City Council - Regular Meeting

Begin. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Good evening. We'll do a roll call and declaration of conflicts of interest should there be some. Council member Abram here and none. Council member Bixel here and none. Council member or Vice Mayor Monet. He hear none. Council member Phillips here. None. Mayor Bublack. Hearing none. Okay. Uh approval of agenda as posted or amended. So moved. Second. We have a motion in a second. Call the role, please. Council member Abram. Yes. Council member Bixel.

Yes. Vice Mayor Monz. Yes. Council member Phillips. Yes. Mayor Bill. Yes. And it passes on a 5-0. And now we'll do some fun stuff. All right, Gabe, come on up, buddy. It's your time. No, we get this done. Okay, so uh first the disclosure, I believe my husband hired you twice. Yes, twice.

Yeah. So, he's he's the guy. Okay, so tonight we're going to recognize coach Gabriel Bolton, who is the all-time winningest coach in Stannislaw State women's soccer history, which is a huge accomplishment. Over the course of 20 seasons, Coach Bolton has built an extraordinary 212 wins, 118 losses, and 44 right in the middle record. His leadership was guided by to the Warriors to 11 postseason appearances, including four NCA tournament births and multiple CCAA championship runs. His consistency and competitive excellence have made this program one of the most respected in the conference. The 2013 season stands as a historic. That team became the first undefeated conference champion in CCAA history, earning coach Bolton both West region coach of the year and CCAA coach of the year honors. Just one year later in 2014, he led the Warriors to their first ever NCAA West region championships and a number one national ranking. a milestone moment for the program and the university and probably you. But coach Bolton's legacy extends well beyond championships. He has developed all-Americans conference players of the year and more than 150 all academic honores. His teams have maintained a GPA above 3.1, demonstrating a comm commitment to excellence not only on the field but in the classroom. Through vision, integrity, and dedication, coach Bolton has elevated Warrior women's soccer to national prominence and created a culture of success that will impact generations of students and student athletes. So, before I finish wanting them to to welcome you tonight, I I want to make sure I get the statistics right. In 18 months, you ha you and your student athletes went out and and did stuff for the public. Like what was the statistic on that?

In the last 18 months, we did four over 4,500 hours of community service. That's crazy cool. So, please join me in celebrating Coach Gabriel Bolton and his remarkable accomplishments as he goes on to Fresno. [applause] We're looking here. No, you're good. One more.

Um, well, thank you very much, mayor, uh, city council, and everyone that, uh, contributed to making tonight's recognition possible. It really means a lot to me and my family. I want to recognize my family, my wife Kathy, my daughters Bren and Sophia, and my son Ben. This is the only um place um we've known as a family and this is our hometown and we really we love it. We've um embraced it and it's just a really is a really special place in our hearts and being recognized like this just means a lot to all of us. I also want to say thank you um to my first ad which is Bill Richards and also my last adm both of which have been incredible influences in my life um not only how they've taken care of me as a person but also how they've guided my career through the years. Uh when you've been somewhere for as long as I was at Stan State, you kind of develop a lot of um traditions. And I will say without question, the tradition I hope that carries on long beyond uh when I've been the coach there is our tradition of service, service to Stan State, service to service to the Central Valley. For the last 20 years, we've been more than a team. And I hope that we are more than a team for the next 20 and beyond. So, thank you all so much. This means the world to me. I appreciate it. [applause] Okay. Now, Lisa McDermott, you can talk

that. Maybe you can get them to help with the hours of service towards the Carnegie. Number of years in a position. Maybe. I don't know. What [laughter] is this? the 14th time I've been in front of the city council for an annual report. So,

I don't know if that tops the coach, but um thank you for inviting me again. It's always so much fun to come in front of city council with a positive report. This year, we'll be talking about our 2425 fiscal year. um and um which is the 14th year that the Carnegie has been in operation in the beautiful facility and we appreciate the partnership that we have with the city um to make this happen. Um, for those of you who may not be familiar with this Carnegie Arts Center, um, I just want to quickly say our we advance our mission to be a regional gathering place for vibrant engagement with the arts, um, by promoting creative activity of all kinds. Our galleries exhibit art from around the world and around the corner, and we provide educational and entertaining programs to all ages and interests. Whenever possible, we link uh the art that's on exhibit in the galleries to other art forms through classes, lectures, films, concerts, poetry readings, and a variety of family activities. We just want everyone in the community to find a way to explore and experience the arts um with us. So, participation in 2024 25, our attendance numbers remain pretty steady. Um we continue to increase the number and kinds of programs that we put on our calendar. Um trying to balance out the many um youth programs and activities that we have by adding more programs for um adult audiences as this year. Um we're always mindful of the city council's um mandate that we be sure that youth programming makes up a significant portion of our offerings. During the past year, 51% of the classes that we offered were for youth, making up 54% of our total enrollment. Um, 37% of the programs and events were designed specifically for youth and families. And that is 37% of I don't even remember how

