MINUTES
CITY OF DELANO
CITY COUNCIL – REGULAR MEETING
December 15, 2025
CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Solorio-Ruiz called the meeting to order at 5:17 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers, 1015 – 11th Avenue.
INVOCATION
Pastor David Vivas offered the invocation.
FLAG SALUTE
Mayor Solorio-Ruiz led the flag salute.
ROLL CALL
Council members present: Liz Morris, Mario Nunez, Joe Alindajao, Salvador Solorio-Ruiz, Bryan Osorio Council members absent: None
OFFICIALS PRESENT
City Manager Reyna, City Clerk Chavez, City Attorney Hensley, Finance Director Lara Rios, Police Chief Nicholson, Human Resources Director Zamudio, Interim Community Development Director Dowling (via teleconference), Public Works Director Nunez, City Engineer Rodriguez, Fire Chief Crist, Building Official Octavio and IS Coordinator Reyes
PRESENTATIONS AND AWARDS
• A presentation was provided by the City Manager in regards to the new skating rink Candy Cane Lane.
ITEMS FROM THE PUBLIC
1. Gerardo Carlos Vergara – “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Gerardo Carlos Vergara and my address is 2321 Cardinal Street here in Delano. I'm nervous, so bear with me. I don't do this stuff often. Like I said, my name is Gerardo Carlos Vergara. I am a local veteran, local business owner here in Delano. Born and raised in Delano. I grew up in the Delano Gardens there. Three minutes is not enough about what I want to speak about today, but I will try my best. So, my proposal is a cannabis dispensary here in town. Now I understand this is a very controversial subject, but I just wanted to touch on a few of the benefits of something like this. So health benefits. I personally being a veteran know some veterans that use cannabis products for PTSD, for anxiety, stuff like that, as well as the general public. I wanted to also touch on the legal side of it. In my opinion, I feel like this would help reduce the illegal sale of cannabis products in the street, which would also in turn bring down the possibility of somebody on the street purchasing cannabis and it being laced with other drugs that they're unaware of. For example, fentanyl and stuff like that. And finally I wanted to touch on the revenue that this would bring.
McFarland is currently they have a cannabis dispensary and the revenue that they're bringing in is significant, which in turn would help also, all the youth programs, for example here in town that I am a product of that helped keep me out of the streets, that helped keep me on a different path, which growing up where I grew up at, that's very easy to fall into that, right? So, my proposal would be not only would the city benefit greatly financially from this, but me being from here and being so invested in the city, I would want to do my part to invest as well, doing scholarship programs donating to these youth programs that helped me so much growing up.
Like I said, I don't want to take up too much of your time. I know three minutes is not enough, but I'm truly invested in these programs. I was lucky enough to meet some great people along the way throughout my life here in Delano that helped keep me on the straight narrow path. Some kids are not that lucky. Some kids don't get to play these sports because of the financial side of it because that means taking food from their siblings’ mouths, having to go to games, having to buy cleats.
Some people where I grew up at didn't have that opportunity and maybe that in the future that would be where I would come in. So that was my presentation.”
2. Jannett Tapia – “Good evening, Honorable Mayor and members of the Council. My name is Jannett Tapia Kern County District Rep for State Senator Melissa Hurtado, and as we have reached the end of the year, I just wanted to come personally here to the City Council and just give a brief legislative update on the things that the senator was able to accomplish this year. So I'll just briefly run through the bills that were actually signed into law, so Senate Bill 345, which is a state fire training accessibility act, which would bring additional funding so that the state fire marshal can bring more funding for firefighter training programs. As we know, California has a large state fire problem, and so we want to make sure that all of our firefighters are properly trained and we don't want money to be a barrier to that. Additionally, Senate Bill 446, the Consumer Data Protection and Notification Act, it would require companies to notify you as soon as possible if there have been data breaches. As we know, as we get more and more involved with technology, those have become so common and we want to make sure that you are notified as soon as possible so you can take the appropriate steps to keep your identity on all of your documentation safe. Along the same line, we had SB 593, the Volt Act, which would require public utilities to notify you as soon as that there have been a power surge. Those have become a lot more common as well, either scheduled or otherwise, and we want to make sure that you're notified so you can properly prepare. And additionally, if there is a power surge and you have any damages done to any of your appliances, it would require those utilities to have a fund set up so that they can help replace those utilities. As we know, I apologize, I'm a little sick, so given the economy, our families will be able to replace those appliances at a much easier way.
