City Council - Regular Meeting

to our nation's flag. Ready? 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. All right, we will do roll call on declaration of conflicts of interest. Council member Abram, here none. Council member Bixel, here are none. Vice Mayor Mones, here none. Council member Phillips hear none. Mayor Bill Black hearing none. Thank you. Approval agenda is posted or amended. So I'll move. Second. Motion in a second. Call the role, please. Council member Abram. Yes. Council member Bixel. Yes. Vice Mayor Monet. Yes. Council member Phillips. Yes.

Mayor Ba. Yes. Passes on a 5-0. And now we have abundance of proclamations, recognitions, etc. So, uh, Chief, you want to meet me over here? Can we have our animal control folks Katie and team come up?

All right. Katie, we're gonna do it. Mike, we're gonna start by letting you do the adoptable pets and we'll roll into the proclamation. Good evening. So, tonight I have a scrumptious little treat for y'all. Um, this is Brownie Bite. She is a 4-year-old min uh Chihuahua mix. She's been with us just a little over 10 days. Um, she's kind of had a rough go, been passed around between a few owners, and she's now ended up here with us. So, I consider her lucky. Um she is um housebroke. She is very sweet. She is um very welcoming to other people. Um she is available for adoption if you want to come adopt Brownie Bite.

Thank you. It's my honor to read this proclamation in honor of Animal Care and Control Appreciation Week, April 12th through 18th, 2026. Whereas the National Animal Care and Control Association has designated the second week of April of each year as Animal Care and Control Appreciation Week. And whereas the Turlock City Council would like to express its sincere thanks and appreciation for the outstanding service Turlock Animal Services provides on a daily basis to the residents of the city of Turlock. And whereas the Turlock City Council wishes to commend each and every animal services officer for their excellence and service which is in keeping with the long and distinguished tradition of animal care and control in the profession. Now therefore, on behalf of Mayor Amy Bublack and the entire city council, I do hereby proclaim April 12th through 18, 2026 as Animal Care and Control Appreciation Week in the city of Turlock and encourage all residents in the city of Turlock to show appreciation and express gratitude for these outstanding individuals. And with with us tonight is our animal services supervisor Katie Walrup and Darien Katie. So we we appreciate you all. Thank you so much.

There you are. Hold it. Picture picture.

Smile. Perfect. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you, Mayor. Absolutely. Mr. Sims, Director Sims.

Good evening, mayor, council, city staff, and members of the public. Uh tonight we are celebrating a new Turlock business that enrolled in the Turlock Partnership Incentive Program. A program that provides $3,500 to a new business that opens in Turlock. Kebab Place and Grill located at 3121 Kroll Road, Turlock, California. This business has completed all the requirements for the program. They're operating out of a commercial location in Turlock. They're not part of a franchise or corporate chain. They submitted a business plan, participated in a pre-development meeting, and agreed to meet with staff periodically through the year to check in. We're excited to celebrate this new business. This is a family from Turlock. They have a passion for cooking, and we are proud that Turlock can be a home to their business. So, be sure to stop by 3821 Croll Road and enjoy their delicious food. If the family of the business, can you please come up? We have a check presentation. Join us. Council I thought she was coming over here.

I'm right here. Tomorrow 11

two Yeah, it'll work. Thanks, D. Help me. All right. Wait a minute.

Volunteers do it. Do you want to call them up? Can we please have our VIPs come forward for the presentation? Taking all space.

All right. Holy smokes. They just keep coming.

Don't call the fire marshal. Yeah, double up you guys. Come on. Okay, so this is about our volunteers and you have to understand that we have all these parades, all these events and and these people are always here trying to help us make sure that we have fun and are safe. So, it's awesome that we have all of this and volunteers make up hundreds of individuals in our community representing a wide array of individuals volunteering in various departments throughout the city of Turlock in the following programs. Volunteers and police services, police explorers, municipal volunteer partnership program, and friends of Turlock Animal Services. You just bet brownie. So, so the city of Turlock's volunteer programs are staffed with a group of men and women willing to serve an agency in need of time, dedication, and talents. These individuals are often unnoticed to the public but are indispensable to the city of Turlock. The city council recognizes that 280 volunteer hours of service equals a full-time employee at wages and benefits in excess of 85,125. So the public should be knowledgeable about volunteerism and the efforts of volunteerism improving the quality of life in our community. So on behalf of the city council and our community, we wanted to make sure that you know that we so appreciate your time and effort and the week is this the week of the 19th through the 25th will be the week that we are going to recognize you guys even more than every other day. So is somebody speaking?

You want um I just want to say thank you to you guys. I appreciate it. This was seeing you guys out there. That's the highlight of my day. So a lot of times in our work week there's challenges, new challenges it seems like every day. a lot of stress, but seeing you guys and and having you guys as part of our team, uh, it just brought it home for me. So, thank you very much for what you do every day. We appreciate you. Uh, thank you, Sergeant Parmley, Captain Rodriguez, Melanie, the the whole team that makes this machine happen. We really appreciate you all. Uh, we really couldn't do it without you. This is uh service to our community without a price tag and and we owe you from the bottom of our hearts. So, thank you so much. photo.

Can you guys remind me we're taking applications? One more. Thank you. Telecommunication. telecommunications.

All right. Now, can I have Amanda Fertado, our support operations manager, come up for the proclamation for National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week. It's my honor to read this proclamation in honor of our dispatchers. Whereas emergencies can occur at any time that require police, fire or emergency medical services. And whereas public safety telecommunicators are the first and most critical contact our residents have with emergency services. And whereas the safety of our police officers and firefighters is dependent upon the quality and accuracy of information obtained from residents who telephone the city of Turlock public safety communication center. And whereas our public safety tele telecommunicators serve our residents daily in countless ways and deserve our heartfelt appreciation. Now therefore, on behalf of Mayor Amy Bublack and the entire city council, I do hereby proclaim April 12th through 18th, 2026 as National Public Safety Telecom Communicators Week in the city of Turlock and encourage all residents of the city of Turlock to show and express appreciation for these outstanding individuals. Amanda, thank you so much to your team and all that you do. We appreciate you um so much. So, thank you. Right. I believe it's recreation now. Good evening, mayor, council, community. I have another proclamation for you and

this one is going to be in honor of Arbor Day. Whereas in 1872, J. Sterling Morton proposed to the Nebraska Board of Agriculture that a special day be set aside for the planting of trees. And whereas this holiday called Arbor Day was first observed with the planting of more than 1 million trees in Nebraska. Whereas in 2026, 2026 is the 154th anniversary of the holiday and Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and world. And whereas trees can reduce the erosion of our precious top soil by wind and water, cut heating and cooling costs, moderate the temperature, clean the air, produce lifegiving oxygen, and provide habitat for wildlife. And whereas trees are a renewable resource, giving us paper, wood for our homes, fuel for our fires, and beautify our community. and whereas wherever they are planted are a source of joy and spiritual renewal. Now therefore, I, Karen Pacwood, on behalf of Mayor Amy Bublack, uh, do hereby proclaim April 2026, a whole month, uh, as the 154th anniversary celebration of Arbor Day in the city of Turlock and urge all citizens to celebrate Arbor Day and to support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands and encourage all citizens to plant trees and promote the well-being of this and future generations. I would also like to share that um staff have recently taken inventory of our local parks and we have a great need of um adding trees to Bristol Park. So, next Thursday, April 23rd from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. I invite all of you to join us at

Bristol Park where we will be learning proper tree care and planting trees. Thank you. Yes. Mr. Petrolockis, come on over.