many, but we do so many monthly programs. Um, and the adult programs encompass everything from a gallery talk during an exhibition to an opening reception. um all of which we have families attend um but they're just not designed specifically for that. Um our annual youth art show in June of 2025 included artwork by an amazing 265 young artists ages 5 to 18. That's probably more than the adult artists we exhibited over the course of the whole year. [laughter] Um, last year, our major fall exhibition, um, in September of 2024 was a traveling exhibition that featured works created by artists that used only reclaimed and recycled materials from San Francisco's waste management facility called Recology. Um, it was an exciting, fun, um, educational experience for all of us, especially our area's school students who saw art created from materials as strange as construction debris, wire and fabric remnants, broken dishes, discarded stereo equipment, car parts, and even discarded old family photographs. All of them rescued from the dump. The field trip emphasized reuse, recycling, um, and even the art project that the kids did in the studio involved reusing um and making a collage from old magazines that were discarded. The Valley Focus Exhibition, which is our spring show every year, um in 2025, was an exciting opportunity that brought together 12 young artists ages 21 to 35 um who are living and working in our region. They came from Fresno to Sacramento um including several from Turlock who are students at Stan State or just graduated from Stan State. um they represented a variety of media and perspectives and it was just exciting to see what these young people were doing um where they are in their careers at this moment and just imagine what

they're going to be doing here in the valley in the future as we've been doing for many years. We start our season um in the summer in July and August with the exhibition the Carnegie Arts Showcase which is a jured competition. Um and we close the year in June with our youth art show ready set show. Together these two exhibitions are a great opportunity for the every creative person in our community young and the not so young um to participate with us um by exhibiting. As always, the field trip program is the highlight of everybody's experience at the Carnegie. Um, with grant funding from the Boyette Foundation's Make Dreams Real Fund, we put effort um into bringing more and more schools um from rural areas and lower income areas to participate with us. The grant that we receive um covers outreach, busing, and participation fees for schools that have a higher percentage of low-income students or schools who have not visited the art center before. um new to our program in 24-25 were schools elementary schools from Houston and Gustinine and we brought in high school students from Daener High School. In fact, it was their environmental club that came to see the recology show. So, it wasn't even the art students, it was the students who were participate in their environmental program. Um, as we have for at least the past 12 years, all of the third grade students from the series Unified School District come to the Carnegie Arts Center on a field trip every year. The Boya Foundation funding for field trip support was renewed again for 2526. So we're um making use of those funds right now and we continue to extend the reach of this opportunity throughout the region. In fact, on Thursday this week, we have a school from Waterford and we have a school from Stockton coming. Um another highlight of the year, our fourth annual banner contest for the downtown light poles was themed on

Central Valley agriculture. um sponsored by Robic Refrigeration, TID, F&M Bank, and with the support of the Turlock downtown property owners, we were able to select 40 winning designs from the more than 200 entries that we received. Um the kids whose work was selected ranged in age from four to 17. All of them were excited. One of the photos you see here we took at Walnut um elementary education center. um 13 14 I can't even count them now of the winning entries came from students at Walnut. Wow.

Um another highlight was a grant that we received from the Omega New chapter of Modesto um which funded the establishment of a program aimed at using creative expression to manage stress and support mental health. Um it's called the Wellness Art Club. A skilled recreational therapist leads these free sessions that are open to everyone. We began the program in September of 2024 offering sessions twice a month serving 169 participants in the first year. A smaller grant was renewed and received for um this season 2526. So the sessions have had to be paired back to just one time a month. Um but participation is still steady. In the fall of 2025, we mounted an exhibition of the works of the participants in this program, most of whom are not uh professional artists. uh and in our lobby gallery. Um and we feel very strongly that this is a program we want to continue to support even if the grant funding doesn't remain available. It's an important way to serve the community. Two beautiful fundraising events were held this past season. Two Turlock families, amazing, wonderful, generous families, open the gates of their gardens to welcome 150 guests each for an evening of food, wine, music, and art. Um, sponsorship, ticket sales, and a silent auction raised funds through these events supporting the important programs and exhibitions that we create for the community. Um, we have another fundraiser coming up in April, April 26th, um, which is the first time we're actually doing a fundraiser in Modesto to try and get more Modesto people to engage with us, um, through, uh, donations and fundraising support. The block party in 2025 was a big success. We estimate 700 people attended in a on a near perfect day in early June. Um, the event took place this year in Central Park. Um, as part of our

strategic plan goal to engage with the community, we realized that asking people to come to the Carnegie Art Center meant that they needed to know where we were and who we were. Um, so by being in Central Park, we engaged and encountered people who didn't know about the art center before. Um, and we feel like we made some real inroads and strong connections with the free activities that were offered. Um, we've appreciated the city's uh sponsorship through the community um events and um activities fund and that event has been funded again for the 2026 block party which will take place this June. As you'll see in your report, the financial support from the community remains strong. Membership is steady as is sponsorship. Um we are really fortunate to have the support of the business community as our season sponsors. Last year's season sponsors included the Ferrari Family Foundation, our platinum level sponsor, Integral Wealth Management and Whiten Ireland Straw and Green, our gold level sponsors, and silver sponsors Gart Tractor and Gimply Family Farms, and bronze sponsors Oak Valley Community Bank. We're also very lucky to have generous inind support from local businesses Lancaster Painting, Paul's Paint Company, and Acme Electric. We could not do what we do without their support with inkind goods and services. Um and we rely on these um essential partnerships. Now for the boring part um the money. Um as you know for um as long as we've been around, fundraising, facility rentals, and community support by membership and sponsorship are the key revenue sources that we rely on every year. Um, our endowment fund exceeded $3 million in value this year, which is a first. Um, and the earnings from that fund are able to help us balance our budget every year. The single largest largest expense in the budget, as always, is staffing. Keeping our programs, classes, field trips,

