City Council Meeting

CITY OF LOS BANOS CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES AUGUST 17, 2022 ACTION MINUTES – These minutes are prepared to depict action taken for agenda items presented to the City Council. For detail of this meeting refer to the electronic media (CD and/or audio) kept as a permanent record. CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Pro Tem Lambert called the City Council Meeting to order at the hour of 6:01 p.m. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Police Chief Brizzee led the pledge of allegiance. ROLL CALL – MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL PRESENT: Council Members Brett Jones, Kenneth Lambert, Deborah Lewis, Refugio LLamas; ABSENT: Mayor Manuel Thomas Faria III. STAFF MEMBERS PRESENT: City Attorney Vaughn, Police Chief Brizzee, City Clerk/Human Resources Director Mallonee, City Treasurer/Accounting & Budget Supervisor Tomas, Community & Economic Development Director Souza Elms, Acting Fire Chief/Police Commander Reyna, Public Works Director/City Engineer Than CONSIDERATION OF APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Motion by Jones, seconded by LLamas to approve the agenda as submitted. The motion carried by the affirmative action of all Council Members present, Faria absent. PRESENTATION – CERTIFICATES OF RECOGNITION – CERTIFICATE OF RECOGNITION – MARIO INIGUEZ, MAINTENANCE MECHANIC I, CITY OF LOS BANOS EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH FOR JULY 2022; CERTIFICATE OF RECOGNITION – PETRINA GILARDI, LOS BANOS HIGH SCHOOL TRACK TEAM ALL LEAGUE HONORS IN THE SAN JOAQUIN WESTERN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE; CERTIFICATE OF RECOGNITION – SYDNEY ROBERTSON, LOS BANOS HIGH SCHOOL TRACK TEAM ALL LEAGUE HONORS IN THE SAN JOAQUIN WESTERN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE; CERTIFICATE OF RECOGNITION – CRYSTAL HERNANDEZ, LOS BANOS HIGH SCHOOL TRACK TEAM ALL LEAGUE HONORS IN THE SAN JOAQUIN WESTERN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE; CERTIFICATE OF RECOGNITION – BEN HOFFMAN, LOS BANOS HIGH SCHOOL TRACK TEAM ALL LEAGUE HONORS IN THE SAN JOAQUIN WESTERN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE; CERTIFICATE OF RECOGNITION – EMMA VAN LOBEN SELS, LOS BANOS HIGH SCHOOL FUTURE FARMERS OF AMERICA ACHIEVEMENTS AT SECTIONALS AND DAIRY CATTLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP. Mayor Pro Tem Lambert presented and read the certificates for Mario Iniguez, Petrina Gilardi, Sydney Robertson, Crystal Hernandez, Ben Hoffman, Emma Van Loben Sels; Mario Iniguez, Sydney Robertson and Crystal Hernandez were present at the Council Meeting to accept the recognition. PRESENTATION – SENATOR ANNA CABALLERO PRESENTATION REGARDING THE 2022 YOUNG LEGISLATORS PROGRAM. Dale Joyce, Representative with Senator Caballero’s office spoke regarding what the Young Legislators Program offers and what the experience was like, which included a PowerPoint presentation. PUBLIC FORUM: MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC MAY ADDRESS THE CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS ON ANY ITEM OF PUBLIC INTEREST THAT IS WITHIN THE JURISDICTION OF THE CITY; INCLUDES AGENDA AND NON-AGENDA ITEMS. NO ACTION WILL BE TAKEN ON NON-AGENDA ITEMS. SPEAKERS ARE LIMITED TO A FIVE (5) MINUTE PRESENTATION. DETAILED GUIDELINES ARE POSTED ON THE COUNCIL CHAMBER INFORMATIONAL TABLE. Mayor Pro Tem Lambert opened the public forum and asked those at the meeting if they would like to speak. JERRY KNOESTER, President of the Los Banos Chamber of Commerce, spoke regarding the upcoming events the Chamber is putting on: Los Banos Christmas Toy Drive, thanked Sutter Health for being a sponsor of the recent Tomato Festival, Fall Street Fair on September 17, 2022, Trunk or Treat on October 20, 2022, Christmas Parade – Christmas Nights Winter Nights on the first Saturday in December at 5:00 pm and how they are looking for sponsors; AMY BONILLAS, spoke on behalf of the homeless and in support of the homeless containment area and her direct personal experience and fears that the containment area will be shut down because of citizen complaints, she would like the City to keep the homeless containment area as is until there is another solution, and urged the Council to please help the most vulnerable population; MR. SANDOVAL, spoke regarding the Christmas Toy Drive they are coordinating and the number of families they helped last year and hopes to help 1,000 families this year, he has the support from the Los Banos Chamber of Commerce in his efforts and urged all to donate and make Los Banos better and bring happiness to families during the holidays; PETER MINOR, Los Banos, spoke regarding the homeless and how he himself has homeless and his experiences, there are few that want to get off the street, most don’t want help and want to stay homeless, the ones that want help are the ones that we need to reach out to and give them help, the negative things the homeless are doing in the community and something has to be done, and if we take away the containment center they will scatter