City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, I will call this regularly scheduled meeting to order. If you will join and salute to our nation's flag. Ready, begin. Roll call and declaration of conflicts of interest, please.

Council Member Abram. Here and none. Council Member Bixle.

Here and none.

Vice Mayor Moniz. Here and none. Council Member Phillips. Here and none. Mayor Bill Black.

Here and none. All right. Approval of agenda as posted or amended. So moved. Second. Motion in two seconds. Will you call the roll?

Council Member Abram. Yes. Council Member Bixle. Yes. Vice Mayor Moniz. Council Member Phillips. Yes. Mayor Bill Black.

Yes. Passes on the 5-0. All right. We will start with the proclamation.

Riley, will you come up please? So today we are recognizing Riley Ramos who graduated this year from Pittman High School. This is a certificate of recognition presented by the Turlock City Council on behalf of the citizens of Turlock. FOR HER DISTINGUISHED ACHIEVEMENTS IN FUTURE FARMERS OF AMERICA, LIFESTOCK EXHIBITION, ACADEMICS AND ATHLETICS FOR EXEMPLIFYING LEADERSHIP AND EXCELLENCE IN HER COMMUNITY. ON BEHALF OF OUR WONDERFUL MAYOR, CITY COUNCIL, CONGRATULATIONS ON THE RECOMMISSION.

Thank you guys so much for this. This is a really good honor. Thank you so much, and have a good night.

All right, Treasurer's Report, welcome.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the council, city staff, and the public. I'm here to review the city's investment portfolio. First, just wanted to remind you on our investment policy, which is kind of our guiding document that establishes our priorities or our objectives of safety, liquidity, and return. It also encourages us to invest prudently. Obviously, all investing carries risk, but if we can diversify those risks, then hopefully on the entire portfolio, the risk is brought down. It also specifies what types of investments we can make. We can't invest in stocks or anything like that. We're really limited to short-term, high-quality bonds. So let's take a look at what the bond market has done over the last year. This is a year ago what the yield curve looked like. So the yield curve is, it shows you the interest rates for investing in a treasury bond of various different maturities from zero to five years. Typically a yield curve is upward sloping, so you get a larger return the longer you lock up your money. Here it's called inverted, we have shorter term rates that are above longer term rates. That typically signals that we're in a period of transition where short term rates will be coming down. And that is what happened over the second half of 2025. Inflation was coming down. The Fed cut the short-term rates three-quarters of a percent. But in the first half of 2026, that trend changed a little bit. We had the crisis in the Middle East, the conflict in the Middle East, raising oil prices, and maybe there's rekindling of inflation, so perhaps the Fed isn't going to be able to cut interest rates as much. So interest rates actually rose for longer-term maturities, which negatively affects the value of the bonds that you own, but it does mean that when you're reinvesting that money, it's going to be at higher rates. So it's sort of like we took one step back, but then we're going to take two steps forward. We'll still get to where we intended to, just kind of a different path. Looking at our portfolio more specifically, Again, we want to make sure we're investing safely, so how do we do that? Short-term, high-quality bonds. Bonds are contractual obligations where the issuer is required to return our money and pay us interest. In particular, two-thirds of our portfolio is in U.S. treasuries and agencies. Those are backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, so they're very safe. Even these other types of investments, even the corporate bonds, those are very, very large companies that we use every day. They're very safe investments. So we feel good about the safety. For liquidity, we have about $80 million that is due on demand. So that's invested in things like money market funds or investment pools like Camp or Leif, where if you put a dollar in, you should be able to get a dollar out in the next day or two. So if we do have any unexpected surprises, we have money that we could use for that. So we have very good liquidity. If anything, we've been taking the liquidity down. You see about $40 million we've kind of transferred from the due on demand to longer-term maturities to try to lock in those higher rates over the long run. And lastly, we want to make sure that we're getting a good return on our investment. And over the last year, again, despite the rise in yields and stuff, we were still able to manage a 3.13% return, which is almost $10 million of growth. If you compare that to a fund of one- to three-year Treasury bonds, we actually outperformed that by 0.35%, or about an extra million dollars. So I think it was a pretty good year on that respect. And then looking forward, again, rates are a little bit higher. We now expect about a 4% return over the next two years, which also compares favorably to our benchmarks. With that, I'll take any questions.

Questions for the treasurer? Comments for the treasurer?

Okay, that too. Oh, yeah, I have comments. Hey, you're being really modest and humble. Thank you. But you're doing a great job over your predecessor because I know you've improved the city's income and our growth. So you know me. I'm going to just call it out for what it is. But thank you. Great job. Keep going.

Thank you. Anybody else? All right. Thank you so much. Okay, at this time we're going to open the public comment on the consent calendar. This is your opportunity to comment on any item on the consent calendar or to request it from the council that an item be removed for separate consideration. If you're requesting that an item be pulled, please state the item number and briefly explain your request to the council. Public comment on the consent calendar is limited to one minute per speaker. Madam Clerk?

Yes, so we have no blue cards for consent calendar. There is no one online. So if anyone from the public would like to comment on an item on the consent calendar, please come forward. Seeing no hands there.

Okay. We will close public comment and move forward.

Move to approve consent calendar as written.

Second.

Second.

We have a motion to second. We call the roll.

Council Member Abram. Yes. Council Member Vixell.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Moniz. Yes. Council Member Phillips.

Yes. Mayor Vivlock. Yes. Passes on the 5-0. There are no final readings. Public hearing 8A. We have a presenter who's Mr. Morris. That makes sense. Engineer's report. I get it. No, it doesn't say that. Not on mine.

Good evening. IT'S TONIGHT APPROVING THE ENGINEERS REPORT AND CONFIRMING DIAGRAMS ASSESSMENTS AND ORDERING THE LEVYING OF COLLECTION OF ASSESSMENTS AS ORIGINALLY PROPOSED FOR FISCAL YEAR 2627 FOR ALL LANDSCAPING AND LIGHTING ASSESSMENT DISTRICTS AND ALL STREET MAINTENANCE BENEFIT ASSESSMENT AREAS WITHIN THE CITY OF TURLOCK PURSUANT TO RESOLUTION NUMBER 97128. IF THERE'S ANY QUESTIONS, COMMENTS?

QUESTIONS? Okay. With that, we'll open it to the public, and I will give that to the clerk.

All right. So we have no blue comment cards. We have no one online. If anyone from the public and the audience would like to speak regarding this item, please come forward to the lectern. Seeing no hands, Mayor.

All right. Well, then we will close public comment and move to?

Move to approve, Amy.

Second. Both resolutions? Yes. Second, both resolutions. Sorry, both resolutions. Thank you. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Will you call the roll, please?

Council Member Abram? Yes. Council Member Bixle?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Moniz? Yes. Council Member Phillips? Yes. Mayor Buffak?

Yes. Passes on a 5-0. Thank you, Mr. Morris. All right. 9A. Teichert. I think this is the road, Doctor.