Long line here. Okay, so this is in honor of George having been our legal counsel for some time now and he wanting to go off and work uh on land stuff only. Is that about it? Okay. Whereas George Petrolacus has served the city of Turlock as city attorney since February 3rd, 2021. And he was appointed in city attorney and was subsequently appointed by the Turlock City Council on September 28th, 2021. Since his appointment, George has faithfully served as city attorney, offering sound legal counsel, ensuring transparency and compliance, and supporting the city council staff and community with integrity and dedication. George has played an instrumental role in guiding the city through complex legal matters, including leading the city through the many challenges that emerged from CO 19 pandemic and navigating evolving state regulations related to the rapidly increasing issue of homelessness, providing thoughtful advice on governance, policy, and municipal operations that has been strengthened the city's decision-making and long-term stability. Through his tenure, George has demonstrated a strong commitment to the rule of law, ethical governance, and best interests of the city of Turlock and its residents. By virtue of the authority vesting me as mayor of the city of Turlock, on behalf of the council and our community, we wanted to make sure that you know that we really appreciated you and we know that you'll be coming back to help a little bit.

Sure.

Okay. She asked me if I wanted to speak. I'm like, are you kidding? That's all I do. Okay, I'll try to I'll try to do it. Uh, thank you for the kind proclamation. Obviously, not run through AI for accuracy, but I appreciate all the sentiments therein. I want to thank the mayor, especially in the current council and the previous councils I worked with. Uh, it was a it was a joy. It's not work I ever really sought out in my career to be a go, you know, inside government attorney. It's hard to believe it's been five years and it's been I've learned, you know, I've learned a lot, which is, you know, old dog, new trick kind of deal at my age and uh it's been really um it's become a significant part of my over 30-year legal career, you know. So, I've enjoyed it. I've enjoyed it very much most of the time, I would say. Um, I'm very pleased that you're bringing an in-house city attorney. The city is big enough now and its legal needs are uh substantial and ever evolving and I think you really need somebody inhouse like you've done as an employee. So, I think Katie will be a great fit. Um, I I promised her I would lobby for her as much as I could. Please let her build a department as quickly as you can because there are a lot of unmet legal needs that need attention. And don't listen to Isaac about the money. The money's there, you know. So,

I'll mute you.

Uh, you know, really have grown a fondness for the city of Turlock, its citizens. I've said it before in public, but you've got great citizens. You've got a great city government. It's a wonderful city. I come from Modesto, so um I I know of which I speak in terms of when I when I see greatness and it's been down here. The city employees are wonderful. I uh can sing the praises of all your department heads, especially the ones here now. I think you've got a great team to work with. I'm not encouraging it, but if any of you ever need letters of recommendation, I'm happy to provide to them to each and every one of you. I'm not not encouraging it. Uh maybe best of all, I did get a dog from the city, Bear Bear, but about since February, she's been a handful. Uh but anyway, she's doing great. And that dog I saw tonight, she was cute, too. So, I encourage encourage somebody encourage somebody to adopt her and really it's just been an honor to serve. So, thank the council and all of you uh the public. Thank you very much.

All right. Now, public participation and this is the time set aside for the members of the public to address city council on matters that are listed on not listed on tonight's agenda and within our subject matter jurisdiction. You'll have three minutes and the three minute timer is over here. We'll let you know. Um so we will start with uh the cards. Supervisor. Welcome Mr. Supervisor. Hello everyone. Mayor, city council Isaac. It's nice to see you sitting up there and congratulations George on your retirement from here. I know you're not retiring. Uh a couple

empir you today already in Modesto. So I I know I just wanted a couple of things. Uh first of all, you know, there was a intersection. There was a fatality and uh Councilwoman Rebecca Mones and myself, it was right on the city county boundary, so we had to work our way through that. And I know that the folks that they they had asked for a three-way stop. I know it's going to be very difficult to have a three-way stop and but I want to first thank uh Councilwoman Mones. I always want to say Rebecca, I'm sorry.

That's fine. and Christopher Fischer, Chris Fischer in the back who has been on it. I I so much appreciate your staff and how they're handling this. It's fantastic. Second thing, I know I had a chance to introduce you, but uh to to my new field rep. Her name is Kiana Garcia. It's her first week uh and she is a Turlock resident, which is great when when I can find a Turlock resident for a field rep. You might stand up for just a second. And she's a graduate from Chico State. So I last time I know

I know there's a cowpie Mustang but she is a political novice. She came out of private enterprise. So everyone be nice to her at least for a few months if you could and so she'll be showing up time to time and uh I'm very proud to finally have because I've been without for a couple of months and it makes it doing the job really difficult. So I apologize if it took me time to get back to you guys. That's all I have. Oh, to the VIPs, the people that volunteer, make a community, make a difference in a community. I know uh sometimes we say we're paid to be here, we're paid to do our job, but the people who are out volunteering like them, they deserve a standing ovation and everything we can uh we can do for them. So, I so much appreciate you guys honoring them. That's it. Any questions? All right.

Thank you. Have a good night. Welcome, Miss Garcia. Welcome. All right. Let's talk turtle library. What could possibly be going on there? Hiding. I didn't even see her coming. I snuck in the back. Yes, you did.

Okay. Well, I am Karina and Mendoza. I'm the Turlock librarian and all kinds of things are happening. April is a very busy month for us. Um, let's see. Tomorrow we do have our chess club. So, if you like to play chess, even if you're like a beginner or you're advanced, we have people of all ages, we even have chess boards that will tell you exactly where the little guys move. So, if you're like me, you forget, there's cheat sheets. Um, and then next week we do have our Dia de los DIO program. We do it, we split it into two days. So, Tuesday we have a little bilingual story time that I will be doing. I'm a little rusty, so I say please forgive me. Um, and then we'll have a little craft. Um, we're making little, uh, bird feeders, so it's gonna be super cute. And then what I'm excited about is on Wednesday, uh, we have Los Luc Osborne coming to perform for us. So, if you're not familiar with them, they are a ballet folklorico group um, through the local elementary school here. They are so stinking cute. Highly recommend them. They work really hard to do it. We get the younger kids, so it's like kindergarten through third grade. Um, and I mean they work really hard. So, if you could come out, support them, that'd be wonderful. That will be next Wednesday at 3 um 3:30. And then same thing Wednesday, April 22nd. That afternoon, we're switching up from a dance to um the master gardener. So, they're going to be doing a how to redo your front yard with um native plants, make it water-wise, and how to just kind of support with our environment. So, highly recommend that. That is at 6:00. Um so, yeah, if you have questions about drip irrigation or how to make a water-wise garden, come out. They're so knowledgeable. A lot of times they will answer all of your questions. So, highly recommend it. And that's everything we

have going on. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you, Milt.

Good evening, Milt Treeweiler. It's very bad for the residents of Turlock to have a Modesto fire chief replace the fire chief for Turlock. This action does not help Turlock. However, it will help Modesto. And now Turlock will end up paying Modesto more money than it would cost to have her own fire chief. The residents of Turlock are getting cheated by this vote of the mayor and her two council members. This is what's been taking place by having the Modesto fire chief over Turlock during the past four years. There's a lack of consistency and stability in leadership. There were four different deputy fire chiefs assigned to Turlock and three different Modesto fire chiefs in Modesto over the past four years. This is terrible for the Turlock city residents and our city firefighters. With Modesto in charge, our Turlock firefighters have no say in the decisions that are being made by Modesto over now. Um, Turlock Fire Department will operate at over how Turlock Fire Department will operate as a department and how Turlock is being run as the fire department tactically. Examples, the Modesto fire chief has called our Turlock fire trucks to Modesto, leaving just one Turlock firet truck to cover all of Turlock for two or three hours at a time. And this has happened several times. In one instance, Modesto pulled all of our fire trucks from Turlock at one time. We never have had this happen. This would never have happened if we had our own fire chief. More examples. Turlock is also losing the man we train here in Turlock because Modesto hires them. When we lose these firefighters to Modesto, it puts a strain on our Turlock firefighters because then we are short-handed because Modesto is in control. We do not have a Turlock fire marshal, which is a person we must have. With Modesto in charge, we have no control over the costs and how we operate here in Turlock. We need someone

who can represent Turlock's best interest and having our own fire chief is the only way this will happen. This is just a scam by Modesto to get all the fire department grants and not let Turlock get a new fire station. This fire service agreement between the city of Modesto and the city of Turlock is a disaster for all of our Turlock residents. Yes, it's a disaster for all of you here tonight. It's a disaster for all you listening tonight. It's a disaster for all who live here in Turlock. Thank you, Brian Aralian.