throughout town and not sure that will be better, we need a solution; SHANDRA LEWIS, Assistant Manager and Tenant of Rancho Los Banos Mobile Home Park, spoke to what she has witnessed and what she has endured with the homeless, they are friendly when you give them food but when you are not giving them something they are not friendly, spoke to her personal experiences with the homeless and they are very horrible to watch and experience, they destroy bathroom facilities and trash bins, tap into the city’s water supply to fil up kiddy pools, stolen carts, used drug needles everywhere, yes the homeless need help but it is not her responsibility to do that, numerous confrontations with homeless stealing, they need to follow the law and be accountable to the law; CLAUDIA NUNES, spoke to her experience with the homeless who live behind her and the horrible things she has to witness and that no one else would want to experience with what they are dealing with, they are homeless by choice, they want everything for free, if this was one of you guys going through this you would not be allowing it, we have been asking for help meeting after meeting, the Council needs to do something, the newspaper is very biased and there has been no mention of what we have been dealing with; GALIN SANCHEZ, Los Banos business owner, spoke in support of the Christmas Toy Drive the Sandoval family is coordinating, and how every kid needs to be happy at Christmas time and urged the community to help support the event; NANCY CLINE, read from a prepared statement that is on file with the City Clerk, regarding her concerns with the Animal Shelter facility and operation; ANN McCAULEY spoke regarding how we will have a new Mayor and Council Member and that this current Council should not select a new City Manager and hold off on the selection so that the new the new Council could make the selection, she spoke to how she listened to the meeting earlier during the recruitment interviews and how one recruiter came up with a great solution to include the new council members, the last thing we need to do is have an escape hatch and being able to blame the previous Council; JOHN CORNELL, lives at the trailer park, spoke to how he has been homeless once in his life and feels that there has got to be some kind of way of helping those who want help then get them help and those who don’t want help then give them an ultimatum, what he is really scared about is the open fires that the homeless are setting and how a neighbors mobile home caught on fire, how hard it is for the elderly being able to get out of the mobile home in an emergency in time, the homeless are not all bad people but it just take a couple to screw it up for everyone, how they do drugs and throw their needles everywhere, it’s a mess and they do need to be moved; KATHY BALLARD, Los Banos, stated that she has been coming to Council Meeting for years, inquired as to how much time and money did we wasted on the city’s insurance overview, how much did we waste to totally go off grid with the recruitment of the last City Manager and now we are having to go through the process all over again, how divided the Council is and you held off to have Mayor Faria involved but wait he will not be Mayor, you need to get your act together and work together and not be wasting time; MIKE HUGHES, Commander of the VFW, spoke regarding the upcoming Veterans Parade on November 5th that honors our veterans, the first and third Thursday of every month we have a Veterans Service Office staffed to help them get the services they deserve along with the ATLAS Pod Program; RAMON GOMES, he is here today regarding how he tried to move his fence last week and someone reported him to the Police Department Code Enforcement to tell him to stop and he had to move his fence back, a lot of the houses are in the same situation, who does he need to talk to get help with the situation and wants to do things right and thanked the City Council for your time. Mayor Pro Tem Lambert asked the City Clerk if she had received any comments to be read into the record. City Clerk Mallonee stated that she received the following comment that is on file with the City Clerk: KASEY MILLER, Park Operator at Los Banos Mobile home Park wrote a detailed account of the issues and concerns with the homeless encampment near their homes and how enough is enough, the city need to do the right by our residents and move this camp elsewhere. No one else came forward to speak and the public forum was closed. CONSIDERATION OF APPROVAL OF CONSENT AGENDA. Motion by Jones, seconded by LLamas to approve the consent agenda as follows: Check Register for #234254 - #234509 in the Amount of $842,101.03; minutes for the July 20, 2022 City Council Meeting; Minutes for the August 3, 2022 City Council Meeting; City Council Resolution No. 6535 – Reauthorizing Remote Teleconference Meetings of the Legislative Bodies of the City of Los Banos Pursuant to the Provisions of AB 361; City Council Resolution No. 6536 – Authorizing the Interim City Manager of Los Banos to Enter into a Memorandum of