City Council - Regular Meeting

Hi. Good evening. We welcome everyone to the work session today. We're gonna go ahead and call this session to order. We'd like to start out by offering public comments. This is a time when citizens are invited to comment on issues within the jurisdiction of the Visalia City Council and the items listed on the closed session agenda. The council asks that you keep your comments concise and positive. Creative criticism presented with appropriate courtesy is welcome. Each speaker will be allowed three minutes, and a timer will notify you, when your time has expired. Please begin your comments by stating and spelling your name and providing your city of residence.

Anyone wishing to speak can come up to either one of these lecterns. Alright. Seeing nobody, we will go on to work session item number one, which is introduction of new employees.

Good afternoon, mayor, members of council. Tom Van Grau, the deputy fire chief. It's my privilege this afternoon to introduce the five newest members of the fire department. I'm gonna start with the one closest to me. Allow me to introduce Felix Hernandez.

Felix is a Central Valley native currently serving the Visalia Fire Department as part of the squad paramedic program. He brings years of experience in emergency medical care, including service as a US Army combat medic, which helped shape his commitment to teamwork, leadership and patient centered care. Felix is proud to serve the Visalia community and is dedicated to providing compassionate, high quality emergency medical services to our residents and visitors alike. Felix Hernandez. And next we have Sierra Ortiz.

Sierra Ortiz was raised here in Visalia and grew up around the fire service. Her dad is a captain with Visalia Fire Department. Prior to working in the position of a firefighter, she worked as a paramedic in a local area. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her two daughters. She appreciates the opportunity to stay involved in the city she calls home.

Sierra Ortiz. Next, we have Alexis Walte. Alexis has been with the Visalia Fire Department since May 2024. She began her career here as a single role paramedic assigned to squad fifty one and squad fifty three and is currently currently serves as a firefighter paramedic on engine fifty one on the a shift. Alexis is originally from Long Beach, California and has lived in the Central Valley for the past four years.

Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, fishing, playing sports and traveling. She looks forward to continuing to serve the city of Isola. Zachary Giovanni. Zach has been involved in the emergency medical service for six years where he started out working for American Ambulance of Iselia. Zach has been a paramedic for three years and most recently worked as a squad medic for the city of Visalia.

Zach is very thankful for the opportunity to promote to firefighter paramedic with the Visalia Fire Department and would like to thank the city for letting him to continue to serve the citizens of Visalia. Being playing sports and traveling, she looks forward to continuing to serve the city And of we have Bryden Grease. Bryton is a paramedic with four years of experience in EMS. He has worked with both American Ambulance of Iselia and Sequoia Safety Council where he served both Tulare and Fresno Counties. He is dedicated to maintaining the highest standards of patient care, professionalism, and public service, and he values strong collaboration with fire and emergency response agencies.

He is honored to be presented before the city council and looks forward to continuing to serve the citizens of Iselia with integrity and commitment. Braden Reese.

If of you would like to say anything, feel free. If none of you like public speaking, come on up and shake our hands. But we do wanna say welcome. We are excited that you're here. We love getting our new paramedics and firefighters. I know a lot of us got to attend some of your trainings and see you guys in action, and we've got to see you guys on your graduation. So we're excited that you guys are here. Anyone wanna speak?

It's not a suggestion. It's a

recommendation either.

Come on up, guys. You like to

shake your hand.

All right, we're always excited to see yeah,

they gotta go do work, I'm okay with that.

All right, so next, looks like we have some wastewater introductions.

Yes. Good evening, mayor and council. My name is Ben Litwack. I'm a public works manager. And today, I have the honor of introducing Ruben Gonzalez. He's, our newest maintenance service worker for the wastewater collections division. Ruben was born and raised in Visalia, but he graduated from Tulare Union. Ruben and his wife, Jacqueline, are the parents of four children, Nevea, Ruben Junior, Lavina, and Arianna. Ruben worked for the city of Visalia as an hourly in 2004 doing graffiti abatement for a couple of years before working with the city of Tulare. In December, Ruben landed a job as a maintenance service worker for the city of Iselia to be closer to home. Ruben says that he has always wanted to work for the city and is honored for the opportunity to finally have a full time job with us.

