MINUTES
CITY OF DELANO
CITY COUNCIL – REGULAR MEETING
June 03, 2024
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 Angelo Frazier offered the invocation.
FLAG SALUTE
Mayor Alindajao led the flag salute.
ROLL CALL
Council members present: Mayor Joe Alindajao, Mayor Pro Tem Morris, Councilmember Nunez, Councilmember Solorio-Ruiz, Councilmember Vasquez
Council members absent: None
OFFICIALS PRESENT
City Manager Reyna, City Clerk Garcia, City Attorney Hensley, Chief of Police Nicholson, Human Resources Director Zamudio (via zoom), Acting Community Development Director Chavez, City Engineer Dowling, IT Manager Enriquez and Fire Chief Crist
PRESENTATIONS AND AWARDS
- Proclamation for National Police Week accepted by DPOA - Proclamation declaring June 2024 as Pride Month accepted by members of The Center for Sexuality and Gender Diversity
- Retirement – Andrew Azua, 10 years of service
ITEMS FROM THE PUBLIC
1. Arnold Morrison, 1808 Terrace Dr. – “Anyway, I'm just here to, it's already out there, but I just want to make sure I can reach as many people as possible because the tickets are already printed. The high school graduations are going to start at 8:30 PM not at 7:00 like it says because we're going to have some pretty blazing hot days coming up on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. So I just wanted to make that announcement.
Thank you.”
2. Suzanne Villaruz, 1808 Terrace Dr. – “I have two comments. The first one is I applaud the people here receiving the proclamation on pride. It's 55 years ago that the Stonewall riots occurred and why gay pride and homosexuals were finally able to stand up and feel the power of being recognized and finding joy in their lives. Two, I want to thank the police department if anyone's here. We had a horrible accident happen to a close friend's mom and the police department was really wonderful at keeping privacy and keeping the site looky-loos from peering at it, even us. We didn't want to see, but it told me that they were keenly aware of the pain that was going on in the people who were there. And they were really wonderful and supportive, kept our view shielded and I appreciate that sense of empathy from the police officers that day.”
3. Angelo Frazier – “Thank you Mayor for allowing me to do the invocation. Dr. Angelo Frazier, just two comments in, there're really not connected, but I feel I want to make them. I just think that if we get into, and again, I'm against discrimination and all those things, I'm for diversity, but I don't know if it's the city's place to be segregating a month for people or anything like that. So I'm just not for that at all. But I do believe that people need to be protected and we need to stand for their rights. I just don't think that the cities are a place to have those because what's going to happen, is you're going to run out of months. You don't have enough months for every indigenous type of people or whatever group. I just think it's a dangerous precedent to go down. That's just my opinion. But I'm not a hatemonger. I love people. The second thing, as I want to say, it's not connected, but second thing I want to say is I've volunteered for the Bakersfield Police Department as a chaplain for nearly 30 years. I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly. I want to say thank you to the chief and for the people who guard the city because a strong police force gives you a safe community. And we can't, I know I can't thank our police enough for what they do. And it's not just a daily sacrifice, it's just a commitment to honor and loyalty and knowing that you may lay down your life for a friend. But these guys and girls are the best of the best. And anything we can do, the city can do.
And again, I think we should have a police month. If we really want to see heroes and honor people, I think it needs to go to law enforcement. That's just my opinion.”