Additionally, the Senator was one of the main authors for Assembly Bill 105, and as though the senator has always supported the oil industry, she recognizes the importance of it in our community, but we also want to make sure that we are getting back what we are putting in. And so even though she was an author for Assembly Bill 105, we also asked for mitigation funding.
She did ask for 25 million. We did not get 25 million given the tight turnaround of that. However, she was able to secure 2 million for Child Protective Services here in Kern County. You've seen it in the news. We've been having such an increase in harmful acts done to children in our communities and we want to make sure that we are doing what we can to make sure we can stop it. Additionally, she was able to secure 2 million for Valley Fever testing. I'll be really quick. She did have a bill for that. We weren't able to secure the bill all the way through, but we did get to million for that. Additionally, she got to million for the fire department, specifically for wildlife prevention, and we were able to secure 1 million for the Meadows Field Airport to expand it as well, which as you know, we had another bill that also didn't make it through this year. But thank you so much for your time counsel and happy New Year. Merry Christmas, happy holidays. I wish you all the best.”
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 $ 3,699,505.94
3) Minutes of special Council meeting of December 1, 2025 4) Minutes of regular Council meeting of December 1, 2025 5) Minutes of regular Citizens Review committee meeting of December 10, 2024 6) Second and final reading of an Ordinance Amending the Delano Municipal Code (“DMC”) Title 14 to Adopt the 2025 Editions of the California Building Code, Adopt by Reference the Kern County Fire Code, Adopt the 2024 International Property Maintenance Code, Update Floodplain Management Language, Clarify Provisions of Title 14 and Repeal Sections No Longer in Use (Ordinance No. 2025-1367) (Moved to Public Hearing) 7) Authorization to Enter into a Memorandum of Understanding to Join the Central California Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force (Agreement No. 2025-113) 8) Resolution authorizing staff to file a claim for Transportation Development Act Funds from Kern Council of Governments for Streets and Roads purposes and revising the current budget (Resolution No. 2025-99)
9) Certification of November 4, 2025, Special Municipal Election Results; Approval of Agreements with California Department of Tax and Fee Administration for Implementation of Measure B (Resolution No. 2025-100) (Ordinance No. 2025-1368) (Resolution No. 2025- 101) (Agreement No. 2025-114) (Agreement No. 2025-115) (Resolution No. 2025-102) 10) Approval of large open purchase orders for the Water Division for January through June of 2026
11) Report on the Status of the Local Emergency regarding the failed Water Line located under State Route 99 (SR99) at 14th Avenue Pursuant to Public Contracts Code § 22050 12) Approval of Partnership Agreement Between the City of Delano Animal Shelter and Marley’s Mutts Dog Rescue for Participation in the Pawsitive Change Program at North Kern State Prison (Agreement No. 2025-116)
13) Approve Reclassification of one Maintenance Worker II to a Maintenance Worker I in the Streets Division
14) Receive and file the Annual Report on Development Impact Fees (also known as AB1600 Fees) for the Fiscal Year 2024-2025 as required by Government Code Section 66006(b) 15) Receive and file the Annual Report for Community Facilities Districts for Fiscal Year 2024- 2025 as required by Government Code Section 50075.3.
Motion was made by: Nunez to approved items 1-5, 7-15 on consent items; 2nd by: Osorio
Vote: 5-0
Ayes: Solorio-Ruiz/Nunez/Alindajao/Morris/Osorio
Nays: None
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
PUBLIC HEARING
6) Second and final reading of an Ordinance Amending the Delano Municipal Code (“DMC”) Title 14 to Adopt the 2025 Editions of the California Building Code, Adopt by Reference the Kern County Fire Code, Adopt the 2024 International Property Maintenance Code, Update Floodplain Management Language, Clarify Provisions of Title 14 and Repeal Sections No Longer in Use (Ordinance No. 2025-1367) (Moved from Consent to Public Hearing) Mayor Solorio-Ruiz opened the public hearing.