Alright. Well, welcome. Thank you. We'll give you the same opportunity if you'd like to say something. If not, come on up and shake our hand.

All right, this is one of the best parts about this job is welcoming a bunch of great people to our community and and people who are gonna serve our city. So it looks like we have one more.

Good evening, mayor, council members. I'm Ivan Decar, parks and facilities manager. Tonight, we are pleased to introduce our newly appointed trailsman and supervisor, Chris Maines. Chris is a proud Visalia native, born and raised right here in our community. Chris attended Mount Whitney High School, and his commitment to public service began in April 2007 with the city of Tulare, where he developed a strong foundation in parks maintenance and operation.

Through dedication and hard work, Chris was promoted to parks maintenance technician in 2021 and later to landscape maintenance technician in 2022. In these roles, he gained extensive hands on experience in landscape maintenance, project oversight, and team coordination across both parks operation and the landscape and lighting districts. On 12/02/2024, Chris brought that brought that experience home during the city of Visalia as a landscape and irrigation technician in the urban forestry division. We are excited to have someone not only understands the technical aspect of this work, but also has deep roots in the community he now serves. Chris is joined this evening with his family, his wife, Ida, and his daughter, Jasmine.

Please join me in welcoming Chris Mains to his new role as a trails main and a supervisor.

Alright, Chris. Welcome aboard. All right, this is fantastic. So we appreciate all those new employees and for all the good work they do for our community. Next, we're gonna go on to item number two, which is the capital improvement project.

Counsel, just a reminder that while she's jumped in with both feet, this is Nicole's first one.

Can you hear me? Okay. Alright. Good evening, mayor and members of council. I wanted to first introduce myself, Nicole Richey.

I'm the new finance manager and this is Renee Nagel, finance director. So tonight is the first meeting of several to review the proposed six year capital budget, also known as CIP. And we are here to go through the first two years of fiscal year twenty six-twenty seven and fiscal year twenty seven-twenty eight. Those are being proposed for adoption and appropriations. The remaining four years are stage to adoption.

The projects are developed by departments. Then council we come to council for review, as we do now and will do through April. Staff will make changes based on any of your recommendations, and then we will move to final adoption phase in June. That will be along with the operating budget as well. Tonight's discussed CIP is guided by three primary objectives.

Objective one is to protect the public health and regulatory compliance. Two is preserving modernizing core infrastructure. And the third objective this evening is supporting strategic growth and service enhancements. The CIP proposed this evening reflects a balance and discipline of the approach to the infrastructure infrastructure investments. This evening review includes eight capital funds, proposed appropriations for twenty six-twenty seven fiscal year is 61,700,000.0.

The proposed twenty seven-twenty eight funds is 24,500,000.0. And the outer four years reflects, reflected proposed planning needs totaling 150,000,000, and those are not being proposed for appropriations this evening. The six year plan presented that you've received in your attachment A in its entirety is 20 is 237,000,000. The upcoming slides, any projects that are highlighted in a salmon color or peach color is considered to be multi funded projects, and that means that the cost is showing in each fund is for that portion of the fund only. It's not to be perceived as the total project cost.

The next few slides will show each fund's cash balance and summary of those proposed, projects for the '26, '27, and 2728. We have department staff is here and available to address any of your any of council's questions. The entire six year capital plan was provided to you in agenda A for the or in the attachment A in the agenda. Any questions?

So the first fund that we're gonna discuss is the wastewater trunk line construction fund. This funds revenues derived from sanitary sewer and trunk line connection fees and are used and are to be used only for new sanitary, sewer trunk line construction and not for operations or for maintenance. Recently, council approved the updated sewer master plan, and this master plan will be used for the Nexus study that's currently being conducted. And that's currently being looked at for our three different types of sewer fees, are presented in tonight's funds. So there'll be three funds that currently have fees being studied.

And so those will be being brought back to council, hopefully in the near future as well. This fund's revenues are not projected to cover the capital proposed over the six year plan, totals $21,700,000 The capital proposed in the two year budget totals $4,500,000 and will require an advance from the wastewater facility fund.