4. Yolanda Vega – “I appreciate the proclamations that were made today. Thank you to our police department. I have a few concerns about the transparency regarding some city business and how decisions are being made. And over the years I've noticed the inequalities of decisions made by the city, whether it's city staff, city manager, and some of the items that are on the agenda when decisions are being made and who's making these decisions and the opportunities to utilize facilities throughout the community for enrichment events or when a city building is no longer available for rental use. One of the examples is the ongoing decisions that go as far back as to the armory. And now the senior center apparently has been removed from the rental facilities as a community rental option. The city website only reflects the city civic center. I guess my question is where and who is making these decisions? Why are they not coming to the city council? I don't recall any of these items on the city agenda or voted on. There is a great deal of inconsistencies and just looking back on the minutes just in today and the agenda, the minutes that were provided by the planning commissioner, there's the same inconsistencies in the planning commission. I can quote the Commissioner Vallejo saying, “Having served on the commission for many, many years, I just find it odd. I had a council member approach me and ask me about an item that went to them and they wanted to know why it didn't come to us first”. So the city who's making these decisions, city manager staff or somebody on the particular item, I'm just wondering what items are bypassing the planning commission that doesn't allow us to have input on things that are either coming or being demolished. I mean just whatever the variety is. If we're growing and we're skipping one to three meetings, nothing we move forward. I'm going a little, she's curious and these are verbatim her comments from the planning commission minutes, which are on our agenda attachment as well. You have Chairman Herrera echoing the same sentiments. If possible, could staff possibly provide a report at the next regular planning commission? So there seems to be a lot of inconsistencies and if there could be some kind of something provided for the community in regards to a consistent format or who is making these decisions, how are decisions being made, who's implementing these decisions and how are some things coming to the council and other things not coming to the council. And it seems to be an ongoing thing in our government, our local government here, whether it's planning commission or city council, city staff. So if there can be some kind of consistency, it would be greatly appreciated because I'm not the only one echoing it it's in other local government entities as well.”
5. David Vivas, 925 Jefferson St. – “I'd like to first of all thank you for honoring, and recognizing the police officers or police week US average citizens. Just don't understand exactly what these men and women in blue go through on a day-to-day basis, especially those who have a loved one who may put on that uniform and see that loved one leave the home every day, not wondering or just wondering if they're going to be coming home that at the end of their shift. So thank you so much. I believe that we have a community here that really supports our police department and I certainly commend them and appreciate each and every one of them. I do have a request for the city council, the P-O-W-M-I-A flag. I'd like to request if that could be flown a little bit more on a consistent basis. I've done quite a bit of research and study and reading on the symbolism of this flag. There are approximately 83,000 unaccounted service personnel who have not returned back from the various wards. These are individuals who have sacrificed their lives. These are people that have gone out, probably some of them never have had the opportunity to leave here as husbands or fathers and they'll never have the opportunity to be anything, experience life, enjoy life with their family. And of course they have loved ones here that are just wondering where their bodies are. And so there's not enough attention and emphasis given to these that are unaccounted for. And these are our American heroes. These are the unsung heroes. So I'd like to encourage the city to, if they could display that flag in front of City Hall a little bit more often, not just on the special occasions like Armed Forces Day and Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Flag Day, which is coming up. I believe that it just should be a constant reminder and we need to educate people of the importance and the symbolism of this flag. So that would be my request if that could be done so because I know that this city council has already approved of it to be flown and it is to be flown right underneath the American flag, well between the American flag and the state of California flag. And that's my request.”
6. Consuelo Torres – “I wanted to come today and first of all, say thank you to everyone. For those of you who work for the city and of course our police department. We're taking care of our community and it's just sometimes we don't know if they go to work, if they might not come home after the work shift. The other thing that I wanted to talk about is I've been working with the City of Delano planning department since last year and just wanted to touch on that because we have an event center that we're going to be opening up soon. We've met the requirements of demolishing the inside of the buildings that were constructed illegally. As you know, or maybe remember, there was an illegal operation going on that was shut down in February of 2023 for illegal marijuana growth. So we've taken care of that and all that has been removed.
The inspector has came out and signed off. And so with that, we're moving forward and we're going to open up the swap meet and we want to also invite the community to come out and participate and come out. And if they want to be a vendor, we can help them with the requirements that are needed to become a vendor.
And then soon, hopefully, this year, in a couple of months, we'll have four different event spaces that can be rented simultaneously to their community. So that's going to help out a lot. The population back in 1990 was about 20,000 with three different event centers. Today the population is a little bit over 50,000 with only three event centers. That's all I wanted to say, thank you so much.”
7. CONSENT AGENDA
1) Authorization to waive the reading of any ordinance in its entirety and consenting to the reading of such ordinances by title only.
