City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, I'm going to call this meeting to order, and if you will lead us in our pledge, just say, ready, begin, okay? Whenever you're ready.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for

So we're having the melon carnival coming up, and we have a bunch of young ladies that are going to be in a contest. So now you have a little bit of appetite for what's going on out there, and I hope everybody wants to participate. So from that point, let's start with a roll call for declarations of conflict of interest and being present.

Councilmember Abram. Here and none. Councilmember Bixle.

Here and none.

Vice Mayor Moniz. Here and none. Councilmember Phillips. Here and none. Mayor Bibler.

Here and none. All right. Approval of agenda as posted or amended. So moved. Second. Motion is second. Call the roll, please.

Councilmember Abram. Yes. Councilmember Bixle. Yes. Vice Mayor Moniz. Yes. Councilmember Phillips.

Yes. Mayor Bibler. Yes. Passes on a 5-0. All right. We have Turlock Partnership Incident Program, and I believe that Mr. Sims is ready. Tell us something good.

Good evening, Mayor, council members, city staff, and members of the public. Tonight, we are celebrating another new Turlock business that has completed the steps in the Turlock Partnership Incentive Program, Inspire and Bloom LLC, located at 2101 Gear Road, Suite 101A. They're a family-built organization providing applied behavior analysis therapy and support to children with autism and developmental needs, helping children build communication, social, and everyday life skills. Beyond supporting local families, Inspire and Bloom is committed to our community by hiring locally, mentoring students with institutions like Stanislaus State, and creating sustainable ABA career opportunities right here in the Central Valley. We wish this new business continued success and look forward to watching them thrive in our community. At this time, I'd like to invite Mayor Bublak, city council members, city manager, and the business owners, Mr. Mike Morgan and Olivia Morgan, forward for a special check presentation.

It's childproof, Jessica.

Just like that. You got money for us too?

Good evening mayor and council on behalf of the transit team. I want to give you a brief update on what we've been up to in July We've been pretty busy with a lot of different activities a lot of good stuff and First, I wanted to speak about our Free Rides in July program. This is something we've been doing for quite a few years now, partnering with our regional partners at Standard RTA and most recently Merced to offer free rides throughout the region, which has been great. So here you can see our ridership numbers. It's a 14.2% increase of ridership overall compared to the same period last year, which is great. If you look at the details there, you can see the large portion of that was our on-demand service. So as word gets out about that, I think more and more folks are using that. A lot of folks used that to get to the fair, which was great. And so, again, the purpose with this is increased ridership. It's achieving that purpose. Every year we do this, we're seeing more and more riders, which is great. This is largely funded by a grant through the state called LCTOP. Unfortunately, LC Top funding is being cut, and so we aren't going to be able to do these free ride promotions throughout the year like we used to. We used to have multiple periods. Now it's just going to be limited to July. If things change, we'll increase it back again, but for now it'll still be July. Received well by the community. Hearing a lot of good things. Obviously, the fair is a big part of that promotion. just got through talking about all of july now we're focusing on the fair and we provided a lot of expanded and extended service during the fair which was july 10th through the 19th and that service was running buses to later running more buses running the shuttle and the the main difference between this year and last year is that prior we would have a physical presence inside the fairgrounds and this year we changed it up a bit we decided to focus our efforts at the transit center itself That seemed to work really well. We invested a lot more effort and time into the folks that were using the service to get to the transit center to ride the shuttle. It started with our Gateway to the Fair kickoff event, which was great. We had lots of regional transportation partners there with us. We had the recreation department there with some food and some games and just was received really well by the community. And so radio advertising was another big change you may have noticed. In prior years, the transit center parking lot would maybe be 50% full at the most. Well, it was packed pretty much every night of the fair this year. And so a lot of people are hearing about the shuttle, hearing about our service, and again, lots of good things coming from that. shuttle itself was running every five to ten minutes we saw you know over 7 400 total trips provided which is a 72 increase over the prior year pretty substantial we handed out over 3 600 bottles of cold water which was 111 increase so for give you an idea we order a large pallet of water that's what we typically go through we went more than two pallets of water this year and so it was pretty substantial we're going to increase that order next year But again, radio advertising played a huge role, lots of strong positive feedback from riders, largely non-transit riders too. That's the beauty of this system is we're investing in typically non-transit riders. And so we're breaking down some of those stigmas that folks have about transit in the community. So it just helps us achieve our goals. Going past the fair, we also sponsored a free swim day at Columbia Pool, which was great. So on July 30th, everybody could come in for free. And so 38 adults and 56 youth were able to take advantage of that. We were there with our staff. Buzz was there. He did not get in the pool, but he was there. But had a great time. Lots of interactions with folks that were learning about the service. Given that that particular segment of the city is a disadvantaged area Transit is a really important feature for a lot of households in that area And so they were able to learn about services that are available to them often for free a lot of times We're still letting people know kids ride free, you know, so that they're not aware of this We're able to do that. We had a great time there and last but not least Our short-range transit plan. So the last meeting here, we let you know about some upcoming community input sessions. And so we actually had those. We had our pop-up events throughout Turlock. We had two community workshops, one at the library and one at the transit center. We had 10 or 11 folks that showed up for that, provided a lot of good feedback. few notes for the council and the community to know. The community is generally pretty happy with the transit service that they have, so we were hearing that loud and clear. We also heard loud and clear Sunday service. That's probably the most common request that we're getting is for some version of Sunday service, whether that's fixed route, on-demand, Something just to be able to get around on Sundays whether that's to church whether that's to Amtrak Just various places in our community So we're hearing that loud and clear and then also some other general service changes and some bus stop improvements many improvements like shelters and benches and things like that so a lot of good stuff and where we're at in that plan right now we're at the end of phase two so we're kind of wrapping up the community feedback portion by all means if you have feedback feel free to continue to send that in but we're kind of reaching the end of this phase moving into the next phase which is service evaluation where we crunch all the data look at all the numbers and eventually get to some recommendations back to the community and to the council and say This is what we're hearing. This is what we understand. Here's our budget. Here's what we can provide. Here's our recommendations. What do you all think about that? So that's where we're at. So we've been pretty busy during July. I wanted to give you that update and happy to answer any questions you may have.

Dr. Murphy and I joined there. It was pretty nice. Yeah. And I drank at least two of those waters.

There you go.

Any questions?

No, thanks. Great.

Thank you, Mr. York. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Okay. We have a sidewalk program. Director Fischer.