I'm Staff is proposing seven projects in this wastewater trunk line construction fund totaling 4,500,000.0 over the next two years. Four of these projects, as you see highlighted, are considered to be or proposed to be multi funded. Do you have any questions for staff regarding these funds?

So the next fund is the SARA Connection Fund. This fund receives revenues from treatment plant connection fees paid at the time of development. Funds are to be used only for treatment expansion projects and not for operations or maintenance as well. So this is another fund that is currently having a nexus study being done on the fees, which will be utilizing the sewer master plan that was updated. And as you can see here, the fund is projected to have a shortfall over the six years and will require an advance from the wastewater facility fund as well.

I do have one question. Is there any way you can estimate what increase we would have to give customers based off these numbers? Just solely off these numbers?

No. No. No. Yeah. Not at this time.

Thank you. When will that next study be done? Do you know?

Been?

Six to twelve months. I'd say probably more towards

twelve months.

Yeah, was going to say probably more towards twelve months.

Or a year out, okay. Staff

is proposing two projects in the sewer connection fund, which are for capacity expansion that will assist in maintaining regulatory compliance. The total funds are 14,200,000.0 over the next two years. Both projects in this fund are multi funded with wastewater fund which was which will also be discussed this evening. Council, do you have any questions for the staff regarding this fund?

So this next fund is the Building Safety Fund, which is an enterprise fund. The Building Safety Fund's revenues are derived from building safety permit fees. This revenue is used to fund both the operational expenses and capital needs and does not maintain a separate this fund does not maintain a separate capital reserve. Staff is proposing four projects over the six year capital plan, which totaled $1,100,000 and has sufficient funds to cover the capital costs and operations.

On these slides, just wanted to point out it might look like the numbers are out of sequence. We did that intentionally so that way the number system will match your attachment A in case there's any questions that we might have along the way. We can reference the numbers to what you have.

I have a question on the Accella upgrades. This is Is that going to accelerate the permit process? Jason?

Stocklaberry, Director of Engineering and Building. In essence, that's part of it. Each year we go through various upgrades of the system. It could be reporting that's helpful for the public to ask for various reports. It could be efficiency operations on our end that we're looking for reports so we can make changes to process that would speed things up. It also covers modifications to the system annually that might open up additional we call excel civic automation. It actually engages online permitting which is another efficiency and speed task. It's related to all that yes.

Are there any other questions for this fund?

This next fund is also an enterprise fund, which is animal services. Animal services revenues are derived from fees for animal licenses, adoptions, and fines. These fees do not cover the cost of providing animal services, which results in the gen in in having a general fund subsidy. Staff is proposing three projects over the six year capital plan totaling 270,000. As the facility ages, staff staff anticipates increasing maintenance needs in the outer years.

Question. You knew it was gonna come. You know, and I and I understand sometimes it's the verbiage that's gotta be utilized to put something on project list. But when I read replacement center cameras for safety and so forth, I never wanna deter from the safety aspect for the people that work for the city of Isalia. And for small expenditure of $60,000, I'm trying to figure out why that wouldn't be in 2627 to provide that security for our not only our folks, but the animals that we house.

So this project was actually submitted by our IT department. It's not that the cameras aren't working. They're just looking at replacing them next or the second year because they're figuring they'll start to start having issues and they wanna get ahead of that before they're actually aged out or they are having issues. So as of today, they're working. They're working fine. It's just a replacement schedule, just like our computers. They're working today, but we have them on replacement schedules. So, of course, as you replace technology, you always get new enhancement features, and that's what we're kinda hoping with the security cameras

as what concerns me, though. The way it's written is is that it's aging. And I agree with you. I mean, there's maybe a lifespan. But, say, in six months, the system goes down because we thought it could last another year. And for $60,000, I just think it needs to be in '26, '27, but I don't know how the rest of council feels. The other one is on the when you read the epoxy refinish the flooring. I mean, the way I read it right now, the floor has deteriorated. The floor is gone. Now maybe that's written in such a way because they wanna put it on 2829. But, again, if the floor is a major issue, then it needs to be addressed.

Hi.