YOU.

HE COMES WITH GOOD NEWS. REALLY GOOD NEWS.

UH-OH.

OF COURSE.

GOOD EVENING, MAYOR AND COUNCIL MEMBERS. YES, I DO HAVE GOOD NEWS.

THE ITEM BEFORE YOU IS FOR AWARDING BID AND APPROVING AN AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY OF TURLOCK AND TIKER CONSTRUCTION FOR REHABILITATION OF GEAR ROAD PROJECT. A LITTLE BACKGROUND HERE JUST TO REFRESH EVERYBODY'S MEMORY. THREE YEARS AGO, THE COUNCIL APPROVED TASK ORDER NUMBER TWO, AUTHORIZING US TO START PRELIMINARY DESIGN UP TO 30% STAGE OF COMPLETION. We made the first public information meeting with the public, collected comments from the public based on the stage of design that we had at the time, and subsequent to that we made a similar presentation to the council. With that, we requested and received authorization to proceed with final design. Shortly after that, we received good news from Stancock, Stanislaus Council of Governments, that we were the recipients of $4.8 million in surface transportation block grant funding, SDPG, which meant the project was federalized, meaning that we had to follow federal regulations, follow Caltrans procedures. SO WE HELD A SECOND PUBLIC INFORMATION MEETING, COLLECTED ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BASED ON STAGE OF DESIGN FROM THE PUBLIC, MADE ANOTHER PRESENTATION TO THE COUNCIL. CALTRANS DETERMINED THAT THE PROJECT IS CATEGORICALLY EXCLUDED FROM THE REQUIREMENTS OF NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ACT , WHICH MEANT THAT FEDERAL ENVIRONMENTAL CLEARANCE WAS ACHIEVED. RIGHT AFTER THAT, THE COUNCIL MADE A SIMILAR DETERMINATION BASED ON CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ACT . THAT MEANT THAT THE STATE REGULATIONS WERE SATISFIED AS FAR AS ENVIRONMENTAL with those two environmental clearances at hand, we requested authorization to proceed. From Caltrans and Federal Highway Administration, FHWA issued a document that is called P76 obligated the $4.8 million and authorized us to proceed with advertising the project for construction. Before that, we had already come to the council and asked for authorization to advertise the project once all these documents were in place. AS SOON AS WE RECEIVED THE E-76, WE HAD ADDITIONAL GOOD NEWS FROM STANCOG THAT WE RECEIVED ANOTHER $2 MILLION IN STBG FUNDING FOR SAFETY IMPROVEMENTS ALONG THE CORRIDOR. SO THAT BROUGHT THE TOTAL TO 6.8 MILLION, WHICH MEANS SHORTLY WE WILL ASK FHWA TO AMEND E-76 FOR THE ADDITIONAL 2 MILLION, SO THAT CAN BE OBLIGATED TOWARDS THE PROJECT. One item to bring up here is as we went through the project, we were looking at different ways to advertise the project and see how we could speed up the construction and also encourage participation by different contractors. Looking at three different phases, staging those, overlapping those, it all didn't help that much. We put our heads together with Stancock and Caltrans and based on the climate of bidding at the time that we were looking at this, we all reached the conclusion that it would be best to have one bid package for all three phases. So this is the entire project from Golden State Boulevard to Taylor Road. Up close a little bit, this is the southern portion, phase one from Golden State to Hawkeye. Middle portion is phase two, Hawkeye to Monta Vista. North portion is Monta Vista to Taylor. Now, what do we have in the specs? We have 400 working days given to the contractor to construct the project. 10 days after notice to proceed, the contractor has to start construction activities. So let's say we issue notice to proceed at the end of the month, 400 calendar days or working days, I'm sorry, working days, that would put us AT AN APPROXIMATE COMPLETION DATE OF MID-APRIL OF 2028. THAT'S ASSUMING WEATHER PERMITTING US TO CONTINUE WITH CONSTRUCTION IF WE HAVE THE WET WINTER THAT THEY ARE FORECASTING. THERE IS NO CONSTRUCTION, SO THE DATES WILL BE EXTENDED. WHAT WE HAVE ASKED OR WE HAVE MANDATED IN THE CONSTRUCTION IN CONTRACT DOCUMENTS IS THAT PHASE ONE AND THREE BE CONSTRUCTED SIMULTANEOUSLY. before phase two can be started, those two phases have to be completed. So the section between Hawkeye and Monte Vista would be only constructed after the southern portion and the northern portion of the project have been completed work hours are limited to 7 a.m to 5 p.m monday through friday no work on the weekends or legal holidays no night work is permitted and one lane will remain open in each direction at all times all lanes will be open to traffic on Saturdays, Sundays, legal holidays, after 4 p.m. on Friday, and after 4 p.m. the day before any legal holiday and any time that the contractor doesn't have any active construction in that particular lane. With all of that in mind, we advertised the project on June 23 and opened four bids on July 28. This is the tabulation of all four bids. We analyzed the bids, reviewed all the documents submitted for compliance with the bid document requirements. I'm sorry. When we determined that the lowest responsible responsive bidder was Teichert Construction, the full name legal name is A. Teichert & Son, Inc., doing business as Teichert Construction for the bid amount of $20,280,558, which is just about 5.9 million below engineer's estimate. So the motion before you and our recommendation and request is to award bid and approve an agreement between the city and High Creek Construction in the stated amount plus 10% contingency in the amount of $2,028,000. Any questions? Questions? I hope I didn't go too fast. I was trying to make it.

Good. Okay. So at this time, we'll open the public comment and ask the city clerk to facilitate that public comment, please.

Okay. We have no blue comment cards. We do have someone on remote participation. So if you would like to speak regarding item 9A, please raise your hand or press star 9 and indicate. Otherwise, we will now see no comment on there. We'll move back to the council chambers. Does anyone like to comment regarding item 9A? Please come forward.

GOOD EVENING. SO I GUESS THE FIRST QUESTION IS, HOW IS TIGER GOING TO DO THIS CONSTRUCTION FOR $5 MILLION BELOW COST?

OUR COSTS ARE NOT GUARANTEED. THESE ARE ESTIMATES.

WELL, THE INJURIES COST IS $25,000. NO, $26 MILLION.

$26 MILLION. OKAY, $26 MILLION. SO HOW DOES TIGER GET $20 MILLION? That is their bid. That's how the bidding process works. So your bid is well below.

Can we direct all comments? Just make your comments.

He's the one that was answering the question. I don't even know who you are.

In order to maintain a calm decorum in the room, we don't need to go back and forth. So please.

No, the question. I'm not going to ask the question. And $20 million is well below the $26 million, which will cost the city, again, an extra cost. That's what they call that. Right? So when they don't complete a project, then, and only then, will the city be incurring more costs. So the price will be over $26 million. You understand? Anybody? Nobody? The cost of construction, when you have it below the bed, will inevitably and always goes up over $26 million. It will always happen. It never fails. They call extra costs. And so my question again is why and how is Tigard going to do a project for below cost?