Good evening Council Members, Mayor. Thanks for having me tonight. I wanted to bring you a brief update on our sidewalk program. Last time we talked about this was in January. City and state law has long placed responsibility of the sidewalks on the property of the adjacent property owners. In December of 2025, we had brought a financial assistance program that was primarily funded through Measure L, which gave some assistance to residents that needed to repair their sidewalks or mitigate some of the tripping hazards. The program involves a city contractor performing the work at prevailing wage, And then the resident of the city would pay for that, and the resident would then reimburse that portion of the cost. And in January, we brought the finalized program to the municipal code for the updates. Overall process generally takes three to four months from the initial notice of the defect to a city-initiated repair. Obviously, if the residents want to repair that on their own, they can do that, and they can do that within their time frame, and we encourage them to do that if they choose to do so. We conduct a lot of public outreach. We put utility mailers. We do social media. We're actually physically going out to the property and talking to the property owners, and we're following up with phone calls just to make sure that we get all of the education opportunity that we can and people who are understanding of the program and what the benefits are. When we do go out to the property, once we have notification of it, we'll paint it and we'll put the appropriate signage and that really reduces the risk of tripping hazards because it makes it more obvious. And then we find that some of the smaller lifts in the sidewalks can create some of the bigger problems because they're not as blatantly obvious as some of the bigger lifts. Once we do that, we begin notifying the property owners of their obligation to repair. City does, we do everything we can to make sure that we're properly explaining to the owners what the program is, who's responsible for it and why it's important. We also encourage them to, when they get an encroachment permit, we'll cover that as well. So even if they choose to repair the stuff on their own, we're going to initiate the encroachment permit for them and give them financial assistance on that. So the city's typically going to send five notices, a combination of first class and certified letters. If the property owner remains non-responsive through this process, the city will initiate the repair. And after the repair, the city begins the cost recovery process, which ultimately ends up on sending a bill to the property owner. And ultimately, if it's not paid, we will put it on the tax roll as a form of a lien. Again, this is just a visual representation of the three- to four-month process. The mailing notices and the owner outreach, the phone calls, that is the majority of the process, and really the city-initiated repairs, the smallest portion of that usually takes four weeks to get it done once we decide that we'll make the repairs. A COUPLE OF STATS ON IT. THE TOTAL NUMBER OF PROPERTIES CITY-OWNED AND NON-CITY-OWNED INSPECTED IN 2026 HAVE BEEN 187. THE NUMBER OF APPLICANTS THAT HAVE ROLLED IN OUR SIDEWALK REPAIR ASSISTANCE PROGRAM ARE 54. WE'VE MADE 29 COMPLETED REPAIRS. WE HAVE 15 MORE THAT ARE OUT ONGOING WITH THE CONTRACTOR CURRENTLY. WE HAVE 10 MORE ON DECK. There have been some repairs that have not completed through our sidewalk assistance program. There's 25 of those, and so the total repair is about 54. And these range anywhere from a few hundred dollars to several thousand, up to, in some cases, $10,000, depending on large properties and business owners and stuff. LOOKING AT BUDGETS, THE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM BEGAN IN SPRING OF THE PRIOR FISCAL YEAR. WE DIDN'T BUDGET A WHOLE BUNCH OF MONEY, BUT DURING THE NEW FISCAL YEAR WE DID. SO THERE'S APPROXIMATELY 36,000 ASSISTANCE HAS BEEN OR IS EXPECTED TO BE PROVIDED THIS YEAR SO FAR. SO WE HAVE ABOUT $263,000 REMAINING AVAILABLE FOR THE PROGRAM BUDGET. We're only about two months into this fiscal year, so there's plenty of funding left. If we do run into a case where it's wildly successful and we need more money, we'll be back up here asking for some more. I want to focus on a couple or bring notice to the city locations. We have been busy. We've had a combination of staff making repairs. I know they made numerous repairs at Pedretti Park not that long ago. But other city locations, Broadway, Crane, Rotary, Four Seasons, Curt Andre Parks, making sure those parks are safe for our children and anyone that wants to walk through there because they're a big part of our community and we recognize the importance of those. We have had some challenges. INSPECTION CAPACITY HAS BEEN LIMITED. WE HAVE A LOT OF ON-DEPTH, SO FAR WE HAVE 187 INSPECTIONS. SAME INSPECTORS REPORTING THE SIDEWALK PROGRAM, THEY'RE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CAPITAL WORK IN THE CITY, THE UTILITY WORK, SUCH AS LOOKING AT RACE ENCRUSHMENT PERMITS AND OTHER DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS AND ANY OTHER CONSTRUCTION THAT'S OPERATING THROUGH THE CITY. Some property owners have been non-responsive or disagree with our responsibility to make repairs, and staff is spending a significant amount of time conducting outreach and explaining both obligations and assistance opportunities. So it's approximately 120 properties that are currently in the compliance program at this point. So as we're working through this, we started off kind of slow, just kind of get the program feel out. make any changes that we needed to do, and yet now we're at the point where we're ramping up. So in conclusion, staff will continue to outreach inspections and compliance efforts. We'll continue to make sure that we have adequate inspection capacity and timely property owner response and contractor availability. That's one of our key things is keeping this rolling, making sure that we're keeping our contractors happy, and we're going through and making meaningful repairs where we're grouping them in areas where it makes the most sense for everybody. Any substantive program changes at this point, we would bring this back to the council. At this point, we feel that the program is successful. But if there's any suggestions at all, we would definitely listen to them, but we would need to bring it back to the council. Currently, participation appears generally within our expectations, what we expected, and I think that we're just a little bit higher than we expected on the sidewalk repair assistance program, meaning I think that there's a good value to it. We're finding that the smaller repairs are generally very inexpensive for the property owners in some cases as low as $60 for their portion. And I would be happy to answer any questions that you may have on it.

Is it true that Turlock has one of the better methodologies for sidewalks?

Yes, it is true. We've actually received several inquiries from neighboring cities. They're looking at our program, and we've also looked at a couple other programs and been comparing them. I think that we really have one of the better programs that is out there right now. I know that there's other cities that are really close to us right now that are going through similar issues, and they're struggling with it. We'd be happy to help them.

Awesome. Anybody? All right, stay there because we have to give you a... Hitting the traffic.

I think so. Okay.

Okay, so Mr. Fisher, Director Fisher, is going to be leaving us, but not without knowing that he still lives here and his heart will still be here and that he's always welcome to come back. But he got a better job, he can tell you, not me. Just more money. So in honor of the distinguished service of Municipal Services Director, SRWA General Manager, Christopher J. Fisher. So Chris began his service in the City of Turlock on October 16th, 2023. During his tenure, he helped guide the concluding stages of the Regional Surface Water Supply Project and the delivery of treated surface water to Turlock and Ceres, a project that received the Design-Build Institution of America's National Award of Merit. Pretty big deal. Then Chris advanced difficult but necessary initiatives, including financially sustainable and equitable sewer rates and sidewalk compliance programs, as we just heard. He supported the city's roads program through interdepartmental coordination and staff support and oversaw completion of the Columbia Pool Improvement Project. You've barely been here. This is a lot. In the summer of 2026, Chris temporarily served in the role of city manager during a leadership vacancy, providing continuity and a steady leadership to city operations. Guided by the principles of safety, quality, and community, your three pillars, Chris inspired those around him to work smarter and more efficiently while maintaining the higher standards of ethics, professionalism, and public service. So on behalf of the city council, myself, our entire team, and our city, we wish you well and hope that you come back soon. But I'd love to get a picture with all of us because you're part of the team. Is that all right? Do you want to say something?