Hi there. Uh Brian Arelian, um 151 Benjamin Way, Terlock, California. Um I have an issue. Uh it is dealing with at the corner if you could put it your mind down at uh Dobinberger and East Avenue. Uh I am giving constructive notice to the city of Turlock. Um I would like to share a concern I have about the storm drain in my area. It is behind my house. Um what has happened is that houses on the other side of Dobinburgger in the county have been built there. Uh yes, all permits were given, but what was not given was permission for when we have heavy rains to have their excess water flow across the street where it eventually ends up in our city storm drain. Um they have added a lot of dirt to raise up their ranchets. So the natural flow is into the city of Turlock. Uh this uh with most rains, this is a minor thing, extremely minor. Um but if we were to get, let's say, one inch of rain followed by 3 4 inches of rain during a 24-h hour period, their water could flood the homes in our area. Uh my home sits very low. There is a small pump in our storm drain that slowly drains into the sewer. It works fair. I carry flood insurance. I am not a quack. Um, this kind of issue goes between the city and county and neither wishes to uh take being the lead agency in the situation including building engineering and parks. A simple solution, have the houses um on the on the county side

create small ponds to hold their uh amounts of water on their property, a reasonable amount. We know active gods happen and there could be flooding, but some of the water can be retained. And if any of you have ever been on Doabenburgger, when it rains, all the water from they've raised up the ranchets, all the water flows into the city of Turlock, uh into my storm drain. Even the other storm drain on Meyers and Opelt when that fills up, it actually flows down into our storm drain. So, uh this is a major concern. Um I have seen water halfway up my driveway. Um, we, my wife and I, we actually store sandbags, sandbags at our house. I do not want to hire attorney. Please help. Um, you can, I would reference the California State Water Resources Control Board. Uh, they can be a good reference because, uh, there is um, there might be state issues there that need to be dealt with. So, thank you,

Mr. Arllian. Um, director Fischer is the last one to hang put his hand up if you want to have a discussion with him. Thank you so much. Peter Sol Peter no Peter. Okay. Uh, Aman and I can't read this. Sak Dea maybe. Am I close? here. Just come on up to the thing, please. Yeah, it's not on the the tonight. It's not on the agenda. It's not agenda.

No, I'm sorry. Yeah, next meeting. The um mobile vendors on folk and the next meeting. Yes. I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No worries. Okay. Uh Rodney Hi. It's my first time here. I'm not sure how it works. Thank you.

Um I just wanted to um say that well I was arrested by your police department a total of four times not once. They had charged me with single crime and uh they pretty much ruined my life. U wasted a lot of my money. Um and uh well recently I' I've spoken many times with Donna and Dina and I mentioned all this. Not one of you guys ever reached out or I even reached out to you uh with email and phone calls. They refused to make an appointment with uh for me with you. Um and uh finally I took action and I have an attorney and we're filed a we have already filed a lawsuit. Um and uh what I was really interested is uh how much are you guys spending on the attorney fees uh the city of Turlock spending uh total uh fees and everything on uh attorneys for to um you know fight against my case and all that. And that's what I wanted to find out is what is being uh how much being spent. I wanted to see if you could get the spending. you would need to fill out a a public records act and ask that question and submit it through the clerk. Uh and then if you haven't filed with the professional services of the police department, then that's the normal uh

well your attorneys are hiding it. You're your attorneys is even though it's a public record, right? It's public record, right? If you have if you have an issue with how you handled at the police department, professional services will handle that part. These are two different parts. I'm just saying you need to work with the police department chief and then then go ahead and send a a P to the clerk to the city to Okay. Okay. Um that's all I wanted to know. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Arthur Godwin. Yes. Good evening, Mayor and City Council. And my partner Corbett says congratulations, George.

Um I'm here to talk about the uh all the proliferation of electric motorcycles in town. And I hope I don't sound like a Karen or a grunchy old man, but a grouchy old man. But um you know, I've noticed a lot of them lately. And there's small kids, there's teenagers, some with helmets, some without helmets. One of them almost ran into my car the other day. And so I'm just kind of curious if the city's going to develop a policy or start looking into that. And I know some cities around California are starting to round those up and enforce it because these motorcycles were designed and sold as off-road vehicles. And of course, you know, you could just buy it over through Amazon and box comes, plug it in, off you go. Um, so I just kind of curious if the city's going to develop any policies about that or if the police department plans to do any enforcement actions. police chief and his team are working on an ordinance to bring back to us in the near future.

Sounds good. All right. Thank you. Thank you,

Marcus Betts. Good evening. I'm here because I'm concerned about um emerging details surrounding the April 3rd traffic stop conducted by the Turlock Police Department of uh they stopped Carlos Mendoza who was uh shot by ice in Patterson 4 days after that traffic stop. They stopped him because he had a cracked windshield. And um the emerging de details uh related to this event are extremely concerning and point pretty clearly to uh collusion on the part of the Turlock Police Department who uh it it does very much look like uh contacted ICE directly. Um, so the traffic stop was fine at first and everything was okay, but then there was a delay and they brought out a second vehicle and one of the offers officers became aggressive and it escalated. Uh, not really sure why, but um eventually Carlos was uh allowed to leave and given a warning. Um, yeah, and then 4 days later uh he was shot for absolutely no reason. seven times by ICE agents. Uh he uh w a witness uh has testified and also videos have shown that he pulled away after he was already fired at. I have um a lot of questions that I would love very much uh for you to address and I'm just going to list them. There's a lot of them so you're not really going to have a chance to address all of them right this second I'm sure. Uh why was the second uh

police vehicle left out of the police report? Seems a little dishonest. Who were the extra officers and why were they even there? Why were there plane officers involved with the traffic stop? If Carlos Mendoza was thought to be a dangerous criminal uh which has already been dispelled, he is not associated with any gangs here or back in El Salvador. He is not wanted. He was acquitted on charges back in El Salvador and he is a hardworking father. Um, I would like to know who specifically I would like to know who specifically contacted ICE. I would like to know, forgive me if I'm pronouncing his name wrong, but I would like to know what Chief Heden's reasoning was for contacting ICE, even though it's obviously illegal. Um, the next part's a little confusing. Um, so just to kind of explain the background behind these next few, um, there was a man named Marcus, uh, sorry, Mark Anderson who posted some stuff on Facebook and I want to know why he knew about the traffic stop. Is Marcus is Mark Anderson a law enforcement officer? Is Mark Anderson related to law enforcement? Is Mark Anderson friends with law enforcement? Is Mark Anderson affiliated with the Proud Boys or any such uh far-right group? And why was the Turlock Police Department talking about the traffic stop with their pals?

Um, Chief, can you have an offline conversation with Rodney? We can start there. Okay,

thank you. I have no other cars. Is there anyone else wishing to speak? Good evening everybody and community. First and foremost, I usually come up here and I'm tearing everybody up and I I thought today I wanted to say thank you. actually received a letter in the mail yesterday that says that um the district attorney had received a report from the Turlock Police Department that on 1020 22 2025 my daughter was in fact a victim of a crime at Turlock Junior High School. Let me tell you how Can you just pause for just a second, Chief? Is there a chance you guys can go outside, please? I'm sorry. Yeah,

I'm just doing what you insist. No, I I I go away in some unsafe area. You're just right outside that door so she can speak and she can be heard. You were heard for your time, please. Please. Right now I am, sir. Can you just go just out outside the threshold? Okay. Yeah, that's fine. Totally.

Okay. I'm sorry.