Understanding for the City of Los Banos and the Los Banos Unified School District as it Pertains to Emergency Medical Services for District Sponsored Events; City Council Resolution No. 6537 – Authorizing the Interim City Manager to Execute a Professional Services Agreement with Gouveia Engineering, Inc. for On-Call Airport Engineering Services; City Council Resolution No. 6538 – Authorizing the Interim City Manager to Execute a Professional Services Agreement, and the Public Works Director/City Engineer to Administer with O’Dell Engineering, QK Inc., and Callander Associates Landscape Architecture Inc. (CALA) for On-Call Landscape Architecture, Landscape Plan Check, and Landscape Inspection Services; City Council Resolution No. 6539 – Authorizing the Interim City Manager to Execute a Measure V Local Funding Agreement with Merced County Association of Governments for the Administration of the Local Projects Funding From Measure V; City Council Resolution No. 6540 – Amending City Council Resolution No. 5248 Relating to the City’s Conflict of Interest Code. The motion carried by the affirmative action of all Council Members present, Faria absent. TRAFFIC CALMING MEASURES: SPEED CUSHION POLICY AND PROCEDURE REPORT; CITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION NO. 6541 – APPROVING AND ADOPTING THE REVISED TRAFFIC CALMING MEASURES: SPEED CUSHION POLICY AND PROCEDURES. Public Works Director/City Engineer Than presented the staff report, which included a PowerPoint presentation. There was Council Member and staff discussion regarding if there is any room for flexibility for approval if there other outstanding demands, perceived speeding problems, how the devices are permanent, the impact of the adjacent streets, appeal removal process if there are issues, the meaning behind arterial and collector streets, cost of doing these projects individually, money be allocated by quadrants/districts in the city, how District 4 and District 1 have been using the funding to date, and Council Member Lewis requested that this be put on the agenda for review in August 2023 for review and update and reconsider putting money in District pots so that each District has funds to spend. Motion by Lewis, seconded by LLamas to adopt City Council Resolution No. 6541 – Approving and Adopting the Revised Traffic Calming Measures: Speed Cushion Policy and Procedures. The motion carried by the affirmative action of all Council Members present, Faria absent. APPOINT MEMBER TO THE FOLLOWING COMMITTEE: MEASURE H CITIZENS’ OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE – THREE (3) VACANCIES, ONE (1) UNEXPIRED TERM – EXPIRING DECEMBER 31, 2023. Motion by Jones, seconded by LLamas to appoint Rita Erickson to Measure H Citizens’ Oversight Committee, Term – Expiring December 31, 2023. The motion carried by the affirmative action of all Council Members present, Faria absent. COUNCIL MEMBER REQUEST – DISCUSSION REGARDING THE CONTINUED OPERATION/CLOSURE OF THE RAIL-TRAIL ENCAMPMENT (COUNCIL MEMBER JONES). Police Chief Brizzee presented the staff report, which included a PowerPoint presentation. There was Council Member and staff discussion regarding if the encampment was torn down would they still stay in that area, why have we not begun to do something, how we have a funding issue, a staffing issue, how moving the location would just be shifting the problem to the another location, the city’s water tower location could be an issue, no viable alternate location on city land, need more funding sources to have more manpower and solutions, concerns with graffiti, no easy answer, sympathy for the mobile home park residents, how there was a problem before the encampment was established, how this did not come before the City Council when it was put up, the location or where it was going never came to City Council for approval, there is no right answer but every citizen requires relief, another location would be the ideal site but finding one is hard, the people at the mobile home park need relief from what they are experiencing and it’s not fair to them to have to continue to endure what they are experiencing, the need to take some type of action to give immediate relief to those that are asking for it, the need to move it further away from the mobile home park, this is an unusual situation, there is no relief from the State to help homeless, there are different types of homeless, the ones in the homeless encampment are the ones who want to be homeless, the City will run out of funding without assistance from the State of California, how the State has done away with funding ad services for the chronically mentally ill especially in Merced County, how we do not have enough Police Officers and Code Enforcement Officers to handle the situation, and how we need to figure something out and be more proactive with solutions, we need to help them, how the current situation with Council makes it difficult to do our job, CCID had a homeless issue and they were removed but the mobile home park doesn’t get the same response, how pointing fingers at each other is not getting the job