I do. This wasn't a decision that was made easily. You guys have been incredibly supportive throughout and have a great staff. They're wonderful people and they will take care of this. My work isn't done here. You know, I expect to be back here in the future because this is my hometown and this is where I belong. And I'm extremely proud of the work we've done. And JJ, I mean, I'm sorry, Dr. Murphy, you know, I'm just getting to know you. But, you know, like this is the first time and I see smiles in the hall and just people jumping around. So, like, I feel like, you know, like there was a lot to learn, you know, from you. But I hope we can stay in touch and we can definitely, you know, work together in the future.

One, two, three.

So the next one will not take place today because, uh, Martine is sick and, uh, we asked if he wanted, if he wanted to do this or if he was sick and he, he is in fact sick. So he, he would like to do it another time. So we'll probably the next meeting we'll, we'll correlate with him. He, he actually will be, uh, I think September 1st is his last day or something. Is that right? That sounds about right. He told me when I was, uh, found him in Ghirardelli in San Francisco months and months ago, he's like, I'm, I'm leaving. I'm like, no. So 30-some years, he's entitled. But our next person is the police captain, Miguel Pacheco. Come on up. Is it something in the water, Chris? What's happening? Why are these people leaving? So... We have Captain Miguel Pacheco here, who was hired as police officer on April 16th of 2000, beginning more than 26 years of dedicated service to the city marked by courage, integrity, and professionalism. Miguel advanced from police officer through the ranks of corporal, sergeant, lieutenant, and captain, reflecting his enduring commitment to the city, proven leadership, and continued pursuit of excellence. During his distinguished career, Captain Pacheco served on the SWAT team and was entrusted to lead the police department on several occasions as interim and acting police chief. As police captain, he provided steady leadership, oversaw critical public safety operations, supported and mentored fellow officers, and worked with city officials and community partners to meet the needs of residents. It doesn't say on here, but you did. FBI also started running again. That was awesome. So, Miguel, sound judgment and dedication and commitment to community-oriented policing have strengthened the police department, advanced public safety, and helped build trust throughout our community. So, on behalf of myself, our entire council, and our community, we thank you for so many years that you've given to our city and the safeness that we feel because of you and your leadership. So, thank you, Miguel.

Yeah, just super, super quick to my wife. It's been a journey, but we made it, right? I'm retiring, so most of my sanity is still here, so we're doing pretty good. To my mom, who took me to Explorer meetings when I was a kid, thank you. Family came in. To my kids, thank you for all the bad days they came home and didn't hear me talk about it. I won't have that anymore. i made a lot of requests to council in my years here thank you for all the support usually it was around money and stuff we were trying to get and you were very supportive so thank you uh i think it's appropriate to say one thing before i leave uh one last request and it's really for the city of turlock please keep the officers in mind who are still doing the job uh admittedly i've rode a desk for several years but um cops are my heroes just straight up they are If you can imagine the worst day in your life, our officers do that every day of every shift that they work. They meet people in trauma, dangerous, emotional stuff they go through. So to the city council for your support of frontline staff, I do thank you. Turlock's very special. To the community out there, you've got good cops working here. Don't believe everything you see in the paper. It's a special place. I came from Sacramento. I thought I'd be here a year. We made a life out of here. I raised my kids and my beautiful wife. We laid roots here at Sherlock Special. Please keep the cops in your prayers. That's all I ask, but thank you.

Wait until the KMA point. That's the hardest part, huh? All right. On to consent calendar. At this time, we will open the public comment on the consent calendar. This is the opportunity to comment on any item on the consent calendar or to request 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, and the city clerk will now facilitate that public comment.

All right. We will, for consent item, we'll begin with, we have zero speaker cards, so we'll go to our online remote speakers. If anyone online would like to speak, this is your time to raise your hand or press star nine to indicate so. Seeing none, we'll go back to in-person. If there's anyone in-person that would like to speak regarding the consent calendar, please come forward to the lectern. Seeing none, Mayor.

Okay. At this time, public comment is now closed.

Move to approve consent calendar as written.

Second. The motion is second. Will you call the roll, please?

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

Yes. Passes on a 5-0. There are no final readings. Public hearings. We have 8A authorizing the submittal of PLHA plan amendment for 2020 allocation year. Money man.

you honorable mayor council members i have before you today is a request for an amendment to the permanent local housing allocation plan for the program year of 2020. so the recommended action before you is really just to amend that the program year of 2020 to adjust what was submitted prior to for the 80 factor of area income um which we call ami from 80 to 120 percent Really what this does is realign all the other applications that we have in place and how we're utilizing the AMI factor for first-time homebuyer programs. So this program came into place back in 2017 for some legislation that moved forward. Basically what they did is establish a fee for recording real estate augmentation for $75. That was carved out. Established this program overall. The program was meant to assist with housing needs. Current issue, as we just stated, really, again, reamending what was done in 2020 to match for our current program years and how we're doing the AMI factor of 80%. Why this is important, because we have an 80% factor for some of our other programs where the PLHA is a state program which actually has a little more flexibility where we can increase that number and take on other applications where we couldn't do in other program funding sources. Just to give you an overall idea of what we've done so far with these fundings, We've rehabilitated a fourplex, one fourplex, three single-family homes, and we've also done two first-time home buyer programs. The fiscal impact of this action is none, really just staff time, really submitting the application and what the action we're doing today. Next steps overall is to execute the resolution and the amendments. Again, that is before you within your packet overall today. Again, this is really just amending the overall program itself to be in line with the rest of the fiscal years and how they line up. We actually do have the first-time homebuyer in place, ready to go, as soon as this amendment is done. So we'll submit that resolution application. It's about 30 days to move forward, and then we can get that applicant moving forward. Is there any questions?

Questions for Director? Okay. At this time, I will open the public comment and ask the City Clerk to facilitate the public comment. Each of you will have three minutes.

We have no blue cards for this item. If anyone joining remotely would like to speak regarding this item, please raise your hand or press star nine. No one online is indicating. If anyone in person would like to speak regarding this item, please come forward to the left turn. Seeing none, Mayor.

All right. I will close public comment at this time.

Move to approve 80. Second.

Motion is second. Will you call the roll, please?