2) Warrant Register in the amount of $3,009,013.58
3) Warrant Register in the amount of $3,564,683.62
4) Minutes of Regular Planning Meeting of March 13, 2024 5) Minutes of Regular Planning Meeting of April 10, 2024 6) Second Reading of Ordinance Amending Delano Municipal Code Chapter 6.26 to Update the City’s Sidewalk Vending Program Pursuant to California State Bill 946 7) Acceptance of $500.00 donation from The Wonderful Company, for Community and Crime Prevention Events
8) Authorization to Enter into an Agreement with Transforming Local Communities, Inc., for Monitoring and Consulting Services Regarding the City's Organized Retail Theft Prevention Grant 9) Authorization for the City Manager to enter into an Agreement with the County of Kern to participate in the Kern County Fentanyl Misuse and Overdose Prevention Task Force (KCFMOPTF) and accept disbursement of funds
10) Acceptance of the 2022 Delano Aquatic Center Project and authorizing the filing of the Notice of Completion
11) Acceptance of the 2022 Larry Itliong Unity Park Project and authorizing the filing of the Notice of Completion
12) Acceptance of the 2023 Schuster Road 16 Inch Water Main Urgent Replacement Project and authorizing the filing of the Notice of Completion
13) Acceptance of the 2024 CDBG CV Broadband Accessibility Project and authorizing the filing of the Notice of Completion
14) Approval of Purchase and Installation Contract for two Tot Lot Play Structures for $142,120.46 from Miracle Playsystems, Inc. under Sourcewell Contract # 10521-LTS and authorizing the City Manager, or her designee, to execute all required documents 15) Report on the Status of the Local Emergency Regarding the Collapsed Sewer Line in the Kensington-Lexington Alley Pursuant to Public Contracts Code § 22050(c) 16) Adoption of Resolutions Initiating Annual Assessment Proceedings, Intention to Levy Assessments, and Scheduling of a Public Hearing for the Landscape Maintenance Districts within the City of Delano and to Authorize the County of Kern to Make Collection of the same 17) Authorizing the purchase of SC3000 asphalt paving material in the amount of $349,915.68 from Jaxon Enterprises from Redding, CA, with this expense to be entered into the 2024/2025 Budget, effective July 1, 2024, and authorization for the City Manager, or her designee, to sign any change orders up to the approved amount
18) Acceptance of the Landscaping Work Included in the Public Improvements for Tract No. 7379, Phase II, Located on County Line Road between Hiett Avenue and Melcher Road 19) Approval of Professional Services Agreement with Kimley-Horn and Associates to draft the 2024 Delano Airport Master Plan and authorization for the City Manager or her designee to sign the document
20) Approval of Contract with the Hach Company for purchase and installation of two nitrate analyzers for the BIOTTTA® facility at Well No. 35 at a cost of $52,461.00 and authorization for the City Manager, or her designee, to sign this and any other documents needed to carry this project to completion
Motion was made by: Morris to approve items 1-5, 7-13, and 15-20 on consent items; 2nd by: Solorio-Ruiz
Vote: 5-0
Ayes: Alindajao / Morris / Nunez / Solorio – Ruiz / Vasquez Nays: None
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
Item No. 6 by Javier Menchaca
Reason for Pulling: Wanted Council to reconsider.
Clarification was provided by City Attorney Hensley and City Manager Reyna.
Motion was made by: Solorio-Ruiz to approve items 6 on consent items; 2nd by: Nunez
Vote: 5-0
Ayes: Alindajao / Morris / Nunez / Solorio – Ruiz / Vasquez Nays: None
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
Item No. 14 pulled by Steve Kinsey
Reason for Pulling: Had questions regarding where it will be and if there will be any shade.
Questions were answered by City Manager Reyna and City Engineer Dowling Motion was made by: Solorio-Ruiz to approve item 14 on consent items; 2nd by: Nunez
Vote: 5-0
Ayes: Alindajao / Morris / Nunez / Solorio – Ruiz / Vasquez Nays: None
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
PUBLIC HEARINGS
None.
REGULAR AGENDA
21) Discussion and approval of a City Sponsorship Request from the Kiwanis Club for the Fourth of July Fireworks Show on Tuesday, July 2, 2024.
Staff report provided by City Manager Reyna.
Mayor Alindajao opens public comment.