events, and exhibitions fresh and running smoothly requires the dedication of a very mighty but small team. Um, maintaining the facility and serving our many customers and visitors takes time and attention to detail. I am incredibly proud and want to honor our staff with how much they contribute to the Carnegie success. Thanks go to assistant directors Megan Hennis and Melissa Brown who always make us look really good. In July, to start our new fiscal year, we added a new team member. Um, Leah Sylvester Franklin is here with us tonight. say hi to our council. Um Leah joined us as our first ever development director. Leah's taking charge of fundraising programs. Um and she has an amazing track record with a couple of nonprofits in Modesto and she's already proving to be an amazingly great asset. We're happy to have her with us. Um currently on view, if you come by now, you'll see in our Ferrari gallery a retro retrospective exhibition of works by Modesto artist Bill Harris. Um, Bill's been a fixture in the regional art community for over 40 years, and we are just excited to feature his work in this year's Valley Focus exhibition. Bill's photographs are displayed alongside his photo realalistic paintings and watercolors. If you come to the gallery, I will challenge you to tell the difference. They are so good. Um, in our lobby gallery on the flip side, the lobby show is called On the Edge, Abstraction at Work, and the theme is abstraction. So, in one gallery we have photo realist paintings. In the other gallery, we have abstraction. You can go back and forth, see what you like better. The abstraction show has over 60 pieces by over 40 artists. Um, and their different techniques and approaches to abstraction are amazing. Come visit us. There's our website. There's our social media platforms. There's lots to see and do all year long. I hope to see everyone

at the Carnegie soon and I am happy to answer questions if you have any questions for Miss McDermott. You are exceeding the 25% youth by numbers. Crazy. That's awesome. I really appreciate that. It's Well, it's important to all you got to get them going. It is important to all of us. So, thank you because they otherwise they're going to have do stick people like me and that's not [laughter] going to be good. You know what? We like the stick. We don't stick people. [clears throat] Thank you so much. I look forward to being able to look at one of them soon. Thank you. Okay, now we have our treasurer doing a presentation. Treasure Abram. Were you offended when she said that the the numbers were boring? [laughter]

Good evening, mayor, uh council, city staff, and members of the public. I am the city treasurer, and I'm here to review the city's investment portfolio. Um first just a little reminder on how my role interacts with some of the other departments here. The council is responsible for setting policy and approving spending. The finance department um does all the day-to-day accounting, financial reporting and uh director Mareno will communicate to me if we have excess cash to invest or if we have a big project coming up that needs needs some funds and then I'll go and invest the funds and I do that in accordance with California law and our city's investment policy. Our investment policy lays out our objectives of safety, liquidity, and return. And I'll talk more about those in a second. It also specifies the types of investments that we can make. And pretty much the investments we can make are short-term highquality bonds. Bonds are safe, maybe a little bit boring, and they don't get as much uh media attention. So, I thought it'd be helpful to kind of give everyone an overview of what the bond market did last year. So this is the yield curve. It shows for a moment in time the different interest rates you could get on treasury bonds of different maturities. So here I have zero to five years of maturity because those are the ones that we can invest in. So the uh blue dashed line at the top is where rates started the year and the orange solid line on the bottom is where rates ended the year. So as you can see rates went down a half a percent to threequarters of a percent. Um, and yeah, they're kind of settling it now in between three and a half% and three three and three/4ers percent. Why did it go down? Well, on the short end of the curve, it's related to monetary policy. So, that's where the Fed sets the overnight lending rate um because they're trying to set it at a rate where we'll get 2% inflation and uh support maximum employment. So, the Fed's been

lowering rates on the shorter end of the curve. On the longer end of the curve, that's it's more market based. it's related more to long-term inflation projections as well as economic growth. Um, strategy-wise, what should you do when rates are decreasing? Um, we want to lock in higher rates for longer. So, we want we don't want shorter bonds because those are going to be reinvested at lower and lower rates as rates go down. You want to kind of lock in your money for a longer period of time. And that's what we've been trying to accomplish. Now, to our portfolio. Um, safety of principle is our top objective. So, again, we don't want to suffer investment losses. So, we're investing in high quality short-term bonds. Um, 65% of our portfolio is dedicated to treasuries and agencies. So, those are backed by the full faith and credit of the US government. They're very safe. And even the corporate bonds that we have, we only have a small allocation to them, but they're they're not just any corporations. They're the largest corporations that we probably all use their products and services every day. So they're all very safe and we'll get interest and have our principal returned to us um at maturity. So we're invested safely. We [snorts] also have liquidity to meet our our cash flow needs. Um we have a lot of money that we can either uh request on demand or maybe it'll mature within the next year. Um those are the most liquid um investments. and to show that we've been trying to also add more to the longer bonds. The the bonds that are maturing between three and four and four and five years, we've added 50 million to those over the course of the year. So again, trying to implement that strategy of locking in our money for longer and maybe taking some of our liquidity down because we have ample liquidity. And lastly, we want to make sure we're getting a return on our investment.