done and doesn’t help our staff get the job done, just causes a motivational problem, shutting down the encampment will just make it harder to get grant funding, what can we do to help the residents of the trailer park, shutting down the homeless encampment will force them out but some will come back, maybe put up a bigger privacy fence, how if we shut the encampment down we may lose funding, if Project Room Key directly tied to the homeless encampment. City Attorney Vaughn cautioned the City Council to not reveal a location as the site being discussed tonight may have some environmental concerns and land covenant issues, there are noticing issues, you could ask staff to identify further locations for staff to look into and bring back to City Council for consideration. City Manager Wellman stated that this has been something that staff has agonized over, it is real clear to him that no one wants to continue to do what we are doing, we need to have a relentless approach and we need to keep on doing the best we can, Los Banos is doing a great job compared to others. Motion by Jones, seconded by LLamas to have staff look for options and search for alternate locations and bring back to City Council for further discussion and consideration. The motion carried by the affirmative action of all Council Members present, Faria absent. COUNCIL MEMBER REQUEST – PRESENTATION REGARDING AN OVERVIEW OF THE LOS BANOS ANIMAL SHELTER CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN (COUNCIL MEMBER LEWIS). Police Chief Brizzee presented the staff report, which included a PowerPoint presentation. There was Council Member and staff discussion regarding what the Fresno Animal Shelter is like, could the City set up a booth with the Chamber of Commerce to offer spay and neuter vouchers, how the airport is not going anywhere and the need to start planning to build a new animal shelter rather than putting something up that is temporary, inviting the community to come with solutions, find funding to help building a new animal shelter, maybe private funding is out there, being sure to engage with members of the public and nonprofit organizations to make sure we are maximizing our full potential, how designing a new facility needs a lot of thought and expertise, would like to see more staffing at the animal shelter, how the current animal shelter needs major improvements, with maybe intake and adoption sides, cat rooms that were air conditioned, how we can’t rely on volunteers because volunteerism is not as strong as it used to be, and that rescuing animals is very strong. ADVISEMENT OF PUBLIC NOTICES. (No Report) CITY MANAGER REPORT. Interim City Manager Wellman reported that today we finished up interviewing for our Fire Chief and until we have something of substance to report that’s all he can report, paid tribute to Police Commander Reyna for setting up all the interviews, how he has had productive meetings with the Public Works Director/City Engineer Than and Community & Economic Development Director Elms regarding water issues and concerns, we need to be mindful of the healthcare issues in the city, and we need to get something going to improve those services. REPORT/UPDATE ON MERCED COUNTY ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTS (MCAG), PENINSULA CLEAN ENERGY (PCE), AND MEASURE V COMMITTEE. No report CITY COUNCIL MEMBER REPORTS. REFUGIO LLAMAS: Thanked everyone for the conversation tonight regarding certain issues and how they are positive conversation to resolving issues, water issues and concerns are something that we need to start considering or adding to the discussion, apologized to the recruitment firms who came forward to be interviewed earlier before the meeting and no action wat taken, and stated that the folks experiencing issues with the homeless encampment your concerns are not lost on me. KENNETH LAMBERT: Stated that he appreciates everyone who did a presentation today, there is a lot going on in the city, it is not easy to make some of the decisions that we make but we make them for the best of the city, and how we have to keep pushing. DEBORAH LEWIS: Stated that she appreciates our staff and the time they put in for the reports, things are stressful right now for a lot of reasons in our city and she appreciates what they do, we need to start working together and not feeding information to the community that is untrue, staff is working hard and we need to support them and I want them to know that they have my support, she is concerned about the community as a whole, we have to be mindful of the changes that are going on, and she is looking forward to the progress we are moving forward with. BRETT JONES: No report MAYOR TOM FARIA: Absent CLOSED SESSION – CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL – ANTICIPATED LITIGATION, SIGNIFICANT EXPOSURE TO LITIGATION PURSUANT TO § 54956.9(B): (ONE POTENTIAL CASE). No reportable action taken. ADJOURNMENT. The meeting at 9:25 p.m. APPROVED: /s/ Kenneth Lambert_________ Kenneth Lambert, Mayor Pro Tem ATTEST: /s/ Lucille L. Mallonee_________ Lucille L. Mallonee, City Clerk