MINUTES
CITY OF DELANO
CITY COUNCIL – REGULAR MEETING
January 20, 2026
CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Solorio-Ruiz called the meeting to order at 5:18 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: Salvador Solorio-Ruiz, Mario Nunez, Joe Alindajao, Liz Morris, Bryan Osorio Council members absent: None
OFFICIALS PRESENT
City Manager Reyna, City Clerk Chavez, Assistant City Attorney King, 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, Tranist Manager Alapisco and IS Coordinator Reyes
PRESENTATIONS AND AWARDS
No items
ITEMS FROM THE PUBLIC
1. David Castillo – “David Castillo, I've lived here in this town for 77 years. And I remember when I lived on ... In fact, we still lived there on Main Street, 20th Avenue was ... There was no sidewalks. And when we lived there at one time, it was all an open field. Anyway, you guys built the sidewalks and the ... And so they said for me to go to the city yard and try to talk to somebody on that. And I did right after they parted the sidewalk and it was never resolved. And I went back there a couple of other times. We'll take care of it. It was never resolved. Went back there again.
Never resolved. And you guys know how long that sidewalk has been back in that 20th, but the problem has never been resolved. And I would appreciate it if somebody would just go over there and find my meter. Like I said, it's not so much for me. It's for if there's an emergency and you guys got to turn it off, you'll go in my back on 20th and say, "Darn, where's this meter?" Okay? And then also, I don't know if this is also on the agenda regarding handicapped parking. Can I talk about handicap parking? Okay. On handicap parking, my wife, she's had three strokes and now she has Parkinson. And when I take my wife out of the car and on the handicap parking, you have the blue slab right there. And generally in all the other cities, other than Delano that I've been to where that slab is at, they have a little ramp, so you go right straight to the sidewalk. But I noticed here is when I take her out, then I got to pull her out in the street. Even though that handicap is toward the corner, when I pull her out, when a car is making, let's say, a left or righthand turn, that person is looking to see if there's a car coming and really can't see a person walking in the middle of the street. And I appreciate if the city maybe look into that, maybe where the handicap parking's at and where that blue slab is at, if they could do a ramp. And then also…”
2. Roberto Ibarra – “Hello, good evening. My name is Roberto Ibarra, Delano resident. I have one question. Oh, well, a few questions. I have the proposition. I think it's the proposition that was passed from Delano to make Delano beautiful again, I hope you ... Which is a tax, a tax motion.
We are going to carry taxes on that. And I hope you make good use of that money. And also, are you making efforts to make business come into town? We like to see, because we just get in tax overtaxed and taxes, tax, tax, tax. California is overtaxed. Now California has been talked that we're going to be audited. Everybody's going to be audited. They're using the money wisely instead of laundering, wasting. I mean, we need to know because of we being taxed, overtaxed.
And this make Delano beautiful again. I mean, I hope you make something out of it. I mean, instead of squandering something for the landlord that make it look good, instead of just running asphalt all over the street or spraying paint or crosswalks, I hope you do that. And also, I stand by that on the business. I hope you're doing business, trying to get business on the city because I mean, thanks to our farmers. Otherwise, what else? Thank you.”
3. Fernando Bravo – “Good evening, Mayor. Council. Happy New Year's. Okay. I'm just here just to let you guys know that myself and the senior citizens, we'd like to thank you for that Christmas dinner party that we have at Guillermo's. And especially I give thanks to Liz and Mario and the ones who attended and Maribel and the chief for all those donations you guys had. So that's what I want to say. Thank you. Right.”
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 $ 3,262,541.21
3) Warrant Register in the amount of $ 2,764,070.33
4) Warrant Register in the amount of $ 4,224,736.71
5) Minutes of regular Council meeting of December 15, 2025 6) Minutes of regular planning commission meeting of November 12, 2025 7) Minutes of regular Citizens Review committee meeting of July 17, 2025 8) Minutes of regular Citizens Review committee meeting of October 16, 2025 9) Award of contract for the “10th Avenue Sanitary Sewer Replacement Project” to Eclipse Construction Services Inc. in the amount of $561,885.00 and authorize the City Manager or her designee to sign the construction contract and any other documents needed to complete the project (Agreement No. 2026-01)
10) Acceptance of the SB-1 Project No. 7 Local Streets and Roads Pavement Resurfacing & Rehabilitation Project and authorizing the filing of the Notice of Completion 11) Resolution finding that a Local Emergency has existed within the city, authorizing contracting without the need for bidding pursuant to Public Contracts Code § 22050 and awarding the project to JM Pipeline Construction Inc. for $350,000.00, and associated actions (Resolution No. 2026-01) (Agreement No. 2026-02) 12) Approval of payment of Southern California Edison invoice for $79,858.07 for design of electrical service to Water Well 42 and authorization for the City Manager or her designee to sign any documents needed to carry that project to completion Motion was made by: Nunez to approved items 1-12 on consent items; 2nd by: Alindajao
Vote: 5-0
Ayes: Solorio-Ruiz/Nunez/Alindajao/Morris/Osorio
Nays: None
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
PUBLIC HEARINGS
13) Public Hearing to receive comments related to unmet transit needs that may exist and can be reasonably met
Mayor Solorio-Ruiz opened the public hearing.
Staff report provided by Transit Manager Alapisco.
Mayor Solorio-Ruiz opened public comment.
No public comment.
Mayor Solorio-Ruiz closed public comment.
