Visalia City Council

City Council Chambers City of Visalia 707 W. Acequia Ave. Visalia, CA City Council Meeting Minutes - Final Mayor Steve Nelsen Vice Mayor Brian Poochigian Council Member Greg Collins Council Member Brett Taylor Council Member Liz Wynn Monday, September 20, 2021 7:00 PM Council Chambers * TOUR OF THE FIRE DEPARTMENT'S SQUAD 51 EMERGENCY RESPONSE VEHICLE * Squad 51 will be available for Council and Staff to tour prior to the start of the work session and will be parked at the Council Chambers at 4:30 p.m. The tour is also available to media and citizens. Fire Department representatives will be present to facilitate the tour and answer questions. CALL TO ORDER WORK SESSION - 5:00 PM The meeting was called to order at 5:00 p.m. Present: Mayor Steve Nelsen, Vice Mayor Brian Poochigian, Council Member Greg Collins, Council Member Brett Taylor, and Council Member Liz Wynn PUBLIC COMMENTS Citizens are now invited to comment on issues within the jurisdiction of the Visalia City Council. 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 is expired. Please begin your comments by stating and spelling your name and providing your city of residence. WORK SESSION AND ACTION ITEMS (as described) 1. EMPLOYEE INTRODUCTIONS / RECOGNITION 21-0526 Mayra Maldonado, Business Tax Accounting Assistant Craig Perry, Waste Water Treatment Plant Operations Supervisor, Brandon Smith, Principal Planner Page 1 of 8 City Council Meeting Minutes - Final September 20, 2021 2. Receive Presentation and Update on the Visalia Police 21-0518 Department Operations and Staffing. Chief Salazar, Captain Luma Fahoum, Captain Candido Alvarez, provided the Visalia Police Department Operations and staffing annual report. Chief Salazar provided the trends in crimes for the City of Visalia from 2010 to 2020 as the crimes trend lines shows a reduction in Part 1 Crimes. ADJOURN TO CLOSED SESSION The meeting adjourned to Closed Session at 5:53 p.m. CALL TO ORDER REGULAR SESSION - 7:00 PM The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE INVOCATION SWEARING IN: PAUL BERNAL, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR ITEMS OF INTEREST The Council commented on various activities they participated in the last few weeks. Councilmember Collins asked for a future discussion regarding the vaccination rate. PUBLIC COMMENTS Page 2 of 8 City Council Meeting Minutes - Final September 20, 2021 This is the time for citizens to comment on subject matters that are not on the agenda and within the jurisdiction of the Visalia City Council. The Council asks that you keep your comments brief and positive. Creative criticism, presented with appropriate courtesy, is welcome. This is also the time for citizens to request an item from the Consent Calendar be pulled for discussion purposes. Public comments related to all pulled Consent Calendar items and Regular or Public Hearing items listed on the agenda will be heard at the time that item is discussed or when the Public Hearing is opened. Each speaker will be allowed three minutes, and a timer will notify you when your time is expired. Please begin your comments by stating and spelling your name and providing your city of residence. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kathy Falconer, Visalia requested item 8 to be pulled from the Consent Calendar. Paul Bernal, Community Development Director, pulled item 4 from the Consent Calendar. CONSENT CALENDAR Consent Calendar items are considered routine and will be enacted in one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these matters unless a request is made and then the item will be removed from the Consent Calendar to be discussed and voted upon by a separate motion . Approval of the Consent Agenda A motion was made by Council Member Taylor, seconded by Vice Mayor Poochigian, to approve the Consent Agenda. The motion carried by the following vote: Aye: Steve Nelsen, Brian Poochigian, Greg Collins, Brett Taylor, and Liz Wynn 2. Second reading and adoption of Ordinance No. 2021-07 21-0450 authorizing the sale of APN 094-283-001 (300 E Oak Ave.) to Self Help Enterprises at a pre-authorized selling price of $1,200,000. (4/5’s vote required) Approved 5-0 3. Authorize the City Manager to award a sole-source equipment 21-0455 procurement contract with Brentwood Industries