[snorts] And over the last year, 2025, the portfolio returned 4.94%, which means a little more than 14 and a half million dollars for the city's uh money. And how does that compare to some some benchmarks of other short-term safe bonds? Um, it's right in line with with where the benchmarks are. And [snorts] looking forward, um, we think we should get, if we hold our bonds to maturity, we should get another 3.7% for the next two years as as those bonds mature. And again, that compares favorably with, uh, the other benchmarks. We kind of expect 2026, at least on the bond side, to look similar to 2025 where rates will probably continue to come down. So, we're just going to keep carrying out that strategy, and I will update you in another six months.

Any questions? questions for the treasure. Good job. I like it. Thank you so much. Bring more next time. I'm sure that's the goal, right? Okay. The next item is appointment of planning commissioner. I make a motion to u approve Patrick Jensen as planning commissioner. Sure. So moved. Second. A motion in a second. Will you call the role, please? Council member Abram. Yes. Council member Bixel. Yes. Vice Mayor Man. Yes. Council member Phillips. Yes. Mayor BL?

Yes. passes on a 5-0. Welcome, Mr. Jensen. Okay. Next is public participation, which is a three minutes. This is a portion set aside for members of the public to address the city council on matters that are not listed on tonight's agenda, but are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city council. Speakers will be allowed to the three minutes. There are two monitoring things there, and we wish uh that the matter, if it's going to be on the agenda, we'll ask you to hold off and speak to it when it gets to that item. So, the first and only card I have is Kelly Good evening. For those of you that don't know me, my name is Kelly Qualo. I'm a mother uh veteran and a community advocate right here in the city of Turlock. I want to first start off with saying welcome Gary Hampton. I've actually contacted your office today. I'd like to set a meeting. Um, since Sue is no longer here and didn't respond to multiple emails that I had, um, I'm just asking if I can, you know, have a meeting with you and discuss some concerns I have right here in the city of Turlock, let's just start off with, um, the real estate fraud that we have right here going on within our city. Um, I'm sure you guys are looking at me like you don't know what's going on. But I know you guys know, you guys know exactly what's going on. We have tons of real estate fraud. You guys know what I'm talking about. So, I'm going to hold you guys accountable to that. So, we're going to hold these NOS's and you guys literally accountable for these actions because it's is completely unethical. Um, also I want to um bring up another point that I never got a response from Mayor Bou Black and I've brought up multiple issues to you and your office. No response. Multiple text messages, no response. Um, I don't know what happened here, but I could talk loud. Um, let's see what else. Um, George, I want to uh ask a question regarding the issues that I brought up to you regarding Chief Heden, who decided to make a public comment regarding my daughter's open investigation right here in the city. You need to hold him accountable. Plain

and simple. Hold him accountable. If he was on my watch, he would have been terminated. He does not have the authority or right to talk on an open investigation regarding a minor. I'm also going to bring up a fact of save Turlock at the direction of you guys right here that's sitting up right in front of me. You guys, you guys are will be held accountable for putting this out there. It's at the direction of you guys. It's been brought to my attention by multiple individuals. You guys are behind it. You guys will be held accountable. How dare you guys think that it's okay to talk on an on on a minor's open investigation. That's unethical. Unc uncalled for. first off. And I get politics, but this is a minor. You guys have no right to talk about my minor child. And trust me, I'm not stopping. So, you guys might think that I'm going to stop my race because all of this stuff, trust me, you guys are only giving me the fuel to keep running, and I might just jump for your spot. Mayor Blue Black, I'm sorry. Also, it's been brought to my attention that you've been having your husband respond to multiple of your um messages that your constituents are talking to you and I think that's kind of unprofessional. So, I'm going to challenge you to answer those questions from your constituents directly because they're not pretty they're not really happy. Um so, George, I'm going to ask you, what are you planning to do um with Chief Hed and regarding the comment that he made on an open public platform regarding my daughter's open investigation right here in the city of Turlock? We're going to hold him accountable. Not only we're going to hold him accountable, but we're also going to hold officer Jana Royo, who decided that he was going to try to cover up this investigation with the individual that assaulted my daughter at Turlock Junior High School. So, please tell me what you guys are planning to do here. Thank you.

I have no other cards. Is there anyone wishing you speak tonight?

Good evening, Turlock residents and council. Justin Farcus representing the office of Assemblyman Alanise. I have a lot to go over and not a lot of time, so I'm going to just get right into it here. Uh, the assemblyman has received some, uh, changes to his committee assignments. He's been removed from the budget committee. He's been added back to the water, parks, and wildlife committee. He's been removed as vice chair of the agriculture committee and the natural resources committee, but he remains on both of them. He has added uh vice chair of labor and employment as well as uh retaining vice chairmanship on the public safety committee. He's still on the business and professions and public employment and retirement committees as well. We have two bills still alive from our last session last year. Um, Assembly Bill 767 involving sexually violent predator placement. That bill is now in the Senate and it would extend these same uh protections to private or excuse me to dayc carees and uh home schools as private and public schools have quarter mile radius uh preventative uh placement for uh sexually violent predators out on conditional placement. Assembly bill 277 re um is in regard to behavioral health technicians um and mandating background checks for those individuals working as behavioral tech uh behavioral health techs. That bill is also in the Senate. And our uh bill package for this year has been fully fleshed out. We've got a full uh docket before us this year. We're going to be touching on uh small business, on veterans issues, education, agriculture, of course, and most obviously public safety with a very specific emphasis on the safety of our children here in the community. So, if you have any questions, I'm always around to answer them for you. You can get a hold of our office. Thank you.