Motion for approval was made by: Nunez;
2nd by: Morris
Vote: 5-0
Ayes: Solorio-Ruiz/Nunez/Alindajao/Morris/Osorio
Nays: None
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
REGULAR AGENDA
14) Further discussion on the status update of Downtown Parking Enforcement (Main Street from 9th Avenue to Cecil Avenue) since the November 3rd, 2025 Regular City Council Meeting
Police Chief Nicholson provided the staff report.
City Manager Reyna – “Honorable Mayor, just to remind the council how this issue was brought back up, staff did go and visit business to business in marketing the economic development micro loan program. And when we really weren't getting any takers, we went right back out and visited the businesses and this time inquired as to, "If you don't need this from us, what do you need? What can the city do to help your business?" And the biggest thing that they came back with was, "Please enforce the parking." So that's why we had brought that back to you as something that was really generated incidentally from the micro loan program. We're trying to offer them low interest loans, and they came back and said, "Enforce the parking." So it has generated some complaints.
Council Member Morris – “What’s the ordinance now Chief?” Police Chief Nicholson – “The ordinance now is under 10.16.220, which is two-hour parking. It's enforceable from 9:00 to 6:00 PM except for holidays and on Sundays. And it doesn't include disabled parking, just the regular parking. That's been in existence at least for 25 years, at least since I've been here. The signs have been posted since as far back as I can remember. The signage was in place when we began enforcing in December of last year, and that's essentially the gist of the ordinance. Any vehicle that stops or parks in the designated area where signs are posted for more than two hours can be given a citation for parking more than two hours.”
City Manager Reyna – “Honorable Mayor, just to remind the council how this issue was brought back up, staff did go and visit business to business in marketing the economic development micro loan program. And when we really weren't getting any takers, we went right back out and visited the businesses and this time inquired as to, "If you don't need this from us, what do you need? What can the city do to help your business?" And the biggest thing that they came back with was, "Please enforce the parking." So that's why we had brought that back to you as something that was really generated incidentally from the micro loan program. We're trying to offer them low interest loans, and they came back and said, "Enforce the parking." So it has generated some complaints. My recommendation would be to perhaps send out a ballot to each of the businesses, the business owners, not the property owners council and not the employees, but have it be filled out by the actual business owner so that council could get a response from the business and let's just ask them if they want it enforced or if they don't. We want to be supportive of our downtown businesses. That's not necessarily a convenience to the employee, but is a help to the business. But if the help to the business is no enforcement, then we can certainly do that. But if the business is saying we depend on our walk-in traffic and we need parking, then we enforce it. But my recommendation would be to try to gather some actual data so that council could perhaps make a more informed decision.”
Mayor Solorio-Ruiz opened public comment.
Mari Garcia (via interpreter) – “The owner of MGS Glam Beauty. It's a beauty salon. I want to express my worry about the limit on parking, of the two hour limit on parking. Honestly, it's affecting how my business is working and my colleagues who work close by. At this point, this rule of two hours means that if our clients want to spend a meaningful amount of time in our salon, they have to rush to leave or risk.
For a small business like mine, this is a big problem. Often people who come to our business need more than two hours to receive our services we have available experience, or only to enjoy of experience. When they feel pressured with time, they won't come back, with affecting directly our income. This is generating an unnecessary stress to our customers. On top, it's hard for all of us who work there, including me. Often we work shifts that last more than two hours. We have to go outside and move our cars several times during our shift. This is really inconvenient. You make us lose valuable time. And there's other times when there's not enough parking spots available on the street for us to park during those two hours. This can cause fines for my clients and my business associates. I will really appreciate if the city can consider eliminating this restriction, eliminating this two hour restriction or to extend the limit to four hours. This small change will be a big difference in how or business flow, and the tranquility for employees to be able to work during their shifts. We are part of the Delano community, and we want to prosper here. Any measure to solve this parking restriction will be a big help for all of us who earn their life or lives here in Delano. Something I would like to add is that if we go outside to our parking spot and the state comes over and they see our clients with some type of chemical in their heads, we will be fine. Thank you for listening to my concerns. I hope we can find a solution soon. Thank you. 1124 Main Street, Delano, California.”
Bernardo Preza (via interpreter) – “Afternoon. I apologize. I have a sore throat, but I'm going to try to express myself in the best way possible. My name is Bernado Presa and I'm the owner of Kern Bakery. 1302 High Street. We're having a little bit of an issue due to parking. We have been there for 10 years, established in this place. The building, we share this building with other four businesses and we share parking with them. We usually park on the street on Avenue… 13th Avenue. Due to the parking lot that we have, we only have 13 spots available. We only have 15 parking spots to be shared in four. If we as employees park where the customers are going to park, then we're not going to have enough space for our clients. And this is going to affect our business because now we have to park where customers should be parking. We try parking somewhere else in order to leave the parking space open for our customers, but everything else is closed. If we park over High Street, the limit is two hours. Either way we move, there's not enough space, so we need please. If you can help us with this petition, because we want to keep moving forward with our businesses because we want our customers to be able to park closely because sometimes there's customers that have their kits and they come in walking. And Sometimes due to rain or the heat, we want our customers to be able to park close to our businesses.
