MEETING MINUTES
The City Council/Successor Agency of the City of Firebaugh Vol. No. 24-10-07
Location of Meeting: Andrew Firebaugh Community Center
1655 13th Street, Firebaugh, CA 93622
Date/Time: October 7, 2024/5:30 p.m.
CALL TO ORDER Meeting called to order by Mayor Lopez at 5:30 p.m.
ROLL CALL Mayor Elsa Lopez
Mayor Pro-Temp Freddy Valdez
Council Member Silvia Renteria
Council Member Brady Jenkins 5:48 pm
Council Member Felipe Pérez
ABSENT
OTHERS: City Attorney Christina Di Filippo; City Manager, Ben Gallegos, Deputy City Clerk, Rita Lozano; Finance Director, Pio Martin; Police Chief, Sal Raygoza; Public Works Director, Michael Molina; Battalion Chief, Hector Marin; Nancy Avila, Chris Gutierrez, Wanda Breshears, Veronica Navarro & others.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Council Member Perez led pledge of Allegiance.
APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA
Motion to approve agenda with amendment of agenda item #4, Resolution No. 24-48 to be moved to after agenda item no. 2 under Public Hearing by Council Member Valdez, second by Council Member Renteria, motion passed by 4-0 vote.
PRESENTATION
• Proclamation to declare October as “Domestic Violence Awareness Month” – Marjaree Mason Center. • Communities LEAP West Fresno Project by Minerva Uribe-Robles, PH.D. Council Member Jenkins entered meeting at 5:48 pm.
PUBLIC COMMENT
None
CONSENT CALENDAR
1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES – The City Council regular meeting on September 16, 2024.
Motion to approve minutes by Council Member Valdez, second by Council Member Perez, motion passed by 5-0 vote.
PUBLIC HEARING
2. THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FIREBAUGH’S CONSIDERATION OF THE 2024
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT (CDBG) APPLICATION AND REVIEW OF ELIGIBLE ACTIVITES/PROJECTS.
Opening Hearing at 5:51 pm- no comment given – Close Hearing at 5:52 pm Motion to approve application submittal by Council Member Valdez, second by Council Member Perez, motion passed by 5-0 vote.
City Council Minutes
October 7, 2024
4. RESOLUTION NO. 24-48 - A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FIREBAUGH ESTABLISHING RATE INCREASES FOR WATER SERVICES.
Opening Hearing at 5:53 pm- Don Carr Representative of Toma Tek stated both residents and businesses have seen a five-year rate increase and now everyone is looking at another four years of increases. Ben’s right when he said it’s never a good time for rate increases and I just wanted to state, “I agree”. Council Member Jenkins asked if the sewer is going to on the next agenda to consider reducing rates, and why not bring the two items at the same time for approval. – Close Hearing at 6:07 pm
Motion to approve Res. No. 24-48 by Council Member Valdez, second by Council Member Perez, motion passed by 4-0 vote. Jenkins – no.
NEW BUSINESS
3. RESOLUTION NO. 24-47 - A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FIREBAUGH
APPROVING AN AGREEMENT FOR A NON-EXCLUSIVE EASEMENT GRANTED BY MCDONALDS
USA, LLC TO THE CITY OF FIREBAUGH FOR PERFORMING WORK ASSOCIATED WITH THE OPERATION OF A WATER METER UPON THE REAL PROPERTY RECORDED AS PARCEL ‘A’ UNDER LOT MERGER 2023-02 CERTIFICATE OF COMPLIANCE INSTRUMENT NO. 2024-0022420
AND AUTHORIZE THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A CERTIFICATE OF ACCEPTANCE FOR RECORDING OF THE GRANT OF EASEMENT.
Motion to approve Res. No. 24-47 by Council Member Valdez, second by Council Member Jenkins, motion passed by 5-0 vote.
STAFF REPORTS
City Manager, Ben Gallegos – city was awarded about $170,000.00 grant from CCID, for the trail at San Joaquin River to rehab the whole trail, will be attending one of their meetings to thank them personally. Hoping to install some lighting and will resurfacing the rest of the trail. Thanked the PD, FD and Public Works for their countless hours at the event and made it a safe carnival. Just received an email from PG&E about streetlights, I know Council Member Perez previously inquired about replacing or repairing some in town. PG&E reported they’ve replaced about 30 streetlights, started the project back in February. Public Works Director, Micheal Molina – Thanked the Public Works Crew for working several hours to set up and tear down the carnival, it was a good event with no issues. Battalion Chief, Hector Marin – Nothing to report.