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

Yes. Thank you. Council Member 5-0. Thank you, Director. All right. The next item is a second reading of the Ordinance Amendment for our General Plan Amendment of 2026. Ms. Quintero. Yes.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, council members of the public. The item before you tonight is the housing element and the associated general plan amendments, ordinance updates, and rezone actions. This item was introduced at the last city council meeting, and tonight is the public hearing and second reading of the item. And I'm available and happy to answer any questions if there are. Questions for us?

Okay, no questions. All right, so at this time, I will open it to the public and ask the clerk to facilitate the public comment.

We have no blue cards for this item. If anyone is joining remotely that would like to speak regarding this item, please either raise your hand or press star 9. Seeing none, Mayor, moving back to in-person. Would anyone in-person like to speak regarding this item? Please come forward, Elector. Thank you.

Good evening, Council, staff, community members, Milt, Treeweiler. Our Turlock Planning Department, along with a consultant, have been working on this Turlock housing element for over two years now. On July 18th, 2024, at the Planning Commission meeting, there was a Turlock housing element study to prepare for the housing element. A notice of the city with the first public review period for the draft of housing element ran from October 1st, or October 2nd to November 1st, 2024. two years ago, almost two years ago. 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 addresses many of the statutory requirements, some further revisions are necessary to substantially comply with the state's housing element law. After that, Multiple plans were submitted to the state for review, and they were all turned down by the state. It seems to me that our planning staff and consultant were not allowed to make or present the solutions to the issues of not complying to the state because possibly from pressure of the many city managers we had during that period of time, because the city managers are at-will employees and they're controlled by our current city of Turlock elected officials, But now, once again, we're presenting this to the state. So we will once again find out if the planning department and the consultants were allowed to do their jobs. Because if they have been, this will go through. Thank you.

Is there anyone further that would like to speak? Ron Bredegar?

JUST SOME GENERAL COMMENTS. I'VE LOOKED THROUGH A LITTLE BIT OF THE DOCUMENT. IT'S A LONG DOCUMENT WITH A LOT IN IT. IT'S GOT SOME FASCINATING INFORMATION IN IT. IT REALLY DOES. I'VE MADE A GOOD NUMBER OF POSTS ABOUT THAT. I JUST BASICALLY WANTED TO THANK KATIE AND EVERYBODY ELSE WHO WORKED ON IT. I MEAN, IT'S A VERY DETAILED, VERY INVOLVED DOCUMENT. I KNOW IT'S BEEN A LONG PROCESS, BUT I CAN'T IMAGINE HOW MUCH TIME AND EFFORT THEY HAD TO PUT INTO IT. SO I JUST WANTED TO SAY THANK YOU.

ARE THERE ANY FURTHER SPEAKERS REGARDING THIS ITEM? SEEING NONE, MAYOR.

ALL RIGHT. CLOSING POINT OF COMMENT.

MOTION TO APPROVE THE RESOLUTION AND BOTH ORDINANCES CONTAINED WITHIN ITEM 8B. SECOND.

WE HAVE A MOTION AND A SECOND. CAN YOU CALL THE ROLL, PLEASE?

COUNCILMEMBER ABRAMS. YES. COUNCILMEMBER BIXEL. YES. VICE MAYOR MONET. YES. COUNCILMEMBER PHILLIPS. YES. MAYOR BUBLAK.

YES. COUNCILMEMBER 50. THANK YOU, EVERYONE. ALL RIGHT. 9A IS ACCEPTING THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIC IMPLEMENTATION PLAN. MR. SIMMS, GOT A LOT GOING ON TODAY.

Good evening, Mayor, Council members, city staff, and members of the public. Before you tonight is the proposed Economic Development Strategic Plan Implementation Plan for 2026 through 2029. As Council will recall, on March 10, 2026, Council adopted the updated Economic Development Strategic Plan prepared by COSMONT, establishing nine strategic priorities to focus on in economic development. The implementation plan takes those priorities, turns them into specific action items, timelines, and performance metrics so we can track our progress as we regularly report back to Council. The plan is organized into three phases over three years. Phase one is foundation and business engagement. Phase two is investment and development activation. Phase three is long-term growth and destination development. Now, these phases are not firm boundaries. Economic development doesn't always happen according to a predetermined schedule. Markets change, opportunities arise, and we have to be nimble. Something identified for year three may make sense to pursue in year one. Several activities are also reoccurring strategies that will continue throughout all three years, including business retention, attraction developer engagement, marketing, and business assistance. We look at this implementation plan much like a playbook as a coach will carry on the field. We have a game plan. We know where we want to go and what we want to do, but we also have to read what's happening in front of us and adjust the play when conditions change. So this plan is, I just want to say, it's very collaborative. It's cross-departmental effort, and a great example is the Chick-fil-A grand opening. That project required significant involvement from development services, engineering, municipal services, fire, police, city administration, and others working together to get that project across the finish line. So great job to Adrienne and her team, Chris and his team, city administration, all staff involved. And we received tremendous feedback. Chick-fil-A's opening team told us Turlock was their most business friendly experience, and that Turlock's Chick-fil-A grand opening day was the highest performing of all Chick-fil-A grand openings in the US. So being able to receive that type of feedback from a new business comes from leadership, coordination, and city staff working together to get a project to yes. And as the mayor had said, this isn't just about Chick-fil-A, it's about using that success as a springboard for additional investment, jobs, sales tax revenue that supports services for our community. Tonight, rather than going in depth on every action item in the plan, there's about 35 to 40, I want to highlight a few examples of what's already happening and why it's happening. One action item focuses on business retention and expansion. Our city manager is joining economic development on meetings with some of our largest employers and stakeholders to better understand challenges, successes, and opportunities for growth. In one recent meeting, we learned that a large employer has an opportunity for a 10,000 square foot expansion that could add production lines and additional jobs in Turlock. This organization has a corporate office out of state and is competing to have an additional investment at their Turlock facility. And being able to have a development incentive program like the Turlock Development Incentive Program is an added benefit that we can add to help that large employer win that job. These incentive programs are prime examples of how it will bring wins to us. This will help attract projects in WISP and throughout Turlock. We met with another business that happens to be opening soon that needed assistance with their project, and through collaboration, we coordinated a team meeting to help that business find a path forward. This is an example of business concierge priority that is called out in this implementation plan. Instead of businesses being stuck or not understanding a path forward, acting as a business concierge will assist our economic development efforts going forward. Another major focus is business attraction, and we're going all in on this one. The City Manager and I are committed to targeting recruitment meetings and conferences to prospective businesses outside of California to put Turlock in front of them. We've already had several discussions with high-performing businesses considering Turlock for a location. We're speaking with large employers, potential sports users, and family entertainment venues. Sports and entertainment are massive economic drivers for communities, a magnet that pulls outside dollars and assists other local businesses such as hotels and shopping. The incentive program will help us get those business attraction wins as well. We're also meeting and strengthening partnerships with organizations in our community, including the Turlock Chamber, Stanislaus Latino Chamber, Beam Circular, Opportunity Stanislaus, and Volt Institute. And we're increasing engagement with developers, property owners, and commercial real estate brokers. We want to hear what's working, what isn't, and where we can move faster. The city manager and I have the developer roundtable scheduled for early September to continue that conversation with our local realtors and developers. And finally, branding, communication, and marketing are important components of economic development. Our economic development and communications team continues to do a great job highlighting Turlock businesses, community events, and opportunities. And we're seeing strong engagement across all our social media platforms. We're seeing strong participation in the Turlock Partnership Incentive Program with economic development, planning, and building staff working together to promote that program as businesses come to the counter. It's really helping us get more wins for that program. Looking ahead, we're going to market Turlock more aggressively. We're going to think outside the box. Working with our city manager, our PIO, and communications staff, we're exploring targeted advertising, commercial real estate and development publications, geofencing campaigns, and other strategies to put Turlock in front of the businesses, developers, and investors, maybe even advertisements in Bay Area sports team publications. There's a lot of momentum around economic development at Turlock right now. With our new city manager's economic development experience, energy, and how we get to yes philosophy, I believe we have an opportunity to build on that momentum and take our efforts to another level. And that philosophy aligns with this implementation plan. We want Turlock to compete for investment, respond when opportunities arise, work collaboratively to solve problems, and get projects across the finish line. This implementation plan gives us the playbook. Our job now is to execute, measure our results, remain flexible, and continue working together as one city team to bring investment, businesses, jobs, and economic opportunity to Turlock. So with that, that kind of concludes my presentation. If there's further questions, we can go into that. But I kind of wanted to give you guys a high-level overview of what's going on and why it's happening and the momentum that we're building.