It's okay. So, I just wanted to say thank you. Um, I actually received a report that my daughter was in fact a victim of a crime here in the city of Turlock. Um, I do stand with Rodney. There's a lot of issues going on here in the city and I'm actually really concerned about the safety of our constituents and our community right here. Um, first and foremost, um, he was in fact a victim of a crime. He was arrested and so I stand behind Rodney and everything that he brought to your attention. I think what really needs to happen is our officers here in the city of Turlock need a little bit more training, just plain and simple. Um, 6 months after my daughter was assaulted at Turlock Junior High School, I received a report from the district attorney. If you guys want to see it, it's right here. That my daughter was a victim of a crime. What is Chief Hedin planning to do on this on this case here? Rebecca Monz, you work in the same courthouse that we had this the issues with the restraining order of save Turlock and everybody else that got denied. And there was offline many offline conversations that you guys were having with these individuals trying to come after me. Do me a favor. Please stop wasting community resources on coming after me. Also, please do me a favor. If you have an issue with me directly, please stop contacting the pastors here locally at Calvary Chapel. I' I've been notified that been many conversations about issues that you have directly with me. If you guys have issues, please come to me directly. I'm not going to stop my fight. I'm going to keep going. I'm going to keep the fight up and I'm not going to stop. My next issue here, I want to discuss on Angela Street. A lot of con uh community members on Angelus are concerned about the roads. A man had his uh in the plans there was a driveway that was supposed to be put down. You guys put the driveway down. Why was it ripped back up? He's not very happy. So I I want to uh make sure that he gets his questions answered. Um, I I think the safety of our community is at stake right now because our current leaders do not care about our people. And at the end of the day, the the decisions that you made

regarding our fire department and the contract that you gave to Modesto, it shouldn't happen. It shouldn't have happened. You don't care about our community. And to be honest, I I'm a little disappointed. I think we need new leadership, new blood up here. It's it's time to take a take a knee. When people are tired, it's time to take a knee. And that's it. Thank you so much for your time. Anyone else that did not fill out a card, come on up. Oops. Sorry, Leslie.

Hello. Good evening, council. My name is Michael Scott. I um live here in Turlock and I'm going to get hit by a car on Twalamy and Anhurst. I've seen accidents. There's no um stop signs from all of all the way down to Gear. People are traveling traveling down that street at 40 45 miles an hour. Again, I've seen accidents. There is only a crosswalk on one side of the street. Not on both sides, just one side. And uh again, I'm gonna get hit by a car. I'm disabled. The noise is horrible cuz I'm on a corner. And if there's anything you could do, I've called your agencies and we've spoken and I've had nothing but good conversations with the people I've spoken with. Um but I wish you would address traffic. much much more and speeding. Thank you,

Leslie.

Good evening. So, first of all, ICE needs to get out out of our city. But I want to talk about the fire chief. So, you voted one way and then you were pressured to change your vote. Well, if you're going to vote one way, you need to stand behind it, right? You guys should have never ever voted to reconsider, right? Because when you did, you gave them the opportunity to change the vote. when we talk about a fire chief. However, I do like the fact that the mayor wants to create a board, if you will. But the question is, who's going to be on that board, right? Because it needs to have a citizen, an independent independent of anything city, right? So, these things need to happen. And I know you're going to elect people or place people in a position that kind of see your way, right? So don't change your vote again. You voted for a reason. I don't know if you didn't understand it, but when I watched it, looked like you understood it, right? So, I thought this meeting was going to be about the new grants for we care, but apparently that got changed. So, again, I'm going to say it again. It's time for everybody on this council to reach across the aisle,

find common ground, and get it done. Turlock needs a fire chief and is in desperate need of a fire marshal. Fire marshals are very important, more important than the chief because fire marshals go into all the buildings to exact the codes. So, please reach across the aisle, find common ground, and let's get this done. It doesn't make sense and screw ICE. Anybody else did not fill out a card? Come on up, John.

Mr. Barkley, you're after that. Sorry, I didn't see your hand. What was that? There's another person after I can wait. No,

John Gibblain. Uh, yeah, just just a couple things, you know. Uh, uh, I I've been reporting on uh they finally have finished everything. They even put new stop signs in that we never had before. So, I'm not sure why we're doing that, but uh all over dozens of new stop signs all over our area in areas that we've never had. So, I guess it's a new regulation or something like that, but whatever. But, uh just just to let you know that the uh the after the recent rains now, the gentleman over there said he gets flooding on Dobinburgger or whatever. We I've had flooding for decades on my street and I mean halfway up my driveway and everything else like that. Well, you know, that's, you know, just something to live with and and hopefully we don't have, you know, extraordinarily, you know, heavy rains or anything else like that. But it's all got fixed. I mean, after they've got everything done, it's everything's going out and it's beautiful. I mean, that was one of the things I hadn't even thought about, you know, getting getting all the things. We got new water lines, new sewer lines, new Pen lines, new curbs and gutters, new asphalt and everything. But I forgot about the other thing is that that is going to hopefully, you know, alleviate any problems with flooding because we had flooding in front of my house and on the everywhere up and down El Paso and and everything else like that when we had rains. Now, the the other thing about, you know, listen, I I I've sat in here long enough and and and I will tell you something about uh uh congestion and everything else. I mean, this has been going on forever. And then again, right, I mean, you have to have resources for people to go and enforce the laws and all that kind of good stuff, but congestion and all that kind of good stuff is just going to get worse. And it's it's unfortunate because uh everybody's like a bat out of you know where uh in a

hurry to get every place they want to get and it doesn't matter. You can put like I guess that gentleman was saying down Towalami. Don't don't they have those ramps on on Towalami and everything and that's supposed to slow it down or we have the uh the uh circular uh roundabouts and stuff when it's not supposed to do. Well, people are just crazy, you know, and uh and unless unless uh there's something that that can be done as far as enforcement, you know, whatever. I I hope that that's just something that in the future that we'll have because it, you know, it's important uh to be able to do all that. Thanks, Mr. Marco.

Hello everybody. More importantly, hello to everybody here. You guys are more important than they are. You haven't addressed my needs. It's been two years now. My needs. I'm gonna turn around. I'm gonna talk to you guys. But you've been very disrespectful. You may have been very disrespectful. The attorney left because he knows what he's been doing. This is two years I came to talk to you guys about building code enforcement, building. This is regarding building building and safety. It's been two years since I brought this up to the city. You guys kept pushing it back, pushing it back. I brought it up again last April and I've been here. This is my fourth time to discuss this particular thing. Back in November, the attorney said, "You got I couldn't even work with my district council representative." So when you have a council person, so Erica Phelps is my representative. I can't even commute. She's supposed to represent me. Mr. Marco, you're supposed

and she's not representing me because the attorney said, "You can't talk to him." And she told everybody not to talk to me. And to address my questions to him, so I did address my questions to him. I addressed 11 questions to him back in November. You said, "I can't speak to anybody." In January, I sent you a list of 11 questions. You still haven't replied to those questions. You haven't answered. You haven't. No. You're wasting my time and you're disrespectful. You serve this city. THIS IS MY HOMETOWN. YOU SERVE THIS CITY. YOU GOT TO CLOSE YOUR MOUTH. THIS IS MY TIME. YOU CAN TALK with your BROWN APP. DON'T DISRESPECT ME. I'M TALKING RIGHT NOW. THIS IS MY TIME. OKAY. LAST TIME YOU ANSWERED, I didn't get to answer. LET ME TALK. YOU'RE STEALING my time. You didn't answer my questions. You didn't answer my questions and you left. The last thing you said was the new city the new city manager

