MINUTES
CITY OF DELANO
CITY COUNCIL – REGULAR MEETING
October 6, 2025
CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Morris called the meeting to order at 5:15 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers, 1015 – 11th Avenue.
INVOCATION
Pastor David Vivas offered the invocation.
FLAG SALUTE
Council Member Solorio-Ruiz led the flag salute.
ROLL CALL
Council members present: Liz Morris, Joe Alindajao, Bryan Osorio (arrived at 5:20pm), Salvador SolorioRuiz Council members absent: Mario Nunez
OFFICIALS PRESENT
City Manager Reyna, City Clerk Chavez, City Attorney Hensley, Finance Director Lara Rios, Chief of Police Nicholson, Human Resources Director Zamudio, Interim Community Development Director Dowling (via teleconference), Public Works Director Nunez, City Engineer Rodriguez, Transit Manager Alapisco, Fire Chief Crist and IS Coordinator Reyes
PRESENTATIONS AND AWARDS
• Mayor Morris presented a Proclamation for Frank Herrera Sr.’s 100th Birthday (Herrera Family) • Mayor Morris presented Proclamations for Philippine Weekend 2025
ITEMS FROM THE PUBLIC
1. Roberto Ibarra – “Hi, my name is Roberto Ibarra, Delano resident. I keep bringing this up. I have three things that maybe to help us out. One is the when are we going to get the four lanes on the Garces Highway 55 coming across on Garces and it comes across through Delano. When are we going to get the four lanes we had to improve? Otherwise we just going to go old and old and all and nothing is going to carry carry only until, if we can get on the ball on that please, young fellas, please. And the other one is, how many marijuana stores did we have in town? How many marijuana stores did we had in town it’s marijuana. It's not medical, it's addictive because everything has pros and cons. These people, these kids are getting married, having sex between themselves, whether young generations and having kids. They have autism, he comes with expenses and who carries that? The city, the state, the government. So, nothing is safe, sex. I say we're living with these and all that the thing that is has the consequences and we relying on you to put a limit because you're the one to let it in. I don't. So, I urge you to consider that everything has a consequence please. And number three is improve the air. I mean now they want to, back then was talking that we were going to go electric, now we're going to go back to gas. Where do we stand? One government goes off. Plays one thing and the other government comes in, has another agenda and we are in the middle play like rabbits on the lab please. Alright, thank you.”
2. Dr. Mandeep Bagga – “Good evening everybody. Hi, I am Dr. Bagga. This is Dr. Yasaei. We're a psychiatrist. I'm from Visalia. I'm the program director of the residency program in Visalia. This is Dr. Yasaei, he's from Bakersfield. We were hoping to make it onto today's agenda.
Unfortunately, there was some miscommunication and we weren't able to make it on there. So, I'll speak quickly. This is just to give you guys a heads up that we are hoping and requesting if you guys would be kind enough to provide us a letter of support to apply for a grant that is available through the state to bring behavioral health services and substance use disorder substances to the City of Delano. It is a fairly large grant. It's been going on for about a year. We have won about three or four of these awards already in Bakersfield to bring some wellness clinics into Bakersfield, Shafter, Wasco. We were able to get some money to bring a psychiatric facility to Kings County. So, we are hoping to bring one of the residential facilities for substance use disorders here. It doesn't cost the city anything. It doesn't cost anybody anything. We have some designs that we have submitted. We also have some land that we have identified that would make a really good place to put it. It would be a wonderful service for the community. It would provide substance use, residential program treatment. Patients would be brought in, they would be able to stay there and then they would be returned back to wherever they were living. Plus, we have a lot of connections in the community in Kern County. We have been told that the Kern County Behavioral Health Services would be supportive and would provide us a letter of support for this as well. And so we would like to request when we are back on the October 20th agenda for you guys to consider providing that letter and we would very much appreciate it and I think the citizens of Delano would greatly benefit from it. So I don't know. Dr. Yasaei, if you have anything else you'd like to say?”
3. Dr. Rama Yasaei – “We just want, we know the need for substance use treatment here. Cannabis is vulnerable for sure and we are hoping to help the city. I know the concern was in the past that if we are going to bring people from outside, no one going to come from outside and stay in Delano. Because the first rule is if anyone is coming from different cities, they have to go back to where they come from and they have to have a team for their finding a job, finding a house, finding their life, not to just keep them for a month and dump them as a homeless to the city.
That's one of them. And hoping that's a start for getting more mental health services such as for adolescent child psychiatrist because I know we don't have it here and we are hoping to have working with the medical team here because they missed their psychiatry team in the clinic in Delano. So they were hoping to have this onboard for us.”