We'll answer the questions after all. Okay. I have one more question. Understood.

Is there anyone further that would like to speak regarding the item? Seeing no further comment.

So, Mr. Pizaj, can you speak to all the roads you've done and what people are bidding in and how much under and how much over cost are we putting into it?

A number of our projects have been closed well below engineer's estimate and well below the bid that the contractor brought in. We simply follow the public contract code, which requires us to publicly advertise the project and award the project to the lowest responsible responsive bidder. We do not negotiate a contract with the contractor. We do not ask the contractor, how can you do it for a certain price, because that is negotiation. We review all the documents that are submitted and make a determination based on that. If they have followed all the requirements in the bid documents and requirements by law, which is all the registration that they're supposed to have, submit the bonds that they need to, the insurance that they need to, then they are responsible and responsive. That is the basis for the recommendation. Why do they have a lower price? They only know that. What I can say as far as engineer's estimate, engineer's estimate is for budgeting purposes. And that is based on the historic bid prices of a number of projects in the state. So we go to a database and receive that. It doesn't reflect the current bidding environment. It doesn't reflect three projects or three phases being done at the same time. It doesn't reflect the size of a contractor and their capability in staffing a project and actually doing the project in a more efficient way. Our estimate was based on three phases and second. And that's the only way we can put that together. There is no way for us to estimate efficiencies if the phases are done concurrently or in a different type of arrangement because that data is not available to us. So we basically wait until the bids come in and go through our process as the law requires us.

Okay. Thank you. Yeah, we closed public comment. Did you have a comment? Or what is your will?

No. Motion to approve 9A.

Second. Motion and second. Will you call the roll, please?

Council Member Abram. Yes. Council Member Bixall. Yes. Vice Mayor Moniz. Yes. Council Member Phillips. Yes. Mayor Black.

Yes. That part passes with 5-0, and I believe you have one more part.

Yes.

The next item.

Go ahead. The next item is related to what we went over, the project, and that is we are requesting your approval of amendment number 22 for task order number 7A with NB5 for construction management inspection services for gear road rehabilitation project. This is all in your staff report. But overall, the construction manager and inspection services are described or defined in three components. One is pre-construction, which as the name suggests, these are all the activities that we have to do in the lead up to the actual construction, such as constructability review, fire review, setting up the project, estimating the project cost, and scheduling ahead of receiving the schedule from the contractor. The next component is construction management and inspection, which is, again, this is when construction is actively ongoing, and that is to make sure that we have enough oversight to make sure that whatever is constructed is in accordance and compliance with the construction documents. Post-construction, as the name suggests, this is after the construction is completed to make sure that all checks and balances are properly documented, all the records are complete, and finances are all looked at and finalized so we can accept the project and also make a final payment to the contractor. pre-construction services were approved by the council as task order number seven previously so task order summit number seven a is in fact nothing other than an amendment to task order seven for the remainder of the activities so that is our proposed task order to you If you're interested, these are all the breakdown of various subtasks involved in each category. And in great detail, those are in exhibit W attached to your staff report if you're interested to get into that much detail. So we have a motion before you for approving task order number 7A with NB5 for construction management and inspection services in the amount of $3,676,805.76.

Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Pesach? Okay. At this time, I'll open the public comment and ask the city clerk to facilitate the public comment.

We have no blue cards. If anyone's joining you remotely and would like to speak, you may raise your virtual hand now or press star 9 to indicate that you would like to speak. Seeing no comment online, would anyone in the public like to speak regarding this item? Please come forward to the lectern. Seeing no comment, Mayor.

Okay, we will close public comment and bring it back to Council.

Did you have a question? I have a quick comment. So, you know, this is like the last piece of the Gear Road project, and Just for the public's edification, when you look at $27 million, how it all adds up, I asked Director Moreno for, okay, break it down for all the different funding sources. And 75% or more, if my calculations included everything, is not our own local dollars. Only about 25% is Measure A. So I just want to commend your staff for using our local dollars wisely and going after all the other things so we can take on a big project like this and still have wiggle room to do other things. So with that, I'll move to approve.

Second. Motion to second.

Will you call the roll, please?

Council Member Abram. Yes. Council Member Bixle. Yes. Vice Mayor Monette. Yes. Council Member Phillips. Yes. Mayor Budlak.

Yes. Thank you. 5-0. Thank you, Road Doctor. Okay. Item C, General Plan Amendment, and I believe, oh, Ms. Werner. It's not a birthday game, is it?

No.

But thank you for that birthday present.

So the item before you tonight is the council to consider the adoption of the 2331 or sixth cycle housing element. I'm actually not going to do the presentation. I'm going to turn it over to our consultant, Andrew Hill, with Diat and Batia, the urban and regional planners. So, Andrew. Thank you.