Steve Kinsey, 5th Avenue – “We did initially, after missing the opportunity for the fireworks booth, I'd made a comment out of frustration about, well, I guess the city doesn't want their fireworks show and a question mark, but after that, we met after the alliance meeting and we met as Kiwanis and said, we need to take the higher road. We don't get the fireworks booth this year. We'll come back and talk about that afterwards. There's some issues with the ordinance that I believe were misunderstood or misread that would've allowed us to keep the fireworks booth and also the Chambers booth. But that's another thing. We were wanting to just move on and provide the community show and do the best we can for the citizens in our community. So at this time, I didn't put a number in my request, but last year the show cost was almost $29,000 and the city gave us $16,000 towards the show this year. The cost of the show is $32,000 for the same quantity of shells that are going to be fired, the same type of show, but it's increased a few thousand dollars. So I would like to request that the city consider giving the $16,000 like they did last year to help support this.”
Yolanda Vega – “I appreciate the response I received from the mayor in regards to an email that I sent out to the City Manager, the Vice Mayor, and the Mayor. I appreciate what I've heard today. I hope that moving forward I could receive some kind of response or acknowledgement on the phone calls that I've made to the city manager as well. I also want to, I still do have questions, so hopefully, I can meet with the city manager regarding some of the questions and concerns I have regarding this incident.” Suzanne Villaruz – “I do understand that there's a limitation on the budget that's available because for the remainder of this year that ends June 30th, right? Is $2,850, but then on July 1st, it starts all over again. So I just want to point that out that on July 1st , a couple days before the event, your coffers shall be overflowing with wonderful money, with wonderful money to support our patriotic show. Now, Kiwanis has sponsored this show for many years. We've done it in wonderful places. When we did it over at Lake Woollomes, you got to see the fireworks reflecting over the lake. It was gorgeous. Then the lake dried up and our citizenry wasn't the best guess of the farmers around the lake. So we felt bad for that because we just left our trash there. But traditionally, it is a time where people just feel good about our city, about our country, America's birthday party. Again, July 1st, the checking account will be full. So I just want to kind of keep that in your head. I remember that because right now it's not enough. It's barely enough to pay my mortgage. So thank you. I know you guys want to support this. It's a great event, Mr. Kinsey. He gets $16,000 from here, and I swear he personally badgers everyone else who donates money personally badgers them. So give him a break, make him only raise the other half. So I am really hoping that you, you'll the July 1st renewal of funds.”
Mayor Alindajo closes public comment.
Solorio-Ruiz: “How has that fundraising component, how has it been going about one month out to the event?” Steve Kinsey: “We haven't started, I mean, I've made contact with donors and I have them on the hook. We were wanting to wait till tonight to see where we were going and if we were going to have competition for those donors. I was glad to hear the response from the city manager. I think we'll be able to, I've got to do some wrangling. I make personal contacts to make the other half of this show come about and out of these funds. Now we've already put up a third of the show, the cost of the show to guarantee that with the fireworks company. And so we have another third of that due by the end of this month. But I think it'll come along with the city's help.”
Solorio Ruiz: “So as far as my comments go, I was thinking about this item for the past, quite frankly, for a few weeks because I think it's been a conversation that we've been talking about both in community and of course through the media as well. And so, at least for myself, I do want to note and on the record that I did not want to hijack as that was a word that was used a lot that we're hijacking this event. I don't think that that was the intention. I know Mr. Kinsey, in your email you mentioned how, and I agree, you mentioned how this event is not the city's event necessarily. I would make the same argument. It's not one group, it's the communities. It's important for us to come together and to make sure that we execute this community event together as far as different council members, their own opinions, and their own actions outside out of this body that's for them to respond to. But as far as myself, I'm in support of the sponsorship, the in’s and out’s of this. You've been doing this for years. The Kiwanis not only does the fireworks show, but so many other fantastic community events. And of course, I think because of the community comments that we heard and the phone calls, many phone calls that I received, I think it was about miscommunication or just misunderstanding on the matter. But I hope that we can all work together. I think that's one thing that I always say is that I think regardless of the differences we all have and the differences of opinions, we can come together to make a fantastic event. And hopefully we can share resources with you of other folks as well. If we've already made contact with certain folks, maybe we can send them your way. I don't know.