4. Fernando Bravo – “Good evening, Mayor. Council members name is Mr. Bravo. I just want a clarification on item number 10 about the purchase of the 60 by 80 foot ice rink.”
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 $3,637,171.29
3) Warrant Register in the amount of $3,612,788.31
4) Minutes of regular Council meeting of September 15, 2025 5) Designation of Mayor Morris as a Voting Delegate for 2025 League of California Cities Annual Conference
6) Resolution of the City Council of the City of Delano accepting the Gann Appropriations Limit Report for the Fiscal Year 2025-2026 so (Resolution No. 2025-75) 7) Acceptance of the 2025 Pond Road Street Improvement Project and authorizing the filing of the Notice of Completion
8) Acceptance of the 2024 6th & 9th Avenues Pavement Resurfacing & Rehabilitation Project STPL-5227(073) and authorizing the filing of the Notice of Completion 9) Authorization to Approve the Emergency Replacement of the Delano Police Department’s Dispatch Console System with the Avtec Scout Console System (Agreement No. 2025-90) 10) Ratification of purchase of a 60’ x 80’ synthetic ice rink and equipment in the amount of $94,080.00 from KwikRink Synthetic Ice, Inc. and authorize the City Manager, or her designee, to execute all required documents (Agreement No. 2025-91) 11) Second and Final Reading to Adopt Ordinance of Annexation and Pre-Zoning related to Pre-Zoning Application No. 25-0001: A request to (i) pre-zone an approximately one-acre parcel (APN 521-040-37) from the Kern County Highway Commercial (CH) zoning district to the City of Delano Industrial (I) zoning district, and (ii) pre-zone an approximately eight-acre parcel (APN 521-120-09) from the Kern County Exclusive Agriculture (A) zoning district to the City of Delano Industrial (I) zoning district. Staff has determined the project to be exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) pursuant to Section 15183 of the CEQA Guidelines (Projects Consistent with a Community Plan, General Plan, or Zoning) (Ordinance No. 2025-1364)
Motion was made by: Solorio-Ruiz to approved items 1–6, 8, 9, 11 on consent items; 2nd by: Osorio
Vote: 4-0
Ayes: Morris/Alindajao/Osorio/Solorio-Ruiz
Nays: None
Absent: Nunez
Abstentions: None
Item No. 7 pulled by: Roberto Ibarra
Roberto Ibarra – “Hello. Good evening. Oh, I left my pen. My other pen. I just want to see if, what is it that on Pond Road? It's Pond Road, right? Right. Pond Road on the street. Okay. Right. I just want to know why is the city taking care of that? It's not Caltran.”
Mayor Morris – “Well we just did some road improvements on Pond Road.” Roberto Ibarra – “On Pond Road.”
Mayor Morris – “We just completed it.”
Roberto Ibarra – “Yes. What I'm saying is that it not belongs to the Caltran.” Mayor Morris – “No, not Pond Road.”
Roberto Ibarra – “I understood it was at one time I said asked about the…” Mayor Morris – “Garces Highway is.”
Roberto Ibarra – “Yeah. But one time I asked about the, what's the name, the improvement of the county line.”
City Engineer Rodriguez – “So the portion of Pond Road that was improved with this Pond Road reconstruction project was just the intersection portion near Pond Road and Garzoli where there was some embankments and shoulder improvements that were made. So they stabilized that embankments, added some drains and redid the shoulder lane right there as you approach the Pond Road overcrossing heading east out of town. But that portion of Pond Road that was improved was in city limits and that's for us to maintain.”
Roberto Ibarra – “I thought it was Caltran. Like I said at one time I asked about the improvement of the, what's the name? The bike lanes also the bike lanes on the County Line. And they will say it is Caltrans that the city had no jurisdiction whatsoever on that. But I guess that's it.” Mayor Morris – “Yeah. Well this one will be, we're discussing Pond road and county line is another issue because that's between Tulare County and Delano.”
Motion was made by: Solorio-Ruiz to approved item 7 on consent items; 2nd by: Osorio
Vote: 4-0
Ayes: Morris/Alindajao/Osorio/Solorio-Ruiz
Nays: None
Absent: Nunez
Abstentions: None
Item No. 10 pulled by: Fernando Bravo and Roberto Ibarra Fernando Bravo – “Well actually I just wanted to, had it clarified to me what you guys are going to be doing there. And we're at, so can anybody clarify.”
City Manager Reyna – “Honorable mayor members of the council? This item is just for the purchase of the synthetic rink.”
Fernando Bravo – “Where it's going to be or what?.”
