MINUTES
CITY OF DELANO
CITY COUNCIL – SPECIAL MEETING
December 9, 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.
FLAG SALUTE
Mayor Alindajao led the flag salute.
ROLL CALL
Council members present: Mayor Joe Alindajao, Mayor Pro Tem Morris, Mario Nunez, Jr., Salvador Solorio-Ruiz
Council members absent: Veronica Vasquez
OFFICIALS PRESENT
City Engineer Dowling, City Clerk Chavez, Finance Director Lara Rios, Commander Mendoza, IT Manager Enriquez
SPECIAL AGENDA ITEM
1. Direction on use of ARPA funding programmed for Navigation Center Staff report provided by City Engineer Dowling.
Mayor Alindajao opened public comment.
No public comment.
Mayor Alindajao closed public comment.
Council Member Solorio-Ruiz – “Just curious, is Flood Ministries present in the audience or on Zoom or were they invited to attend the meeting?”
City Engineer Dowling – “Not that I know of, sir. In this particular, this authorization would be not related to you making an agreement with them. That will take time, but it's just preliminary to deciding which way the funding would go.”
Council Member Solorio-Ruiz – “Gotcha. And just to clarify, it's not necessarily deciding to give the funds to Flood, but it is stating that we will utilize the funds potentially for to collaborate potentially with Flood. That would be an option, right?”
City Engineer Dowling – “That’s correct.”
Council Member Solorio-Ruiz – “Okay. I understand it more. Thank you. I read the staff report, but just so we can be on record, how many years if we provide this fund, how many years will Flood Ministries be in effect?”
City Engineer Dowling – “I don't have the exact number, but it would be more than a couple years worth of funding from what we know now. But again, that will take more precise negotiations with them to learn more about their operations, but it would be multiple years.” Council Member Solorio-Ruiz –“The staff report says it’s stretching its existence in Delano for at least four more years.”
City Engineer Dowling –“Right.”
Council Member Solorio-Ruiz – “That's hopefully an estimate that we will.” City Engineer Dowling –“It is an estimate.”
Council Member Solorio-Ruiz – “Well, in terms of my questions, I don't have quite a lot. I know I was briefed by City staff about this. I think we have two options here. I think it's important for us to, if we are moving forward with building the navigation center to acknowledge what's the point of really building one if we don't have folks to run it. And I think that that's an important part. We own that area, we own that land. So it's to say that in the future we can potentially still build there. We of course heard of Governor Newsom's decision and efforts to the cities and making sure that we combat homelessness. And I think that hopefully we can see some funding in the next couple of years to help alleviate our funds and to help build a navigation center. But I think it's important to make sure that the services are provided now and to make sure that our, our community is being prioritized, in particular the houseless community. So I'm in favor of the second option, which is to reallocate the ARPA funds to cover the salaries and expenses. Again, maybe can you explain to me if we will be opening it up to a bid in the future or are we providing it to Flood Ministries 100% in the future?” City Engineer Dowling –“I think we could come back to you beginning of next year and discuss that further. So I would leave it open at this time to your direction then.” Council Member Solorio-Ruiz – “And I know there's also not a lot out there. Right. And I know Flood Ministries does a good job as it is. So me personally, I'm in favor of the second option.” Mayor Pro Tem Morris – “I think Sal pretty much gave, I think we all were covered briefly by Maribel before she left about the funds and I know we have to allocate them before the end of this month. Do these funds come up often or how often do they come up or just we don't know, or…” City Engineer Dowling –“This was part of Covid, right? It was part of that.” Mayor Pro Tem Morris – “Yeah, not likely. Will there be other funds that become available? City Engineer Dowling –“Ms. Rosa…?”
Finance Director Lara Rios –“As far as funding for potential homelessness, there is another source of funding that we currently are receiving. If you guys recall the Fentanyl opioid settlement agreement that recently the city has been receiving. So potentially those funds can also be utilized for that as well.” Mayor Pro Tem Morris – “Okay. I know. Yeah, because I'm kind of right in the middle here where you're, okay, do we build a facility sometime in the future to house overnight accommodations? I know where they're at now. That's not going to accommodate those people to stay anywhere or be sheltered by the cold and the winter months and stuff like that. But I'm just thinking about in the future if some kind of funds will be available so that we can run a project like that.” Finance Director Lara Rios – “And that'll all be dependent too. Like Council member Solorio said, maybe Governor Newsom puts out more funding that maybe cities can apply for.” Mayor Pro Tem Morris – “Yeah, I don't have any further questions other than I agree with, it's just, it's reallocate those ARPA funds to cover the salary expenses to make that LED ministry program run. That's all I have.”
Mayor Alindajao – “Thank you Vice Mayor. Appreciate it. I don't have any questions. Just a few comments. I know the staff report indicated, let me back up. I did speak with Mr. Wheeler today, this afternoon. Had a conversation with him. He asked if he needed to be present. I told him, as far as I'm concerned, I think you don't need to show up to today's meeting. That portion of the discussion is not going to happen tonight. But I said, you might want to reach out to other council members and see how they feel about you being present here tonight. But that's what I told them. The only issue, one issue that I had or he had on the agenda was language in the staff report that said Flood Ministries would not most likely not have the capacity. It wasn't a matter of capacity, according to Mr. Wheeler's more a funding issue, that they would have funding shortfalls in order to run the navigation center. The navigation center is now almost, well, I suppose the 2.5 million is an estimate, but arguably could be doubled. What we anticipate being the cost of the project plus Flood Ministry's lack of funding for that facility is going to be an issue. I'll save the rest of my comments. I guess when we had that discussion about Flood Ministries, I know that contracts with Flood Ministries, because one of my concerns were that I wanted to ensure that those funds were used only for services provided to Delano. He assured me that part of the contracts with Flood Ministries are on reimbursement basis only, so we can ensure and add another level of accountability to those funds. Of course, we don't know what the amount of those funds are going to be with Flood at this point, but we'll talk about that down the road. I am also in agreement with reallocating the funds per the staff recommendation.”
Motion was made by: Nunez to reallocate ARPA funds to cover eligible salary expenses, ensuring compliance with federal guidelines and reducing the risk of recapture. Furthermore, the resulting salary savings from the general fund can then be redirected to support homelessness initiatives, addressing critical community needs while maintaining the integrity of ARPA funding objectives. 2nd by: Solorio-Ruiz
Vote: 4-0
Ayes: Alindajao/Morris/Nunez/Solorio-Ruiz
Nays: None
Absent: Vasquez
Abstentions: None
Abstentions: None
ADJOURNMENT
Moved by Solorio Ruiz seconded by Nunez and unanimously carried 4-0 to adjourn the meeting at 5:41 p.m.
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Ricardo G. Chavez, City Clerk