And other than that, oh, I did want to mention, I know there was some ideas of potentially having in the future, not necessarily for this just in general, like a drone show. If you don't know what that is, I would suggest you Google it. It looks like a fantastic show that is also very low on environmental impacts and it's a fantastic show and I think that maybe in the future let's talk about it and let's look into that. It's a really beautiful thing if you want to YouTube it or Google it, and also helps with our veterans who suffer from PTSD and our animals.”
Vasquez: “Then that I'm asking to go last is because I want clarification because I'm like the community, I didn't know the process that was going on. I couldn't answer a lot of committee questions. So I don't see there's any point in me trying to ask questions right now when I didn't know the process of everything that was going on. So initially it was said from left to right, I'm right. So I would like to hear everything. I don’t know what's going on. I want questions at the end.”
Nunez: “I don’t have any comments other than I’m going to go based on the staff’s recommendations and make a motion.”
Morris: “This is such an important event for our community, just to see the faces on the children out there when they go see the fireworks. This is an event that everyone looks forward to. And so I think as far as the sponsorship, whatever it takes, I know you said on here that there's only so much money left on the donation money, but I think aside from that, we need to go aside from whatever that donation money is that's left and produce a show that was going to benefit everyone here and make it fun for everyone out there and to celebrate the birthday of our nation.
And I think we totally need that in today's environment and work time. So I am totally in support of supporting this project and the sponsorship of this program of fireworks.” Vasquez: “Real quick, I didn't mention or talk about the amount, but afterwards, I don’t know. We're talking about that. Maybe you come back to me and we can talk about it.” Vasquez: “Okay. The reason I made the comment that I did earlier is because this could have been alleviated much sooner. And there's things that I'm going to say in my closing comments and what I made in regards to that, because yes, we had a canceled meeting, but we could have had a special meeting for this topic so that the community of these organizations could have been requesting money a lot sooner. We didn't have to wait until June 3rd. The other thing, it could alleviate a lot of stress for the organization, and the community. Had there been a communication with many of the orgs? And what I mean by that is, yes, I got the phone calls, yes, I got the concerns, and we had somebody on our council going and asking for money. And yet all these, there was decisions being made that it never came to the council. And that's going to be something in my closing comment that I'm going to ask also is the consistency. Because there's not consistency on how we get things on the agenda, or how decisions are being made when it comes to the funding. Initially, the city was going to sponsor and pay for everything. My thing is, I'm not saying first to pay for everything, but because we prolonged this group from getting funding because they didn't know if they were going to have a competition and if there were going to be two events. So in all fairness, I'm okay with giving them the $16,000 that they're asking for because we prolonged the process in all fairness. But in my closing comments, I will bring up a lot of things that happened with this specific topic that was a lot of concern to the community that I was getting phone calls and it's just heartbreaking that it had to go in the direction that it did because it sounded like things were being done and said on behalf on the entire council. And that wasn't the case and it made me very uncomfortable.”
Alindajao: “Mr. Kinsey, the Kiwanis Club has been a staple of this community and been an investor in this community for many, many years. So I'm happy, I'm glad and happy that Kiwanis Club has conducted the fireworks show for the last 18 years. 18 years. So we appreciate it. The city appreciates it, and the community appreciates it.
And so I am going to just open this up for the council and invite what their desires are in terms of, I don't have any issues with Kiwanis taking the lead like they have in the past 18 or 17 years. And I'm sure it's going to be a great show. The community's excited for it and let's move forward. So I'll now open this dais for any motions on what amount of money the council has an appetite for in terms of an investment. To Ms. Villaruz’s point. Unfortunately, even though perhaps the financials renew in the month of July, there isn't a necessarily, I mean, unless we have a special, there's not necessarily a meeting where the council had to take action before that time, but the fiscal year renews July 1st.”
Motion was made by: Vasquez to approve $16,000
2nd by: Morris
Vote: 3-2
Ayes: Morris / Solorio – Ruiz / Vasquez
Nays: Alindajao / Nunez
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS
No Items.