Candice Harrington, the animal services manager. So the the floors are functional at this time. They are starting to chip though, so we foresee that over time it's going to continue to deteriorate as we have more animals coming through those kennels wear and tear. At this time they are still functional. Manage, but we just foresee that they are going to continue to chip, and so we want to have that in the budget plan too.

So they're going to continue to chip for two years?

Yes, but it's small chips now, so we foresee that it will be bigger ones later, but as of right now, it's it's still functional.

So, counsel, we are trying to anticipate and not come with last minute crises when, in fact, we do have things that begin to fail. But in order to do that, we've got to project out and have that that longer term lead. And so we're trying to do a better job of that, and I think that's what you're seeing here is it's not doom today.

The verbiage that you know? Yeah. Because it because it's it's some of the writing is alarming, and and so I just wanted to address it. So thank you.

Are there any other questions regarding the animal services? Are we making the suggestion then to move the 60,000 for the camera to the current year?

Any other direction from

the company?

For me, I would say no just because we're projecting it out. I try to get as much of the lifespan as we can. I think we had a washer and dryer house for probably thirty years. Were passed down to us because it lasted so long. That's what I like this to do. Plus, if we're waiting another year, the technology is probably gonna be better next year than this year. Obviously, if something happens, we could streamline that process and get it in there quickly to fix.

Yeah? Mhmm.

So I would rather wait there because, like, technology is constantly changing. I would rather wait another year and see what's better next year and put it in there. Hopefully it's still working next year and we can push it out another year and keep going.

I agree with council member Pacheco.

I think we're good then. Thank you.

This next fund is another enterprise fund, which is the airport fund. The airport fund's primary revenue source is user fees, hangar rentals, fuel cells. Large capital projects are funded from the federal aviation funds, which requires a 10% match. Some airport projects may be eligible to receive a 5% match from the Caltrans Department of Aeronautical, which would pay a portion of the 10% required match from the local funds. Staff is proposing 11 projects over the six year capital plan, which totals 9,200,000.0. Several of these projects are proposed to be funded by federal and state monies, which total $7,300,000 of that $9,200,000 These projects will not move forward unless grant funds have been awarded.

In the airport fund, staff has requested nine projects for appropriations in the first two years of the capital budget that total 4,500,000.0. Six of the nine projects are contingent upon the grant award and identified with an asterisk above. As Renee mentioned earlier, these projects will not move forward until the grant has been awarded. Two of the projects you see above number four and number 11 are proposed to be multi funded. Any questions regarding this fund?

The wastewater fund is is supported by sanitary sewer user fees. Funds can be used for wastewater operations, maintenance, and capital projects. Staff is proposing 49 projects over the six year capital plan totaling 76,000,000. Majority of the project total is for the treatment plant capacity expansion in fiscal year twenty six, twenty seven, and 2728. As mentioned earlier, a Nexa study is currently being conducted on the sewer fees and will be used to determine future fees which are needed for the expansion projects. This fund currently has cash available. However, it is not enough to maintain and replace the facility assets, which totaled $315,000,000

I've

split the wastewater funds into four sections. The first section being regulatory compliance and environmental oversight. Section one represents 464,000 requested funding on compliance related activities in the two year proposed budget. Both projects that you see here are multi funded. Do you have any questions on these two? Either of these two?

I had a question. So we know that obviously we provide service for for Goshen and we have recently prepared a specific plan for the upgrades for for our needs and some of their needs. If if it is true that they do decide to build significantly more homes, what would we do on our end to get that additional capacity? I mean, because right now, obviously, you know, that was $70,000,000. If they need significant more capacity, what would we then do? Because we we would have to be building a lot more capacity for the additional use. So what would we do? Would we just ask them to do a a new update plan? Would we redo our study?

So we we would in fact then ask the Goshen Services Community District to fund an additional upgrade or to the upgrade if you would of the plan and to cover all costs for that because we in fact just finished it last year and asked for a specific number that we could include as part to so we could plan for their anticipated capacity. So if that does come about, that would be what what we would require.

And there are significant changes. I mean, on our end, I know when we we start working on these additional upgrades, we started, what, about a year and a half ago, two years ago. If they had significant need, would it be two, three years out before we'd be able to offer them additional capacity?