Anyone else wishing to speak? Yeah, Mary.

Hi, I'm gonna try. Hi, I'm Mary Jackson. I'm going to try and speak um about being positive again. Welcome, Chief Hampton. Thank you.

We appreciate you a lot. Thank you. Um I can't believe the Carnegie has been 14 years. It seems like a really long time and they are doing amazing work. Um I wanted to talk about um the community neighborhood, I'm sorry, neighborhood services. I met um Gerardo um who's one of the new officers. um they are going around and getting to know I um the homeless the members that are unhoused or homeless in our community. Um and it's just refreshing to know that there's someone that seems to take the to place of Bob Boyd who was just instrumental in trying to help so many men and women especially the veterans um to get off of the streets. And so it's just um it's just so positive to see someone who's just very energetic about their job um and very um excited about being there and doing a good job. So I just want to say kudos for that um for the team. Um it's wonderful to see um them just going out and trying to meet the people that are in the parks and to make sure they have what they need like when it's imple inclement weather when it's raining. Let's just say that. Um, I wanted to talk about I I've spoken before. Um, I'm still trying to be positive, but that my concern is that there's teenagers, usually it's junior high kids that are riding bikes and the electric bikes and I'm just concerned one of them is going to get ran over. On Sunday night, I picked up my girls from church at Sacred Heart and I was driving down Canal and these two kids were on bikes. They're wearing dark clothing, not wearing helmets, and one veered in front of me. Well, I'm older, but I'm at least quick enough to make, you know, a reflex. I'm really concerned that we have to do something. I know Chief Heden has has got a lot on his plate and he's very busy, but other cities have done this. G um I believe Marin and I can get I'll email you a list, but I really want to hope that we can get something done.

I don't want to see somebody get hurt. I want us to be proactive versus reactive. Um so, I appreciate that. Appreciate that very much. And just remember, I know it's hard um as I've been hollered at as a city council member and as a schoolboard member. So, please just try to keep your patience whether they ran against you, they're frustrated with you. The one thing I've learned on the school board is just people want to be heard, especially after the pandemic. Thank you.

Anyone else? Good evening uh council staff and community members. Milt treeweiler. There are things that are important for cities to know and that's what I'm going to talk about tonight because we have to plan for the future. Unemployment in the United States is currently 4.3%. During the great recession of 2008 to 2009, unemployment peaked at 10%. We all remember how bad that recession was. Predictions of US unemployment following robotic AI adoption vary wildly, ranging from increases to it rates of 10 to 47% with many experts warning of potential doubledigit permanent high unemployment. Projected unemployment employment could reach 10 to 20% over just the next two to five years according to some industry leaders. If robots are better at nearly all the tasks, unemployment could rise substantially with models showing rates potentially hitting 24.8% or higher in heavily act automated scenarios. What it's saying is there are a lot of different people who are making predictions, but they're using facts and information to make those predictions. Okay, this is going to be terrible because when people are unemployed, they're not going to have money to pay for food. they're not going to have money to pay for housing. So, the city needs to have a plan to handle this problem of high unemployment when it takes place. And that's some a plan that we need to be working on. The second thing um I have also have a comment on my statement that the city attorney made after I made a comment regarding the consent calendar at our last meeting on February the 10th. The city attorney stated that this is the council's

agenda. So the council makes the decision on the items that are on the agenda. No, that's not right. Actually, not is not the case. It is state code and municipal code that determines what must be on the consent calendar. So these are important things that we need to think about, worry about, and plan for. Thank you.

Anyone else? Okay, we'll close the public comment and we will move on to city manager report updates. Thank you, mayor, members of council. There's uh two issues I'd like to bring to your attention. Um during the uh first and second meetings of March, you will see um strategic communications plan as well as a strategic economic development plan. Those were completed back in November. Uh now the final steps are to present them to you uh avail session for you to engage in questions as well as open it up to community review and and con comment as well. Um at that point uh if if it achieves all of the city council's um desires, we can finalize the document and then it will become a public document that can be disseminated through the community as well as posted on the web page. And then uh later in this agenda, you will see where one of uh the agendaized matters reflects back onto one of these uh strategic plans, specifically the economic development strategic plan. So I just didn't want you to get caught off guard that we're bringing to you a two or threemonth old completed project. Um I can't really explain why it was delayed, but uh it is completed and ready to be presented to you.

Thank you. Thank you. All right. This is consent calendar. Um, so if there's anyone who wishes to speak regarding an item on the consent, please come up and express which one it is and tell us what the issue is. Okay. Closing public comment. Move to approve the consent calendar as written. Second. Motion is second. Will you call the role, please? Council member Abram. Yes. Council member Bixel. Yes. Vice Mayor Moness? Yes. Council member Phillips? Yes. Mayor Block?