litigation, right? you the last thing that you said was the city manager is going to address this. The city manager hasn't addressed that. You haven't followed up with any kind of meeting. I've asked you guys numerous times. Let's have a meeting. Let's talk about this. You guys have avoided avoided me. I came to you guys because the city is responsible for local building code. So, if something's done, you either have to have a permit or if you're building without a permit, you still have to repair it according to California building code. The repairs are made on that wall affect 25 of my neighbors. That wall surrounds 25 homes and the repairs were made illegally. Not once, not twice, but three times. Illegal laborers were doing the work. They didn't have a contractor doing the work. And the repairs weren't made the right way. Three times. Three different years. And I have to suffer from that. I haven't had to WORK BECAUSE I'M GOING CRAZY BECAUSE NO ONE'S DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT. I've included you in emails. I've shown you this stuff. I've shown all you guys THIS STUFF. YOU'RE NOT doing anything about it. You're just letting it be. You're not even say, "Hey, Mike, don't worry about it. we got to take care of. Just take us some time. No, you're just completely like you don't exist and it's been over a year now specifically on this thing. NO RESPECT. YOU GUYS AREN'T DOING YOUR JOB. IT'S STRAIGHT UP. YOU'RE NOT DOING YOUR JOB. SO WHAT I HAVE TO GET A lawyer now to go and and say this is what the city is not doing the responsibility. I DON'T WANT TO DO THAT. THIS IS THE CITY I'M FROM. WHY DO I WANT TO TAKE it from the city? I want everybody HERE TO KNOW THAT THIS IS WHAT THEY'RE CAUSING YOU GUYS TO DO. BY THEM NOT DOING THEIR THING, it's causing lawsuits for the city OF TURLOCK. DO YOUR JOB. ENFORCE THE BUILDING CODE BECAUSE IF YOU ENFORCE THE BUILDING CODE THEN I CAN GO TO THE LAW AND SAY LOOK THEY'RE NOT DOING THINGS according to building CODE BUT YOU GUYS AREN'T DOING THAT INSTEAD YOU'RE GIVING ME LIFT LIP talk excuses I'm glad you're leaving I'm glad we have a new attorney maybe you're a good person your personal life but as attorney you've been a very poor quality person

is there anyone else who hasn't filled out this is there anyone else who hasn't filled this out Ron please come up you know mayor I do want to say the city has spent so many resources on this issue, it's unbelievable. Okay, so litigation was threatened and I'll leave it at that and it'll be in my transition memo for the new city attorney. Thank you.

Got it. Hi. Wow. Okay.

What do you want to say? Yeah. Yeah. Me, me, me again. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. Good. Good evening. Um I will say that I know that um city manager, the um council members, city staff went out and viewed and talked to him, so on and so forth. The sergeant and I tried to talk with him after a council meeting for 20 minutes or so. Doesn't seem to be helping. I'm sorry to to see that. Okay. Um there was a post on uh Facebook that uh I felt I needed to come and talk about. Uh it said, and I quote, "Mod Legal supports pedophiles and people with serious crimes." End of quote. Um, I find it unbelievable that both Kelly Quo and Jason Freighus liked this post. One of the fundamental principles of our judicial system is that everyone, no matter how despicable the crime they are accused of, can have legal representation in a court of law. We even pay for a person to have legal representation if they cannot afford legal representation. Okay? Lady Justice is supposed to be blind, fair, and impartial. We do not want a system to where I look at uh George and I say, "Well, I like you, so you can have a lawyer." And I look at um well I don't take it person Cassandra and I say well you're a woman you're supposed to be pregnant barefoot and in the kitchen and you're don't have your hair covered.

Okay. So therefore you don't get legal representation. We don't want a system like that. Supposed to have a system that's supposed to be impartial. and and as much as we might not like defense attorneys at times, okay, um you know, it is necessary, they play a very necessary role. I I feel that it's the height of hypocrisy for Jason Freighus to have liked this post since he has taken advantage of um um um um public defenders multiple times uh in um his court cases that he has had some of which were very serious but I'm basically I'm speechless that Kelly Quyle the candidate for Toll City Council would like such a represent such post pledge of allegiance. She would stand here and say and for justice for all. Evidently, she doesn't believe that she should not be here. Thank you.

Anyone else who did not fill out a card who wants to speak? Okay, let's go ahead and close public comment and we're going to move on to city manager report updates. Is there anything uh Mr. Mareno? Nothing to report today. All right, it's all in written down. Consent calendar. Uh, at this time, is there anyone in the community that wishes to pull any item off and please tell us what it is? Uh, and why?

I'd like to pull two items for comment. Uh, 8F and 8G. And, uh, when they come up, I'll make my comments. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, we're going to go ahead and put this, uh, to bed and move towards you guys. What do you want? Uh, move to approve consent calendar minus FNG. FNG. Second. We have a motion and a second. Will you call the role, please? Council member Abram. Yes. Council member Bixel. Yes. Vice Mayor Mones. Yes. Council member Phillips. Yes. Mayor Bill Black. Yes. Passes on 5. Item F. I I guess um Director Mareno, is that you? Questions. He said he had comments, not questions,

right? So, he only has comments, right? So we brief it real quick because we he did it before. Go ahead. Yeah. The item that it's been pulled is merely a formality of updating our bank signature cards um for the current city manager staff that have the authority to sign. So it's a routine matter and we do this whenever there's a change in positions. Any questions of the director? No. All right. Mr. Tree Waller.

I don't know. I just have uh one question regarding this item. Does the city of Turlock require two signatures for check signing or can one person in the city of Turlock, one of the people on this list sign a check for the city of Turlock or does it take two, which I believe it should take two because it's just not right the thousands and millions of dollars that we deal with that one person could spend that much money by signing a check. So that's my question. Do we require two signatures? Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak on this item? Okay, we'll close public comment. Move to approve. Wait, can you use the answer? Thank you. Um, sorry.

So, we do have financial control in place for signing checks. Um, an individual can sign a check that has approved on the resolution and the the documentation for the bank. Anything over 10,000 does require two people to sign. So, there is a fiscal control in place. Yes. What is the will move to approve a second? Second. Motion second call, please. Council member Aram. Yes. Council member Bixel. Yes. Vice Mayor Manz. Yes. Council member Phillips. Yes. Mayor BL. Yes. Passes on a 5-0. All right. Next item. Uh go ahead, Mr. True, come on up here and tell us what ask us what the question is.

Could you describe to me uh what it's about? And then I have questions I'd like to answer or I'd like to ask you. I have four questions, but I'd like you to describe what this is, describe the issue here. Thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak on this item? Okay. Closing public comment. Will you respond, sir? Yes. ABS is our contractor that does our mailing service. So, our utility billings, things of that nature. We are increasing the contract due to obviously postage going up, supplies have been going up. So, we make sure we have coverage until the next time this contract comes fruition, we put it back out to bid. What's the will of council? Move to approve 8G.

I thought I wanted questions. I didn't ask my questions. He was telling me what it was about. Then I was going to ask my questions. Now I have my questions to present to you. My questions are this agreement expires $181 days from today. What's the reason for giving this company another $151,200 at this time when this agreement expires in just 181 days? I've gone through this. I went back and pulled the original um original meeting again and once again uh this was done during COVID time. My that was my first question. What's the reason that this me uh this is being done now when this agreement expires in 181 days? My second question is um it's a consent item lists that it needs 250 in the consent item. It lists that we need 250,000 more windowed ele envelopes for the next 181 days. I went online. You can buy $251,000 envelopes for $18,000. What's the other $133,200 for? Why is there so much money in this? That's my second question. My third question is going back to the original o and here it is right here October 20 October 12th 2021 meeting which this was during the height of the pandemic. We see that it states that two vendors submitted bids. However, it does not name the price that the other company gave. It does not list the name of the other company. So that sounds a little bit strange. So why was this information not given? That's my third question. Fourth question, in this bid, ABS direct at that date is giving us a price list. They gave a complete price list of what they were going to be

charging. And in that list, it lists all the prices. So how is this paid? Uh, in other words, this it gives a schedule of printing prices for the envelope prices and envelope prices making it appear that each bill would be broken down when submitted. Is that the way these bills are paid? And how often are these bills paid or these people paid for their work? Those are my four questions. Thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak on this item? Closing public comment. Do you have some answers, director?