That's what I want to keep ...That's why I'm asking for this, because I want to keep my customer happy and keep growing in my business. Thank you very much. Kern Bakery. K-E-R-N Bakery.” Melani Juan – “Good evening, everyone. My name is Melanie Juan. I'm a longtime Delano resident and I rent a suite at MGS Glam Beauty Salon at 1124 Main Street. I found it very unfortunate when I heard the news of a few of my peers and clients receiving parking tickets while being at the establishment, and I feel that it will affect all of us at the establishment as well. I'm addressing that I'm against the two-hour parking time limit. I just don't think it makes any sense for there to be a parking time limit on Main Street with all the different businesses on the street that require customers to stay there for long periods of time, such as multiple salons and barbershops, the gym, restaurants, boutiques, and much more. As for the salon, most of our services that we provide take more than two hours to complete, and with us working with chemicals that need to be constantly monitored, the constant clock watching and need to go and move our vehicles could negatively affect the outcome of our work or cause us to run behind schedule for our next client. Also, on the days we work late hours, it's better for us to park on Main Street that's very lit up rather than in the alley with minimal light. With the homeless issue in our city, on top of us being predominantly women coming out of the salon, I find it very dangerous for us to park our vehicles in the alley. With that being said, I would suggest for the city to put up more lights in the back alleys of our businesses. Parking meters would not be a good solution because I don't think us business owners should have to pay for parking nor our customers as it would deter the customers. If the parking signs should remain up, businesses should be provided parking passes or even designated parking areas for each business. With enough parking slots for employees and customers. These are my main concerns for the parking situation. I kindly urge the city to come up with a better solution. Thank you.” Erica Ramirez – “My name is Erica Ramirez. I live on 115 Calepinuelas, and I work at 927 Main Street.
My boss was not able to attend today, but I do have a statement from him that he'd like me to read on his behalf. My boss's name is Matt Billings. He is an agriculture business owner. We are on the corner of 10th and Main Street. The business has been owned by his family for 98 years. We're 10 employees that require street parking. We're only parking in front of our building. We're not impeding on any other business parking, and this parking enforcement is only penalizing our employees. The safety of our employees walking and getting to work safely is his main concern. There's also people that are a little bit older and they have a physical impairment to walk. My personal statement is, I'd like to speak to you on the impact of the two-hour parking limit on Main Street. It's heavy on myself and fellow employees.
Since the parking limit has been enforced, we have been subject to parking at either two public parking lots that are both a block or more from our place of employment. Both parking lots have their share of nuisance. One parking lot requires you to walk down the alley to reach 10th and Main Street. This parking lot is next to an old apartment building where the residents, typically men, like to stand outside, talk, and observe the people and cars passing by. This parking lot is also next to a big dumpster, which typically is full on Mondays and has a wretched smell. Occasionally, you can find raw meat laying on the ground and empty beer cans and other household waste. The other parking lot sits between a drug rehab and public library, which is occasionally host to homeless people. Between the two parking lots, I've been taking my chances with the old residents because maybe I can outrun them if I ever need to. You see, as a female employee, this parking limit has brought fear, anxiety, and an uneasy feeling walking to and from work. I don't think it's safe for any female employee to have to walk through an alley to reach her place of employment. Yes, I could walk down main streets like High Street or Jefferson, but I'm creating a longer walk for myself and only subjecting myself to the traffic of the passing cars. Being honked at or getting catcalled on your way to work is not the way I'd like to start it. Just because of an incident hasn't occurred doesn't mean it won't happen. I fear that this parking limit is only a matter of time before an incident like such takes place for a female. And until Well, then will you revoke the parking limit? Are you trying to create revenue off the employees of Main Street? Look at how many other female-owned and ran businesses are down Main Street and adjacent. Do you think everyone's safety now having to walk a block or two to reach their workplace? Do you know that typically women are at beauty shops for longer than one or two hours? You're risking their safety by parking at the alley or risk getting a ticket. You're screwing the female employees and customers.”
Jorge Navarro – “Good Aftnernoon, my name is Jorge Navarro. My business is in 1006 Main Street and I'm also a barber. I am also in disagreement with this two hour parking. The same reason the people before me presented. Everything they say before me is correct when it comes down to what's happening with our customers. Now, a person who works with me received to a practice in less than a month. So I don't think it's fair, because I don't think it's fair that we have to be moving our car every two hours because sometimes we get busy. We get busy with one customer for more than that time, and sometimes the officer comes over, gives an infraction, and we don't have enough time to go outside and move our car. I would prefer if it could be possible to be extended to four hours. If that could happen, we will appreciate it a lot.”
Creshanda Villalobos – “Hello. My name is Krishada Villalobos and I am resident of Delano 250 Belmont Street. I'm here representing MGS Glam Beauty Salon of 1124 Main Street. I am a suite renter and the impact has directly affected me, my peers, and our clients. Due to being ticketed at the salon, clients receiving tickets as well while being served, I would like to give a brief insight to the timeframes in which services can be completed. A basic color service can run two hours plus. A lightner service can run three to four hours, plus on top of many Delano families receiving haircut services for each of the children in the house and/or adults. Also, many of our clients receive services from hairstyles and nail techs during one appointment block. Clients and stylists have already received tickets during said services. It's unfortunate during this tight economic time to tack on another price during their appointment. I would like to also bring up the fact that many clients will come from the gym to the salon, receive a service, treat their children to ice cream, walk across the street to the bank to get cash to pay us. They will go to the 99-cent store, buy their kids a treat. They will take home food from the business across the street and such. So these clients are also going and consuming multiple businesses, and I think that that promotes revenue within Delano. Excuse me. Oh, one second. I'm so sorry. For every new business that is built, we see one parish down Main Street. As a city cannot afford to impose something that discourages business where businesses are much needed. Finally, due to our increased homeless epidemic, we felt very unsafe parking in the alley, which does only fit two vehicles if parked properly. I propose this because the situation is one that directly affects me, my means to provide for my family, my coworkers, our salon, my clients, and the time and finances. What are our options? A multi-level parking structure, a longer time span, or those who work on Main Street getting parking passes. This situation is very discouraging to many of us who work in this location, furthermore, in the City of Delano. I kindly ask that you take time to listen to our voices, the people who keep Main Street afloat. Speaker 18 (35:11):
Thank you for your time and consideration. I would like to quickly add on something that was discussed with my clients and other coworkers. In our salon, we host ... Delano is inclusive, and we have an environment where we all have private suites, meaning that nursing mothers have a safe place to nurse their children. Now, that takes time. That is additional time on top of a service. And to know that we are very proud at MGS Glam that every single mother can have a private suite to do that. It's an awesome retreat, and it's something that brings in business and revenue. Now, if that's taken away from the women, because primarily it is women that consume that service from our salon and can perform what they need to do. Me included, it is very discouraging and it may even in fact affect me to the point where I cannot no longer work. So it's very personal. Thank you.”
