MINUTES
CITY OF DELANO
CITY COUNCIL – SPECIAL MEETING
September 13, 2023
CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Alindajao called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers, 1015 – 11th Avenue.
INVOCATION
Pastor David Vivas offered the invocation.
FLAG SALUTE
Interim Chief Nicholson led flag salute.
ROLL CALL
Council members present: Mayor Joe Alindajao, Mayor Pro Tem Salvador Solorio-Ruiz, Mario Nunez, Jr., Liz Morris, Veronica Vasquez
Council members absent: NONE
OFFICIALS PRESENT
City Manager Reyna, Finance Director Lara Rios, City Engineer Dowling, Interim Chief Nicholson, Economic Development Specialist Fernandez
SPECIAL AGENDA ITEM
1) Resolution of the Delano City Council to accept and approve the City of Delano’s Biennial Operating and Capital Improvement Projects Budgets for the fiscal years FY 23/24 & FY 24/25
Mayor Alindajao opened the public comment.
1. Yolanda Vega, I reside at 1803 Terrace Place. I hope that in the budget it’s taken into consideration that in all fairness, I think employees should receive the compensation that they deserve for all the work that they do. However, one of my concerns is in the previous council meeting, there was talk about being fiscally responsible. I think one of the things I hope the city council takes into consideration regarding the budget is that the city manager and the city department heads, I would like to know why they are not responsible and are exempt for paying their own taxes and social security. Everything that we must pay as community members we pay in our paychecks. I hope that City Council would take this into consideration of the budget. Why are they not fiscally responsible for paying their own taxes and why does this fall on the city to pay that for them if all the city employees are also having to pay that as well. Thank you.
Mayor Alindajao closed public comment.
Council Member Morris: I am good with the budget as it is. However, in the future, as the city grows. As our revenues from sales tax continue to grow, I would like us to put more money into recreation. I think it is important for our community that instead of having kids pay for their shirts and stuff like that. I think the city should accommodate them with parks and recreation needs. That’s the only real comment that I have. Everything else that I see is pretty much on target and even with the revenues and expenditures.
Council Member Vasquez: I was going to ask if we were not going to get a power point presentation with detailed information? So that the community can see what the budget is, see the graphs, and talk about the detailed information. Are we just getting a binder? That’s it.
Mayor Alindajao: Yeah, that’s it.
Council Member Vasquez: I was expecting actually a presentation of all the information. So, that the community can have an idea of what the money is going towards and what’s happening in a presentation.
I’m used to seeing that, I’ve been to many budget hearings as a community person. Especially for the Kern County Supervisors and it’s very detailed and it gives you the graphs, it gives you where the money is going to. You actually have a couple of hearings, but I thought if we’re only having one hearing, at least we could provide that detailed information to the community. That would be helpful because just getting a binder is helpful for me but it’s not helpful for the rest of the community to know the details.
Mayor Alindajao: Other than wanting to see that.
Council Member Vasquez: Well, that’s the reason I didn’t have questions or wasn’t going to talk on it because I thought we would see something. We would have open conversation. I didn’t know I was just going to get a binder and that’s it. So, with that being said I guess I’ll come next meeting with all my questions and talk to the community people about it then because I don’t feel like this is really open to the community and being informational. So, thank you.
Mayor Alindajao: Comments are noted.
Mayor Pro Tem Solorio-Ruiz: I want to first off, thank staff for meeting with me. I know that I sat on the enterprise fund committee, and I appreciate answering the questions that I had in that meeting about what a necessity is, what is a want, and what is a requirement that we must move forward towards. I think it’s similar in the proposed budget as a whole. I read it and I think it’s a budget that really represents our values as a community. That’s the saying that we hear in policy that a budget should reflect the values of the community of what we want to prioritize and etcetera. I think we are being fiscally responsible in terms of equally distributing the amounts to our departments. Prioritizing what matters such as our public safety sector, our employees, making sure that they have a living wage and can retain the employees that we have and the talent that we have in the city. Also, our community as a whole and the involvement that different other sectors and departments have such as our parks and rec and other such departments. I do want to also note that this budget is online on our website in the near future. This is going to be on there.
The community can always reach out to any of the council members that are up here to say, “hey, you know, can we sit and talk about this? I’m very passionate about our public works and I’m very passionate about etcetera and public safety.” We can then meet with city staff and go through the motions of the questions that community folks have. I think overall, it represents our values and I just want to give a shout out again to staff for doing it. I think we come here and look at it, but all of you really dissect it and figure out a way to keep Delano on track for growth. So, thank you.
Mayor Alindajao: I don’t have too many comments, I just want to say, thank you to the City Manager and Rosa Rios, our Finance Director and all your staff. You guys put a lot of hard work into it. You’re presenting a balanced budget and so that’s always a great thing, right? I remember there were years when it wasn’t so balanced and a lot of times we were in a deficit. It’s been by the grace of God and the help of the community and staff. It’s been a balanced budget in the right direction for many years now. So, thank you for all the work that goes into it. I also want to thank Council Member Nunez, Council Member Morris, and the Vice Mayor for their work on the individual budget committees. You know, sometimes those are two-part meetings that can go on for at least eight hours. It’s a lot of tedious work. I know Rosa’s work is very tedious. So, thank you for all your hard work. I do think after viewing at least the general budget side of it, I do believe that the budget reflects on the city’s priorities, public safety, to economic development, to housing, and to recreation. I do like Council Member Morris’ comments about perhaps investing more into parks or recreation that is and I think in the future we can discuss that but I think it does it’s not only balanced but it does reflect the priorities of the community. So, congratulations to everyone. To everyone’s work on that. So, with that, that’s all the comments I have. I’ll invite a motion to approve the budget.
Motion to approve as presented by: Solorio-Ruiz
2nd by: Nunez
Vote: 5-0
Ayes: Solorio-Ruiz/Nunez/Alindajao/Vasquez/Morris
Nays: None
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
ADJOURNMENT
Moved by Morris, seconded by Solorio-Ruiz and unanimously carried 5-0 to adjourn the meeting at 5:42p.m.
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Nancy Garcia, City Clerk