MINUTES
GATEWAY City Council Meeting
Council Chamber, Chowchilla City Hall
TO 130 S. 2nd Street, Chowchilla, CA 93610
PROSPERI 1933 Tuesday, June 10, 2025
FEBRUARY
Closed Session: 3:00 p.m. | Open Session: 4:00 p.m.
CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL
Mayor: Kelly Smith
Mayor Pro Tem: Jeff Troost
Council Members: Waseem Ahmed (absent), Ray Barragan (absent), John Chavez City staff and contract employees present: City Administrator Pruett, City Attorney Mary Lerner, Police Chief Jeff Palmer, Fire Chief Fred Gaumnitz, Public Works Director Jason Rogers, Finance Director Kerri Williams, Director of Recreation & Community Engagement Stacy Wisener, IT System Administrator Carlos Berrocal, City Clerk Joann McClendon
CONSIDERATION OF APPROVAL OF AGENDA
Additions and/or Deletions:
Motion by Chavez, Seconded by Troost to Table Item 3.3 and bring it back to council on June 24, 2025. Motion passed with Council Members Ahmed and Barragan absent.
PUBLIC ADDRESS - CLOSED SESSION
No one spoke.
CLOSED SESSION - 3:00 PM
1. CONFERENCE WITH LABOR NEGOTIATORS
Pursuant to Government Code Section 54957.6
Agency Designated Representatives: City Administrator Rod Pruett Employee Organizations: City Office Employees Association, City Employees Association, Mid Management/Confidential Association, and Unrepresented Employees OPEN SESSION - 4:00 PM
CLOSED SESSION REPORT: No reportable action.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Cooper Troost
INVOCATION: Cooper Troost
PRESENTATIONS/WORKSHOP - Section 1
PUBLIC ADDRESS
No reportable action.
COUNCIL AND STAFF VERBAL REPORTS - Section 2
City Council Meeting MINUTES June 10, 2025
2.1 COUNCIL VERBAL REPORTS
Legislative, Collaborative Agency, Ad Hoc
Council Member Chavez he thanked Director Wisener and the Fire Department for letting him ride on the truck with his grandkids at the parade; they really enjoyed it.
Mayor Pro Tem Troost, on June 3, attended the Citizens Advisory Committee meeting at the Valley Air District in Fresno.
Health workers anded the superintendents, the Police her, Fire Chie, DIrector Wisener and the City Administrator. Full house meeting; a very productive meeting.
2.2 STAFF VERBAL REPORTS
Police Chief Palmer reported that Chowchilla Police Department responded to 1229 calls for service, conducted 583 proactive stops resulting in 39 misdemeanor arrests 9 felony arrests; 38 citations were issued; Code Enforcement responded to 37 calls and took 11 different actions.
He noted there is always comments made via social media in regards to animal control issues.
He added that it's important for the community and Council to know how amazing of a job our Animal Control Officer's doing. The Animal Control stats from this year alone (since January) are as follows: 789 calls conducted, 383 self-initiate calls which resulted in 61 dogs being taken since January. Of those 61 dogs that we've had to take in, only six owners came to reclaim; that means we use Animal Control to deal with the remaining dogs and try to find adoptions, rescues, different types of things to ultimately or eventually have to put them down. This is the last thing we want to do. Animal Control has also taken in 40 different cats and issued 19 different citations for various violations in just a five-month period. We're just asking pet owners to please be responsible. Again, he just wanted to highlight that the Animal Control officer is doing an amazing job and the community definitely looks better because of it.
Fire Chief Gaumnitz and the Fire Department attended both graduations at Wilson Middle School and Chowchilla Union High School. His staff was there for medical standby, so a thank you to them for doing that. This last month his department had 91 total calls with an individual response rate of 489. Additionally, the Madera County Grand Jury looked into several fire departments within the county. The Chowchilla Fire Department was one of them. The City's Volunteer Fire Department and that Grand Jury report is made public today and available for public viewing. The Department's response to that report will be included, if there's anything we need to fact check or change, at a future date. And finally, Weed Abatement is near completion.