Sure. I'll be happy to help. Um, so we got quite a few, so we'll run through them. Why are we adding more money? I believe I alluded to that. Why the contract's coming back. Um, as you can see, postage is where these these mailers are coming out. They're doing that postage for us. Postage has been going up constantly, multiple times in in the years over time. So, the contract has to fluctuate with that. Overall cost of materials have been going up. Yes, they have a bid price. Um, but we have printed envelopes. These are not just your standard go to Office Depot and pick in a random envelope. They have printed our logos, mailing addresses, things of that nature on them. So there's a little more substance than just a standard overall envelope. Um why does the bid the staff report in 2021? I have so a staff report in 2021. Obviously I can't see the documentation. Um there is you can do a public records request if you want to see the information. It is publicly available. Um but I can't speak to why the staff report was one in that nature. I mean I barely started in 2021. Oh. Um, how how much how often we do we get build? We do get build I believe it's every two weeks uh due to the substantial size of these invoices overall. So that's how often they build us. I believe I caught them all.

Thank you. Thank you. We call the roll please. Council member Abram. Yes. Council member Vixel. Yes. Vice Mayor Manz. Council member Phillips. Yes. Mayor Bubla. Yes. And it passes on a 5-0. Thank you. Final readings. None. public hearing. We have a opportunity for Miss Figaro to speak. Come on. Good evening, Jennifer.

Good evening, Mayor, Madame Mayor, members of council, and community members. The item before you is the recommended approval and submission of the fiscal year 2026 2027 annual action plan to HUD for the city of Churlock. I think I went to In this presentation we will cover HUD entitlement requirements, the purpose of the annual action plan, HUD funding and projects and programs. The annual action plan covers the community development block grant or CDBG funds for the city of Turlock and home program income for the city of Turlock and Stanos urban counties home consortium from the city's tenure as lead of the consortium. The home consortium includes Stannislos County and all cities in the county with the exception of Modesto. Beginning in fiscal year 20201, the city of Churlock and the Stannis urban county was designated a home consortium by HUD. This entitled the consortium to re receive federal HUD funding without a competitive application process. The city of Turlock acted as lead as a lead entity of the consortium from fiscal year 20201 through fiscal year two 2022 through 2023 and effective July 1, 2023, Stannis County assumed the lead row of the consortium. So a HUD entitlement jurisdiction is required to submit three plans or reports annually well over a period of time. First, a consolidated plan or a con plan is required that assesses housing and community development needs, identifies priority needs, and sets measurable goals and covers a three to fiveyear period. The city of Turlock's con plan covers a five-year period. Also, HUD requires an annual action plan that describes how funds will be spent during the program year, supports goals and priorities

outlined in the con plan, and is submitted annual annually. And then finally, at the end of the year, HUD requires a consolidated annual performance evaluation report, also known as the caper, that reports expenditures and accomplishments from the prior fiscal year, measures progress toward consolidated plan goals, and also is submitted annually. The purpose of the annual action plan is to list the anticipated CDBG and home projects for the upcoming fiscal year is to review a summary of funds distribution and is to give the community an opportunity for citizen participation. The plan was um available for public review from February 27th, 2026 through March 30th, 2026. The city of Tril's consolidated plan priorities are identified as improve public infrastructure and facilities, provide and assure access to essential public services, support affordable housing, and promote accessible housing options, work to address prevention and mitigate, work to address, prevent and mitigate homelessness and administration. So please note at the time the annual action plan was released for comment and the staff report was submitted the actual funding allocation had not yet been given. Um s the city has since received their allocation. Okay. So, the figures in this presentation reflect the actual allocations that has since come through. So our CDBG allocation for fiscal year 2627 is $560,491

with approximately 40 $400,000 in carryover and program income of 200,000 for an estimated total of a little over 1.1 million for the home program. Um there's an anticipated estimate of 110,000 to be received from program income and we won't be receiving the home allocation as we're no longer the lead. The city of Turlock project categories are as follows. For CDBG funding, we a maximum of 20% of the annual allocation plus anticipated program income can be utilized for program administration at $152,98. $593,393 will be utilized for owner occupied rehabs. Public service grants will utilize 115,000 providing essential services to the community. Public infrastructure and facility improvements will utilize approximately $300,000. And for the home program income, the first-time home buyer program will utilize approximately $110,000 in home funding. As part of the CDBG allocation, 15% of the allocation plus 15% of the program income from the prior year may be spent on public services. This slide depicts the six nonprofit organizations and amounts recommended by the CDBG selection committee in January of 2026. A separate item will be presented at a future council meeting to recommend authorization to execute these contracts. And that concludes my presentation. I'm available for any questions. questions.

Um, yes, Miss Figarero, can you elaborate a little bit more on the public infrastructure? I I forget exactly what the title is, public facilities infrastructure. Um, because that's always been a a category in our con plans, but it's been a few years since we've been planning for funding with that. So, what type of projects are you anticipating?

We actually put that in there. Um, we have to spend it over the five-year period. So we have had a few conversations with our municipal services of different projects to be funded. Um so we have to spend it over the five years. So it's put in our our plan um anticipating we don't have any set projects in mind at this time. If halfway through the year we decide we're not going to use it, we can move do a substantial amendment to move that money somewhere else. Any other questions? Is that the same with any other category there too? Yes. All right, we'll open it to the public. Anyone wishing to speak on this item, John?

The only question I had was there's there was a thing about income. I Where does that where does that money come from? I just just curious. The program income. Yeah, the program income is from prior projects that we've done and it's so that's why it's called program income. It's income that's come in. For example, um we do a lot of owner occupied rehabilitations. Part of those loans are deferred loans over 30 years. A lot of times people pay them off early and what it is meant to do is go back into the program and fund more projects.

Anyone else? um the uh work to address, prevent and mitigate homelessness. Um I know previously, I forget the name of the program, we we had a program to help um prevent homelessness. It was to give some money for um rent or utility payments, things like that. I remember asking I think it was uh Sue. I asked her and she gave me some uh details on that on the number of people that were helped and families that were helped and it seemed to be a significant number like over 100 150 something like that. Um I guess I have two questions. Number one, uh are we is is that is that program operating now? uh or would that be underneath this category? Because it seems to me that this is a good thing to do, okay, in terms of trying to uh prevent um homelessness. Um and um it seemed like it was a successful program, at least the second try. The first try that didn't work. Second try it did work. Um I I do have a little bit of a complaint. You know, I mean, you've had such a peaceful meeting, you know, and

that's sass, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That That's sass. Well, I got you to laugh. I like that. I like that. Okay. You're You're welcome. Um, I kind of don't like it when um we bring something before the council and uh if the council wants to make substantial changes, you really can't because you the 30 days for the public participation. If I understood the the comment here would put us past uh May 15th uh deadline. So, uh I know we've talked about that issue before. I would encourage that we um do things far enough ahead to anticipate uh nasty people like me coming up and saying it's going to be changed. Okay. Um was there another comment I had? Um, I think that was um Oh, um I I I don't know what you do in terms of of the um um advertising the CDBG stuff, but uh if we could get more public involvement, more explanation, you know, I mean, no one really knows what CDBG means. And even if you say community development block grants, most of us would not know. Okay. Uh, I think it would be helpful in uh, social media to um, kind of talk about how the monies could be spent, possibilities, and I think that would encourage more people to come. You had like two people from the public come and what 24 from the nonprofits come. So, I just um, make those comments.

All right. Thank you. Anyone else on this topic? Okay, we'll close public comment. Uh, are you prepared to answer some?

Yes. Um, so I believe there was one question about the help mitigating the homelessness. We did have a program. It was I want to say two, three years ago. Well, I've been here too, so two, so four or five years ago. And it was actually a nonprofit that provided rent assistance. The reason you don't see that in there is they didn't apply. We put out a notice of funding availability and we tell them we have all these public services and they are welcome to um apply and give their presentation and we just haven't had any come forward. So if we did have some come forward, we definitely would consider that. So that's um for that we actually um are bringing this annual action plan a month earlier than we usually do. So I know it and we understand that. I mean, if something was to be changed, we could approve it. Um, depending on if it's a substantial amendment, it could be it wouldn't have to go back out to public comment for 30 days. It would depend on what the the action was. Um, and if there were still changes, we could submit it and do a substantial amendment. So, there are ways that we try to bring it as soon as we can, but if you bring it too soon, it's you're not getting the information from HUD. And so, it's kind of a balancing act there. All right, Will.