Excuse me. Thanks, Adrian. Good evening, Mayor, council members. So tonight, we're pleased to introduce the six-cycle housing element and related general plan and zoning amendments. It's been a long road to get here, including multiple rounds of review with the California Department of Housing and Community Development, or HCD. But on July 3rd, the state issued a letter finding that if the city adopts the housing element as revised, together with the zoning amendments, Chilliwack can be found in compliance with state housing law. And so the purpose of the item tonight is to provide a brief overview of the six-cycle housing element and related zoning amendments, to hear public comments, and if appropriate, for the council to adopt the housing element and related general plan and zoning amendments. I had a longer presentation, which I'm going to cut back to 10 minutes or less, but I'm happy to come back and answer any more questions or provide detail if you do have questions. So let me know. One of the core components of the housing element is the site's inventory. It's a list of sites within the city of Turlock that are available for housing development during the period. It is how the city demonstrates that the zoning map has adequate capacity to meet Turlock's assessed share of the regional housing need, which for this current eight-year period is 5,802 units. Those 5,802 units are broken out into different income categories. The way you demonstrate capacity for lower income housing is by demonstrating adequate capacity for higher density housing at 20 dwelling units per acre or more. STATE LAW ESTABLISHES CERTAIN REQUIREMENTS FOR HOUSING SITES THAT ARE IDENTIFIED TO MEET LOWER INCOME RENA OBLIGATIONS. THEY'RE ESSENTIALLY MEANT TO ENCOURAGE CITIES TO PUT FORWARD THE MOST SHOVEL READY SITES. And so in putting together the inventory, we first did an assessment of projects that are currently in the development pipeline, projects that are permitted or constructed after June 2023 can be counted towards that requirement for 5,802 units. Currently, there are 14 projects in the development pipeline that have a capacity for 1,137 units. So those were deducted from that 5,802. ADDITIONALLY, WE LOOKED AT UNDER CURRENT ZONING, LOOKED AT VACANT LAND THAT IS ZONED FOR RESIDENTIAL USES. WE LOOKED AT CAPACITY IN THE DOWNTOWN AREA. WE LOOKED AT CAPACITY IN THE MORGAN RANCH MASTER PLAN AREA AND WE ACCOUNTED FOR ADU DEVELOPMENT. WHEN YOU ADD UP ALL OF THOSE THINGS, THERE'S CURRENTLY THE ZONING MAP HAS A CAPACITY FOR 4,506 units, which is about 78% of the way there to the target. Not quite there though, and notably there was a deficit of land that's zoned for higher densities that are deemed affordable to lower income units. And so the housing element proposes a rezoning strategy that can bridge that gap. That strategy involves creation of a new commercial residential mixed use zone. It would apply to 52 properties that are vacant or underutilized on commercial corridors in Turlock. Importantly, all the property owners maintain their current development rights. If they wish to develop their properties consistent with current commercial zoning, they have the right to do that. This new zone gives them the option to also develop multifamily housing on their properties if they choose to. And the purpose of this zone is to demonstrate to the state that Turlock zoning map has adequate capacity to meet that requirement for 5,802 units. And also to provide more opportunities for workforce housing in Turlock that can go for service workers, teachers, public servants, and other people who work in Turlock and make less than 80% of the countywide median income. The four corridors where the rezone sites are located are North Golden State, Gear Road, West Main, and South Lander. It's not all the properties in those corridors. It's select properties that meet the criteria identified by the state. And then when you add the 4,500 units that you get under current zoning plus the additional capacity that you get with this rezoning, the city would have capacity to meet that requirement for 5,802 units with a buffer. Just in case any of the sites don't develop as envisioned, that buffer is important to make sure that you will always have capacity to meet the state requirements. And this is a map of the site citywide. The second key component of the housing element is the action plan, which is a program of implementing actions. It's organized around six goals, very similar to the fifth cycle element. And the action plan contains 56 programs that will be implemented over the eight-year cycle. It's important to note many of these programs reiterate commitments that the city has already made. For example, sidewalk programs. So it's not a commitment of new funding requirements for 56 new programs. Wherever possible, we've reiterated commitments that the city has already made. I JUST WANTED TO TOUCH BRIEFLY ON THE REVISIONS IN YOUR PACKET TONIGHT. YOU'LL SEE THERE'S A VERY COLORFUL VERSION WITH RED LINES OF ALL THE CHANGES THAT WERE MADE IN RESPONSE TO COMMENTS BY HCD. AND THEN THERE'S ALSO A CLEAN VERSION. CONTENT IS THE SAME. JUST IF YOU WANTED TO FOLLOW ALONG INSIDE BASEBALL AND SEE WHAT THE CHANGES WERE, THAT'S WHY THE RED LINE VERSION IS THERE. HCD really focused on two things in their review. One was asking for additional analysis to demonstrate the viability of redevelopment for non-vacant sites that are included on the housing element. And so in response to that, we've included a new Appendix F that goes site by site with all those 52 sites, provides ADDITIONAL ANALYSIS AND SUPPORT TO DEMONSTRATE TO THE STATE THAT THOSE ARE REAL VIABLE CANDIDATES FOR REDEVELOPMENT WITHIN THE PERIOD. THERE'S ALSO A TABLE OF INDICATORS INDICATING THAT ALL THOSE SITES CHECKED THREE BOXES HAVE AT LEAST THREE INDICATORS OF REDEVELOPMENT POTENTIAL. Additionally, they asked for analysis of downtown development trends and the potential for mixed-use development and non-residential development, so we've added that into that same appendix as well. And we did an analysis of recent sales prices and rents in comparison to household income to support our projections for moderate-income housing. And then the second focus of HCD's review was on the programs in the Housing Action Plan. And here they really focused on identifying amendments to the Turlock Municipal Code to bring it in line with new state laws. I'm sure you're aware every year for the past several years there's been a raft of new laws. And so these programs address those new requirements and bring THE TURLOCK MUNICIPAL CODE INTO COMPLIANCE WITH STATE LAW. THE SECOND FOCUS OF THEIR REVIEW WAS ON PROGRAMS ADDRESSING DISPROPORTIONATE NEEDS IN CENSUS TRACKS THAT HAVE A HIGHER CONCENTRATION OF LOWER INCOME RESIDENTS. THIS IS WHAT THE STATE CALLS AFFIRMATIVELY FORWARDING FAIR HOUSING. And so there's a number of programs there that address those requirements, and that was another focus of the state's review. Again, these programs reiterate commitments for the large part that the city has already made as opposed to identifying new programs that need a need of new funding. And so let me touch on quickly the zoning amendments. Also in your packet tonight is the rezoning to create this new commercial residential mixed-use zone. Again, the purpose of this is to demonstrate that the zoning map has adequate capacity to meet for at least 5,802 units over the cycle. It gives property owners the option to develop housing but does not require that they do that. IN ORDER TO ENSURE THAT IF A PROPERTY OWNER WANTS TO DEVELOP 100% NONRESIDENTIAL USES, THIS ZONE CREATES FOUR SUBZONES SO THAT A property owner who is currently in the CO district maintains all of those same standards if they want to develop 100% non-residential uses. A property owner in the CH district would be in the new subzone C, and that ensures they have all of the same development rights. Now they're not losing anything. If they choose to develop with mixed use or residential development, well, then they're subject to the new standards that are in the CRMU zone. Important to note, sites that are being rezoned to accommodate a shortfall of units, as in this case, are subject to certain requirements under state law. And all of the 52 sites that have been identified for this new CRMU zone meet those requirements. This is a quick snapshot of the development standards for the CRMU zone. It really mirrors the RH district with a few modifications as required to meet the requirements for sites rezoned to accommodate an arena shortfall. State law requires that the general plan land use map and zoning be consistent. And so in order to ensure that consistency, there's a few targeted updates to the land use and economic development that are required. Essentially, we've created a corresponding land use classification, which we're calling commercial residential mixed use. This is a definition for it. And the general plan land use diagram has been updated so those same 52 sites now have the new CRMU land use classification. And so a quick look ahead. Tonight is the first reading of the zoning, and next week would be the second reading of the zoning, following which we would resubmit to HCD to demonstrate that we've done what they asked the city to do in the letter of July 3rd. And that's my quick presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions or provide more detail if you'd like.

Questions? No questions. Then I would ask, I'll open the public comment and ask the clerk to facilitate it.

So we have no blue comment speaker cards for this item. Anyone joining remotely, if you'd like to speak on this item, please raise your virtual hand or press star 9 to speak. Seeing none, we'll move back to the council chambers. Would anyone like to speak regarding item 9C?