Staff report provided by Interim Community Development Director Dowling.
Mayor Solorio-Ruiz opened public comment.
No public comment.
Mayor Solorio-Ruiz closed public comment.
Mayor Pro Tem Nunez – “Go for it. Roman does. I'm sorry. Does this affect any of our impact fees for the city?”
Interim Community Development Director Dowling – “No. Council member. Oh, I'm sorry, vice mayor.
This does not affect that. Those are updated by the construction price index every January 1st, so that's already ongoing, but it doesn't affect that.”
Mayor Pro Tem Nunez – “Thank you.”
Interim Community Development Director Dowling – “You're welcome.” Council Member Morris – “I have a comment. I guess it's a lot to consume. I'm not a builder, I'm not a developer. I'm not any of that housing, but will this building code affect a lot of people, our people being in compliance now, is it going to really change what they have to do? Is it a lot more or just kind of slightly or is it something they have to really, I mean, because you said I was going to refer you to the manual, how many of you are going to go to the manual and read all those books? Okay. I mean it's not likely going to happen. So I'm thinking, okay, they complain about permitting already and how slow it is. Is that going to slow up permitting now? So, I'm just kind of worried that with all of these changes now we're going to have a flood of people of complaints now because now they're being held up even longer than they've been in the past.”
Interim Community Development Director Dowling – “Council member, honorable mayor, as I mentioned a little bit ago, these are going to be the law of the land January 1st. So, there is that, and obviously with the changes that the city is proposing is to make that even easier. But if Mayor, if you don't mind, if we could have the building official give his 2 cents on that if…” Mayor Solorio-Ruiz – “Possible. Yes, he is by the mic.” Building Official Octavio – “Mayor, Vice Mayor, Councilman Councilwoman. I'm Dominick Octavio, the building official for the city. Good question. For all intents and purposes, nothing is going to change. It's required every three years that we adopt all these codes. We've been using the Title 24 code of regulations since they were adopted the model code since 2007. Before that it was the uniform codes. So, nothing is going to change as far as our enforcement on that. There is updates every three years, which the city and the state is required, and even if we don't adopt them, they're actually enforced automatically per the health and safety codes. So, there will be no changes to the public or anything that they have to learn that's different. In fact, you might've heard that it mentioned Assembly Bill 130, which actually put limits on the regulations that the Building Standards Commission could add significant changes to the code. So they've actually been limited in that regard.”
Council Member Morris – “Well that's good to know because I'm thinking, oh, okay, that sounds like if you're listening to all the codes and stuff, oh my gosh, it seems like a little overwhelming, but if it's been done or been what I mean it's just some minor changes that we just have to comply to. I can see not unless permitted is going to say, Hey, go read those manuals over here so we compliant. Not going to happen.” Building Official Octavio – “Yeah, it's a formality. And we had to update the names of some of the codes because some of the codes were still under the previous code cycles, which had different names for the building code. So, some of it was tidying up our specifications as far as what the names were of the Title 24 code of regulations. You're welcome. Any other questions?” Mayor Solorio-Ruiz – “Any other questions from counsel” Council Member Osorio – “I have a quick question. So I know Mr. Dowling referenced how this would impact ADUs, but in the language it seems very broad and also not very limiting. Could you just clarify the impact on ADUs?”
Building Official Octavio – “Yeah, this will have no impact on ADUs except for the fact that the city by assembly Bill 130 is not permitted to adopt any significant substantial changes to our ordinances or to our building code. So, some cities will add their own personal ordinances to the building code. City of Delano doesn't do much of that. In fact, as Mr. Dowling brought out, we're repealing some that no longer are effective in the city and no longer have application in the city anymore. Also, we are adopting the Kern County Fire Ordinance and that's because Kern County does all our fire inspections. So, they've been, again, they've already been applying and enforcing that over the years, so this will have no effect on ADUs.
Also, in addition to that, the Building Standards Commission on a state level was not allowed to make significant changes to the code of regulations, the building codes and so on. So, there will be no effect on ADUs.”