Inc. in an amount of $177,107.82 for equipment and material related to Primary Clarifier one renovations at the City of Visalia Water Reclamation Facility. Approved 5-0 Page 3 of 8 City Council Meeting Minutes - Final September 20, 2021 5. Authorize the City Manager to execute the Administering 21-0462 Agency-State Master Agreement (No. 06-5044S21) for State-only Funded Projects between the City of Visalia and the California Department of Transportation; and designate the City Engineer to execute Program Supplement agreements, as well as any future amendments or related agreements as required to receive State funding for transportation related projects. Adoption of Resolution 2021-52 required. Approved 5-0 6. Request authorization to record the final parcel map for Tentative 21-0464 Parcel Map No. 2021-04, located at the southeast corner of Plaza Drive and Kibler Avenue (APN: 077-120-018). Approved 5-0 7. Authorize the City Manager to execute an Emergency Medical 21-0481 and Pharmaceutical Supplies contract with Bound Tree Medical LLC to supply emergency medical supplies and emergency pharmaceutical supplies to the Visalia Fire Department up to $55,000.00 per year or $110,000 over a two-year period if second year of contract is triggered. Approved 5-0 9. Accept and appropriate the Selective Traffic Enforcement 21-0520 Program (STEP) FY 2021/22 Grant in the amount of $235,000 awarded by the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) and authorize the Chief of Police to execute the Grant Agreement. Approved 5-0 10. Appointment of Zishan Lokhandwala to serve a two-year term on 21-0521 the Building Advisory Committee. Approved 5-0 REGULAR ITEMS AND PUBLIC HEARINGS Comments related to regular Items and Public Hearing Items are limited to three minutes per speaker, for a maximum of 30 minutes per item. The Mayor may reasonably limit or extend the public comment period to preserve the Council's interest in conducting efficient, orderly meetings. Page 4 of 8 City Council Meeting Minutes - Final September 20, 2021 4. Authorize the annexation of four new lots into Landscape and 21-0461 Lighting Assessment District (L&LD) No. 20-04, “Walnut Park Estates” a subdivision located on West Hillsdale Avenue and west of Preston Street (Resolution Nos. 2021-48, 2021-49). Paul Bernal, Community Development Director, requested item 4 to be pulled and tabled to a future council meeting to remedy an error found in the resolution after the agenda was published. A motion was made by Vice Mayor Brian Poochigian, seconded by Council Member Brett Taylor, to table the item to a future council meeting. Aye: Steve Nelsen, Brian Poochigian, Greg Collins, Brett Taylor, and Liz Wynn Page 5 of 8 City Council Meeting Minutes - Final September 20, 2021 8. Authorization to allow the City Manager to award contract for 21-0515 processing of City collected recyclables (RFP 20-21-46) to Pena’s Disposal in the amount not to exceed $540,000 annually for up to three years for a total not to exceed cost of $1,620,000. Jason Serpa, Public Works Manager, explained the statistics for the disposal of recycled material is up 150% which is very high and more residual than other cities. Kathy Falconer, Visalia, a member of the New Visalia Environmental Alliance thanked the city for the work they do picking up the trash and the efforts to recycle. One consideration is the amount of waste. Visalia collects 38,000 pounds of recycled materials. Some of the product gets contaminated and through the hard work of Pena's Disposal it is sorted. The work is labor intensive. Finally the Environment Alliance wants to bring a clean product to the site, what is the impact on the city. Male Melkonian, Visalia, what percentage of the collected recycled material that you receive are actually being recycled and what percentage is going to landfill? Jason Serpa, Public Works Manager, stated the percentage is 65%. Art Pena with Pena's disposal stated we would need a trash cop to monitor residual and it would be very difficult to monitor. Also, there are some plastics that are not recyclable material that end up in the recycle side. Nick Mascia, Public Works Director stated the efforts are being ramped up to educate citizens about recycling to improve the 35% of contamination. A motion was made by Vice Mayor Brian