Good evening, Council, staff, community, Milt Treeweiler. Our Turlock Planning Department, along with consultants, have been working on this Turlock housing element for over two years. The residents of Turlock are very fortunate to have a professional planning department with experienced and well-educated staff members here in Turlock. On July 18, 2024, at the Planning Commission meeting, there was a Turlock housing element study session to prepare the housing element. The housing element is one of the required seven mandatory elements contained in the city general plan. A notice by the city that the first public review period for the draft housing element ran from October 2 to November 1, 2024. Starting that public comment may be submitted in writing. Additionally, the Planning Commission will review the draft housing element at a public meeting on October 3, 2024, and community members are invited to attend. The state responded on April 30, 2025. The California Department of Housing and Community Development completed a review of the draft housing element and found that while the draft addressee many of the statutory requirements, some further revisions are necessary to substantially comply with the state's housing element law. Multiple plans were submitted to the state and reviewed, and they were all turned down by the state. It seems obvious to me that our planning staff and consultant were not allowed to make or present solutions to the issue of not complying to the state because of pressure from the city managers. The city managers are at-will employees controlled by the current City of Turlock elected officials. Residents of Turlock, remember that anyone at this dais can say almost anything they want, but that doesn't mean that what they say is true. This update must be passed and submitted to the state for review tonight. Thank you.

Are there anyone else that would like to speak on item? Seeing no further comment, Mayor.

All right. I'll close public comment. For the record, Dr. Murphy, tonight, if we approve this, the review's over? Don't we have a second reading or something?

We have a second reading two weeks from now.

Okay. Thank you.

I just have a brief comment. This has been a very long process and kind of bumpy and circuitous at times, but thank you for the staff for doing all of this work for this long, and I just do want to note something that's buried in the housing element that A few years ago, I don't have the exact date, we mailed out like 1,500 surveys to people, and that is considerable community engagement beyond what we've done in previous housing elements. So I think that's really notable, and I hope that when we do this next time, we can move away from snail mail and get a little bit more in the 21st century. But there's a lot of good in here. There's hundreds of hours of work in here, so thank you to everyone involved. And with that, I will move to approve. Second.

Motion and a second. Will you call the roll, please?

Council Member Abram? Yes. Council Member Bixle? Yes. Vice Mayor Monez? Yes. Council Member Phillips? Yes. Mayor Dublack?

Yes. And it passes on a 5-0. Thank you for that. All right. This is a time set aside for the general public participation. I'll ask the city clerk to facilitate this public comment.

All right. Well, we'll begin with blue speaker comment cards. I have three of them. The first one is Sean Sheridan. Please come forward.

Mayor and Council, I am here to publicly thank the new City Manager. Regarding an abandoned vehicle, I worked with the Turlock Police Department for more than a year and was ultimately stonewalled. I sent Dr. Murphy a single, respectful email and the matter was solved in 72 hours. So thank you, truly. I am also here for another reason. In about three weeks, I plan to submit a comprehensive citizen's complaint to the City Manager regarding the handling of public records and public record requests. I will request that the matter undergo an independent, third-party legal review. I will also request that the City Manager then publicly report to the City Council the findings and actions taken. The purpose is to solve issues and identify criminal behavior so that specific staff can be held formally accountable. In two weeks, I plan to return to this City Council and share examples of why investigations are needed. I will share one example today. It comes from PRA Request 25-221 in December. I am holding up an unsigned un-initialed version of the signature page for an already issued building permit. Released as an official record, the signature and initials were deliberately omitted. I was recently informed as to who supplied this, but that person cannot be the only one held accountable. The real culprit is the genius in the building that thought that was a good idea. the genius who forgot to have the pre-markings of the checkboxes removed so that it would not be obvious that the Building and Safety Division pre-marked the workers' compensation exempt checkbox that no employees would be used, rather than letting the signer of the permit mark it under penalty of perjury. And instead of letting the signer mark as authorized agent or licensed contractor, the city of Turlock pre-marked the owner checkbox. The actual signed version, the other paper I have, revealed that the signer did not mark any of the 11 checkbox options on the page, none, and yet received the permit.

Next speaker is Candace Bill.

Hi. Yep, I'm Candace. I'm the one that doesn't like to talk in public, and I'm the one that's irritated because you guys aren't holding anybody accountable. So we've got issues here with, and you, Mr. Murphy, said that you were going to look into this for me, and I don't believe you did anything because you said that, The Enrique did everything fine. If you guys would check your emails, you'll see that he did not because if he had checked off the item, it would not be still flooding my floor. Is that enough water damage for you guys to call it actually what it is? And then he didn't even look at anything else because if he would have, this is right next to my front door. This is a bookshelf. This is a close-up of the bookshelf. This right here, mold. One section right there in the middle. Right there. That's what it is. Okay. You guys are not. You guys aren't holding it accountable. And then you said that the records request was done correctly. No, it wasn't. I asked for four addresses. I received two. And then Enrique. Oh. WITH THAT PRA THAT I HAVE, I HAVE PAPERWORK SHOWING THAT HE HAS BEEN WORKING WITH MY LANDLORD FOR FIVE YEARS. I HAVE HIS INITIALS ON ALL OF THOSE SIGNALS. AND THEN HE WAS WORKING WITH MY LANDLORD TOGETHER. THERE'S AN E-MAIL TRAIL OF THEM DISCUSSING BACK AND FORTH WHAT DAY WORKS BEST FOR YOU AND WHAT'S THIS. I THOUGHT IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE AN INDEPENDENT WEBSITE. YOUR GUY'S CITY OF TURLOCK WEBSITE SAYS. That if we need something with our housing, we can ask for it. And it's supposed to be independent. I'm sorry, but last time I checked, the good old boys don't get to communicate together and have it be independent. They showed up together. They showed up together. They coordinated their own schedules. And you know what they did? They scheduled it for the exact day and time of my very first cardiac appointment. It took me four months to make it, and I had to push it out again. So you guys are allowing him to actively mess with my health at this point. I mean, more than they already have. I mean, I don't know what else I need to do. Maybe I need to file a tort or something or get, like, one of my own attorneys involved here because this is ridiculous, the amount of, like, you just are just signing off on whatever you guys want, and I don't understand. And then you take the word of this report that you got from Environmental Science Services. Okay, I have an email right here. This one right here. From him. From the same guy. And he says clearly, it says, we should put you on the schedule as soon as possible, as soon as Monday. You definitely have a problem.

He didn't show. I called him.

Email from him. I had your landlord call me this morning, and he's questioning our experience. I'm sending over references. I'll call you, and we'll get back to you when they've okayed it. So he had stopped my... ATTEMPT AT AN INDEPENDENT, AND THEN YOU GUYS WERE SUPPOSED TO BE MY BACKUP. YOU GUYS WERE SUPPOSED TO SUPPORT ME BECAUSE I AM YOUR RESIDENT. AND WHAT DID YOU DO? YOU SIDED WITH MY LANDLORD. THAT'S WHAT YOU DID. YOU SIDED WITH MY LANDLORD AND YOU SIDED WITH SOME GUY WHO DOESN'T EVEN HAVE ANY CERTIFICATIONS AT ALL, AND HE CLEARLY TELLS ME IT'S FINE. BUT THEN WHEN HE COMES OUT WITH MY LANDLORD AFTER DISCUSSING WHAT KIND OF TESTERS THEY'RE GOING TO GET, WHAT KIND OF THIS AND THAT, HE COMES OUT WITH NOT A TESTER. HE COMES OUT WITH SURFACE ONLY. OF COURSE HE'S GOING TO SAY THAT IT'S DRY. OF COURSE.

