first time a couple of other things last year recall during the for the concert series. We did sort of a mid year review of where their concerts were at at some. Well, we're going to do that again on August 4th. So I'll give you an update on the finances and the people that are coming in and all the different, you know, the. The good, the bad, the ugly, the challenges, but also the exciting aspects of what's going on with that. That'll be on August 4th. I wanted to talk just briefly about the sales tax a little bit. I gave you a document that staff prepared that shows that Visalia is about twice our population, but there are over three times our sales tax revenue generation. And when you dive into those numbers further, it clearly shows that these are folks coming from Tulare to purchase goods there, which I don't blame them because we don't have a ton of, we don't have all the diversity of retail services here that Visalia does. But that's why it's so important that we work on doing that. That's why, for example, we're working on the entertainment district project. We have some other projects we're going to be announcing hopefully for November on things that we're trying to do to give more. services and goods to our residents and attract folks from Visalia. I had mentioned to you that previously that, you know, right now in our economic development study, it showed we got about $350 million sales tax leakage to other communities. So that's our folks going outside of our community. When I was in Rockland, we had about a $650 million leakage and we were able to turn that around about six years. So my hope is that we'll do that faster here. Also wanted to mention to you that we are not the only community seeking a sales tax measure. Dinuba is seeking to go to nine and a quarter percent on the November ballot as well. So I wanted you to be aware of that. And Last thing I just wanted to mention was we are working on with our consultant now you may have seen some social media posts with be with. To develop our Community calendar, a long awaited Community calendar on our website so we're working on that right now. It should be up no later than the end of August, I think it may get up even sooner than that, but that'll be a calendar, where every event that's occurring in our Community, regardless of the entity. that's why i shouldn't say we're not gonna have private parties on there but any any any organization that's having an event will be on our calendar and there'll be ways for people to reach out to us to put it on there as well that's all thank you all right so with that is we've got item 12 recess to close session to discuss the following 12.1 conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation per government code

Hal Hallstein, 5495 6.9 D two or three anything else Council that I need to report as we go into closed session. Hal Hallstein, No Okay, we are convened recent to close session. All right, there is no closed session report. And with that, we will adjourn the Tulare City Council meeting.