City Manager Reyna – “At this time the staff is still debating different locations or considering different locations.”
Fernando Bravo – “So it's going to be in the process on the works?” City Manager Reyna – “It's a synthetic rink. So, it's one that the staff can put together and then take down.
At this time we're looking at maybe 11th Avenue given the short timeframe that we're looking at having it put up. But that's just a temporary location. We're considering other locations as well.” Fernando Bravo – “Excuse me, you said 11th Avenue?”
City Manager Reyna – “Yes, 11th Avenue.”
Fernando Bravo – “Whereabouts on 11th?”
City Manager Reyna – “The gym.”
Fernando Bravo – “So you're talking on the west side?”
City Manager Reyna – “That's correct. For this year, 200, given the short time that we have to put the rink up and its need for a stable flooring, we're looking at potentially the 11th Avenue gym and then we're looking at various different locations for its permanent.” Fernando Bravo – “Location.”
City Manager Reyna – “But this item is merely for the purchase.” Fernando Bravo – “Thank you. Right, thank you.”
Roberto Ibarra – “Well, he asked me what I was going to say and I asked, I didn't give him any guidance. I just picked this and then whatever he has in mind, I have my mind is my issue is that this money that is going to go in, well maintenance is going to be expensive, I believe to have a maintenance. I don't mind that, but I mind more like improvement of the traffic of the city, the infrastructure of traffic of the city. I'm more or less inclined. So, if we spending this much money and doing maintenance on these things, if you can afford it, fine. But I mean, I'd like to see more infrastructure in the city regarding traffic. It will be a good improvement.”
Motion was made by: Solorio-Ruiz to approved item 10 on consent items; 2nd by: Osorio
Vote: 4-0
Ayes: Morris/Alindajao/Osorio/Solorio-Ruiz
Nays: None
Absent: Nunez
Abstentions: None
PUBLIC HEARING
12) Public hearing to obtain public comments for the proposed Transit Projects for Fiscal Year 2025/2026 to receive grant funding under section 5339
Mayor Morris opened the public hearing.
Staff report provided by Transit Manager Alapisco.
Mayor Morris opened public comment.
No public comment.
Mayor Morris closed public comment.
Council Member Osorio – “I just want to say thank you for exploring this project that would benefit our seniors and those who would use the micro transit program on Saturdays. So thank you.” Council Member Solorio-Ruiz – “Similar, just gratitude. I see sometimes when I'm driving by just different streets, I see transit getting folks off, they're getting groceries off and I think that you truly utilize program, so thank you.”
Transit Manager Alapisco – “And this year, I don't know if anyone saw, we did advertise our national night out on our vehicles, so it was on our buses and the trunk or treat will be on there as well.” Motion was made by: Solorio-Ruiz for approval;
2nd by: Osorio
Vote: 4-0
Ayes: Morris/Alindajao/Osorio/Solorio-Ruiz
Nays: None
Absent: Nunez
Abstentions: None
13) Resolution declaring the condition of the property located at 320 10th Avenue to constitute a public nuisance pursuant to Civil Code Section 3749 and Delano Municipal Code Sections
7.32.010 & 7.32.015, ordering the abatement of said nuisance, and authorizing the City Manager to cause the nuisance to be abated should the property owner fail to do so (Matter continued until October 20, 2025)
City Attorney Hensley – “Mayor and counsel on this one staff has requested that it be continued until the next meeting. They're trying to gain compliance, a compliance agreement with the property owner. And so the rest is the staff. Did the council just vote to continue this matter until the next council meeting, the 20th.” Motion to continue matter to October 20, 2025 Council Meeting was made by: Alindajao; 2nd by: Osorio
Vote: 4-0
Ayes: Morris/Alindajao/Osorio/Solorio-Ruiz
Nays: None
Absent: Nunez
Abstentions: None
14) Resolution declaring the condition of the property located at 238 W. Cecil Avenue to constitute a public nuisance pursuant to Civil Code Section 3749 and Delano Municipal Code Sections
7.32.010 & 7.32.015, ordering the abatement of said nuisance, and authorizing the City Manager to cause the nuisance to be abated should the property owner fail to do so (Resolution No. 2025-76)
City Attorney Hensley – “This next item, I'm going to step out of the room. David King in my office is available on the zoom as I oversee code enforcement. Generally, there's a technical rule about me not participating in the specific matters. And so I'm going to step out the chamber and again for legal questions on Zoom and the Chief is going to present. Thank you.”
Mayor Morris opened the public hearing.
Staff report provided by Chief of Police Nicholson
Mayor Morris opened public comment.