What else is it going to say?

Leslie Stokes.

Good evening. So... First of all, let's talk about the fire board that we're supposed to get that I haven't seen. Right? We're supposed to get that so we can study on whether or not Turlock can get a fire chief and fire marshal of its own. We haven't gotten that yet. So I'm wondering where that is. Secondly, your words, not mine. Secondly, right, I want to talk about data centers because the county is now being by lobbyists of data centers. Patterson is in it. Modesto is in it. Modesto even has a site. So I'm going to ask you again, right? What's best for Turlock? Because none of you, not one of you, this is not a Democratic or Republican issue. This is a people issue. AND EVERYBODY HERE KNOWS FARMERS HERE. SO I'M GOING TO NEED FOR YOU ALL TO JUST SAY WE BAN ALL DATA CENTERS. THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN NOW. IF MODESTO DOESN'T, THEY'RE STILL TAKING OUR WATER, AREN'T THEY? SO WE NEED TO DO THAT. THIRDLY, TO THE NEW CITY MANAGER, WELCOME. However, I understand that you have military background. I'm going to need for you to stop that. No militant pushing around people. Right? You're going to need to follow the line. This is the way this is going to go. Because trust me, at $1.3 million... Not seeing it. Not. So I'm going to need for you to play by the rules. That means you're no big contracts, but those behind you. I want all of this stuff to stop. And y'all are sitting out here. We're being courted by data center lobbyists. Do you get that? And this needs to stop. Patterson is in it. Midas doesn't. When's it going to be Turlock? Because we're sliding for three of them. We don't want this problem. You're going to hurt the people who actually live here. Right? These are your constituents, not mine. Yours. And it needs to happen. I don't need to go through all the details that data centers can do because you've all seen it. Every one of you.

Brad Bates.

Greetings. Dr. Murphy and Attorney Lucchese, I hope I have that right, welcome to Turlock. Okay, two guesses. Montana Park. Just curious, how is it coming? Went by the other day. Not a lot of activity. It's been on the drawing board now for over 10 years. We've had two launch ceremonies, funds committed, county level, state level, on-site update, et cetera. GOALS OF THE CITY COUNCIL, IN MY OPINION, SAFETY, ESSENTIAL SERVICES, QUALITY OF LIFE. THAT'S PART OF THAT COMPONENT. RECENTLY THERE WERE A LOT OF PRESS RELEASES, SOCIAL MEDIA AND ARTICLES ABOUT CHICK-FIL-A COMING. I THINK THAT'S GREAT. I REALLY DO. IT'S A FEATHER IN OUR PROVERBIAL CAP. IT WAS QUOTED THAT TURLOCK HAD BEEN FIGHTING FOR FIVE YEARS TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN. I'M NOT SURE WHO YOU WERE FIGHTING WITH. NONETHELESS, MY POINT IS, ISN'T A MULTI-USE REGIONAL PARK FOR THE HISTORICALLY UNDERSERVED WEST SIDE WORTH FIGHTING FOR? NOW, I KNOW THERE'S A LOT OF ACTIVITY GOING ON. THESE THINGS TAKE TIME. THERE'S STUFF TO FOLLOW, LEVELS OF BUREAUCRACY TO NAVIGATE, RESECURING THE FUNDS THAT WERE PROMISED, ET CETERA, ET CETERA. STAFF HAS A LOT ON THEIR PLATE, AND I'M SURE THAT DIRECTOR FISHER ALREADY HAS QUITE A SUBSTANTIAL FILE ON THIS PROJECT. Turlock has a history of doing things well. We have proven that with the soccer complex, Pedretti Park, the Columbia Pool. I hope that that continues. Now, pickleball is the fastest growing sport in the world, has been for several years, yes. I am a part of that group, and there's a large group of folks, ages, ethnicities, all parts of Turlock, who are really interested and hopeful in seeing that this project will occur sooner rather than later. AND I AGREE. A LOT OF OTHER CITIES IN OUR REGION ARE DOING SOME REALLY NICE PARK PROJECTS. YOU'RE PROBABLY AWARE OF THEM. MODESTO, SERIES, OAKDALE, LAS VENAS JUST DID A BEAUTIFUL PROJECT THAT THEY JUST OPENED ABOUT TWO WEEKS AGO. EVEN LITTLE RIVERBANK. I GOT A MINUTE LEFT. I'M GOING TO TELL YOU ABOUT NATHAN REAL QUICK. NATHAN IS 12 YEARS OLD. HE PLAYS SOMETIMES WITH OUR PICKLE BALL GROUP. NATHAN STARTED OUT AS A JUNIOR. HE IS NOW RANKED 14 in the nation in his age group. This kid is phenomenal. I call him Mongoose. That's my nickname. He is fearless. He is ferocious. He's quick. He can beat any pickleball player in Turlock, hands down. He's 12 years old. Now, I think Nathan, I believe he's in Livingston. I wouldn't try to pick an ethnicity, but if I did, I'm going to take a guess. I would say probably Vietnamese. Doesn't matter. If we had courts here in Turlock, Nathan would be playing here in Turlock. And I think there's a lot of Nathans out there on the west side or in the entire town. And there's a lot of people that are trying to encourage and mentor. It's a great opportunity. So when we talk about the kids, remember, time. Ten years. Ten years. When we talk about our kids and we talk about time, I'll just finish my sentence. When we talk about kids and time, remember, for 10 years now, there are some kids that were probably in their early ages, 5, 6, 7, 8. They're now gone. They're off with their lives. We missed an opportunity. So I would like to have you refocus on the park. Thank you.

We'll now move to our remote participants. If you're joining remotely and would like to speak on public participation, please raise your hand or now press star 9. We do have our first guest, which is Ramon Rodriguez. Ramon, go ahead and speak.

Good evening, everyone. Can anyone hear me?