Veronica Palomo – “ Good evening. My name is Veronica Palomo. I've been a resident of Delano more than 20 years. I'm a licensed cosmetologist. I'm currently servicing at 1124 Main Street. I've practiced in Delano the whole time I've been here, specifically on Main Street the last seven years. As was already stated, the signs have been there the whole time. Nobody's paid attention. We go in provider service and go out. It's been great. Unfortunately, on the 7th, I did walk out to my car having a ticket on there. And then the following day in the mail, I received another ticket that was dated the 5th. Besides the office concern that my colleagues have shared, that was a little unfortunate and unfair. The whole seven years, every single time we have a parade, there's cones posted. We're going to have a parade. We're going to shut down the main street that stops our walk-in and our clients to come in conveniently. So that's already another issue separate from parking. But I'm wondering, Mr. Mayor, why we didn't have the cones and the signs because Mr. Nunez, Vice Mayor Nunez shared with me that there were supposed warnings given. I'm there Monday through Saturday, 8::30 AM to 7:00 PM. Not one notice was ever put around or even verbally given. So, one problem or one suggestion or one question I have is, will you give grace to this first month that you guys seemingly abruptively put this into place? I figure if any notice was given, I would've got it because I'm there so frequently. Also, like they briefly mentioned, State Board is really tight on us. We don't have the luxury of leaving our clients unattended with chemicals when, or sending them out with chemicals and drapes to move their car. It's not plausible. Aside from it affecting our businesses as a consumer to medical treatment, my agenda is as Dr. Carlos Bohaman on 1019 Main Street, I have an upcoming root canal. We know that's going to take longer than two hours. Do I ask him to stop my medical treatment while I have numbing and possibly things in my mouth to move my car? It's really also the prompt care on Jefferson. If you're going to PromptCare, you're going to take longer than two hours. My solution is agreeing with some of my colleagues. I mean, if we want a solution that is not going to affect us financially, we have these parking spaces by La Michoacana, Bank of America, the one between the Courthouse Street to be multi-level parking. I don't agree with limiting. If we do the math and paying 50 cents an hour or whatever, it can go up to 2,000 a year, and that's not possible for us.
We're the revenue that's bringing Delano. We're all these businesses that is helping our economy thrive here. I don't think we should be punished. I don't know if there's any questions. I went pretty fast. Thank you.”
Manuela Jordan – “Hello. My name is Magdalena Jordan. I reside in 1200 County Line Road. I do work for MGS as well since 2022. My hours are pretty long. Sometimes I go early in the morning at 4:30 and come out sometimes till five o'clock. I have never got an issue with parking. On the 7th, I myself as well came out to a parking ticket in my car and I was unaware that these rules were applied since I've been working there for so long and it's never been an issue before. Sometimes I do have to close there. I get out sometimes 11:00 PM, 12:00 PM, which will be very harsh for me to go to the back where it's dark.
They're sometimes homeless by the back in the trash cans. And I feel that's kind of dangerous for a female to go out there and just go out there in the dark. So I don't know what solution you guys have. I feel my clients, sometimes they are there for over four hours. And like my teammates said, they can't be going out with chemicals and their hair and just switching the car from one day from hour to hour. The other day, I actually had to do that. I was there for about six hours and every two hours I went out there and changed my car, but it's hard leaving my client in the room while I go and change my car and having them do the same thing. So maybe you guys could come up with better solutions on the parking lots. Thank you.” Guadalupe Olmedo – “Hello. Hi. Good afternoon. My name is Guadalupe Olmedo. I am here in the address on 920 11th Avenue. That's our place of business. And for me, I wanted to come in and address this topic because like many of our community members, I have also been affected by the cost of these infractions. And I wanted to point out the fact that in our location specifically, we are at a financial institution, and so many times our clients are there for hours at a time being that we want to prioritize being swift and having security for our clients and giving them the trust that they need to be able to perform their financial transactions. Oftentimes, me personally, I don't end up taking a lunch till maybe 2:00, 3:00 PM. And so unfortunately, during this month, I also had an infraction during one of these times where I wasn't able to take my lunch on time and I was helping our community with their financial services. And so I'd just like to add the fact that in our location specifically, we only have a parking that we don't have ... I guess we could park there, but we wouldn't because it's not the right thing to do, like many of our community members stated. The parking is for the convenience of our customers. And being that we are at a financial institution and being that I'm sure DPD may be aware of situations where we've had security concerns specifically with the community, how is it that we're protecting our community members when we're not being given enough time to park, especially us as employees, being that we're here to serve our community, we need to trust that our city is also supporting us in this common goal of helping our community thrive. I want to piggyback on what the ladies behind us mentioned. As a woman, a young woman here in our community, unfortunately, I've experienced many instances of sexual harassment, stalking. And unfortunately, to say our community or our court system here doesn't really support restraining orders. And so, the reason why I bring that up is because working in a financial industry or in a financial institution, we often do get out late or we have clients who are women and they might be going to the bank on their own and they are at risk and they have been at risk. I think that I don't need to say more, but I think that it's a concern when we're not able to have access to parking. So, I want to offer a solution and I think a great solution might be considering a public parking structure. I know we have some space here. I'm not sure if it's owned by the city, but I think that might be a perfect spot for us to take advantage of and being able to create a space for our businesses and community members.