No public comment.
Mayor Morris closed public comment.
Council Member Alindajao – “I make a quick comment, Mayor. Property abatement is never easy. It's always uncomfortable because the government has to move in on a property because it's putting at risk the rest of the community. Not only its neighbors, but the rest of the community. And I just wanted to say thank you to the Chief and thank you to code enforcement. This is a thankless and tough work, but it is so important to the general welfare and being of the community, especially the neighbors, like I mentioned, that their neighbors immediately to the east and west. I'm not sure how it's oriented, but I just wanted to mention that keeping the city the beautification and the pride of ownership of a city is so critically important to everyone in this community. I want every neighborhood in my city to be beautiful, kept up and not have to be abated by the government. Folks should have the pride of ownership to keep their houses in order. So thank you very much chief, thanks to Code Enforcement and for all you do. Thank you. Thank you, thank you.” Council Member Osorio – “And Mayor, if I may add, I just want to echo council member Linda House comments because this is tough. A few years ago when we were looking at a similar scenario, it's definitely not something that city council I would say would want to do. But over the course of six years, over six years now, there have been numerous attempts to address this issue. And I just feel for the neighbors who made me feel that we're not doing enough to support them. So yeah, just thank you Chief. Thank you to Code enforcement.”
Council Member Solorio-Ruiz – “Yeah, I'll let go. Similar to what my council colleagues mentioned, we are a city of laws or we're not. And I think that we need to make sure that folks are abiding by our regulations that we have, but I do believe that we are also a city that gives more chances. And what I see here goes back since 2019. And so I think that that is plenty of opportunities for this individual to really get their stuff together in terms of their home. And so like Council Member Osorio mentioned that this is always tough.
It's not easy, but it's absolutely necessary for the wellbeing of families and neighborhoods nearby. So thank you Chief.”
Motion was made by: Solorio-Ruiz for approval;
2nd by: Osorio
Vote: 4-0
Ayes: Morris/Alindajao/Osorio/Solorio-Ruiz
Nays: None
Absent: Nunez
Abstentions: None
REGULAR AGENDA
No items.
DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS
No items.
COUNCIL STATEMENTS AND REPORTS
Council Member Bryan Osorio – “Yeah, just really quickly to pour out a couple events attended end of last month since our last council meeting, there was a grand opening by Lottie's Pilate studio. I attended that. It was great to see how much support they have. I think I'm not overgeneralizing, this might be the first Pilates studio, if not one of the first. So, it was great to see how many individuals are just interested in having these type of service available in the city of Delano. So wishing them a ton of luck. Also with fellow colleagues participated in the Harvest Holidays Grant Parade this weekend. I only think in the audience I see Ms. Morris who's part of that committee. But thank you for your months long efforts of activities and getting folks lined up for that. So just kudos to you. And then given that Council Member Solorio responded, same with me, Mr. Ibarra, feel free to reach out if you ever have questions. A few meetings ago, I know you had it requested that we have a report out on the traffic issues along County Line and we did have a staff report, which I appreciate Mr. Nicholson brought up. So, we are listening, even though we're not responding, we're listening and we're attentive to issues going on in the city. But thank you to the rest of the staff for your support.”
Council Member Alindajao – “Thank you, mayor. Every one of our employees in this city is very important. I feel like I'm on a team of about 300 people and I just wanted to mention that one of our own has had a medical challenge and he's not with us today and will likely not be with us for some time. Not only is Mike a personal friend of mine, but he's a very important member of this team. And we're going to miss him and I just wanted to mention him, his name, and I want you to keep him in his prayers and thoughts.
And maybe if you have the time, go out and visit him. Say hi to him. Bring a smile to face, but keep him in your prayers. I did attend the Harvest. No, I'm sorry. Yes, the Harvest Holiday parades. It was a great, the weather was awesome. The weather was perfect, wasn't hot, it was well attended. It was just a beautiful day, a great event. Good job all your folks. So I appreciate it. So thank you.” Council Member Solorio-Ruiz – “Since when have we been here and I think that it's been some time, so I want to thank staff for their efforts. And also Mr. Ricardo Chavez and his efforts when Tangancícuaro came and visited our city. It was a beautiful opportunity for them to see our community and thank you to all council members who participated. I also attended the Boys State Girls State ceremony and it was a great opportunity to listen to youth and what Boys and Girls State is all about. I also participated in the 4- H and FFA livestock auction. I didn't of course buy any livestock, but it was absolutely beautiful to see.