Questions for Mr. Simms?

Great presentation. Thank you.

Very good. Okay. At this time, we'll open it to the public and ask the clerk to add a line.

Yes. So we have no blue cards for this item. If anyone joining remotely would like to speak, please raise your hand or press star 9 to indicate so. Seeing none, if anyone in person would like to speak regarding this item, please come forward to the lectern. Seeing none, Mayor.

Okay, we're going to close public comment, but John Madden was on this somehow, like the X's and O's all over the place.

It's a playbook. We're ready to move.

Okay.

If we've got to call an audible, we will.

So, you know, no particular questions, but, you know, thank you for really highlighting kind of where we're at, what we're doing. You know, in the implementation plan, like you said, I think there's, what, 35 different items. And, you know, back in March when we were presented with sort of the overarching plan, I think it was, I can speak for everybody that it was important to have, like, here's the order of what we're going to do. And, you know, one thing that I'm not seeing in the plan that I would have wanted to see a little bit more is sort of, like, maybe a little bit more specific timelines on, like, you know, a lot of things are listed as ongoing or in progress. And, you know, having some specific milestones so we can, come back at that date and say, where are we at? And a little bit more of the how, like phase three, year three, is we're going to support housing development. But I would like to see whatever comes through all of this collaboration and, you know, really talking through departments, I want to see the specific policies come forth to us so we can really talk about how we can support what is out there and what's needed in the community.

Yes, sir.

So I just want to say economic development will no longer be just a department goal. I mean, we're all going to work towards it if you look at all the directors over there. And this, the council, the community, we are all going to be part of this team. This is not going to be driven by one person, one branch. We all got to roll up our sleeves and do this. So to your point, And I think Anthony said it good in the beginning. Economic development has to be flexible because today's opportunity may be gone, but we always have to be striving for tomorrow and how to build what this council and this community needs. We don't have to chase every bright light out there. We have to pick what's right for Turlock, and our team is going to be behind that.

With that, I'll move to approve this item. Second.

For the motion and second, I'll call the roll.

Council Member Abram. Yes. Council Member Bixle.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Moniz. Yes. Council Member Phillips. Yes. Mayor Biblet.

Yes. Pass on 5-0. Thank you, Mr. Sims. All right. The next one is approving the agreement with St. Francis Electric for traffic signal and street light prevention, maintenance, and repair services for five years. Mr. Fisher.

Back again. Already? Too soon?

No. No, no.

This item tonight before you is requesting a five-year agreement with St. Francis Electric for traffic signal and streetlight maintenance repair services in the amount not to exceed $2.5 million. JUST A LITTLE BIT OF BACKGROUND, THE CITY MAINTAINS ABOUT 102 TRAFFIC SIGNALS IN RAPID FLASHING BEACON LOCATIONS ALONG WITH ASSOCIATED CONTROLLERS, DETECTION SYSTEMS, BATTERY BACKUPS, PEDESTRIAN EQUIPMENT, STREET LIGHT INFRASTRUCTURE. THESE ARE ALL CRITICAL COMPONENTS OF OUR TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM AND HOPEFULLY WE CAN DEMONSTRATE TONIGHT WHAT WE'VE DONE WITH THE PREVIOUS CONTRACT AND and get you swayed to approve this one. So under our current contract, we've been able to do more than simply just respond to when a signal has a problem. We've really taken a proactive approach on our maintenance. We've looked at our entire system. We've looked at all of our inspection records, and we've prioritized all of the suggestions or the information. We've replaced all of the aging battery backup systems so when our power goes out and our street lights aren't dark, Failed detection loops, that means that when you pull up to a new stage, it detects the cars in there and it changes the light appropriately and it prioritizes those things. Failed, you won't necessarily know. You're just going to wait a little bit longer. For instance, when I first started here in the city of Turlock, my distance from my house to church on Sunday was 17 minutes. It's now 12. So there's a big improvement. So you're speeding? No. Sorry.

Just having to ask, sir.