Thank you for your time.”
Mayor Solorio-Ruiz closed public comment.
Council Member Morris – “Personally, I really don't care either way because I'm not a business owner downtown. So whether you want to cater to your clients or cater to your employees, that's up to you. I'm with Maribel. I'm saying send out something to every business owner down that street and whatever vote comes in the most is the direction where we go. I know Mario and I surveyed a lot of the area. Well, at least I went down with them a couple of blocks down and we talked to people downtown just to see what is more important, your customers or your employees. And I realize both of them are important, but somewhere along the line, you have to weigh that out. Okay. Which is it going to be? You want your clientele to be able to park or do you want your employees to be able to park? So for me, like I said, it doesn't really make a difference to me because I'm not particularly a business owner downtown, and that's true. And it's hard to find a parking place downtown. Sometimes I'll go round and round and round and round hoping somebody eventually leaves before I park and find a place or I'll have to park a block down and walk down or just hope that I can find a parking space. But I know that's always been a problem. We haven't really enforced it because when it's fresh and new, we're all gung-ho on the issue, and then after a while it just kind of dies off a little bit and then we forget about it. So that's kind of where I stand right now. I'm saying, send the letters out and whoever comes out at the top and says, "Yay, no, is the direction that we'll go. " And I think that's my comment.” Council Member Osorio – “Yeah. Well, first of all, I just want to thank everyone for showing up to give their insights as to what they've experienced with this parking enforcement recently. The common themes I'm identifying are related to public safety, access, health, and the financial hardship of dealing with these infractions. I think what I shared with folks who took the time to call me, who took the time to email us, and I think we were all looped into those emails. It reflects some of those comments that were shared this evening. I am particularly concerned how we listened this evening to how women especially feel at risk of this enforcement and how they've had to adjust to make sure that they're not receiving citations.
Because of that and because of the potential suggestion of a survey, I'd be in support of halting enforcement until we make a more solid decision. And I feel like that solid decision should be backed up with more information, which could be the survey results of our folks in support of a two-hour limit. I believe that's the recommendation is just for that question. I'd also be curious whether there would be support for a four-hour limit, if that's also helpful because at the root of this, there's also the concern from those businesses who want to make sure that they do have parking available for their clients because right now we are possibly adjusting to making sure that clients have adequate time, but we also want to make sure we prepare for the concern on the other end, which is what if clients have too much time? And so I would be curious to see if a survey can include that question as well. But ultimately, again, I hear folks, I hear their concerns, and I would be strongly in favor of making sure that we're not, or that we would hold off on enforcement until the City Council makes a more collective decision.” Council Member Alindajao – “I think that the bigger picture here that I think the council's thinking about, at least from my position, is retail development in this city is really moving towards the southwest part of the city. And our concern is that we don't want downtown to be left behind. We're really concerned about making sure that downtown continues to be vibrant, revitalize and move forward as the city continues to develop new retail in the southwest part of the city. So I think that's the bigger picture that sort of drives this parking issue. I used to work in downtown years ago, and that was the problem then.
It's the problem now. And we really have to balance all the businesses. We have to be equitable in terms of how do we apply the law. I hear the salon type businesses, those are legitimate concerns. You can't have a customer running out there with things in their hair and whatnot or employees going out there to move their cars because of the time limit. But then what do we say to the coffee shop or the sandwich shop that doesn't necessarily require two hours or three hours? And they could have parked in a parking spot near the salon, say, and they can't get to a parking spot, or those business owners cannot. So we really have to balance all the different types of businesses that are in the downtown area. I assure you that the city's not trying to generate any revenue that's going to come out of a parking meter or a ticket.