Yes. Passes on a 5-0. Thank you. There are no final readings and now the public hearings. I need uh Chris or Bill or all everybody. Oh, everybody else left. It's you, Mr. Morris. [laughter]

Good evening, mayor, council members. Tonight we're bringing item 10A. Also, we do have Will Dan Associates. Tyler Green's here. there's any questions that I can't answer about CFD3 community facilities district number three CFD3 tonight. Uh this items include several procedure steps relating to annexing a new subdivision into community CFD3 for maintenance services. First, the city clerk will confirm that all the required election and hearing documents have been received and are in order. If there is no majority protest following the public hearing, council will be asked to call and conduct a special election for the affected property owners, declare the results of that election, and finalize the annexation and introduce the ordinance that authorizes the levy and special tax within the annexation area. CFD3 was established in August 2025 to proide a dedicated funding source for ongoing maintenance tied to new development. This includes services such as street lighting, landscaping, sidewalks, and storm drain maintenance. In January 2026, council initiated annexation number one, which would add the Monarch Estate subdivision into the district. The the proposed of tonight's action is to continue the required legal steps to formally add that development into the district so that the long-term maintenance funding is in place. This ensures the new neighborhood pays for its share of services rather than relying on the city's general fund. Scope of services to be funded. If annexed, the district will fund ongoing maintenance for the Monarch Estates area, including street slurry, seal, and future overlay work, street sweeping, storm drain, and street light operation and maintenance and upkeep and eventual replacement of street trees, sidewalks, curb, and gutter. These services are consistent with the types of maintenance already funded by CFD3 number three for the other development. The next steps are the tonight's hearing

represents the second step in the annexation process. After confirming documents and holding the public hearing if there is no majority protest, the council may proceed with the election and adopt the related resolutions. The final step will be the second reading and adoption of the ordinance authorizing the special tax. That final action is scheduled for March 10th, 2026. The annexation will generate approximately $4,900 annually or about $36 per lot. These funds will be placed into the CFD3 fund and used only for maintenance services within the district. There is no impact to the city's general fund and no budget amendment is required. All right. So we go through the [snorts] checklist, right? Proof of publication of the notice public hearing.

You want to do them all together? Oh, okay. Signed waiver and consent forms of the properties being annexed. Completed and signed ballots. Signed certificate of clerk regarding receipt of property owner waiver and consent form. ballot declaring the election results. So confirmed. All right. I then ask if there are any questions from my colleagues. Okay. If not, then let's open it to the public. Any comment on this specific item. Closing public comment. I'll bring it back. Is there a motion for the resolutions? Motion to approve. Second. We have a motion to second. Call the roll. Council member Abram. Yes. Council member Bixel. Yes. Vice Mayor Manz. Yes. Council member Phillips.

Yes. Mayor BL. Yes. Passes on a 5-0. What happened? Who died? Just to clarify, um, do we also pass the do a separate vote for the ordinance, first reading of the ordinance? Most definitely. What is the will of council? Move to approve the ordinance in addition. Second. Second. Motion in a second. Council member Abram. Yes. Council member Vixel. Yes. Vice Mayor Monz. Yes. Council member Phillips. Yes. Mayor Bill Black. Yes. Passes on 5 Z as well. Thank you, Mr. Morris. Okay, that's it. more of these coming. So, it's get it'll get easier. [laughter] All right. Now, Mr. uh Petrolis, you're up.

Uh yes, mayor and members of the council. Uh before you are a handful of amendments to title nine of the Turlock Municipal Code involving the zoning ordinance. They come to you with a recommendation to pass by the planning commission. uh and they really are in three categories. Uh one is uh we're removing the definition of family daycare home uh from the zoning ordinance. This is a result of uh the housing element process with the state housing community development department. You can't single out this kind of use um separately for permitting. So we're removing it as a defined matter. Also, it's being removed from the uh use classification. So, it'll be treated like other residential uses as required by HCD. Uh the second series of amendments involves non-conforming uses. Uh the existing code was inadequate and confused. It sort of collapsed non-conforming uses and structures into the same tests. And so this is really a wholesale rewrite of the non-conforming use provisions to make it clearer so uh staff and the public can understand what regulations uh apply. Uh the third set involves conditional use permits. There are a number of changes there including um you know how how you do denial. I think maybe the main thing is there's now a discontinuence abandonment process that if people abandon a conditional use permit um for a number of months, nine months, it can be um it can be removed with uh the appropriate due process safeguards that the city must provide. So that I'll happy to answer any questions. Also, uh Adrienne Wernern can the development services director

obviously can answer questions. Questions? Um, I do have a question, Mr. Preelockus, if you can just explain for the public following along what is a non-conforming use and how they come to be.

Yes, I can do that. Um, the u a non-conforming use is a use that at one point in time was legal, but then basically usually comes up when the zoning changes and it makes it a use that is no longer legal within that zoning district. So, say that there was a um a store, a little retail corner store that um at one point in time matched the zoning or even was there before there was zoning or was annexed from the county and you know was there when the city annexed it. If it was put into a residential zoning district that didn't allow a retail use, it was still a legal use, uh which is the legal part. And then the the nonconformance was it didn't meet the zoning requirements. So that kind of use has a right to uh stay there as long as it's in that same use. And generally, you know, so long as it's not expanded or it's only expanded pursuant to the city code, things like that. So that's how they arise.

Any other questions? All right, let's open it to the public. Anyone wishing to speak on this item? Okay, I'll close public comment. Move to approve. Second. Have a motion and a second. Call the role, please. Council member Abram. Yes. Council member Bixel. Yes. Vice Mayor Mes. Yes. Council member Phillips. Yes. Mayor Bill Black. Yes. Passes on a 5-0. Thank you, Mr. Petrolis. All right. Moving on to action items. This is a moneyman's moment.