Council Member Osorio – “Right. And then last question, just out of curiosity. So as I'm looking at the revised language, again, I think it strikes out a lot of language, adds some more descriptive language, but for the role of the city council, it talks about it in the form or the power of an appeals process, but I'm not sure how much that's been utilized as a tool by the audience. Could you just clarify that role?” Building Official Octavio – “Yeah, that's never been utilized here in the city. For the fire regulations we have, Kern County Board of Supervisors is the appeals board and the building code does require that every city have an appeals board. And so if a member of the public wanted to appeal a decision that myself or one of my building inspectors or plan reviewers made, they would be able to appeal that to the city council.” Council Member Osorio – “Great. Thank you. No more questions from you, Mayor.” Motion was made by: Nunez for approval;
2nd by: Osorio
Vote: 5-0
Ayes: Solorio-Ruiz/Nunez/Alindajao/Morris/Osorio
Nays: None
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
REGULAR AGENDA
No items
DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS
No items
COUNCIL STATEMENTS AND REPORTS
Council Member Bryan Osorio – “Yes, just very quickly as the meeting started off with really much just appreciation to everyone on the city staff for the drone show, the Christmas tree lighting, the Christmas parade was a wonderful event that day, just generally in the city, I think just showed a lot of Christmas spirit, a lot of community spirit, so that was very special. I saw some folks handing out coffee and cookies too, so that's also humbling to be in that role and show yourself to the community. So, thank you. And along with my colleagues, we attended the grand opening of another clinic of Sierra Vista Clinic, and so it's great to see over the course of about a month and a half to see two more healthcare service providers open up United Health Centers being the other early in November, late October. So yeah, just great to see Delano growing and you just hear that comment from folks from out of town and attending these grand openings. Thanks, and I hope everyone has a safe holiday. Merry Christmas and enjoy time with your families.”
Council Member Alindajao – “First of all, I want to say congratulations to the RFK High School football team for winning their first state title of any high school actually in the City of Delano, the 3A title, so congratulations to them. It's okay if I announce the procession right? We won't be hosting the procession, right? It'll be RFK in the high school district. They will have a procession starting at City Hall Thursday, Saturday. Okay. Saturday at three o'clock. 11. All right, so sorry, I got another different email and I'm just learning now. Yes, this Saturday 11:00 AM starts at City Hall and ends at RFK Stadium or gymnasium.
Procession, I guess car parade I suppose. And the council will be there. I believe the Mayor will be there and the council will be there to present awards to the RFK football team. It was quite a run and I'm super happy for not just the RFK Football Team, but for the City of Delano and really youth sports in this city. It is a testimony to the development and the evolution of youth sports in Delano, so congratulations to them.
I also want to say it's been a great year. 2025 has been a great year for the city. I want to thank our city staff, all department heads, supervisors, every employee of the city. We had a great year. It's been a safe year, relatively speaking in terms of public safety. It's been a growth year. A lot of new businesses coming to the city. We anticipate a lot more businesses opening in 2026. It's just been a great year for Delano and I appreciate all the hard work that city staff has put into all that they do. I've heard nothing but good comments from developers and businesses about the ease, for lack of a better word, the ease or smooth working with the city and its staff and getting things moving and going. So, I appreciate it. So, thank you very much for all that our staff does. Good job. I want to say Merry Christmas as well to you and your families and to the public. I did attend the livestock event. What is the title, name of the organization? Junior Livestock. Okay. The Junior Livestock. It was a really neat event. Came out really nice, very well attended. I liked a lot of the vendors that were there. It was a diverse vendor list and it was just overall fun.
I think they had a contest of some sort, right? Like food contest? Yeah. Let's see. And I think that's, unfortunately I had to miss my first Christmas Street lighting for the city. My son had a special event. He had attend out of town and mom and I would went with him to that event, but I heard it was a good time. I missed the drone show, although thank you Maribel for sending me the video of the drone show. It was really cool. And you can see it probably from all over the city, so I'm looking forward to 2026. I'm looking forward to 2026 for further growth in prosperity of the city. See what 2026 has in store for us. So thank you.”
Council Member Morris – “Yeah, I'd just like to make a few statements. First of all, I do want to congratulate RFK. I think that's an awesome thing. I think all of us were kind of glued to Facebook or something like that. Somebody posting something. Okay, what's the score every 10 minutes or whatever.