That would just be for probably the plan because we would have to update the master plan. Then there's still the implementation of the additional changes and upgrades to the plant to meet that demand, just depending on what that would require.

Okay. Wonderful.

Thank you. It's nothing that's gonna be turnkey.

This

section two is outlines the annual construction and maintenance of sewer lines throughout the city of Isoya. It represents 3,600,000.0 requested funding in the two year proposed budget. Stevenson Mill Creek Culvert replacement is the only project listed above that has that is multi funded with gas tax. Any questions on these listed funds? Section three has 18 routine maintenance and parts requested in the two year capital budget, which totals 17,900,000.0.

Along with that, we have one capacity expand expansion project requested for 27,000,000 in the proposed twenty twenty six, twenty seven fiscal year, which is multi funded with the Sewer Connection Fund. All listed requests are to keep the water water wastewater facility operating at its fullest capacity. Section three represents 44,000,000 in funding requests in the two year proposed budget. Council, do you have any remaining nine projects and the routine maintenance will be shown on the next slide. So this is the continuation of the annual routine maintenance and parts proposed in the two year budget.

Do you have any questions on these? This last section is showing the five equipment purchase requests. Item number 35 is a 70 five-twenty five split with storm sewer fund, and item number 36 is a fifty fifty split with grain groundwater recharge. The vehicle and equipment replacement represents 1,200,000.0 requested funding in fiscal year twenty twenty six-twenty seven on the proposed budget. The total wastewater capital funding request proposed in the two year budget is 49,200,000.0.

No questions?

Moving on to solid waste. The solid waste fund is derived from refuse collection fees. The solid waste fund is responsible for the maintenance and replacement of over 28,000,000 in capital assets, which most of that is their vehicles. Cash for capital replacements is set aside from operations depreciate. This fund must maintain capital reserves to ensure timely replacement of its fleet. A large number of the fleet will need to be replaced in fiscal year thirty thirty one. Replacement of these vehicles will require the use of the capital reserve that is shown. Staff is proposing 18 projects over the six year capital plan totaling $23,100,000 And as you can see, the solid waste fund has enough cash.

Alright. The solid waste fund staff is proposing eight projects in the first two years of the capital budget, total 4,200,000.0. Projects are broken out into two sections. The first section reflects reoccurring container and bin bin purchases along with the annual city hosted dump on us event. The second section includes vehicle replacement and growth related equipment to meet increase service demands. Just a note, growth related purchases will not move forward unless the demand is needed. Does council have any questions on these projects?

And the last fund for tonight is the Transit Capital Fund. The Transit Capital Fund is separated from the Transit Operations Fund and includes monies from state transportation funds, federal grants, and other capital grant monies. All revenues in this fund are to be used for transit capital expenditures only. Staff is proposing 18 projects over the six year capital plan, which totals 90,000,000. Projects will not move forward unless grant money has been awarded.

Question on that. The Cross Valley Express, 2627, that's 1,269,000. And then you push out the twenty eight-twenty nine for $56,000,005.85. Can you explain the differential?

Hey, good evening council members. Chris Crawford, city engineer. Yeah, that first 1,200,000.0 is just for what the Caltrans calls the PA and ED phase, which is like a 30% design environmental phase. And then what's going to happen after that is we'll get the 30% design done, get the environmental figured out. And then I think we've got another 1 point something million to finish off the design that we'll be asking for CTC after that.

And so probably the total design phase portion is going to be to the tune of like $3,000,000 And then there's going be about $40,000,000 in infrastructure that's going to be kind of transit signal modifications prioritization. It's like 20 something signals, a whole bunch of bus shelters, like other minor improvements and stuff like that. And then there was a portion of it that was about maybe $13,000,000 that was to purchase more buses and stuff too. So it was like, yeah. So that kind of give you the breakdown of what that is, a short summary.

The other question I have is the parking structure on Tipton is pushed out to twenty eight-twenty nine. I would assume twenty eight-twenty nine is to study it, design it, and then hopefully build it in 2030. Is that correct?

