CITY COUNCILS Minutes 10-25-2022
MINUTES
SPECIAL JOINT MEETING OF THE
GONZALES CITY COUNCIL
AND
SOLEDAD CITY COUNCIL
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2022
6:00 P.M.
CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at 6:00 PM by Mayor Jose L. Rios.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
The flag salute was recited by all present.
ROLL CALL - GONZALES CITY COUNCIL
Attendee Name Title Status
Jose L. Rios Mayor Present
Scott Funk Mayor Pro Tem Present
Liz Silva Council Member Present
Lorraine Worthy Council Member Present
Paul Miller Council Member Present
STAFF PRESENT - CITY OF GONZALES
Interim City Manager Carmen Gil, Acting City Manager Patrick Dobbins, City Attorney Michael F.
Rodriquez, Executive Assistant to the City Manager/Deputy City Clerk Mary Villegas, Administrative Assistant II Anabel Almanza.
ROLL CALL - SOLEDAD CITY COUNCIL
Attendee Name Title Status
Anna M. Velazquez Mayor Present
Marisela Lara Mayor Pro Tem Present via Zoom
Alejandro Chavez Council Member Present
Ben Jimenez Jr. Council Member Absent
Maria Corralejo Council Member Present
STAFF PRESENT - CITY OF SOLEDAD
City Manager Brent Slama, and Executive Assistant to the City Manager/Deputy City Clerk Darlene Noriega.
CITY COUNCILS Minutes 10-25-2022
Council Member Silva read the following notice:
PUBLIC NOTICE
This meeting is being conducted consistent with State of California Executive Order N-29-20 dated March 17, 2020, regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. The public may participate in person or online via zoom at https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83351328948 or call 1 (669) 900-6833 and use Meeting ID: 833 5132 8948. If you wish to make either a general public comment or to comment on a specific agenda item, please use the Raise Hand function. You will be allowed three minutes for your comments.
If you choose not to attend the City Council meeting but wish to make a comment on a specific agenda item, please submit your comment limited to 250 words or less by 12:00p.m. on Tuesday, October 25th to the Gonzales City Clerk at [email protected]
REGULAR AGENDA
2. Public Hearing – Receive Presentation on Transition to By-District Voting Presentation: Doug Johnson, from National Demographics Corporation, presented a powerpoint presentation explaining the election systems consisting on Election Systems: at large, from district or residence districts, and by district; California Voting Rights Act Impact; Districting Process; Redistricting Rules and Goals; Demographic Summary; Demographic Details; Population Distribution; Latino CVAP; Other Socio-Economic Demographics; Defining Neighborhoods; Beyond Neighborhoods: defining communities of interest; public hearing; and discussion.
Open public hearing and receive comments and questions from public: Mayor Rios opened the public hearing at 6:27pm.
Lupita Murillo asked how would this affect areas that have an HOA but do not an HOA in place.
She said they have an area in Soledad who don't have an HOA in place but they are not able to participate in the City or not considered part of the City.
Fernando Cabrera, via zoom, said they were watching the presentation via zoom but were only able to see the first slide. He also asked if the public is allowed to start drawing maps or figure out what to do with the districts. He asked if it is going to be by map, and how many districts they are distributing in Soledad.
In response to Ms. Murillo, Mr. Johnson mentioned that HOAs are often considered a community of interest so that’s an easy way to identify them, but if an area is unofficially HOA, everything qualifies as a community of interest.
In response to Mr. Cabrera, Mr. Johnson apologized for the technical problems and told him the powerpoint was in both Cities websites with the agenda. In terms of drawing maps, Mr. Johnson said the statue says we have to hold off in drawing maps only on an official, but we want the public to start sketching out what they would like to see. He said both Cities were small enough so they can give them an easy map that shows how many people are in each census block which is more or less a City block, so if they want to try to add the numbers, they can do it that way, or they can just draw whatever they would like to see, submit it, and they will run the numbers for them. In terms of number of districts, he said both Cities will have four districts because the Mayor will continue to be elected City-wide.
CITY COUNCILS Minutes 10-25-2022
Close public hearing: Mayor Rios closed the public hearing at 6:30pm.
Comments and Questions from City Council: Mr. Johnson answered questions from both Councils.
Discuss future meeting dates and actions: City Attorney Rodriquez thanked both Councils, as well as Mary and Darlene for doing all the work in reaching out to everyone and setting this meeting. He said staff will be reaching out to both Councils again for the next meeting which will probably be held in the next couple of weeks and that one will be in Soledad, with the same format and same presentation, which will provide another opportunity for the public in Soledad but Gonzales folks are welcome to attend.
Mayor Velazquez said there were technical issues with the presentation slides based on what Mr.
Cabrera said but for those who don’t have access to the information, she wanted to make sure the slides are working next time and that we don’t have any technical issues.
City Attorney Rodriquez mentioned that was the benefit of having the duplicate presentation. He reiterated the slides were part of the agenda packet, we had hard copies, and they were also available online. He said we didn’t show anything other than the slides that were in the agenda packet, but we’ll make sure we address that issue before the meeting in Soledad.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 7:00 PM.
ATTEST:
Mary Villegas, Deputy City Clerk