Police Chief Sal Raygoza – staff report will be in the next city council meeting. No issues to report with the carnival, we received help from Kerman, Mendota, Coalinga, Dos Palos and Sheriffs Dept, no incidents to report.
Council Member Lopez recommend closing the event at 10:00 pm on Sunday, kids are still out there, and the next day is a school day. Council Member Jenkins stated that’s not a bad idea. Chief reported a few break-ins last Thursday – Friday throughout the city. The Department did an awesome job and found the responsible parties involved, so PD did a search warrant on a house that the department was investigating. We served is on Saturday morning along with the sheriff’s department, we found fraudulent documents, narcotics, evidence of marijuana sales at the property. They confiscated quite a bit of cash from the house, found chemicals that actually spilled outside of the house, so we had to call the county in, it tested positive for paraquat, so we had to hire a clean-up crew. Finance Director, Pio Martin – Nothing to report. I’ll have a staff report at the next council meeting. City Attorney, Christina Di Filippo – apologized for missing the past few meetings, I hope Nick was ok, but I’ll be back for the future.
Deputy City Clerk, Rita Lozano – Want to remind everyone, City Hall will close on Monday, October 14th for Columbus Day.
City Council Minutes
October 7, 2024
Council Member Renteria – I want to thank Public Works and PD for their efforts with the carnival, it was a great event, also for the families to come out to enjoy, and great event to continue putting on, and putting the most effort to continue increasing the attendance at the event. We can’t parent other people’s kids, so for me, if they want to stay out there until midnight, that’s up to them. I just want to thank all of the staff, please thank Isabel and Olga for me.
They do an awesome job, and they work on a fly when we are out there, different things come up and they go full force to take care of it.
Council Member Valdez – I’d like to echo Council Member Renteria said, I agree with her on every aspect and that it was a great event. I didn’t hear of any type of complaints. I attended the sub-committee of the safe route to schools, we were able to get Micheal Navarro and Terry Olge of Measure C to help us with some of our cross walks issues on P St. and 13th St, Helm Canal and Morris Kyle, so they’ll be looking at additional funding of Measure C to help use some of the new technology to bring awareness to the crossing, so at the next COG meeting they’ll be voting to move some of the funding towards Firebaugh.
Council Member Perez – Nothing to report but want to Thank everyone for all your work. Council Member Jenkins – I also want to thank everyone; Public Works, I heard a lot of good things about festival.
I showed up on Saturday night, I can’t remember the last time I’ve attended. It was good to see all the officers around and everyone working, everyone was safe, I like it. Council Member Lopez – Me too, went on Saturday, ate good and had fun with the kids.
COUNCIL MEMBERS AGENDA ITEMS – Rates for the sewer, do you have something to show us on the costs that you said chemical are up 150%, and with all of the lines that are breaking, how much we’re spending or what we need to do to get them up to par. City Manager replied, “It’s all transite lines, that need to be replaced with C900, because lines are being replace in other areas, the old lines and are breaking at weak points, some of the lines have been there for over 60 years.” Public Works Director added, “It doesn’t take very much for the transite lines to break, it’ll just snap, they’re so old.” City Manager stated, especially at Las Deltas, it broke twice already, if breaks in that field it’s hard to get to. Council Member Renteria asked if the lines have been change is the Del Rio area. Staff replied, those new lines are all new. Molina reported, there’s only a handful of spots left, that staff is trying to replace and change out, but it takes time.
PUBLIC COMMENT ON CLOSED SESSION ITEM ONLY – No Comment Given Motion to enter closed session @ 6:25 pm by Council Member Jenkins, second by Council Member Valdez, motion passes by a 5-0 vote.
CLOSED SESSION
4. Government Code Section 54957.6.
CONFERENCE WITH LABOR NEGOTIATORS: ALL REPRESENTED & UNREPRESENTED EMPLOYEES City Negotiator: Ben Gallegos
Employee Organizations: Police & Public Works bargaining units and all unrepresented positions.
5. UPDATE OF EXISTING LITIGATION GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 54956.9.
CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL – one case
Motion to enter open session @ 6:37 pm by Council Member Valdez, second by Council Member Perez, motion passes by a 5-0 vote.
ANNOUNCEMENT AFTER CLOSED SESSION: Nothing to report.
ADJOURNMENT
Motion to adjourn @ 6:39 pm by Council Member Jenkins, second by Council Member Valdez, motion passes by a 5-0 vote.