Evening council. John Wallace, assistant city manager. And really contingency of as as Renee mentioned, contingency of looking at grant funds. There's a NOFO that's coming out this spring, talks about transit oriented development that we'll be taking a look at. And so looking at all available federal grant and and state grant funds could be TERSP as well that would become available for further development in support of transit.

Okay. Thank you.

I do have a question. For micro transit, is this expansion was this a planned expansion? Is this based off the use that we already have based off the data that we've collected?

Let oh, no. Angelina was there. I'll let Angelina take a And run at

I say this because I know I mean, I've received emails of people who love this part of the transit that we provide but just curious as to.

Good afternoon Angelina Baker transit manager yes that's correct it was not originally planned this is anticipation of the demand so this is another project that would not move forward without additional funds from our funder.

Thank you.

Council, do you have any questions on the projects? Okay. All right. As mentioned earlier, staff will be presenting capital over the next several months to council. This shows a this is presented what we'll be bringing to the next meeting on 03/02, 03/16, 04/20, and or I'm sorry, 04/06 and 04/20.

The funds with the will be reviewed separately from the capital budget process due to additional requirements necessary for the individual funding, but is included in the final budget documentation. Just a reminder, no motion is required this evening. Staff is just looking for the feedback from you on direction for the proposed projects that we presented this evening.

Thank you. Councilor Marso, do you have any questions or comments? No. Thank you for the information. Thank you. Councilor Pochigan.

Yeah. Thank you for the information. I now know more about sewer and wastewater than I ever thought I would in my life. So, thank you so much. Every year and we get more information about it. So, thank you.

Councilor Nelson. As always, it's a very thorough report and I appreciate the opportunity to ask questions and get a response and so it better equips us to make the decision. Excellent job tonight. Thank you.

Yeah. I I kinda wonder who's making all these tens of millions of dollars off these bladders and, you know, it's like someone's doing really well off bladders and I don't even know what a bladder is, to be honest. But, yeah, we do appreciate you guys, you know, putting this together for us because this is, you know, all the stuff that people don't see that happen, you know, every single day in this city. It's all the stuff that goes underground. It's the work trucks. It's the stuff that nobody sees. It's not the parks and the fun things. So we appreciate you guys doing this and being prepared for our city so that we're not constantly putting out fires and trying to find money. You guys are doing a great job of planning for the future, we appreciate that. So this is a public hearing.

If anybody would like to speak, please come forward to either one of the lecterns and state your name and city of residence. If you'd to come up, sir, come on up. You can still get this one right here.

Alright. Hello, everybody. My name's Jesus Sanchez. I guess part of the rules did I need to you said to spell out our name or no?

Just city residents.

Okay. My name is Jesus Sanchez. I'm a I'm a homeless resident here in the city of Visalia. I've been homeless since the year 2023, but I'm still going strong. I am attending COS, and I'm doing good in my classes and passing on my classes. I'm not running on the three minutes yet. Right? Am I? Or I am? Okay. So I'm gonna get straight to it. There was an incident that took place, and I wanted to address it Eight months ago, on June 2025, I was at the library here in the city of Iselia, and I wanted to address this.

Sir, is this about the capital improvement project?

I was told I can exercise my right to freedom of speech. Is this the time or do I have to wait till 7PM?

So general public comments that are not on the agenda, we we started at the end of the meeting. If you'd like, we will continue this meeting, come back at 07:00 and we will open it up for general comments that are not on the agenda. That time you're absolutely was like,

man, are gonna to silence me?

No, no, no, absolutely This is for specific items for the report that we received.

Sorry, you

asked. Don't know. I appreciate all of We understand most people don't understand all these rules. So we appreciate you and we definitely welcome you to come back at seven.

And am I welcome to sit back here

and wait? Absolutely. And then we will start exactly at 7PM and public comments are the first thing on the agenda for our prayer. That's all I'm here for. And flag salute.

Thank you. What was your name again?

Brett Taylor.

Brett. Thank you, Brett. I'll be I'll be waiting right here back here at until 7PM.

Perfect. Thank you. Does anyone else have any comments on the specific item? If not, we'll go ahead and close public comment and we thank you for your report. We will go ahead and adjourn this work session and we welcome everyone to come back at seven p.