They had little girls holding up their sheep and bawling their eyes out because they didn't want to lose their, I would say their family member because they raised it and it was so beautiful to watch. Also want to invite folks tomorrow is the National Night Out as well as thank you to staff as well for hosting a dog adoption event at the same time, at the same place at the Jefferson. And then it is, I don't know the time it is at 5:00PM At 502 Jefferson Street, Jefferson Park. Also, one last thing, Mr. Ibarra, I haven't said this at a meeting, but you are more than welcome to contact me. Of course, when I'm available I will respond and I will answer the phone. But feel free afterwards you can grab my number and then we'll go from there. I think we need to be proactive in how we solve issues and how we communicate stuff. And I also want to respond to you, there are no current, it is illegal to sell cannabis in the City of Delano. I just want to let you know that it is illegal. It is not allowed. And so what we can do is if you have any other concerns, we can chat about it, we can send emails, we can get responses in a timely manner, in a timely fashion, how government works and we'll go from there. But thank you sir. It's not a respond back, but afterwards, gracias and that'll be all. Thank you.”
“Real quick, mayor, of course, I didn't know if it was appropriate as well to say it, but I do want to give my prayers to our staff as well who is experiencing Mike not being here and prayers to his family in these tough times. But I didn't know if it was appropriate to mention, but since council Member Alindajao did thought I as well.”
Mayor Pro-Tem Nunez – Absent.
Mayor Morris - “First of all, I wanted to thank Ricardo for putting the Sister City celebration together. I know that was a lot of work and I can't imagine We went to their sister city, we went to our sister city in Tangancícuaro, they really had rolled out the carpet for us. And we always tell Ricardo, Hey, we had to up our game here because we had to make up for what they brought us. We did. Yes, we did. And it was great to see because they said, one of the guys on the delegation said, yeah, she says, we're going to bring our mariachi to show you guys our mariachi. He said, but when we got here, he says, and they heard Mr.
Morales's Mariachi band. He said, we're so glad we didn't bring our mariachi because yours is way better than ours. But what a great celebration that was. They truly did appreciate all the work that we did. We did show them around town and we showed them how the water works and all facilities, and we took them out to Niagara, we took them to all the different facilities, and that's quite a job to set up for them to visit all these places that we wanted them to see and how the city runs and how the city works. And so they were real appreciated of that. And so grateful to the staff that helped put that together because I know what an effort it is to make that happen. And not only that, I mean just to feed the breakfast and the luncheon, the dinner and all those other things that go with it, the receptions and things like that. That was a lot of work.
I do want to thank also Harvest Holidays Committee for a successful weekend. It was a busy weekend, but we kind of expected that and glad to see the livestock that really brought a lot of memories back. Do you remember probably those of you that have lived in Delano as you were a kid growing up during that time, that's what you did. You went out to the fair and then you all went out there to watch the animals and it was such a joy for those kids just to be able to see the lambs and the cows and not cows, right? Steers right.
And to see the pigs and the piglets. And so that was an awesome addition. Hopefully next year they'll come with a carnival or something to make it complete and make it come back. And it does take just those Filipino community celebrating their celebration. And you saw the number of people that are out here, just an organization of all the activities that take place. So, it is with Harvest Holidays and pretty soon you'll see Kiwanis come up, they're having a pumpkin patch come up and everyday thing that people, we have to be at helping kids and the schools come and participate and pick out a pumpkin and go out to Heritage House.
And so we have so many things happening this month and it takes a lot of Kiwanis and a lot of community support to make those things happen. So wherever you can come out and help them out, because this is how things happen in our community, we have to go out and support and we have to be part of those activities to bring things and entertainment to our community. I know that all of you who have been part of tradition in our town are happy to see those things come back. And again with Mike, I just want to say our prayers are with him. I spoke to his mom today and he's progressing quite well. He can do full sentences now and he says that every day he seems to be recovering quite well, so we're happy to hear. So I continued prayers and I think with that, like I said, come out and support Philippine weekend. That's our next event. Later in the month you'll have Trunk or Treat coming up and right? Yes. Oh yes. And Veterans Day too coming up soon. So a lot of things that we can get involved in, and I'm sure the Veterans Committee can probably use help anytime out there too with organization and just volunteering. So, get involved some way. And we're so grateful that people in this community come together to make things happen here. And we're like a family because we all know each other. It's all the same. People go out there and we see each other. Hey, but how great that is to be part of that community.”
CLOSED SESSION
No items.
RETURN TO GENERAL SESSION
ADJOURNMENT
Moved by Solorio-Ruiz seconded by Osorio and unanimously carried 4-0 to adjourn the closed session meeting at 6:46 pm.
_____________________________________________
Ricardo G. Chavez, City Clerk