We can hear you. IT is adjusting it now. Go ahead and continue, Ramon.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, City Council members, members of the public. I just recently got back from the Deso City Council meeting online on Zoom as well regarding AI data centers. It's happening everywhere. People all over the country. This is not a political issue. This is a common sense issue that having a data center, especially in Turlock, live monitoriums we need to put infinite pause in bands on ai data centers because honestly if we have a data center in turlock it's going to ruin our town it's going to cost our utility bills going to go way up because the amount of energy the amount of water and the amount of land that the AI data center's gonna use, it's gonna ruin the charm of a small town. And there's like a lot of evidence, a lot of data, everything. They have an AI data center, it's not gonna be a good fit for Turlock. So I implore you all that you use all the selling laws that you have on the books to tell the AI data centers that They should not build because we are living in a time where land is limited, water is running low. We are in the middle of a heat crisis. Climate change is happening all over the world. And you're seeing everywhere from Paterson to Modesto and all over California and the United States that the people are saying no to data centers, Turlock. As a town, we should not have an AI data center. We should focus on what's the most important part and to keep our town turlocked and tell the AI data centers to leave because we do not need it. We have farmland. We have everything. And if we build a data center, that's going to ruin the breadbasket that we call the Central Valley. That's what we hear from Mr. tree water so many times that farmland, to be in farmland, we should not have a data center because that's going to take all of our water. And if we do have a data center, how are we going to eat? How are we going to survive? How are we going to have water? And also, it's going to put health problems to everyone living near a data center. So people, take this seriously. We should not have a data center. It's happening all over the country. And I implore you all to say no to data center. Thank you.

Thank you. There's no additional remote speakers indicating they want to comment. Anyone from the audience that would like to speak during public participation, please come forward to the lectern.

Good evening. I'm Karina Medusa, and I am with the Turlock Public Library. As we're getting ready for school, I want to say we do have a program called A Thousand Books Before Kindergarten. And a lot of people get that shock reaction of how is that even achievable? It is. It's one of those, if you read three books a night, after a year, you've read 2,000 books. It could be read by anybody. Neighbors, grandparents, babysitters, mom, dads, it could be read the same book. As we all know, kids love that same book. You read night after night after night. That counts, too, every single time. Why is that important? Because books have words that you don't use in normal, everyday language. You're exposing kids to vocabulary. You're exposing kids to narrative skills. So they're able to learn what's gonna happen next. A start, a beginning, and the middle. They learn all of that from a book. And most people say, well, why is that important? There are two, there are one, anything else. Studies have shown if kids are read to before they even reach school, they learn how to read better, they learn how to pay attention, they learn how to listen, and they definitely learn how to sit. All key skills for kindergarten. And then one thing you think, oh, it's cute, it's adorable, but here's the thing. If they're not ready for kindergarten, they're not ready to learn, they're not ready to read, they become behind. And then the behind keeps following them up once they reach the third grade. And after third grade, they're no longer learning to read, they're reading to learn. And once they're behind, it follows them through adulthood. And that's one of the kind of key indicators of success at their jobs, high schools, And even criminal activities, what do they have in common? Their literacy skills. So to kind of encourage all of the young littles, cute ones, to make it a positive, happy event, we like to celebrate the fact that we want people to reach out to their kids. So we have 1,000 books before kindergarten. At the 500 mark, they get a little bag. At the 1,000 mark, they get a little medal that these kids absolutely love. They will wear that medal to bed. Grandparents, they show everybody. It's like a straight-up medal that says, I am a reader. They get a free book to kind of continue their journey. But in order to celebrate that, we are having the Minnesota Children's Museum come out to do two programs on September 4th at 11 a.m. and then at 2 o'clock. it is limited to 30 at each of these so we are requiring signups but it's completely free to register and also even if you can't make it you can still participate in the thousand books before kindergarten if they're in tk you know what they haven't reached kindergarten yet so they can still apply and that's all i've got so thank you thank you are there any additional members that would like to speak during public participation please come forward

Is getting rich and becoming wealthy the most important goal in a human's lifetime? Do we humans have a responsibility to our children, our grandchildren, and our descendants? As adults and parents, the most important duty and responsibility is to plan for the future of our children and descendants. This is because our children, our grandchildren, and our descendants are too young or haven't been born yet and can't plan for their own future. Just for your information, I want you to be aware that there is corruption here in Stanislaus County. Most recently, the corruption in Stanislaus County's StanCOG that's being prosecuted now, after the top people there embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars. The building industry will tell you there's plenty of farmland to grow food on. This is false. Recently, many farmers in the Central Valley have had to take their farmland out of production because of a lack of water. The building industry has not researched how little prime farmland is still left on the earth. Dave and the Building Industry Association do not seem to be concerned about the future of our children, grandchildren, and descendants. The worst part of it is some of these people may do corrupt things to make money. They may try to bribe you with money, with services for your home, or provide you with trips and other pleasures to get your vote. In some cases, they'll even try to blackmail you or intimidate you just to get their way. My last comment has already been covered, but I'm going to cover it myself. We must guard against the introduction of data centers into Stanislaus County. The people promoting these centers are not concerned that we live in an area with the best farmland on earth. Their concern is not what's best for our children and our grandchildren and our descendants, but how much money they can make. I'm not saying that there's not a need for more data centers. I'm saying this is not the place to build data centers, not in Stanislaus County, not in the city of Turlock, and we should have a policy against it in the city of Turlock. We must aggressively fight against the data centers here in Stanislaus County. Thank you.

Are there any other people that wish to make public participation? Go ahead.

On the subject of the data centers, it's not something that I am really well informed about, but I know a little bit. As I understand, there already is connection with Amazon here in our area, and I haven't looked into that, just heard that recently. But there seems to be an awful lot of concern in a lot of things that are said. that I don't know how we actually verify how valid those things are about water use, about energy. I've heard things about the water that goes back into the ground and it's, you know, now tainted and it's going to impact us. And so these are very concerning things. And we already have issues with our water, our groundwater and all that. And I would just really like to see the council take that to heart, hear what the people are saying. There's a lot of concern, way more than is here tonight, about that issue. And I would also like to say I'd like to not see data centers here. Thank you.

Is there anyone else from the public that would like to make a public comment? Seeing none, we have one more online that would like to make a public comment. Elle, if you can please go ahead and speak. Elle, can you go ahead and try again? You are unmuted. You may need to unmute yourself. We will wait a couple more. We'll wait about 10 more seconds. Okay, we're unable to hear Elle. I'm seeing no additional speakers at this time, Mayor.

Then I will close public comment and move on to city manager reports and updates. Dr. Murphy.

First things first, would the council appreciate an update from Dr. Fisher on Montana Park? Sounds great.

I'm just going to ask him to get back to Mr. Bates separately. Okay.

I think for the public, maybe we can, Chris, if you'll come up. And as he's coming up, not to waste any time, I just, I do want to make two comments. I think council's aware, maybe the public's not aware, I was proud to sit on the interview committee and I helped select the fire chief and the new fire marshal, the fire chief who's here and our new fire marshal who should be starting very soon. So I played a role in that and You know, one thing I will promise you, I will never run away from my military background. I served alongside some of America's greatest heroes and dedicated public servants. A military leader is not also a militant leader. I try to be a collaborative leader, mission-focused, and I would ask that gentleman to listen to Mr. Sheridan's own comments.

all right thank you um i am pleased to see since the last time we were here we talked about getting montana park out to bid you know by the end of july we are a little bit behind on that and some of the reason for that is we've had some public some really good public suggestions so making some of those changes and working through some of those things that are delayed and we've also had some really time sensitive projects that we delivered to the council and thank you for making those decisions. Once that bubble of ARPA funds gets through here, we should have a little bit more bandwidth, and we look to get it out to bid in the next few weeks. And the good news is we've been actively working on additional funding opportunities. In fact, just yesterday we submitted another grant application for community resilience and heat projects, looking to cover some of the shade structures. So, yeah, we're really excited about the project, and we are continuing to focus on it.