So, you know, it's a combination of all the little things, you know, and then, you know, and we got far enough ahead on the... the deferred maintenance so we can start making improvements for safety and visibility. So you see our new street signs, you know, replacing the ones that have been damaged by wind many decades ago where you can't, you know, unfadeable, and then putting, you know, the signal tape around there and repainting so they really stand out, right? And, like, that really helps some of the newer vehicles that have detection, you know, and be more safer. Now, the way I look at it is... you know if we present one injury accident at one intersection like the money's well spent i mean it's just it's absolutely incredible i mean not only from you know people having a bad day to you know to all the time innovation spending on mitigating some of those things for this rfp we went out and we went out for competitive bid process um ALL THE PROPOSALS WERE EVALUATED ON QUALIFICATION, STAFFING, METHODOLOGY, EMERGENCY RESPONSE CAPABILITY, PRICING, AND REFERENCES. AND FOLLOWING THAT, ST. FRANCIS SIMPLY WAS JUST THE BEST ONE. SO UNDER THE NEW PROPOSED AGREEMENT, SORRY, STICKY FINGERS, WE MADE SOME CHANGES TO THE SCOPE. PREVIOUSLY IT WAS MORE JUST RESPONDING AND GOING OUT AND FIXING THINGS. WE MADE SOME CHANGES TO INCLUDE any changes that we want to make to make safety improvements. So if we want to change, for instance, in front of the, you know, the junior high and put a countdown signal heads for pedestrians, we can do that with this new contract, you know, and we could use, utilize those existing assets in other locations that maybe don't need that. Um, So this current contract is basically the same contract now. If you remember when I first started back in 2022, we came back to the council and I asked for more money because I looked at that in our system and I said, this simply isn't enough for what we want to do. When we looked at it and we said, okay, I think this is the amount of work that we can do given our budget year. So we proved that was accurate. We made a lot of improvements and we're looking for the next phase of making this better. So OBVIOUSLY, THE ACTUAL EXPENDITURES WILL VARY. THIS IS A NOT-TO-OXCEED AMOUNT IF WE FIND A PLACE WHERE, YOU KNOW, WE'RE HAVING A MEETING, WE WON'T SPEND THE MONEY, BUT THIS IS ALL FUNDED THROUGH Fund 219, which is contract services signalization. We recommend that you approve this agreement. And really, the goal for me is just to have a safe, reliable system that keeps traffic moving and it makes efficiency, because it makes all of our lives better. And again, it's so hard to explain the things that we fix that we don't notice, but we only notice when we're sitting there waiting at a light because it doesn't go. So I'd be happy to answer any questions, yeah.

It's true. The ants were eating some of the...

Oh yeah, Regis. That's a thing, huh? I didn't believe it. I had to go out there and look at it myself. But yeah, it was absolutely true.

So the ants eat like the...

They ate the insulation off the wiring, which caused intermittent shorts during fog events. Yeah.

Who knew? Yeah. Who knew? Question for Director. Okay. For that, then I will open the public comment and ask the City Clerk to facilitate the public comment.

We have no booths for your cards. If anyone joining remotely would like to speak, please raise your hand or press star 9 to indicate. Seeing none, if anyone in person would like to speak regarding this item, please come forward to the lectern. Seeing none, Mayor.

All right. Then I will be closing public comment.

Move to approve 9B.

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

Council Member Abram. Yes. Council Member Vixell. Yes. Vice Mayor Manette. Yes. Council Member Phillips. Yes. Mayor Vivlak.

Yes. Passes on 5-0. Thank you, Director Fisher. Okay, this is the time set aside for the general public participation, and we'll ask the city clerk to facilitate the public comment. This is an opportunity for members of the public to address the city council on matters that are not on tonight's agenda and are within the council's subject matter jurisdiction. Each speaker will have up to three minutes, and the total time allotted for general public participation is 30 minutes. Madam Clerk.

We have a total of seven speaker cards. We'll begin with the first five speaker cards, and then we'll move to our remote speakers, and then coming back to address the remainder of the blue cards. So the first blue speaker is Maddie S. If you can please come forward to the lectern.

Yep, over there.

Pull that microphone down, sweetheart, so you can reach it. There you go.

Hi, my name is Maddie, which you probably already know. And I'm here because I think that kids should do it too. I have three ideas that I think could make our community a better place for kids. First, create a Kids Clean Up Turlock Community Day where the community gathers together to help clean. It would be great to have free or... inexpensive sports, art programs, movie night, game night, and community events. Turlock does not currently offer any ongoing completely free self-defense class for kids. So it would be great to have one so kids can learn to be safe.

Thank you. We have Haley Cooper.

Only speakers with sashes get to speak tonight.

Good evening, Council Mayor. My name is Haley Cooper. I am 12 years old. What I love about Turlock is the farmer's market and meeting new people and communities. I also love to attend them with my family, and I love holiday parades to see what our community could do and come together.

Thank you. We have Audrey Nelson.

Hi, my name is Audrey Nelson. And thank you for the people that are here today. And I love Turlock. My favorite thing about Turlock is The fair. Thank you.

Next speaker is Millie Claussen.

Hello. My name is Lily. One of my favorite things about Turlock is that they brought the Melon Festival back. I really like the parks, too. My favorite park is Crane Park. Thank you for your time.

Next speaker is Melissa Lopez.

All right. Can you hear me okay? Okay. Good evening. My name is Melissa Lopez, and there was two comments I wanted to make. Firstly was one that was already brought up, the sidewalks. Myself and other community members on, I don't know, directions, that side of town, really appreciate that sidewalks were put in where there was more like dirt patch. It makes it look nicer. It's safer. So we really appreciate that and just wanted to say that. The second thing was about two years ago, Self-Help Enterprises came in and built, I think, 24 homes here in Turlock. And I think that was a really great thing that you guys did it really fast. You did inspections really quick. And as someone that personally benefited from that, it was really great that you guys did that. So thank you for your time.

We'll move to our remote speakers before coming back to the blue cards. If you are joining remotely and would like to speak, please raise your hand or press star 9. We do have our first speaker is Ramon Rodriguez. Please go ahead and speak.

Do you need to hear me? Can anyone hear me?

We can hear you, yes.

Anyways, my suggestions for to see Turok Road, Since California is home to many marathons and half marathons, I think we should have half marathons and marathons here in Turlock because imagine having a marathon and half marathon in Turlock. It will put Turlock on a map as long as being on a list of cities that host marathons and half marathons because We all know Turlock loves the sports. We have great high school and college sport programs. Everyone knows about this all. And since we can have it, it could be either one year, two years, or maybe someday, but hopefully I would love to see a half marathon and marathon because if you do allow it, it will bring a lot of recognition. It will bring many visitors to know where Turlock is. And also it means new economic opportunities because who might notice the visitor from the Bay Area or Southern California or elsewhere of DC Turlock being, hey, this town's nice. I can open up my business or expand operations. That's a chance right there. So we have everything. We have the Christmas parade, the 4th of July parade, the melon carnival, the farmer's market, the market, That's everything Turlock has. The only thing Turlock needs is a half marathon and marathon. And that could be a huge multiplier effect for our community as well as our economic engine because we know Turlock is growing. So if we want to do that, we should consider looking to having such events like a half marathon and marathon because every city has these events. It's a great huge booster for our economy. You should look at it too.

Ramon, I believe you've muted yourself.

Oh, sorry. There you go. Anyways, having a half marathon and a marathon in Turlock is going to be a huge game booster on the... On our community, it will bring a lot of change. It will bring a lot of community pride. Also, a lot of opportunities for y'all to grow our economy. So we can look at it, and I hope we look at it, too, because Turlock needs to be on the map all over California. Thank you.

Thank you. We have no further online. So the next person is Candice Bills.