COUNCIL STATEMENTS AND REPORTS
Salvador Solorio-Ruiz – “I know we haven't been here in some time, so there's stuff that happened of course that we haven't came to report on. Of course, we had Larry Itliong Grand opening. That was just phenomenal. I drive past there and I just love seeing all the young people playing in the swings and playing in the games. I think that it truly warms my heart and that's stuff that I think we can all get on board of. I also of course want to congratulate the CCHS baseball team for becoming state champions. That's right. Bringing home the gold. I also attended the grand opening of Navarro's Barbershop. They were located down Main. Well, they're still around that area, but they were renting out a place. Now they own this place. I think that's such a big deal because I think that the Navarro family, I know them because growing up as a kid, I would go and get haircuts there. They represent the beauty of the American dream stuff that we can all support. I want to give a special congratulations to them for their grand opening. But other than that, that is all.”
Veronica Vasquez – “I wanted to give staff direction because what I learned from this firework situation was many things because we haven't had consistency on quite a few things. So one of them is, can we actually get a presentation on the following? One is how can we do a special meeting? Two, how can we get an item on the agenda? And three, explain the discretion in regards to the city manager being able to spend $35,000. These are things that came up with the fireworks situation. And I think in all fairness, having a presentation to explain this to the community because there's no consistency on any of it. I mean when it came to rumors, it was like the city was going to pay the $35,000 and they would make up the rest that it wouldn't come to the city council. I've asked for a sponsorship on buildings and that's maybe a thousand or two, and I was told it couldn't happen. I had to come to the city council. So I'm asking for fairness and I'm asking for consistency. So if we can do a presentation so that the committee knows, because there's times I don't have the answer because I don't know what's going on behind the scenes. And there's a lot of things that are going on behind the scenes that's not coming to the committee or the council. And all fairness, you hear me talk about it all the time. I want more town halls. I want us to have a public relations or outreach person. I want to have more communication with the community because it's not fair when we make these major decisions. And then it's there for life it seems like. And it's harder to reverse later and the community didn't have input in it. That's not fair. Yes, I got voted in to be here, but my vote right now, it's saying that I want to give my community more of a voice in all fairness. So if we can actually have that happen within the next one or two meetings, because once again, there's been many times I've asked for things to be on the agenda and it never makes it. Thank you.”
Councilmember Nunez – “I just want to bring up that over the past weekend, several of us attended this ICSC conference. Conference Sounds like a really good thing. It was a lot of work. We met with probably over 150 developers, retail, commercial, and small industrial. We met with some investors to our city, another potential two or three companies that want to be our new YK for Delano. Miguel Fernandez is not here, but that man worked his butt off for all weekend long. We had meetings set up at 7:30 in the morning and we went till 11 p.m. for two days straight and was, I think, I believe he told me we walked almost 10 miles on day number one. So we worked really hard. Great investors coming to our city, and a lot of good large companies coming to Delano, we have our fingers crossed with some new development that's coming up on the south end of town. With the Voice of America, our 840 acres that are sitting just west of the city, we also just met with business owners, and local business owners here.
They're also looking at expanding to that new area as well. So that's exciting stuff. And again, I'd like to thank Miguel. He's not here, but he went from lugging around a backpack full of a bunch of stuff that we had to give out to lugging back another one. I would look for him. Where you at? He goes, I'm getting more stuff. We keep moving. So thank you. That was good. Also like to congratulate Adrian Arreola. Adrian Arreola is a Delano boy who just recently got ordained as a priest. He requested to come back to Delano. However, he's being moved to the present letter. He was our deacon who came in here a couple of times and did some opening prayers for us. He is now a full-fledged priest and congratulations to him. And then our third one with mosquitoes, picking up everybody who lives within Kern County or the South End, I'm sorry, north end of Kern County South Tulare. We all pay our property taxes. So if you have a mosquito problem, call a Delano mosquito abatement, they will come out and check to see what the issue is. You might not have the issue at your house, but anywhere within about three blocks, that issue can be around you and can help alleviate these mosquitoes. And yes, they're out a lot, a lot right now, so give 'em a call. It's a free service. We already pay for it. That's all I have.” Mayor Pro-Tem Morris – “On behalf of the city, all of you who live in our community, the week before last, I was able to go to three high schools and present a community scholarship award from the city. These are senior students who are going to be going to Bakersfield College. And so we awarded quite a few. There must have been at least 10, somewhere in there. They were like for $250 scholarships. So we're grateful to all of you for your tax dollar monies that help support these students to go to school. And so the only other thing I had to say is I am saddened by the death of Vestia Velasco. She was a dear friend to many of us and she was also the wife of Leonard Velasco who served the city for over 25 years. I just wanted to recognize her. That was the accident that Suzanne was talking about and it's been a great loss and we truly are going to miss her in the Filipino community. So our condolences to all of her family.”