ALL RIGHT. AND NOW WE HAVE COUNCIL MEMBER COMMENTS, ANNOUNCEMENTS AND OR FUTURE ITEMS.

JUST A COUPLE COMMENTS. NATIONAL NIGHT OUT WAS LAST WEEK AND IT WAS GREAT. SO THANK YOU TO EVERYBODY WHO TOOK PART IN IT. I GOT TO GO TO A COUPLE EVENTS THAT WERE BEING HELD FOR THE FIRST TIME. SO IT'S A COMMUNITY EVENT THAT'S STILL GROWING. In the consent calendar tonight, one of the items that was approved were the portable bollards that I spoke about some time ago. So I want to thank staff for looking into that and for my colleagues for supporting that. I think that's going to be a great value add for public safety for pedestrians. And I look forward to seeing them out and about. And then finally, we've had several members of our fire department who have been deployed to the fires in Oregon and the nearby ones in Calaveras County. So, you know, they're busy. They're not watching this. But to everybody else who is coming back from that, you know, Turlock thanks you for your service here and being away from your family for days and days and days to take care of our region.

I, too, would like to shout out to the fire folks that have been deployed. I have some relatives that have been involved with fires in various states. I've heard some citizens be concerned that we're sending our people away and leaving our stations uncovered. And I can assure you, as I know the chief has set out, that that is not the case. We are still well protected here in town. So thank you.

Yeah, I'm going to start with data centers. Thanks. So folks, normally we don't comment on what gets posted on social media. But in this case, an elected official put a post out about a week ago concerning data. That elected official was school board trustee Mary Jackson. She posted up online that Turlock had a data center and that Turlock had two additional pending permits within city hall for two more data centers. And I think, Leslie, that's your comment, that Turlock's slotted for three. I want the public to know that that is an absolute false post. Turlock does not have a data center. Turlock does not have any permits pending for data centers. And I point this out, and I appreciate Dr. Murphy having the staff reply to the online post with the city logo. Because when elected officials post things, the public depends on that and relies on that and expects it to be true. Miltry Wyler, you and I agree on very little, sir. But I can tell you, we both agree that Turlock is a very precious breadbasket with the best farmland in the world. And I don't want data centers anywhere near it. So if we could all work to get it out of the county, that would be great. But I need the record clear for what Turlock has and what Turlock doesn't have because, Leslie, you're right. This is not a Republican or a Democrat issue. This is a humanity issue. Moving on, fire department. Thank you for those comments. I know, Chief Serpa, you weren't with us on our side of things back when the Caldor fires were going on. Now we have the Gann fire going. There are fire departments statewide sending resources. I did check in with Chief Evans. I was informed. that you are being very strategic, not only about making sure Turlock has plenty of coverage, but also monitoring the firefighter fatigue issue so that when resources are being sent out and we have additional firefighters here at home that are working overtime to cover those positions, that we don't run into firefighter fatigue like we did with the Caldor fire a few years back. So I was told that you were making very strategic moves and very much on top of that, and I just wanted to say thank you Great job. Keep it going. The last comment I have is about the gear Road corridor. That's coming You guys dr. Prevost the road doctor. We call him. He's also like our city treasurer a very humble guy The five of us all know that two years ago We were told that project was going to cost 25 million at the base level and he reworked that project and got it down to 20 million 280,000 and He didn't give himself credit for that. But you all know I'm one to give credit where it goes, regardless of what side it's on. So thank you.

Well, you guys pretty much covered most of the stuff. But National Night Out, I was able to go to Columbia Park, and there was a lot of people there. So great turnout. Chick-fil-A grand opening happened. Great turnout there as well, if you guys haven't went by there. IT'S ACTUALLY GOING PRETTY QUICKLY. I HAD SOME EMPLOYEES GO THERE AND THEY'RE LIKE, OH, IT'S GOING, THE FIRST DAY I THINK IT WAS LIKE AN HOUR WAIT OR SOMETHING, BUT NOW I THINK IT'S LESS THAN THAT. SO I JUST LOVE TO SEE TURLOCK EXPAND AND GROW ECONOMICALLY. SO.

THANK YOU. SO THE GREATEST NEWS ABOUT CHICK-FIL-A IS THAT IT IS AN ANCHOR. AND WHAT THAT MEANS IS THAT PEOPLE COME HERE FROM OTHER CITIES. WE, MANY OF THE Citizens in this town have gone to Manteca to get their Chick-fil-A on. So here comes the best part. This is the largest ever in the history of Chick-fil-A, the showing on the first day. We handled it. Turlock, California handled it. And kudos to all of our staff who were out there making sure everything was working. Even the captain on a day off was sitting there and kept moving the pylons to make sure that there weren't any issues. It turned out really well. And people can say, well, it's just a fast food. Okay. But it starts the whole thing for economic development. We create money and revenue so that we can provide our employees and they provide a better service. There's a whole structure to how this works. It's not just a sandwich. So I am super proud that Chick-fil-A is here and what our group did was phenomenal. And that's how you do economic development. It's not just one thing and we call it a day and the ribbon cutting and move on. This is how you bring large things here that are going to build our economy for us and not come into the streets down where we're living in our residential. I also want to just say that the advisory board for the fire department is not to decide if we're coming back per se. It is an advisory board to the chief. So now that he's in a position, he will do like our police chief and have a group of people who have sent on that. And as we progress through the issues of getting, what, 48 months until we get our ladder truck, all these things, how do we get there so that we get to the fact that we're back to Turlock Fire Department? So it's not. one equals the other. And we needed Chief Serpa to start this for us. So he'll be working on that shortly. And other than that, I think we have closed session.

Yes, I will begin by reading the items for closed session, and then you'll see me open up public comment for closed session. So if you want to speak, that is your time regarding those closed session items. So 13A is threat with public services, public facilities, critical infrastructure, controls critical infrastructure, information relating to cybersecurity, California Government Code 54957A1. And item B is conference with legal counsel, existing litigation proceedings. Pursuant to Government Code California 5495691, two cases, Turlock Gospel Mission versus the City of Turlock, and people of the State of California versus the City of Turlock. At this time, if you would like to make any comments, we'll start with members of the public sitting live. Seeing none, we'll move to our virtual. If anyone on the virtual would like to speak regarding those two closed session items, please unmute yourself or press star 6.

adjourn to our closed session and come out and report should there be anything. Thank you. We're live. All right. There's nothing to report out, and we are adjourned.