But that was exciting, so we're so happy for them. Also too, I was looking at one of the items on the consent agenda and we went to the advisory committee at the prison and they were saying how they were going to introduce the partnership agreement between the City of Delano Animal Shelter and Marley's Mutts Dogs Rescue for participation in a positive change program at North Kern State Prison. And so I think that's really awesome. I'm all for the dogs and the animals out there, and I think some of these prisoners are really love this program because they will give them a sense of their own responsibility to care for somebody who loves back to them. And so, I was so happy to see that program introduced into the prison. I also wanted to say that one of the things about the parade, I had someone come to my door and said, I was at a parade in San Luis Obispo or somewhere there, and they said for their Christmas parade, they literally walked, had somebody walk the dogs that were adoptable in the parade and they had a van that says, we are adopted looking for a home. And so I thought, oh gosh, that's a great idea to walk the dogs down and saying, looking for a good home so people could see all the dogs that we have in the animal shelter. I thought that was an awesome idea. We're going to have to try that next year. But anyway, and I do, I wanted to thank staff and for all of you guys for allowing me to work as the Mayor last year and from staff to council. What a great year we've had. So, thank you all of you for all of your cooperation and all your work.
I know it hasn't been easy to accomplish some of the things that we'd like to see, and so I'm so grateful for that opportunity that you've given me. Also, I just wanted to say to all of you, Merry Christmas and I hope that we remember the true reason for the season and to think about the reason why we celebrate. And so with that, I think that's all I have for now. So thank you.” “I'm sorry I missed the animals. I didn't know that they had the animals out there. Oh yeah, they did have animals out there and they had all the piglets and the big goats and stuff out there. I never got that far out there reindeers. I thought I went around, but I didn't know that they had the animals out there. Oh, sorry, I missed them.”
“Can I just mention one thing also too? If you don't mind. I know Jeanette got up and she talked about fire and Senator Hertado, what she's working on on that bill. And I remember going to league and that was a real important issue on the fire issue. And I thought to myself, well, I think to myself, but they kind of mentioned there, that meeting, I says, how many of your cities have a fire plan? I know that you have a fire plan of what to do in case of fire where there was a large fire. I know Pasadena and Palos Verde and all those cities burnt down. Do we literally have a plan for our city to show the people that live in this community where to go or how to go or how to exit the city? That kind of a plan. I know all of you probably know what the plan is, but how many of the people in the town know what the plan is? So maybe that's something we need to work on this upcoming year is to inform people if it was an emergency, what we have to do, which way we can exit, who do we contact or where do we go? Because I'm sure nobody knows what the plan .” Fire Chief Crist – “Good evening, mayor through the Council. Mason Crist Kern County Fire Department, your representative. So to answer your question, Council Member Morris, every emergency situation is going to be different. So, there's not going to be one set plan necessarily that you're always going to exit in this route depending on where the emergency incident is. If it's coming from the north or the east, the south, the west, the evacuation routes are always going to be different. So we have many ways to communicate those plans through Ready Kern, through some of your own city alerting system. So there's never going to be one set plan that we just push out to the public and say, this is how you're always going to escape. This is always going to be your escape routes because emergency incidents evolve depending on where they happen, what type of incident it is not just fires, could be hazardous materials, leaks, wind direction comes into play, not just where the incident is itself, but when direction where it goes to. So they're evolving events throughout the entire emergency incident that will change. And we would provide updates through the communications out to the public. So we coordinate with it with the city. And if we have an incident like the last couple hazardous materials incidents, I've immediately text Maribel. And then we've got in touch with the chief of police and made coordination efforts to shut down roadblocks as well as any evacuation notices that we needed. Yeah. Civic Ready is your guys' system here in the city and the county. We have Ready Kern, that we encourage everyone to be involved in that gives you alerts for any emergency instance that are ongoing in your area as well.”