Uh, I'm going to move to approve just with a comment that I thank you for bringing this a month earlier. Um, one of the biggest complaints we had about your predecessor was bringing us stuff at the 11th hour going, "Hey, you have to do this right now or else it's doomsday." So, um, I'm very appreciative that you brought this to us early and it's ready to go. So, move to approve. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Council member Bixel. Council member Abram. Yes. Council member Vixville. Yes. Vice Mayor Mess. Yes. Council member Phillips. Yes. Mayor BL.

Yes. Passes a 5-0. Thank you, Miss Figaro. All right. Action items. Item A, Director Sims. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, city council, staff, and members of the public. The item before you tonight is seeking direction on the remaining $150,000 in American Rescue Plan Act, ARPA funds allocated for business development programs. Tonight, we'll briefly review some of the past programs approved by council, as well as present a few proposed options to utilize the remaining funds. In December 2021, Turlock City Council allocated 1 million dollars in ARPA funds for the relief across downtown Radcard matching program. The RAD card was administered by the downtown Modesto partnership and was a digital gift card consumer shopping program. The program allowed Turlock residents to purchase digital funds to spend at participating Turlock businesses. The program operated as a consumer matching program where the city matched consumer purchases dollar for dollar. The program's goal was to provide to Turlock consumers more spending dollars as well as increase revenue for participating Turlock businesses. Through the duration of the program, there were a few concerns and challenges. The program did not achieve the level of success that we originally anticipated. The program was ran by a third party. Some of the challenges were app technical difficulties and lack of responses from the administrative team. Uh the RADcard program had utilized 575,000 when the city ceased participation due to the ongoing administrated in inefficiencies and technical challenges. In June of 2024, the remaining 425,000 was allocated towards the small business

development and assistance program. Participating businesses were eligible to receive up to $3,500 to support local to support social media and Google advertising campaigns aimed at increasing consumer traffic and sales for Turlock businesses. Only 23 businesses successfully completed the program. Many businesses experienced challenges gaining access to their Google ad Google business account and Meta, Facebook, Instagram accounts to set up ads. At the conclusion of these programs, approximately 150,000 in funds remained available for business development initiatives. Tonight, staff is seeking council direction on how to best allocate these remaining funds to support Turlock businesses, increase consumer activity, and drive long-term sales tax growth for the city. Staff has identified several options for council consideration. Staff is proposing to allocate 25,000 towards a discover turlock for the holidays 2026 campaign which would run September 1st through December 31st. It would be a geo fencing marketing campaign designed to promote shopping in Turlock, highlight community events and increase visitor traffic to local businesses during the holiday season. Strategic geo fencing campaigns are effective tools to increase consumer awareness, drive visitation, and support local business activity, particularly in the critical fourth quarter season. The campaign builds on the success of the 2025 Discover Turlock for the holidays effort, which generated 866,000 impressions and helped promote local businesses and community events during the fourth quarter. Staff is also proposing that the that the remaining 125,000 be allocated towards a choose your own program model allowing businesses to select support the support option that best meets their needs. Uh the first

option of the choose your own program would be a business education program which is designed to further educate existing interlock businesses in key areas such as e-commerce marketing AI business solutions, social media marketing, business website development, and financial management. The workshops would take place between now and December 1st. A Turlock business that attends three workshops would be eligible for $2,500. This builds on the city's existing workshop efforts and help businesses remain competitive, learning new evolving initiatives. The second option of the choose your own program would be a small business safety and lighting reimbursement program. The program provides financial assistance to eligible locallyowned businesses to install shatterproof glass, safety glass, and LED lighting improvements to storefronts. The program is intended to increase public safety, deter crime, and enhance lighting conditions for customers, employees, and surrounding commercial areas. The program would provide up to 2500 per business for storefront improvements such as security glass, and LED lighting. It would be a pay first, reimburse after type of program with proof of expend expenditure required. Businesses would be allowed to participate in only one program though, ensuring that a broader distribution of funds across the entire business community. Programs would be limited to locallyowned non-franchise brickandmortar businesses within Turlock that are in good standing with the city. So staff is proposing to approve 25,000 for a holiday geo fencing campaign and 125,000 for a choose your own program. With this amount, 50 businesses will be able to participate. some additional options for council consideration. Uh council may choose to direct the full 150,000 towards alternative uses such as city beautifification projects or other city priorities that can be completed within the year.

So in summary, staff is presenting a balanced approach that includes a marketing campaign, flexible business focused programs that support education, safety, and economic growth. We're seeking council's direction on how to best deploy the remaining funds. This concludes my presentation. I'm available for any questions. Questions for director. Have you had businesses reach out to you to say we need help? You know, are you getting any input from business knowing we've got some money to spend?

You know, we have our our Tuesday dropin program. Uh we usually get, you know, one to three businesses that pop up. It's a two-hour time frame. and then just meeting with businesses for our business visitation program. They will express some other challenges. I'll give you an example. Today we met with a business that wanted to get more exposure. They recently open, but they're just trying to build their presence, get more exposure. So, typically businesses are going to want help with marketing exposure or employee retention or recruiting employees.

Any other questions? question. Okay, it looked like a comment. Uh, I'll open it. I'll open it to the public. Anyone wishing to speak on this item? We're on.

Okay. Um, I'm curious. There were 72 grant applications and 23 went through the whole program. If I remember correctly, there were like two phases to where you um you got like 1500 in the first phase, then you had to complete some stuff and then you would get the the rest of the 3500 or whatever it was. I'm just curious if if how many completed that first phase. So, that was one question I had. Um, another question was, um, I would just say the idea of, um, Bullards or however you pronounce that, uh, I think you, uh, can maybe, um, help with some of that. I'm curious about what the, uh, cost for that might be. Um, because I, I do think that that's a good idea. It' be a good idea for downtown. Uh, I think there's a lot of things they could do in downtown if they had um some easy to place and remove um um bullards um like that. Okay. So, I would put in a plug for that. Um when I read the LED lighting um for the business uh storefront um but I sorry to bring up a a probably a sore point but we had the two shootings behind um in in the parking lot um out there. I was just wondering if it might be possible to I don't know add some additional lighting in that area. Okay, that that thought just cosmic ray came through and hit me and triggered the thought. Um and um yeah, I think that was it. So, thank you very much.

Anyone else? All right, we'll close public comment, bring it back for some considerations. I kind of want to I I I my passion is economic development and it's what we base everything on. Having said that, I think we can always find money in our our general fund for something like that. I just think right now the animal shelter probably could use it most at this very instant. And so I would prefer to put it there and then come back for a request out of uh reserve or something for economic development should that be something we want. What do you

Well, it needs somewhere about $10 million. So, anything towards it would help. Um I chief could probably throw off 15 different ideas. He did just a minute ago. I saw

we have a number of building issues, drain issues, health and safety issues, um all kinds of stuff going on there. Um, so yeah, definitely there's a need at the animal shelter. We were working with the current ARP ARPA funds that were allocated on what we could do. We had about $100,000 in our budget for that. Uh, we've exceeded that. We're uh moving towards going over that. So, we're looking at other ideas, other options. It's going to be expensive either way you go. So, if we can uh use some ARPA money to make it, you know, better for our staff, that's money well spent. If we could just use ARPA money to make some general repairs. I mean, the building is almost dilapitated. It's It's only 30 years old.

It's only 30 years old. It's embarrassing, truth truthfully. And it's it's no secret that we have folks showing up to the council meetings complaining about the conditions. I even got a complaint um this last week about my goats. Goats. people can call the city and and claim we have dead goats everywhere and it's just, you know, so I I think that's a great idea. Um, animal shelter would be money well spent. All right. Well, I'll make the motion to uh move that instead into the animal shelter. Second. Third. All right. We have a motion and a second. Will you call the role, please?