You'll see several properties that look much better.
Public Works Director Rogers met with Caltrans and Madera County Transportation Commission (MCT) recently regarding the roundabouts project. Caltrans is currently working on the right way acquisition and earing 60% design, unfortunately we also receive news that our application for local partnership program funding was not selected for award by the MCTC. This means we have a funding short fall on the project. Staff will continue to work with MCTC and Caltrans to complete the design work and identify next steps related to either other funding sources or potentially phasing in the project. We've also been made aware that there's been some comments on social media regarding watering of the Little League fields; there is an issue with one of the irrigation's mains and have been in contact with Little League. However, in order to repair it, now it's a major repair, would negatively impact the Little League season. As a result of discussion in partnership with Little League, we are employing alternative watering measures and will fully fix the issue once they are off-season. They're aware of that, they requested that as well so that the season doesn't get truncated. They've stated that field conditions have improved since that time and that they're happy with the field conditions.
City Council Meeting MINUTES June 10, 2025
Finance Director Williams has been continuing to work on the 2025/26 fiscal year budget and attending negotiations with the City Administrator.
Director of Recreation & Community Engagement Wisener reported that since the last council meeting, staff continues coordination of the summer programming including Music in the Park.
Movies in the Park and the Community Block Party that's coming up August 22. Open Swim officially opened yesterday with 74 swimmers; huge number for our first day. In the past there were no swimmers on the first day so staff was pretty shocked. The new sports concession stand is emptied and cleaned out ready to be prepped for painting. Staff have ordered the rollup doors and the windows, so progress is being made. Little League will be hosting All-Star games and Adult Recreation Softball League will begin June 18. Youth Softball travel team is also active. At the Senior Center, Rose Furniture is scheduled to do flooring repairs June 20 through the 22, and staff has identified tripping hazards that need to be fixed so they'll be working on that, too. The Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics will be June 18 and they'll come to Chowchilla at 9:30 a.m. and end at Veterans Park. We maintain regular community outreach with weekly social media post in our news bulletin.
IT System Administrator Berrocal has been slowly rolling out Windows 11 upgrades to all the machines in the City and last week IT began to ramp that up since we're seeing minimal issues to non-issues.
City Administrator Pruett attended the Community Task Force meeting; noted f he presented a situation to the Task Force of the City being contacted by social worker for family that had a child in the hospital for quite some time and need to have 24-hour home care but were having some issues with cost of PG&E bills. The mom cannot work due to the 24-hour care, so he had asked if there were any programs that could help them. HE received a response back from somebody from the County that there is a program and we passed the information along to the family's social worker. That is one of the benefits of having that meeting. Labor negotiations, and working with the Finance Director as well on the budget; he completed a couple of mandatory continuing professional education courses. He was contacted by Rancho Calera regarding the billboards on the berms. They are going to be replacing them after notifying them of their condition. Rancho Calera asked if the City had a slogan to place on one of the billboards and decided to address that with the council at their next meeting He continues to work with Community Facilities District (CFD) development; met with Orchard View as well in regards to Development Impact Fee Program that was brought at the last council meeting. Attended a meeting with Director Rogers, MCT regarding Measure T, other issues we're talking about that meeting that might be put on the back burner now, in terms of allocation of regional funds for me and phas ve not one ta Measure T for the roundabout project. It might be Phase one and Phase two, it is not known what's going to happen yet, however staff will keep the council updated CONSENT CALENDAR - Section 3
3.1 Approval of the May 27, 2025 Regular City Council Meeting Minutes (McClendon)
3.2 Consideration and Acceptance of the May 2025 Check Register Report (Williams)
3.3 Second Reading and Adoption of Municipal Code Chapter 18 Zone Text Amendment Application Ne. 26-0094; and Approval of a City Council Resolution Approving General Plan Amendment Application No. 25-0094 to Implement 19 Programs Within the City's Adopted Housing Element and the Accompanied Notice of Exemption (Quintana)
3.4 Consideration and Acceptance of the Quarterly Financial Investment Report (Williams)
City Council Meeting MINUTES June 10, 2025
3.5 Consideration and Adoption of a City Council Resolution Designating Eligible Projects for Fiscal Year 2025-26 Funded by SB1: The Road Maintenance and Accountability Act of 2017 (Rogers)
Motion by Mayor Pro Tem Troost, Seconded by Council Member Chavez to Approve the Consent Calendar as Amended. Motion passed by roll call vote with Council Members Ahmed and Barragan absent.