M. For our regular scheduled city council meeting. Good evening, everybody. Welcome to the Visalia City Council meeting. We're gonna go ahead and call to order the regular session.

We will go ahead and start this meeting by offering the pledge of of allegiance by council member Puccigin, and then we will be led invocation by father James Tacy, the Good Shepherd Catholic Parish. Please join us.

I'll begin with Psalm 37. Trust in the Lord and do good, that you may dwell in the land and live secure. Find your delight in the Lord who will give you your heart's desire. Heavenly father, we come to you today asking for your guidance, wisdom, and support as we begin this meeting. Keep us engaged and always respectful in our conversations.

Help us to know this day was given to us by you, and so remain humble and thankful for all you have done. Fill us with your grace, Lord God, as we make decisions that affect the citizens of Visalia. May the person of your son, Jesus, remind us of the love you have for us, and may your holy spirit fill our hearts with trust in you, you, hope in you, and love for you and for all those entrusted to our care. Amen.

Thank you, father, for the invocation. We appreciate that. Alright. We are now gonna open up to public comments. This is the time for general public comments on issues within the jurisdiction of the Visalia City Council. Each speaker tonight may speak for up to three minutes during the general comment period on a matter that is not on the agenda. The public may also make one comment for up to three minutes prior to the consideration of the consent calendar and immediately before any regular agenda item is heard. The council asks that you keep your comments concise and positive. Creative criticism presented with appropriate courtesy is welcome. Each speaker will be allowed three minutes and a timer will notify you when your time's expired.

Please begin your comments by stating and spelling your name and providing your city of residence. Sir, earlier you asked to speak during public comments. This is absolutely your time to come up and speak, sir.

Alright. Hi. Hi, mister. What was your name? Taylor. Mister Taylor. Hi. Pleased to meet you. My name is. People call me Chuy. I'm a resident of the city of Visalia. Homeless resident. Been homeless since the year 2023. We're now in the year 2026. There is an incident that took place here at you guys' library, the get

chance chance

practices within local law enforcement, to

a

lot of double jeopardy going on and a lot of police entrapment tactics that are being exercised amongst our citizens throughout the Tulare County region, in specific the city of Visalia where I'm at right now. I was this is I was experiencing racism and prejudice on this white security officer. As you can see here, he accused me. So due to his body language demeanor, he was accusing me that I was in a fight, that I was attacking a Patreon. That is false.

The reason I'm so pissed off is because security guard officers, white security guard officers, including white employees at the Visalia Library. See, another white gentleman there. There's another white lady behind him. So what I'm experiencing here, this is called a white systemic oppression, prejudice, racism towards black and brown individuals. For me, brown Chicanos. Look at how he's moving. This white guy here is accusing me. He's not hearing me out.

Asking you a question. What you're doing right now, you're you're being a very racist white person. Fight oppression. Like injustices. So

this is all my YouTube channel. My YouTube channel is called Pignorance five five nine, p I g n o r a n c e five five nine, altogether and in all caps. I know pretty self explanatory. You guys are more than welcome. I doubt any of you would take the time to even look at the video, but that is my YouTube channel. I'm here because so much is going on. You guys, I'm hoping because I know you guys, there's money, there's liquid here. The the city is very liquid. I'm encouraging and I'm preaching to please put cameras outside of the Visalia Library. You guys is a white employees inside of the library.

They cannot accuse people of color of something they didn't do. I was accused of swinging and fighting. I never even swung once. I felt bad for my fellow brown brother, another Chicano who swung at me. Okay? And, why did he swing at me? Like I said, there's a lot of corruption going on within the Tulare County region. There's a lot of cops, a lot of sheriffs, a lot of correction officers sending these people to attack me. Okay? I'm keeping everything documented, and I don't like it, and I don't appreciate it. Just experiencing a whole lot of white supremacy, and I'm just trying my best to, survive throughout all these attacks while being homeless and still attending college.