I know [clears throat] a lot of papers, Isaac. [snorts] [laughter] We're going by, so we'll be quick. Thank you, honorable mayor and council members. Um, tonight before you, the item is your midyear budget presentation. Um, this is typical for us to give a good overview of how the system is doing financially through the budget process. Um, the midyear is a key financial aspects because we have a lot more data than you're seeing in your traditional first quarter or third quarter. We have a lot of benchmarks that have come forward such as a lot of property taxes floated through and so it has um your sales tax. So, we'll go through the presentation and give you the the data. So, on June 10th, 2025, council adopted the general fund budget with the revenues of 23.6 million and expenditures um at at 64.1. I'm sorry, that's a typo in sense because the revenues were greater than expenditures. We're at December 31st, we did have an over exated. Our revenues are adjusted due to the first quarter amendments, but our revenues are still exceeded our expenditures. So for the midyear assumptions, we look at 50% of the adopted budget to use it as a benchmark. So what does that mean? We take our adopted budget basically just cut it in half so we can see where revenues expenditures are falling for the year. We do make some assumptions and actually property tax, but we also look at our sales tax as well from assumption and assessments. So we acrew in our January payment, but we also do an estimate for our February payment so that we can get a more true number. If we didn't pull those numbers in, we'd actually maybe missing quite a big chunk. So it would look like your budget was upside down. So we pull those numbers in for an assessment overall. So sales tax is always a large driver of what our budget's going to look like for the fiscal year. As you can see from the chart, we are doing quite well in our sales tax projections for the most part on track and actually exceeding overall. Um so we'll go through that information

what it looks like but you can see from the chart you the large majority of our actuals are exceeding our budget throughout the budget process. Looking at our revenues again the adopted budget 32.2 million where our actuals are 32.6 which means we're about 50.5% which in the current history of the prior years is pretty much on trend of what we've been doing. Um so our non-EP department which consists of our property tax and our sales tax is 51.1%. Which is a large contributor to the overall looking at our budget expenditures of 31.1 or 32.1%. Um our actuals at 28.9 which is a benchmark of 45.1%. Which a larger factor overall is salary savings about 2.1 million. So that brings our overall net gain or loss as a gain of 3.8 million. Again, a large st stand standpoint of that is salary savings through the year and then also your projection of sales tax coming in about 600,000 more than projected. So augmentations which are traditional for the overall for doing midyear we did kind of keep it slight because we did some augmentations in the first quarter but we are making some recommendations that have slight overall impact but large not to a larger degree. So some positions like 1.5 are reclassifications. A lot of this is really cleaned up uh positions and how they're acting the duties are. So I call it like a clean up in the sense of how the classifications work. We are proposing one budget position for the police department. This is going to be funded out of two funds. One is going to be the general fund at 50% and the other one being out of cannabis fund. And I'll explain why. So the some of the process and you saw some of the ordinance coming forward. They're going to be stipulating ordinance changes. They're going to be impacting the police department. Some have already come forward which you saw the massage potter come back that was an impact to how the pering process is coming forward. Um the ordinance for the smoke shop potentially is going to come forward which is a large rate or deal of

impact and how we going to be dealing with permits and how it comes. So this position being proposed at this time because of that to be able to take up that increase in cost or increase in overall um workload. So the general fund impact just from those again not a large ordeal $18,000 other services like uh contracts and things of that nature at 58,000 not a large overall lift for the midyear again because we did some great jumpsuits when the first year or the first quarter so non-general funds uh 5.5 reclassifications grant creating a more of a hierarchy within our water and sewer fund and we've already talked about the cannabis fund and overall other services are going to be providing proposed really these funds have already exists. We're not we're amending the budget really to bring them forward so that we can take care of expenditures that going to be coming forward. Um the first one is going to be the big one which is 250,000 within our PEG fees. Again, we have those monies. They're in reserves, but it is for some compliance factors that are be coming forward which are going to be actually updating to the communication system within this um this public. So, out of the general fund, we move into our other major funds. Um some of the programs that you'll see on there what make up are primarily going to be your bigger ones is measure A. Measure A you do see a net loss that is because we are in one not acrewing two months of sales tax we do like we do for the jailer fund but we also have in the rose program a large amount of capital projects that are pulling into reserve. So we are on track. Uh same thing with measure 8 general. You do see a large impact again not acrewing two months of sales tax coming through. If you did acrew those, you'd actually pretty much reduce that overall impact of net loss. Um, but you also did a large transfer of $2 million for equipment fund going to from the public safety, both fire and police. So, that's why you're seeing those impacts. All other funds seem to be trending on track. Um, again, looking at the overall numbers, we do seem to be financially moving stable um and on

target for budget.

Is there any questions? questions. Okay, let's open it to the public. Anyone wishing to speak on this item? Take the notes and answer later. Uh I have a question regarding uh a specific fund. Uh that is fund 120 expense account 120-10-12047367. How many what's our funding in that particular account at this time? And uh also I know that uh we had a vote uh that went up before the public here at our last election and that um it did not pass. So I'm wondering how that will affect this fund 120 uh simply because we didn't have that much money and we weren't even going to get that much money in this fund when it went up for election. So I just like you to speak on those matters. Thank you.