Mayor Alindajao – “I want to first start by congratulating the CCHS baseball team, their varsity team, D5 I believe state champions, right? State champions. Congratulations to them. I think we might be having them here in a couple of days on the special meeting to recognize them. So I'm looking forward to that meeting. I also attended ICSC with Council Member Nunez, all that. Walking is not an over exaggeration. It actually took a long time just to get to the building. It was a long walk, lots of meetings, and late nights, but we had a good time. We felt like we made a lot of good connections and built relationships with some of the vendors. That place is massive. It's like a little tiny city, but we had a good time. We got a lot of business done. A lot of people are interested in our city. Yeah.
I also wanted to show, I didn't bring with me, but Miguel created these video notebooks. They're small booklets. You open it and it plays a video of the city of Delano, giving all the metrics of the city. It was neat. We also wore shirts that had a scan code or barcode on our shoulders. It wasn't 666 or the mark of the devil or anything, but folks can take their camera and snap the photo and be able to see the same information that was in the booklet. So thank you Maribel and Miguel and the city staff for a great presentation. Great products to put our city, put our best foot forward at ICSC and it was neat. I did also attend the Larry Itliong Park dedication as well as the aquatic center opening. I mean, I think I've heard that place has been packed almost every weekend and it's a beautiful thing to see.
That reminds me of something, but it's a beautiful park. If you haven't been there, please try to visit there. The Manong Amphitheater is a beautiful structure. It was just really neat to see so many people there, not just from the local community, but from really all over the state, dignitaries elected official, and we had a great time. Thank you all for making that city staff, for helping with that chief. Thank you for your presence there. It was a great event. I want to talk a little bit about the fireworks ordinance. I think part of the issue I want to address part of the issue that we had with the Kiwanis Club and the whole fireworks controversy that occurred. I'm going to direct city staff to help us bring back an amended ordinance for the fireworks ordinance. Part of the issue was that there's an RFP, and this might be a little bit technical, but stay with me here. So in the city, the city allows eight permits and two grandfather permits for a total of 10. However, the city reserves one permit that's awarded through an RFP process.
The ambiguity in the ordinance is that, and I think this is part of perhaps the way Kiwanis interpreted the ordinance, is that the RFP process and the permitting process seemed to be on two different tracks. So the way our staff interpreted the RFP process was to adopt the permit process, which means that you had to turn in your permit by, I believe it was April 15th, with a full deadline on May 1st. However, you also had an RFP process and the way we interpreted, which I don't necessarily see an error with the way we interpreted the RFP process in section 6.4 8.040, was we adopted the permit process onto the RFP process. My suggestion is to take the RFP process for the permissive permit from the city on a separate track from the permitting process that's established for the lottery system. So let me read it in section 6.4 8.040. All applicants for fireworks permits, except those specifically exempted in this section, shall participate in a lottery by submitting a pre-application form on or before April 15th of each year. Drawing of the lottery will occur no later than April 18th and will include an order for which applicants will qualify to submit applications for the fireworks permit, as well as to establish a list of those who will be put on a standby list in case a qualified applicant fails to apply by the deadline. Simply there's the people, the folks you have, the people that are in line, and the people that are on standby. The deadline for applications was made first for qualified applicants May 8th for the standby applicants. Now that's one process. That process applies to eight permits given by the city, not including the 10 grandfathered permits. Now the second and final paragraph of section B says this, the city shall reserve one permit to be awarded through a request for proposal process to a nonprofit organization that will contract with the city to provide a firework show for the residents of the city. The problem I see with the ordinance is that it doesn't establish the rules for the RFP process. So what we did is interpret the permit process as being the RFP process. And what I'd like to see is a distinction between the permit process for the lottery system and the RFP process or the reserved permit that the city gives out. So I hope that makes sense. Mark, are you tracking with me? Okay. And another issue that I saw during the discussion during this whole fireworks conversation was that I think it's first of all to the $16,000, I think that's not a good use of taxpayer dollars. I think some amount I think is justified, but $16,000 was too much. Let me tell you why. Part of the reserve permit that the city gives is for this very purpose to be awarded through a request for proposal to a nonprofit organization that will contract with the city to provide a firework show for the residents of the city. So think about it like this. The benefit of the bargain for the city is that it doesn't have to pay for a fireworks show or administer a show. The benefit to the reserve permit holder, wherever the RFP winner is, they get to have a booth without going to the lottery system, earn the money to pay for the fireworks booth. That is the benefit on each side of these parties.