It's very minuscule compared to the city budget. So I can assure you that I think our concern is if we don't have a steady flow of customers or patrons that can visit retail stores in downtown in a systematic, regular basis, we can risk losing a lot of business in downtown. And perhaps if we really dug deep into the metrics of what's happening in downtown, maybe many of retail businesses in downtown are losing a lot of business, to be honest, because of the parking situation. I think Council Member Morris described having ... We've all done it. I mean, we go downtown to do something really quick, drop off something at the alterations or pick up a sandwich or whatnot, and we have to ride the block a few times. And sometimes we give up and we just, it's too busy, I'll try another day. So those are the concerns that we have for downtown and being able to balance all the types of businesses. And then the other issue that we have to balance is employees versus patrons parking in the downtown area. A lot of you employees and owners brought up a lot of good concerns about safety and the time of day and night that y'all are working there certainly is a concern, but do we allow ... I think Councilmember Morris alluded to this in that do we want parking for our customers? Do we want parking for employees? Because of the space that we're in and downtown, I don't think we have both. I think the long-term solution is what many of you have suggested, and that is a city-owned parking structure or parking. And I think at some point we're going to have to really potentially have a conversation about that. I know in many cities there's cityowned parking structures that help out, but for the meantime, I think I'd be open to a four-hour limit for parking rather than the two-hour. I think that facilitates those customers, at least at the beauty salon, to be able to handle their business at those salons, at those businesses, and then move on without having an all- day parking situation. And that's really what we're concerned about is an employee of a sandwich shop or a beauty salon going to park there for six or eight hours and take up space that would've been for a customer? That's the concern. Again, the bigger picture is we want downtown businesses to grow and to be vibrant and revitalize the downtown area, invite more businesses to come there, but we only have so much space. So the long-term solution, of course, is the parking structure. I think we can perhaps have a discussion about that in the future. But for now, I think a middle ground would be a four-hour parking limit in the downtown area and we'll have to continue to discuss it. It's a very complex issue and it's probably going to take a lot more discussions than just one discussion tonight, but I think for now it could be a temporary fixed four-hour parking limit. Thank you, Mayor.” Mayor Pro Tem Nunez – “Hi, just so you know, I don't have a preference either for or against the parking enforcement. It's what everybody wants to decide on, what's best for the community. Like Councilwoman Liz said earlier today, she and I walked on Main Street. I actually parked at Vallarta, talked to the manager of Vallarta. "Hey, I'm going to leave my truck here because I'm going to walk Main Street. I don't want to get a two-hour parking ticket." The guy laughed at me. He goes, "Yeah, just park at the end where everybody else has been parking so they don't get tickets." So I started at 11:30 this morning and five minutes before the council meeting ended, I got as far as Bank of America from walking from Bayada all the way down talking to the businesses, those that were open or those who answered me and worked my way back. Of the 33 businesses I contacted, 11 of them had no contact or somebody didn't come out to the front when I went there. Of those 22 that I did make contact with, 15 of them said yes. The only ones I spoke to were business owners, not employees. Employees seem to be the ones that get into the citations right now, not the owners. A lot of employees are getting cited. Of the 22 I contacted, 15 of them said yes, continue to enforce it. I have the addresses and names and phone numbers to those business owners. Seven of them said no, and three of them said it didn't matter to them either way. And again, I didn't get to finish Main Street. I didn't get 100%. This is unofficial. We heard multiple positives for it and against it. Again, like I say, I'm not forward against it. Whatever is good for everybody, what they want. I do know that we need to either enforce it or not. We need to pick one. Back in the early 2000s, I was the officer that was assigned to go to Main Street and start writing these tickets because of the same concerns. Businesses are saying, "Hey, my clientele's going down. There's no parking for my business.
There's nowhere people to come to my shop or come to my place to do business." So there's nowhere to park. So they're going around the block, they're not finding, they're leaving and they're not coming to the business. Some of the concerns that Councilwoman Liz and I heard today is the people across the street at 1234 Main Street, their employees are parking in front of our place, picking up all our parking spots and all the spots on their side are empty. So we're parking in front of their spots and it's all it is is employees going back and forth. When we had this meeting back in November, I warned the council and I warned some of the business owners that this is going to happen. It is not the client's going to get tickets. It's going to be the employees and the business owners getting these citations because they're the ones that are sitting there all day. I spoke to Mr. Guzman and several other of these that they have issues.
Somebody brought up some issues on parking passes, and I gave an example to one of the businesses who has a beauty salon in the 1200 block. She has nine chairs in her business. Those nine chairs, every individual chair is a business owner of that chair. So that's nine parking spots. We will give her employees. Nine spots right next to her is a barbershop, four chairs there. Now we have 13 business owners. Right next to her is another beauty salon with six chairs. Now we have 19 business owners on one block who all want a parking pass. How do we give 19 business owners a parking pass? You as a business owner who gets those two parking passes for you if you have eight or nine employees. It's not going to solve the issue with that. Somebody brought up this thing about revenue. The city of Delano gets about $35 for parking ticket and approximately a little bit over a hundred citations were issued since it started back in November. But we do our homework, that's like $3,500. That employee costs the city almost $8,000. So, we're not in it for the money. We don't need the money. We don't want the money.
We're just enforcing something that business owners came to us and wanted us to take care of. There was talk about issues with homelessness and the homeless people in the back. A lot of business owners I spoke to today, and some of those who emailed me and called me, I asked them when's the last time they called the police and asked for help regarding homeless? Less than 5% of those business owners called or have called regarding homeless. Police department doesn't know where everybody's at. We don't have 500 police officers out there looking for all the homeless are out there. There's multiple police officers working. They're just not living on Main Street. We do have community service officers. We do have code enforcement officers are specifically dealing with that. In June of 2025, we had a little bit over 115 homeless people in our city of Delano. As of Monday, which was yesterday, a couple of people I talked to, volunteers go out, feed the homeless or provide services. We have less than 20 in our city right now, less than 20. They're out there finding them, identifying them, finding somewhere to go, moving them along, a lot of new faces. So how do we handle this? Some of these businesses were built in the late 40s and 50s on Main Street that don't have parking in the rear. Some of these businesses don't have lights in the rear.
Your property owners need to light up your back parking lots if you have them. Put a light back there, light it up. City of Delano has three city parking lots that we do not charge for you to go park at them.
There's one in the 1000 block of Main Street. There's one in the 1100 block of Main Street, and there's one in the 1200 block of Main Street. Some of the stuff that lives and I heard today, "Well, that's a block and a half away. I don't want to walk." Again, I don't have a preference what business owners want, but we need to come to a solution either we enforce it or we don't. We can't keep changing the hours and we can't be changing it based on what business comes in and they want it enforced and some others don't.