Poochigian, seconded by Council Member Greg Collins, to approve as recommended.. The motion carried by the following vote: Aye: Steve Nelsen, Brian Poochigian, Greg Collins, Brett Taylor, and Liz Wynn Page 6 of 8 City Council Meeting Minutes - Final September 20, 2021 1. Public Hearing and City Council District Decennial Redistricting 21-0522 Presentation. The public hearing was opened at 7:00 p.m. Jeff Tilton, National Demographics Corporation, provided the information regarding the District Decennial Redistricting process. Tonight is the second of four hearings. The initial hearing was held last month with staff and the Measure N Oversight Committee. This hearing is called a pre-draft map hearing to educate the public and solicit input on communities of interest and neighborhoods. The census data was delayed due to the pandemic. National Demographics Corporation received the census data on August 12, 2021; however, the California Department of Corrections has not yet released the data for inmates to be counted and included in the final census data. The inmate data was supposed to be released today (9/20) and has not been received yet. The deadline to complete this process is April 17, 2022. The City of Visalia has set January 10, 2022 as the date for Council to vote on a map. As part of the four public hearings staff and NDC have set up 2 public workshops in an attempt to engage members of the community and help define the communities of interest and learn about the mapping tools. October 13, 2021 and October 23, 2021 are the dates for the 2 public workshops. NDC will return on December 6, 2021 with draft maps for Council to review, deliberate and narrow down for the January 10, 2022 meeting for map adoption. The City of Visalia has invested in some mapping tools. DistrictR is an online tool to draw a district map. It has 4 pieces to it and he believes is the simplest tool. Caliper's has a digital tool called "Maptitude Online Redistricting". Mr. Tilton stated this tool requires patience and a lot of skill. One tip is do not use the back button. The following citizens spoke during the Public Hearing: Maile Melkonian., Visalia, asked about the August 23 public meeting because the League of Women Voters missed the notice for the August 23 public meeting. What is the role of Measure N Committee? Allison Mackey, Communications Manager, stated all committees and commissions can submit a map. Leslie Caviglia, City Manager, offered to meet with Ms. Melkonian to discuss the function of the Measure N Committee. When does NDC plan to draw the draft maps? The map drawing workshops, what is the purpose of the workshops? Jeff Tilton, NDC, explained the public hearings and the use of the Measure N Oversight Committee for outreach. If a commission is not used one of the public Page 7 of 8 City Council Meeting Minutes - Final September 20, 2021 hearings can be facilitated by staff. The deadlines and timelines are in the presentation. It does not matter when the maps on drawn, Council will look at all of the maps that are submitted by November 22, 2021 and can adopt a map at the January 10, 2022 public hearing. 3. Public hearing to consider and adopt a Resolution of Necessity 21-0502 to acquire portions from three separate properties APN 077-780-003; 077-640-001, and 077-650-001 generally located along Shirk Street between Riggin Avenue and Goshen Avenue for the purpose of widen Shirk Street. Resolution 2021-51 required. Jim Koontz, Assistant City Attorney, explained this project involves the widening of Shirk Street, specifically the east side of Shirk Street so that the four lanes of travel called for to meet level of service requirements stated in the Circulation Element of the Visalia General Plan can be completed throughout the project area. To achieve the widening along the easterly side of Shirk Street, this project requires right-of-way acquisitions from the three properties described in the report. The Public Hearing is required for the Resolution of Necessity. The Public Hearing was opened at 8:07 p.m. There were no public comments. A motion was made by Council Member Brett Taylor, seconded by Vice Mayor Brian Poochigian, to adopt. The motion carried by the following vote: CLOSED SESSION REPORT ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 8:10 p.m. Page 8 of 8