Hi. I know you guys all know who I am. So I think that I wouldn't have been so pissed off last week if our little business arrangement hadn't started off on lies. So I spent weeks calling the city departments, the building department, code enforcement, trying to get something set up, an inspection of something. And I was told that that wasn't something that existed in the city of Turnlock, that you didn't have a code enforcement, you didn't have a building inspection department. So whoever answers your phone for both of those departments lied to me. It took an email to get the ball rolling. And then you finally started to listen to me a little bit. And then when I asked you to correct your mistakes on the thing, because you had a structural flood listed as a plumbing leak, I said, actually, that's factually incorrect. it was a flood structural flood water came out of the baseboards I thought a pipe broke that's not a plumbing leak that is a flood please correct it ghosted cool and then there was another time that um when the inspection did happen it was four days late no problem there because you guys uh said it was fine um and and when it was supposedly looked into uh the city manager Didn't look into it himself, like he said. He passed it on to somebody else who said it was within the time frame, which I'm sorry, but 28 comes after 24, I thought. Could be wrong. But anyway, so that happened. And then when I called him out on that, on the factual, like all the inadequacies and all the inaccuracies on his report, ghosted again. No response. Okay, well, that's not fun. And so then by the time I did get a response, it was past the 10 days. So then there was no appeal process. So I come here, and then I'm told to appeal. How? It's already past the 10 days, and everybody knows it. So that was fun. So I dealt with that. And then I get told that everything is going to get looked into, and it's not. And then last week I realized that this might be a racial thing. I said, because I'm a black girl with cancer and you guys are trying to sweep me under the rug, but you're so quick to remove a car for someone who is of the white race. And so I just don't think that there's some racial disparities here because I've been begging for your guys' help for months, weeks, whatever, and nothing. You guys are telling me that 28 is, like, nothing you guys are telling me makes sense. Nothing. And then you guys are scrambling to, like, oh, we're going to come fix it now. We're going to reopen your case based on new information. I'm like, what new information? It's been like this. And it's actually been a year. I tried so hard not to come to you guys. Tried so hard because I knew it meant penalties. I knew that there would be a problem for my landlord because you guys were supposed to be here. What's that word where you don't play favorites? You were supposed to be anti-Goodell Boys Club and instead you went right in there with it. And now hindsight's shown me that that's how it happened from the start because you guys would have given me a right.

The next speaker is Amora Maldonado.

Thank you.

We're going to come back to you guys next time.

Amora, you are smart and beautiful. You come back next time and try again, sweetheart. It's okay? Thank you.

Are there any other end speakers that would like to come up to lectern? Go ahead.

Okay, I'm speaking unexpectedly tonight. I postponed addressing this council regarding the city's gross handling of public records requests, but I'm here due to highly unscrupulous interactions that occurred just hours ago. Your executive administration has descended into operational chaos, providing contradictory directives regarding my statutory right to appeal to the Planning Commission. The city manager claims I exhausted my administrative remedies in June, but on July 20th, I made an entirely new discovery. Building Permit 25-1123 is void by state law. A six-unit building must be handled as a commercial property, and the city paid the state a fee based on a residential status rather than the mandated commercial status. I cannot tell the story in three minutes. But after the City Manager sent a letter via certified mail dated July 29th, I realized that I had not exhausted local administrative remedies due to the explicit and exclusive language of both the Planning Commission and City Council resolutions regarding my earlier appeals. Dr. Murphy emailed at 3 o'clock today to unilaterally shut me down. Case closed. But 45 minutes later, Director Werner emailed an entirely new appeal form that did not exist before today, yet it shows a revised date of yesterday. How convenient. And in the frantic rush, it cites on the new form a 2023 resolution for the appeal fee rather than the Council's August 2025 fee schedule. I have to ask this Council, who is exactly in charge? The city manager tells the resident in writing the case is closed and no fees, no appeal will be accepted. Less than an hour later, a department director countermands him using a new, backdated, legally incompetent form. I would like to demand immediate intervention from the city attorney to clarify this administrative train wreck, but I don't know how she could not be part of the problem. You must be excited, Mayor, to give your gotcha covered state of the city address on Thursday. But I am forced to constantly wonder what would have happened to my elderly mother if she had not had a legal agent to stand up to this genuinely unscrupulous administration.

Is there anyone further that would like to speak? Please come forward.

Good evening. Milt Treweiler. Do we adults and parents have a responsibility for our children, grandchildren, and descendants? We sure do because they can't plan for themselves because they're too young or they haven't been born yet. In an online vote two years ago, the residents of Turlock responded to a survey that they liked our small town. Our 73,000 residents is an ideal population for the city in this valley. 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 good for the Turlock residents. If you're on your computer now, right now, please open up a new window on your computer. Go to the city website, cityofturlock.org, scroll down to the bottom and click on government. Then select the Turlock City Council. And then select the picture of the mayor. We all know that there's an election coming up, but did you know that we Turlock residents are paying for the mayor's campaign literature? Here you will see a 1,700 word campaign ad for the mayor having attended almost every council meeting in the past 12 years. I can guarantee you that some staff time was spent on this campaign advertisement. Of course, it's got a lot of exaggerations and false statements in it, but research will help you find that out. This is preposterous. The residents of Turlock must not pay for the Turlock's campaign advertisement. Just check the two council members, the same page, running for office. They don't have campaign advertisements on the Turlock website. The other two candidates running for mayor do not have campaign advertisements on the city of Turlock website. This is a prime example of people seated at this dais are falling short. Lastly, let me make you aware that we must not allow the data centers here in Turlock or Stanislaus County. Data centers will suck up our water, eat up our electrical power, and pollute our city's air. Data center advocates are not concerned that we live in an area with the best farmland on earth. The data center advocates are not concerned about what is best for our children, our grandchildren, and descendants, but how much money that they can make. We must aggressively fight against data centers here in Turlock and in Stanislaus County. We must have an ordinance that will ban data centers here in the city of Turlock and all the rural areas of Stanislaus County. A lot of work to do, but we've got to get this accomplished. We cannot have these terrible data centers in the Central Valley of California. Thank you.

Thank you. Would anyone else like to speak?