Thank you very much. Just for your information, the employees of the library are county employees. They are not city of ISA employees. Just thought I'd agree. Nope, just for your information. Because we have over county employees obviously, just so that you're aware. Thank you. You'd wanna go ahead and talk to the Board of Supervisors.

Where's that at?

We can have a staff come and speak with you.

You sir.

Thank you Mr. Taylor.

Anyone else from public wishing to speak at this time?

Good evening, council. My name is Ebrahim Vesera. I live in vice mayor Liz Winn's District, District 1. I wanted to just come up here and kinda notify mayor Taylor that I did receive a certified response for an invite to the event that's gonna be happening here May 1 from the Governor's Office. I've been on the phone, so you might receive a phone call, and I just wanted to give you a heads up in case they call and look for you.

Again, the event that I've been working on is basically to unify and educate the city in these difficult times, especially right now that this our city, again, is once again in the nationwide in the eye over a difference of opinion from, I guess, you would say people that can't see the other side's 's points of views. I'm one of those people that grew up in an era where there's always been two sides of perspective, but not like what the youth has been experiencing now. So it's very sad to see our city again statewide in a negative light when there's citizens, right, like myself trying to do good and unify our city. So I hope that those who are watching can educate their children, their youth, in saying it's Okay to think differently but respectfully, not in a way to degrade or to maltreat somebody is one of the things that I'm not okay with. And dialogue is one of the things that I believe our city, hopefully, can become better because I've seen social media can get very ugly.

Nobody's perfect, including myself, but you you know, maneuvering carefully is one of the things that I believe in. So, again, thank you guys for serving our city, serving us. And obviously, none of you are perfect, but it's the hope of our city. An example is what gets us here to to see what happens. Thank you, guys.

Okay. Seeing no one else, we'll go ahead and close public comment period. We're gonna skip items of interest and we're gonna go on to the consent calendar. Council Member Puchigian, do have any items you'd like to pull?

No items to pull.

Council Member Nelson, any items to pull?

No items to pull.

And Council Member So to, do you have any items? No items, thank you. Okay, and I have none. Let's go ahead and open up to the public. If anyone would like to make, this is a time for public, of the public to comment on an item that is on the consent calendar. Comments will not be taken individually the public. If an item is pulled by a council member, each speaker will be allowed up to three minutes and the timer will notify you when your time has expired. Please begin your comments and stating and spelling your name and you're providing your city of residence. Even wanting to speak on an item on a consent calendar, please, this is your time. Seeing none, we will close public comments and I will entertain the motion.

I'll make a motion to approve balance of the consent calendar. We have first.

Do we have a second? I second. All right. Please vote.

I will be abstaining from the vote. One of the items in the consent calendar, was chairman of the visit group for three years, so I'll be abstaining from the vote of the consent calendar.

Do you want to pull that separately?

Yeah, I would do two separate votes then, please. Do the bulk of the consent calendar and then do the separate item.

Number was that?

Council Member Nelson called out.

That was eight. That's eight.

Okay. So can we amend that, please?

So I'll say this, I make a motion to approve the balance of the consent calendar except for item number eight.

Okay. I second. All those in favor please vote. Balance of the consent calendar passes five zero with Vice Mayor Wynn absent. And now can we please make a motion for item number eight which Councilor Nelson will be abstaining from.

I would say for the sake of being consistent let's consider it pulled and allow a comment on that individual item should anyone desire that.

Okay, any council member would like a report or any comment on it?

No, no report. You.

Okay. We've already allowed the public to speak on any item on the consent calendar. I'll go ahead and entertain a motion. I move

to authorize the city manager negotiate and enter into an agreement with the by Visalia Convention and Visalia Visitors Bureau for 01/01/2026 through 12/31/2026 for a contracted amount of up to $361,049 in addition to the $189,912 dollars for service provider without an agreement for the 2025 calendar year for a total amount not to exceed $550,961

We have a motion, we have a second. Second. Second. All those in favor, vote. Okay, item passes three zero with Vice Mayor Nguyen absent and council member Nelson abstaining. Thank you very much. We have no items on our regular public hearing. So we are gonna go ahead and adjourn. Thank you guys for coming and we welcome you to come back on our next city council meeting, which will be 03/02/2026.