We can't give parking passes to specific people. There is no $500 fee you pay a year and you can have two spots in front of your business that, as far as I understand that doesn't exist, correct? A couple businesses told me that, "Hey, that's what I was told." So again, I don't have a preference, but we do need to either enforce it or not. If we're going to do more of an official survey, we need to look at it. But as of right now with this unofficial, I did the east side of Main Street from 8th and Main all the way down to 14th, and I made it southbound back to Bank of America. 75% of the people are telling us already enforce it.”
Mayor Solorio-Ruiz – “Thank you, Vice Mayor. As far as my comments go, first off, I want to thank everyone who is here today who spoke on the item. Your concerns are valid. Your opinions are appreciated. And of course, we heard your comments. I also want to note that I did, of course, receive several calls. I think initially starting when the City and the Chief and the Council provided their perspective and when the enforcement began sometime in December, that's when I started to receive calls about this issue, folks saying, "Why did I receive a ticket?" And et cetera. And so of course, we can't go back to see exactly how that transition was done, but I just wanted to put that in the record. I did receive several calls even this morning from folks who were vocalizing their disagreement. A lot of those businesses who were in disagreement were our hair salons businesses. And that's one thing that I did note when we talked about this issue in November is I was like, we need to keep in mind our hair salons because we have customers in there for three hours, four hours, you name it. And so that's important to note because the folks who are potentially in agreement with this are the folks that have the 99 cent stores or the quick and grab stores where you go in there, grab something and you head out. And so one of the things that I talked about in November was that in order for us to enforce some type of policy like this, we need to ask ourselves, do we have the infrastructure? And by that, I mean, one of the hair salons mentioned that they have potentially 10 or more chairs in there, or not chairs, employees who are working there cutting hair, et cetera, and don't have enough space in the back for all of their employees.
And of course, concerns over safety issues, you name it. And then a couple of things that I spoke about with those businesses as well is to assist us in really balancing this issue out. As many up here have noted, do you want it to benefit the customers or do you want it to benefit business owners? I say, let's try to find a middle ground where we can all work together and find a solution for this. I looked at the maps online yesterday and I found there to be approximately about 10 hair salons down Main Street. And so, I say that because of course it's important for us to recognize what type of businesses are on Main Street.
And so that's important when we decide whether to enforce this or not. Of course, I also heard and learned, I think this was a very unique learning experience about how our hair salons, someone can't just walk out with product in their hair because the State will find you or the State will potentially take away your license. That's insane. I didn't know that. I found that out this morning. Or I believe in banks, when you open, you have to park right in front. And so that of course delays the progress of you working, whether you take your lunch or not, et cetera. But I preface this also to note and say my own personal experience, do I believe there is an issue of parking on downtown Main Street? I do believe there is, but the way we do it matters. The way we tackle this issue matters. And so, I did do some more research on what other communities do, what are other solutions? Of course, there is an extension of the time like others have noted up here. There's also, of course, the idea of parking meters as much as what we've heard and echoed here, and I do the same, is we are not here and we're not in the business of taking money from you. We are in the business of putting money in your pockets. And so that is not the intention that we have, but of course it's different solutions that we can bring forward to find a middle ground here that can work for all of us. I am going to say I find interesting the ballot measure, the ballot measure, sorry, that was Measure “B.” The ballot initiative in terms of sending out surveys and getting comments from folks. The only concern that I have is we've heard it before about how certain folks who own these actual establishments don't even live in Delano. And of course that's just me speaking without proper information, but I'd be willing to try it out. I'd be willing to try it out and maybe not only putting in there, do you want us to enforce it or not, but be more descriptive in terms of, if so, do you want us to enforce it for two hours, for three hours, for four hours? I'd be in favor of getting that input. And I agree with you, City Manager. I think it's important for us to establish some type of information and data before we move forward with anything. But I also will say that I appreciate the folks who came and spoke today. This issue might not be solved tonight. It might take a couple of meetings to solve it, but I assure you as far as on my end, I assume my Council colleagues is we don't want to burden you. We do not want that. That is not our goal. We want to make the city great. We want to make sure that we prioritize our small businesses and our customers because that's important as well. And so I'll go ahead now and let me see.
Of course, like also Council Member Alindajao mentioned the parking structure, looking at that down the line. Let me see if there's anything else I missed. No. Well, those are my comments. I will now entertain a motion for the council.”
Motion was made by: Morris to send out a ballot to each business owner one vote and get the data back on the March 16th Council Meeting, as well as halt the enforcement of the downtown municipal code parking until the March 16, 2026;
2nd by: Nunez
Vote: 4-1
Ayes: Solorio-Ruiz/Nunez/Morris/Osorio
Nays: Alindajao
Absent: None
Abstentions: None
DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS
No Items.
COUNCIL STATEMENTS AND REPORTS
Council Member Bryan Osorio – “Yeah. Well, I know Councilman Lindahl and I were just talking about how it's been a while since we last connected, so happy new year to folks. I think many of us attended the celebration of the RFK Football Program's State Championship ceremony and also recently the recognition of Cesar Chavez's band program as well, placing first in state. I think it just speaks to the development in this community. I know last year I was getting deja vu when I was hearing some of the comments, but yeah, just there's a lot of volunteerism and support from parents, guardians, tios tias, grandparents. And yeah, I just want to acknowledge everyone's contributions to these state recognitions.