Council member Abram. Yes. Council member Bixel. Yes. Vice Mayor Mess. Yes. Council member Phillips. Yes. Mayor BL. Yes. Passes on 5-0. Thank you, director. All right, Mr. Petrolancus, you're up.

Yes, Madame Mayor. Um, this is an interesting action we're asking you to take tonight. Um, it's to pass a resolution of intention uh to consider a future ordinance that would come back to you. Um recently on March 20th, your uh director of rich risk management, not rich management, that would be better, but your director of risk management and I participated in a uh mediation of a matter uh of a complaint filed with the California Civil Rights Department that was formerly known as the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. They have jurisdiction over complaints regarding reasonable accommodations under fair housing laws, Americans with Disability Acts, those kind of things. So, the mediation was successful and out of the mediation uh we uh agreed that the city would draft a fuller reasonable accommodation ordinance than you now have in your municipal code. right now in the municipal code in like six places in the zoning ordinance. It's kind of got a oneliner, you know, about reasonable accommodations, but there's really no standards or there's no consistency with it and all of that. So, we we did agree at the staff level that we would draft such an ordinance and recommend approval to the council. So tonight, what we're asking you to do is there are uh three ways for the planning commission to take jurisdiction of matters that they have to look at and make a recommendation before it comes back to you. One of those is by the council passing a resolution of intention to consider this ordinance in the future. So, it's a pretty simple action and it really then gives jurisdiction to the planning commission to review it and make the recommendation that is required under municipal code back to you. So, that's it. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Questions? Okay, we'll open it to public. Close the public comment. Move to approve. We have a motion to second. Call the roll, please. Council member Abram. Yes. Council member Bixel. Yes. Vice Mayor Mines. Yes. Council member Phillips. Yes. Mayor Back. Yes. Passes on a 5-0. Thank you, Mr. Pacos. Was that your last uh effort? I guess so. Yeah. There's there's there's a few efforts that are still undone. So, I've got two weeks. So, we'll see. We'll cover that session. That's right. We'll see. Council comments, announcements, and future items. What happened? Your mic. George mic.

There we go. Um, yeah. So, in spirit of volunteer week and and thanks for all of our volunteers, um, Love Turlock is coming up on the 25th. So, um, I checked today. There's lots of of events that you can still sign up for. So, um, I hope that the community will come out for that. Um, you know, in in some of the conversations I had with staff leading up to the item about economic development, um, I I'm really curious if we can whether it's through a consultant, hopefully not because that always costs a whole lot, or uh, you know, through through our partners at Cal State Sans to do some kind of ongoing surveying and polling with our business community of what what do they need, what would be most helpful because you know items like this come forward and are informed by I'm sure conversations but we're not it's impossible to talk to everybody and every business owner all the time. So um I think something that we do you know periodically every year once every couple of years just to get a better sense of what the needs are and how we can be meeting them whenever we have funding available. I think that would be helpful. I want to thank the chief and the boys in the back when things get a little rough. It's it uh it's nice to see your moves to uh make us feel better up here so it doesn't go unnoticed. And thank you. And I just want to say thank you to George. It's been a pleasure. I wish you the best and u hope to see you again.

Chief Heden, you know, public comment is an anomaly, right? People can get up and misquote the California Values Act and SB 54. That doesn't mean it's right. I I don't believe that my police department, our police department is violating the protocols between local law enforcement and and ICE. I'm proud of our police department. Um I'm proud that we have laterals transferring in from other departments to come here to Turlock to work. And yeah, you're taking applications, but you don't have a lot of openings over there these days. And it's great. Um, and you know, unfortunately, people can get up at that lectern and say just about whatever they want as long as it falls under the subject matter jurisdiction of the city. That doesn't mean it's true. Fire Chief Delnik, same to you, sir. It is not a disaster that Turlock is saving money and providing better fire service to our citizens. Just because somebody gets up and says something in public comment doesn't make it right. I'm proud of you. I'm glad you're here. And I'm proud of our fire department. George Petrolis, five years of service. Five years of your life that you're not gonna get back, sir. Woohoo. And um can I just say that um doing your job does not mean that you have to tell people what they want to hear. So sometimes doing this job, you have to tell people the answer that somebody doesn't want to hear. It does not mean it's the wrong answer. It's just the answer to the resolution or the problem. Lots of folks want to kick and scream because they weren't told what they wanted to hear. Um, but I always say perceptions reality. Um, and that's life for folks. Um, Captain Rodriguez, where did he go? He took off on me. Um, neighborhood services knocked it out of the park for District 2 last week. Thank you. I'm pretty sure Miss

Ruth Hoover had a hand in that. I'm very appreciative. Um, Director Fiser, I had a nasty fam uh fatality, family members, loved ones were lost at my three-way intersection out on Washington Road. Thank you for your collaboration with Supervisor Kasa. I really appreciate your efforts and your hard work. Um, the last thing I'm going to say is there was a football game that took place. I'm not going to say who won and who got first place and second place, but I'm going to say that Turlock Fire Department and Turlock Police Department won and we beat the sheriff's office and the probation department. So, yay for Turlock Fire and Turlock PD. Good job. You make us so proud. I'm proud of both of you guys and your departments. You're doing a wonderful job. Thank you. And um I just wanted to address um one of the um one of our citizens uh Leslie about the accusations of uh me being pressured to vote one way or another. Um you know there is a misunderstanding. I appreciate you guys allowing me to reconsider. Um I vote based on my research and my notes that I do um whenever I get the agenda. So I just wanted to make that clear. Um, in addition to that, I um, last Thursday I, uh, toured Modesto Fire Administration because I wanted to learn more about it. I wanted to know how they operate. Um, sit down and talk to, um, a lot of people. Um, Chief Shannon Evans and Andrew Hunter, uh, took me a tour in there. So, um, in my place, I want to learn more, um, as much as I could so that way I could understand it better and that way we can all collaborate and work together. And hopefully, you know, soon as mayor said last meeting, um maybe they can, you know, be independent one day or whatever whatever the fire wants. But I just wanted to address that that I um I am taking the time to go out

there and um in the administration office to kind of get to know and understand it better. So um and congratulations to Chillock Fire and PD for uh the battle of the badges and George of course. Um it's been an awesome uh year in five months. Um, I wish you the best and I'm sure I'll see you then. So, all right. So, the helmets are here and they're going to start training on those Thursday.

Yeah, that's exciting. That's good stuff. Um, speaking to fire, police and fire handled uh a fatality, a house fire and uh it was it was an awkward terrible situation, but they handled it very professionally and I just wanted to thank each and every one of them for having to go through that. It's it's people don't understand what you have to see and and just keep moving. Um I think I want to make sure that people understand uh none of us have signatory to any checks. We're not making money here. In fact, people who ran for office would only make the $350 we make after taxes. As the day I was sworn in as mayor the first time, I took my name off of any signatory. I don't want to have that responsibility. I'm not prepared to do that. That is not my place. So, I'm not stealing the public's funds. If anything, I'm monitoring your funds tighter than most people do. Um, beyond that, Lieutenant Shaw is on his way and he is in uh the academy at FBI. Saw him uh at the airport when I was on my way to DC the other day. So, I was happy to see that. That's good stuff. And uh to Leslie's question, of course, it will be a Turlock community members, not electeds, not former electeds, not on any committee that will be with the fire department. So, we will have nothing to do with who those people are chosen, but it won't be former fire, won't be former police, it'll be the community. And with that, we have close session. Yes, we have 13A. Conference with labor negotiators, California government code 549576A, agency designated representative, acting city manager Isaac Marino and employee organization turlock management association public safety and the conference of legal council anticipated litigation California government code 549569D2 cases one

and we will report it out should there be something. Thank you very much.

Thumbs up. All right, we are out of close session. There was nothing to report, so we are in adjournment.