So now in this case, we know the Kiwanis didn't get a booth, so that argument is moot at this point. But if we amend the ordinance, the benefit to the RFP winner is that you get to make the money to subsidize the show so it doesn't make sense and it's not within the spirit of the ordinance to then come back to the city and ask for more money because the benefit was getting the booth to earn the money to subsidize the show. So that's something that we have to be cognizant about. Now, let's assume that there is a situation where an organization says, well, no organization's going to turn in an RFP. No one wants to do it. Then I believe that there's an inference in the ordinance that compels the city to hold the show because it states in section B, the city shall reserve one fireworks permit to be awarded through a request for a proposal in order to provide a firework show. So let's say next year there are no RFPs or the show, then the burden would be on the city to conduct that show. We don't have the benefit of outsourcing the show because no one's coming forward in the RFP process. So that's why I think for clarity, so that there is a lack of, we don't have further confusion. I think we need to amend the fireworks ordinance. So that's clear.
It's very possible. I guess you can interpret it both ways, that if Kiwanis was coming through the RFP process only, the May 1st or May 8th deadline was not applicable in the RFP process. I mean, that's one interpretation and certainly that could have been an argument to be made. But for clarity, we need to distinguish both the permit process for the lottery and the permit process or the RFP process for the fireworks show. So any questions from Mark or Maribel on what I, I'm thinking at least in terms of the amendment for the firework show. So in the future, I hope that we're clear about the aim of the ordinance and the benefits on both sides of the RFP process. So we'll have more, I'm sure we'll have more discussion about that in terms when that amendment or proposed amendment comes back to the city council. Alright. Another thing I'd like to put on a future agenda is an RFP to possibly contract with a third party regarding summer camps, and summer training camps. I was approached by Sports Lab Academy regarding contracting with the city. I did review their proposal. It's about $150,000 at least from Sports Lab Academy. But I liked that process to open to possibly contract with the third party in order to install that program by which we can have, I hope that we can do it before the end of July or before August so that we can get some summer camps going for our kids and youth in the community that can participate in sports camps, specifically football camps, basketball camps, et cetera. At least my representation from Sports Lab Academy is that they believe, given how so many youth and young kids are going out to other cities to participate in these kind of programs, he believes that there may be or 500 participants in such a program. So if we can get that on the agenda at some point and have a discussion about that as soon as possible, that'd be fantastic. Another issue that I want to bring up is I want the city to consider, and I don't know if this is maybe an administrative issue or a council actionable issue, but I'd like us to consider hiring private security at the Larry Itliong Park. I know we've had a few incidences out there. I'm not sure how sophisticated our camera system is out there. I understand that there have been some vandalism and break-ins and folks jumping in the pool and swimming after hours. There is concern about liability issues, drownings, et cetera. So I'd like to consider hiring private security for that particular park. Alright, I think that is all good.”
Motion was made by: Solorio-Ruiz to adjourn regular meeting; 2nd by: Nunez
Vote: 5-0
Ayes: Alindajao / Nunez / Morris / Solorio-Ruiz / Vasquez Nays: None
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
ADJOURNMENT
Moved by Solorio-Ruiz seconded by Nunez and unanimously carried 5-0 to adjourn the meeting at 7:06 PM. _____________________________________________
Nancy Garcia, City Clerk