Also, last week I attended the second monthly current Council of Governments board meeting. I think just a main takeaway from that was I think for some time now, our city staff has been aware of the, and my colleagues have been aware of the reconstruction of Garces that will be happening. They're about to put that project to bid, and hopefully by late spring they'll be able to begin construction. So as I get updates at these board meetings, I'll let the council and the public know, and that'll be it from my end.” “Mayor, before you do your coding statement, I did forget something when I mentioned Kern Cog earlier, we didn't go into details on the specific awardees, but they did bring up the regional awards program happening this March. And our city manager, Ms. Maribel Reyna, was a recipient of the Daryl Hillbrand Distinguished Leadership Award. And so, congrats, Ms. Reyna, on that recognition.” Council Member Alindajao – None.
Council Member Morris – “Just make a couple of comments. I did receive a thank you letter from the senior citizens, and they wanted to thank all those members who made a donation to the Yearly Jefferson Senior Center Holiday Party, and they are so appreciated. And it says that Delano was fortunate to have such caring people in our community that would make that holidays special for them. So, they said to each and every one of us here at this wonderful, to make this special holiday special for them. And they wanted to thank all who contributed to that effort. The only other thing I have is that I will be attending Cal Cities in Sacramento this Thursday. And actually, the beginning of the year is when we decide what issues we want to legislate for cities. So that means that what we do is we get all the representatives from every division in the State of California there, and then everyone presents issues that are important to them in their cities. And then we list all the ones that everybody feels a priority that we want to legislate for. And so, if any of you have any concerns or feel an issue that needs to be presented and put on that board, so that way we can take a look at some of those matters to see which is important to cities. Many times, many of those in the past years that I've served on that committee, I guess homelessness has always been an issue, so that usually comes up at the top of the list most of the time. Some of the other issues that have come up in the past have been the closing of all a lot of libraries in the State of California everywhere. Childcare issues are important. And I sit only on the community committee, and so that means that there are a lot of other committees working for land, for financial, for all kinds of things. So if you feel that there's anything important you want me to present that is critical or important to cities, then let me know so that way I can present those there so we can put those on a list of what we want to legislate for with the governor and see what we can do to make cities better. See me afterwards. We're going to finish right now. Okay? Thank you. Okay. And that's it. Thank you.” “Maribel, how did we fare out on the skating rink? How did that go?” City Manager Reyna – “Skating rink did amazing. We had well over 1100 attendees, and I think we made almost $20,000. Wow. And not that we were in it for the money, we really wanted to provide another activity for kids, for families to do during the Christmas season. And it just went over and we got a lot of good compliments, a lot of photos from kids. I mean, it was just, I think, a nice thing for families to be able to do Christmas. That's great. Yeah.”
Council Member Morris – “It's good to hear.”
City Manager Reyna – “Yes. It's all taken down now and it's back to our 11th Avenue gym. Right on.” Mayor Pro-Tem Nunez – “I had one item, but she left. There was a young lady sitting in the back. Her name is Fabiola Hernandez. I was going to congratulate her and her fiance for getting engaged this past weekend. Other than that, I have nothing else, but she left. So congratulations, Fabby and Angel.” Mayor Solorio-Ruiz - “Thank you for that. Okay. So happy new year. It has been some time since we've seen each other. So of course, like others, I also attended the Victory Parade and the event that followed for RFK as the football team won the state championship, which is very important. And so we're all very proud of them. Delano definitely has lots of talent. And so I did have some conversations with some community members and leaders and the superintendent. And of course, I have mentioned it to the city manager about potentially having a ... Well, not congratulations, but this is the home of the Robert F.
Kennedy Thunderbirds State Champions when you walk in. When you drive into Delano, a lot of local and small communities do that to recognize their students. And so I asked the City Manager if we could potentially look into it, if everything looks good, if maybe if we can get it by the next meeting to have a discussion and a vote on the council. And then of course with Councilwoman Morris and Councilmember Osorio, I also attended the congratulatory celebration for CCHS band. And again, going back to what I said, we have lots of talent in Delano, which is really good to note and we should applaud our young people. Also, just a few days ago, I think our cheer teams made some headlines as well, which is also great, and I need to mention that before people get ... And of course, our CCHS band, they received state champions three times in a row, which is very remarkable. I also attended the current Economic Development Corporation meeting that occurred this month, and where different members of different cities across Kern County were present, leaders, private sector, you name it. And we all talked about and discussed the economic standing in Kern County, but I had the privilege and the honor of speaking on Delano's economy. And so I did speak to some members, and I believe we are one of two cities who is not a member of the Kern Economic Development Corporation. And so, I'm going to ask if potentially down the line, if we can have a presentation from Mr. Richard Chapman about the benefits, about the pros and cons that… City Manager, I know…, he was very insistent. He's like, and everyone there was like, "You need to join." And so, there's a lot of benefits as they mentioned. And so let's bring them in if we can. Or if they have time to meet with each Council Member individually and then go from there, however works with them and your schedule as well, we'll have those further discussions. And then I believe that is all on my end.”
“Thank you. Thank you, City Manager. Thank you, Councilman Morris. That's important too. And of course, now that it's back to its normal center, there's also a lot of activities happening for our young people and our seniors and you name it, so please get involved. But I do want to end my comments with just giving you recognition city manager on your award. Congratulations when we heard about it. I was like, yes, we did it. You did it, of course, with your staff, with your remarkable staff as well. And one thing is for sure a fact, which is that you love this city. You love it a lot, and you've of course built it up from what it was to what it is now, and we're grateful for your leadership. Thank you. With that, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.”
CLOSED SESSION
No items.
ADJOURNMENT
Moved by Nunez seconded by Osorio and unanimously carried 5-0 to adjourn the meeting at 6:39pm. _____________________________________________
Ricardo G. Chavez, City Clerk