PUBLIC HEARINGS - Section 4
4.1 Introduction and First Reading of an Ordinance Adding Section 9.29 - Abandoned Shopping Carts to the Chowchilla Municipal Code (Palmer) Mayor Smith opened the public hearing at 4:18 p.m. No one came forward for or against the item.
Mayor Smith closed the public hearing a 4:18 p.m.
Motion by Mayor Pro Tem Troost, Seconded by Council Member Chavez to Accept the Introduction and Waive the First Reading of an Ordinance Adding Section 9.29 - Abandoned Shopping Carts to the Chowchilla Municipal Code. Motion passed with Council Members Ahmed and Barragan absent.
4.2 Consideration of a Public Hearing on Employment Vacancies and Recruitment Efforts (AB 2561) (McClendon)
Mayor Smith opened the public hearing at 4:22 p.m. No one came forward for or against the item.
Mayor Smith closed the public hearing at 4:22 p.m.
DEFERRED BUSINESS - Section 5
5.1 Second Reading and Adoption of a City Council Ordinance to Repeal Ordinance #417- 01 (Heritage Preservation Commission) (Wisener)
Motion by Council Member Chavez, Seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Troost to Adopt City Council Ordinance # 529-25, Repealing Ordinance 417-01 (Heritage Preservation Commission). Motion passed with Council Members Ahmed and Barragan absent.
NEW BUSINESS - Section 6
6.1 Consideration and Adoption of a City Council Resolution Approving an Offer from the California Department of Transportation for a Temporary Construction Easement Regarding City Property Located at 145 Robertson Boulevard (Rogers) Motion by Mayor Pro Tem Troost, Seconded by Council Member Chavez to Approve City Council Resolution # 40-25, Approving an Offer from the California Department of Transportation for a Temporary Construction Easement Regarding City Property Located at 145 Robertson Boulevard. Motion passed with Council Members Ahmed and Barragan absent.
6.2 City of Chowchilla 2025/26 Fiscal Year Budget Workshop (Williams) ANNOUNCEMENTS - Section 7
JUN 13 MUSIC IN THE PARK & VENDOR FAIR, VETERANS PARK, 5:30PM JUN 14 MOVIES IN THE PARK, VETERANS PARK, 8PM
JUN 18 PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING, COUNCIL CHAMBERS, 5PM JUN 20 MUSIC IN THE PARK & VENDOR FAIR, VETERANS PARK, 5:30PM JUN 21 MOVIES IN THE PARK, VETERANS PARK, 8PM
City Council Meeting MINUTES June 10, 2025
JUN 24 CITY CouNcIL MeetIng, CoUNCIL ChaMBers, 4PM
BEGINNING JUNE 9 THROUGH JULY 25, SUMMER OPEN SWIM PROGRAM, CUHS SWIMMING POOL
ADJOURNMENT
Mayor Smith Adjourned the June 10, 2025 City Council Meeting at 5:26 p.m. in Honor of Lloyd "Tuffy" Smith.
ATTEST: APPROVED:
• Quit
Joann McClendon, CMC, City Clerk Mayor Kelly Smith