Mayor Pro-Tem Nunez – “Yeah, everybody's talking about how we had a really, really good year as a city. I think we have, and it all goes back to how staff makes us look to what I'm going to repeat. What some of the guys from Tanganicicuro said is all the little ‘hormigas’ that help us work. And there's a lot of little ‘hormigas’ in our city that have made our city what we are today, and it's just going to get better. I mean, now we can breathe a little relief. We do have Measure “B” now we can continue moving what we are working on and all the great things like the ice-skating rink. And we have state champions now, and that's all popular for us. And with the VOA coming up here in April, March or April of this year, our city's just going to grow. And again, thank you staff and Merry Christmas and have a happy New Year.” “Forgot to mention it. Saturday was shop at a cop, hundreds of people and kids showed up. It was actually very, very successful. I had a really good time with one of the young men I took with me and he took a lot of my money.”
Mayor Solorio-Ruiz - “Thanks for the translation. Yes. I also of course with my colleagues attended the Christmas tree lighting, the Christmas parade as well, and the drone show. So thank you to city staff for all the work on that. Of course, the Chamber as well was a part of those events as well. Also the Junior Livestock Winter Fair shout out to JR to Janie, to everyone involved in that. It was an absolute success. I know that when I saw folks there were like, this looks like a Hallmark movie. And it really did. When I walked in, I was like, “whoa,” this is very Christmasy. And it was beautiful to go in there. And of course I saw some of my colleagues. We took a photo with Santa, sent it to the city manager. We loved it. It was a good opportunity.”
“And they had, I believe they're like Highlander. Little little cows was Amazing. I'm like, we asked 'em and they're like, there were 40k. I like, oh, but it was a great opportunity. And shout out to that committee for the work that they're doing. I think that that is amazing and we should support them how we can, whether it is of course through the city or whether it is as council members attending.
And then of course also attended the Clinic of Sierra Vista. Thank you to the chamber for coordinating that as well as a congratulations to Olga and her team for the success that they've had. I believe they said that this is going to be their fifth one in the city. And so that's huge. Access to healthcare is important. And then of course also want to give props to RFK with the state recognition that they received. I think that is something that we should all be very proud of. And like the councilwoman mentioned, we were all glued on our phones. I was on Mr. Ray Arvizu, Facebook Live, just watching it and cheering them on from my couch. But I think we should all be proud of that. And of course we'll say more. Come on Saturday. They did also let me know that council was invited to be part of the procession. Of course, we'll talk details after that if that's a possibility. Or we can just provide the proclamation and call it a day. And then of course, similar to everyone else. Just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. All my colleagues mentioned 2025 was really a beautiful and remarkable year for our city. Everywhere you go all the time, we always hear Delano is growing and it absolutely is. As is our motto is, and we uplifted, which is that we're built for growth. And that's because of our staff. That's because of the city manager, that's because of our city clerk, our city attorney, everyone involved. Noemi, Rosa. I'm like, I'm going to stop saying names before someone's like, you didn't say mine, the chief as well for keeping our street safe and of course the public as well for your presence here. I know we often don't get a crowd here, but at least your little seed that you're adding to our city to move the needle forward into making this really one of the best cities in Kern County. And so, thank you.
And as we come forward.”
“And that's why it's important to also register to Civic Ready. Absolutely. Yeah. We need that Bullhorn from Chicken. Little Sky is falling. I'm kidding. Yes. No, thank you sir. Okay. Okay. And as I was, well, vice Mayor Nunes has something to say as well.” “A lot of us were like, we're the kid, Mario, buy us stuff. But Noah was a great opportunity as well.
So thank you for bringing that up and thank you to DPOA and the department for all of their support with that and their initiative. But as I was mentioning, next year is going to really be a great year for all of us. And as we've always mentioned, have the city and of course your elected officials up here in city staff and your prayers for a really good year coming up of 2026 where we achieve opportunity and prosperity for all of our residents as that is something that we always try to achieve in this city. And of course, like I mentioned, Merry Christmas to All and a Happy New Year. Other than that, I will go ahead. There's no close session items.”
CLOSED SESSION
No items.
RETURN TO GENERAL SESSION
ADJOURNMENT
Moved by Nunez seconded by Osorio and unanimously carried 5-0 to adjourn the closed session meeting at 6:06 pm.
_____________________________________________
Ricardo G. Chavez, City Clerk