All right, good evening Mayor, City Council, all of our amazing leaders over here. I probably should have gotten up and said what all of our girls were going to be doing. I know that I made sure that Mayor Amy had a text message about 25 minutes before we were coming in here. But when we did bring back in the Turlock Melon Carnival, we also brought back in the Turlock Melon Pageant. And for the first two years, we have done a pretty great job for that. But this year, we have changed our Melon Pageant to be more of an ambassador program instead of just a All of our girls are amazing and beautiful, but we did think it was important to go ahead and start instilling in this next generation the importance of being civic-minded and being a strong leader who has honor, respect, and integrity in their community. So the girls will be attending two city council meetings, this one and the other one will be on September 8th. So I have notified you guys a little bit earlier. I'm so sorry about that. And part of it is that they do have to give up and they have to speak at just one of those meetings. So a lot of our girls did a really great job not coming in here before and jumping up there. So just so you guys know, the girls in the sashes, that's what they're doing is they're actually practicing what it means to be civic minded and be involved and learn how to make a difference. The assignment was that they were to come here and they were to talk to you guys either about something they heard about during the meeting or to comment about something in Turlock that they're really proud of that you guys have done, or something that they would like to see improved on. All with being able to do that with respect and kindness, because we get a lot more done with honey than we do with vinegar. So girls, I am really proud of you guys for coming up here, and we are really proud of what's going on with the Turlock Melon Pageant. And then just a quick plug, because I still have $1.24. I still got $1. Again, a minute. The Melon Carnival will be this September 19th and 20th, and all of our girls will be on stage on that Saturday, September 19th, to see who's going to be Miss Melon. And our winners will actually have a legacy program that they're going to continue working on. So anything that you guys need help with, they'll definitely want to be there for you guys. But also as a group, they'll get together and they'll think of one item, one thing that they want to do to leave as a legacy for their reign in Turlock. It could be something as simple as fundraisers to get blankets for our shelters or planting a tree in one of the parks, figuring out how to get a bench somewhere. They'll figure out what's close to their heart and work on that together as a group of the reigning queens this year. So we're very excited, very proud of them. And that is what our girls were doing up here with you guys today. So thank you for your time.

Thank you. Is there anyone else I would like to speak regarding public comment? Seeing none, Mayor.

I'm closing public comment and moving to the city manager reports and updates.

Good evening, Council. A couple things. First, I just want to commend Chris. Chris, it was great working with you side by side. Thank you. I REMEMBER WATCHING SOME TURLOCK COUNCIL MEETINGS WHEN YOU WERE ACTUALLY IN THIS CHAIR OR PRESENTATIONS YOU MADE AND EVEN IN YOUR COMMENTS TODAY, YOU CAN TELL YOU LOVE THIS CITY, YOU LOVE THIS ORGANIZATION AND IT'S BEEN GREAT TO WORK AND YOU'LL ALWAYS HAVE A HOME HERE WHENEVER YOU WANT TO COME BACK TO THE VARSITY TEAM. ALL RIGHT?

OH, DANG.

I've been honored. This week I started my operation switch, so I stopped working in City Hall and I got to work in 911 with staff this week. The other day, I guess it was yesterday. It feels like it's a week. I guess it's only Tuesday. So yesterday I worked a couple hours over there. And You know, what the police officer said earlier, truly, you know, you listen to some of the calls they take and what's, you know, both fire and police are dispatched to. You never know as bad as of today you think you're having what, you know, they have to deal with sometimes. And then lastly, this is a bad news, good news story. I had my car towed last week, and I had to take an Uber to my first meeting at 7 a.m. And when I explained that to the employees, I met with like 70 employees. This is the type of organization you have. I left. I was trying to then call 911 and take care of what's going on and found out that the car was towed. But there were like five employees who came out and said, hey, sir, what's your car look like? Because we work all over the city, you know, we're the maintenance team and, you know, we'll keep an eye out for your car. And I was just so touched that employees listened to my plight. and decide to take it upon themselves to come out and say, look, we're getting ready to drive out and start our day, but if we can help, we'll put our eyes out there. So that's what you have, and that's why I'm so proud to work with this team. And I understand why Chris was emotional, because truly we have great employees that are just trying to just do a little bit to make our community better. So proud to be here.

Thank you. All right. Council Member comments, announcements, and or future items. Council Member Abram.

Just briefly, I want to say, you know, welcome to all the young ladies that came out tonight and spoke. And I'll look forward to seeing you again in two weeks or however long it is. I saw a couple of you are Girl Scouts, and I saw a few of the Daisies leave. So I hope you're counting this for part of your democracy for Daisies and Brownies because this is democracy and work. This is, you know, your government, the closest that you can get to it. So welcome. I'm so glad you guys are getting involved.

I just want to give a shout-out to Chris. Wish you the best. You will be missed. You're an absolute consummate pro, and we thank you and welcome you back anytime.

First, to our ladies, our young ladies, our ambassadors, I know some of you are going to be future leaders around here. And Ms. Zamora, I just want to tell you, don't be scared, sweetheart, at coming back to the next council meeting and speaking, because we're all leaders up here and elected officials, but sometimes we get nervous too, and it's And it's totally okay. So we'll be looking forward to what you have to say at the next council meeting in September. And I wish all of you young ladies the best at becoming the next Ms. Mellon. I'm so glad that's back. Fisher. Fisher. Three short years, buddy. But you've done some very, very heavy lifting around here at City Hall. And it didn't go unnoticed, and it certainly doesn't go unappreciated. So I'm going to piggyback what JJ said. When you want to come back to the varsity team, come on, because you will be missed. And you've done a lot in your very short stay here, and we're very grateful. But we wish you well, and we understand family commitments and families first, and we want the best for you and yours. So thank you. The last thing I have, fire. Chief Serpa, boy, you guys are killing it, man. I love it. Am I wrong to say all of our firefighters are home? Except one unit. Just one. Yeah. Okay. Well done. Very appreciated. You guys are knocking it out of the park. We thought we had a reported structure fire down on Lewis, and all of our Turlock units were tied up, and MST showed up with a ladder truck and a whole company and five extra engines. It's the support we have from you guys, and the organization is amazing, and we're grateful. So thank you for that.

Chris Fisher, we are going to miss you. Just the time I have spent with you, I've learned a lot from you and just listening to your presentation. So thank you for all that you have done while being here. Like everybody else said, you are going to be missed, but I'm sure we'll see you around. And to all the young ladies, everybody who spoke, you guys did an amazing job. I wish I was that brave when I was a kid. So I look forward to seeing you girls back in a couple weeks.

All right, Chris Fisher. You've got big shoes to fill. You saved us on SRWA. You set it up for complete, just wonderful situation now. It's amazing what you've done while you've been here, and you're always welcome back. To Captain Pacheco, thank you for all of your years of service. Obviously, law enforcement is close to my heart, and I get what he's saying. It's think about those people that are going out there every day still and taking those calls that are your worst day. And then loved hearing the young voices, the hope and the dreams. Bring it, you guys. That's what we need here. You guys are our future. So keep coming, and you'll get your voice. It'll be perfect. All right, we have closed session, ma'am.

Yes, we have two items. A, conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation percent to government, California government code 5495692, one case. And item B is conference with legal counsel existing litigation percent to government code 5495692. 9D1, one case, people versus state of California versus the city of Turlock. At this time, I will open up public comment for any items on the closed session, the two items that I just read. If anyone would like to come forward to the lectern or if anyone is on the remote that would like to speak regarding this item, please raise your hand. Seeing none, we'll close public comment.

All right. And we will go to closed session. Should there be anything to report out, we'll let you know. Thank you and be safe. All right, we're back to closed session. There is nothing to report on.