Anyone else wishing to speak on this item? Okay, we will close the public comment and if you'll speak to tourism. Sure. So the 120 fund is a tourism fund. It is funded primarily by toot which assists with parks and actually economic development factors for the city. Um the ballot measure they're referring to did not go through. Um that has no impact or current overall budget because we don't budget for that increase. It did not move forward. So there there is no impact financially overall. All right. Thank you. Any other questions, comments? I can actually bring that number back at a later date. Um my last for the 120 fund the reserves coming in at 24 about 1.2 million.

Thank you. So you just don't have all the balances on all the accounts off the top of your head. Isaac, what's wrong with you? I have like 90 funds falling off that. I'm good but not that. You're sli you're sli slipping. Slipping slipping. Move to approve. Second. Motion in a second. Will you call the role please? Council member Abram. Yes. Council member Bixel. Yes. Vice Mayor Mes. Yes. Council member Phillips. Yes. Mayor Bill Black. Yes. And it passes on a 5-0. Thank you for that. And next we have tourism. [laughter]

Tourism fund. It's popular. Uh thank you, mayor and council members. The item before you is kind of a connection. Um I'd like to actually take a little step back. Um you you saw or heard our city manager talk about a strategic economic development plan. This program that we're referring to tonight is actually a bridge of that overall study. Um because that study is actually going to come back. I think it'd be a cleaner message if we bring that study and this plan together so you can see the true nexus because that plan actually started this conversation of what the program is going to look like. So I'd actually like to propose to continue to a future item or future meeting so that this program comes back with that strategic plan as well so that we can hear the two together. I think a lot of the comments that came out or or giving gaps because you don't have that study. So I think giving that nexus together gives a good bridge so we can have a good conversation about that

question. So this is the same item that we voted down. Very same item. Right. Okay. And what you just said makes sense. It would have been nice to see the strategic plan first. Yeah, clearly understood. Um, and the proposed date would be uh the first meeting in March. This would come back as well as the strategic plan would be before you at the same time. Maybe not simultaneously, but one after the other. I don't know. He can do it. Although he messed up, he didn't know the exact amount. So, all right. So, um, before we go to the motion, let me open it. I'm sorry. Council member had a comment.

I'm sorry. You had a comment. question. Okay. Okay. We'll open it to the public. Anyone wishing to speak on this item that we are not going to vote on tonight. Okay. Closing public comment. I Yeah, I'll I'll make a a motion to continue that to March, but I I would like to add the comment that, you know, my motion a month ago about we need to have more discussion. I I I hope that there is flexibility for us to if the discussion comes that we want a more specific targeted policy, whatnot. Um, you know, I I I I don't want to necessarily see the same thing a third time in the run. That's fair. Fair enough. Second. But it was continued to March 10th. Is that correct? Uh, yes. Is that the date that you said?

That's the first. Okay. Thank you. Yes. March 10th. All right. We have a motion in a second. Will you call the role, please? Council member Abram. Yes. Council member Bixel. Yes. Vice Mayor Mes. Yes. Council member Phillips. Yes. Mayor Black. Thank you. Yes. All right. Thank you. Okay. Now it's time for comments, announcements, and future items. Council member Abram. Council members. Bye. Chief Jeleneck. I'm so glad you're back. Thank you for all your hard work. I saw you all week long on my radar. Thank you, sir.

Uh, yes. I just wanted to um make the announcement. I don't know if you guys saw um Mayor Bud Black was um selected by Turlock Journal Reader's Choice Award for Politician of the Year and uh so this recognition reflects your dedication and commitment to serving the Turlock community. So it's very welld deserved and thank you for all that you do. Thank you. You're welcome. She's going to kick you for that later. [laughter]

Okay. Oh, um moving on. actually in the uh the spirit of uh agreeing with somebody um I do think that we need to work on an ebike uh uh philosophy about life because u when I'm out here at night I see no lights on any bikes but uh beyond that kids that are just flying through intersections and I'm just like oh I'd hate to see that happen. Um to another comment uh I do speak for myself. My husband does not speak for me, nor does anybody. In 17 years, I don't think anybody's ever said, "I wonder what you mean, Amy." So, I want the public to know if you ask me a question, you're gonna hear it from me. If you hear it from somebody else, it's probably a lie. Um, Storms, thank you staff. You guys have done an amazing job reacting to the crazy mother nature silliness out there. So, I really want staff to know that we appreciate them because they're having to react quickly and be cold and wet and yuck. Uh and then uh we had the opportunity to meet with uh Christian Palisio. Is that how you say it? And he is a young man who is a professional boxer here in town. And so he will be competing on the 14th of March in Stockton. Love for you all to support him because it's all about good vibes for Turlock and everybody setting goals and achieving them. And with that, I might say that we have close session ma'am. Yes, we have 13A. Conference with labor negotiators, California government code 54957.6A, agency negotiator mlack, unrepresented employee, city attorney, and B, public employee employment, California government code 54957B1, title city attorney.

Did you and Isaac go to the same class to learn to mumble? Okay, [laughter] we will uh we'll go into close session and report out should there be something

[snorts]

All right. And we are back. There's nothing to report out. We are adjourned.