MINUTES
JOINT MEETING OF THE
GONZALES CITY COUNCIL AND
GONZALES SUCCESSOR AGENCY
MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2024
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
Council Member Silva led the flag salute.
1. ROLL CALL
Attendee Name Title Status
Jose L. Rios Mayor/Chair Present
Scott Funk Mayor Pro Tem/Vice Chair Present
Liz Silva Council/Agency Member Present
Lorraine Worthy Council/Agency Member Present
Maria Orozco Council/Agency Member Present
YOUTH COMMISSIONERS
Valeria Cardenas and Emily Mendez.
STAFF PRESENT
City Manager Carmen Gil, City Attorney Michael F. Rodriquez, Community Development Director Taven Kinson Brown, Executive Assistant to the City Manager/Deputy City Clerk Mary Villegas, Administrative Assistant II Marisol Gomez, Public Works Director/City Engineer Patrick Dobbins, and Police Chief Keith Wise.
* Successor Agency Item
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/87020263943 or call 1 (669) 900-6833 and use Meeting ID: 870 2026 3943. 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 the day of the meeting to the City Clerk at [email protected]
PRESENTATIONS
2. Introduction of Gonzales Youth Council Members
This item was moved to the next Council meeting.
3. Retail Market Report for Gonzales
Supervisor Chris Lopez mentioned that they commissioned a retail study for South County, the rest of the Cities joined us and Monterey County Business Council in putting together a report that looks at what's possible today and what's possible as we move forward if Gonzales accomplishes its goals of building the housing the community wants. He introduced Paul Farmer who led the presentation.
Paul Farmer, Monterey County Business Council, thanked Supervisor Lopez for being instrumental in helping us put together the South County roundtable which was a monthly meeting of the South County City Managers and staff. He also thanked City Manager Gil and Community Development Director Kinison Brown who had been participating as well. He said the focus was on how we could support economic development in South County and talked about a few different possibilities of what we could do, and landed on the report the Principal Consultant would present. He introduced Mr. Valenti from Kosmont Companies.
Bob Valenti, Kosmont Companies Vice President, provided background on the company; provided information on the retail market in the region, assets that can be leveraged for economic development; demographics, tax revenue and employment data; retail market overview, strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats; retail development feasibility; challenges and opportunities; retail tenant priorities; overview of Gonzales opportunity; and implementation tools and strategies.
BUSINESS FROM THE PUBLIC
4. Business from the Public not on the Agenda; any member of the Public may address the Council for a period not to exceed three minutes on any subject not on the Agenda. The Council will listen to all communications, but may take no action.
Elvira Herandez Jimenez commented in Spanish and City Manager Gil translated for her. She had been a Gonzales resident for over forty years and came tonight to share her concerns about the changes on the MST Circulator Project. She commented she relied heavily on this bus to do her errands since she's a senior citizen and asked the City not to stop it.
Roman Barba commented about talking to people around town on the measure and said they didn't want to vote for the tax measure because no school was built with the school bonds they voted for before. He also elaborated on the number of motor homes and enforcement issues.
CONSENT AGENDA
5. Approve the Joint City Council/Successor Agency/Public Financing Authority - Regular Meeting - October 7, 2024 Minutes
6. Approve City Accounts Payable Warrants #50912-50983
7. City Manager’s Report
8. Community Development Department Activity Report
9. Community Engagement & Recreation Departments Activity Report
10. Fire Department Activity Report
11. Police Department Activity Report
12. Public Works/City Engineer Department Activity Report
13. Consider Approval of Resolution No. 2024-63, A Resolution of the City Council of the City of Gonzales Authorizing the City Manager to Execute Easement Documents and Right-of-Entries Agreements for the Industrial Wastewater Pipeline Project for an Amount not to Exceed $250,000
Council Member Silva asked for clarification on page 29, warrant #50933 for $29,908.13 for water meters replacement.
Public Works Director Dobbins responded this was for a lot of meters that needed to be replaced, and we also purchased one for the Community Center which may be the big one, but he'll get that specific information for her.
Council Member Silva asked for clarification on page 31, warrant #50962 for $19,420 to opengov.
City Manager Gil responded that was for a system that was approved over a year and a half ago for online budgeting where everyone can access the data processing from our financial system.
Council Member Silva asked for clarification on page 31, warrant #50968 for $6,776.25 to Sage Renewal Energy for EV chargers and if that was for the Community Center.
Public Works Director Dobbins responded yes.
Mayor Rios shared his concerns about the amount of what the chargers cost.
Public Works Director Dobbins mentioned this was related to the EV charging station grants and it was a reimbursable expense.
Council Member Worthy expressed her appreciation for this new system's list where they could see everything.
*
Council Member Orozco mentioned that sometimes when we ask staff for information on some of the warrants, it could be very challenging since they don't have the information at the moment or we ask a question and they aren't able to answer because they may not have the information in front of them, so she would like to suggest that maybe we try to get some of the question answered prior to the meeting and still bring them up during the meeting. She thought this would allow staff to have enough time to be able to check and have the answers for us.
Mayor Rios concurred with her and said he got really busy this weekend and read the agenda this afternoon. But he agreed that we should ask staff so they have the answers when we get to the meeting.
RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS] Consent Agenda Items 5-13
MOVER: Liz Silva, Council Member
SECONDER: Maria Orozco, Council Member
AYES: Jose L. Rios, Scott Funk, Liz Silva, Lorraine Worthy, Maria Orozco
REGULAR AGENDA
14. Possible New Regulations Concerning Encampments on Public Property Staff Report: City Attorney Rodriquez presented the staff report.
Public Comment: Roman Barba commented about a motor home in the yard in his neighborhood where they were dumping the sewer, and people living in motor homes.
Council Action: After general discussion, it was the Council's consensus to direct staff to work on possible regulations considering the King City ordinance language with modifications from Fresno City regulations and bring it back.
15. Report on Parking District Formation
Staff Report: City Attorney Rodriquez presented the staff report.
Public Comment: Roman Barba commented about enforcement issues that the Police Department wasn't currently doing and suggested going after the homes that have abandoned vehicles to create more parking spaces.
City Manager Gil informed the Council that staff received an email from Jennifer Uribe and read it into the record as follows: “I hope you are doing well. I do not have all of the council member’s email addresses, hoping you are able to forward this on to them prior to the next scheduled council meeting. Recently I reviewed the city council packet and was surprised to see that the council members are exploring the idea of residential parking permits. I am concerned that the Gonzales Police Department will become nothing but parking attendants? Even though the city cops seem to have time to ticket people on parking but have recently been passive on house parties and noise, do not see that this is efficient use of police and city funds? I have heard at several meetings that government agencies are low on funds and resources. Is this not the case for the City of Gonzales and the Police Department? If there are additional funds to take this administrative burden on, why not take this decision to the residents of Gonzales, as a whole, so we can vote on this type of activity? The police department is already exhausted and does not have additional resources to spend time reviewing and auditing parking permits. As well as the city and the administrative burden that a parking program will put on city staff? If the city and police department have additional funds, those funds would be best spent on expanding the staff,
improving recreational opportunities for the city of our youth and community members. If there are specific locations where this is an issue, why not start neighborhood watch communities, and educate those community members? The city packet states that residential parking issues are normally big city problems and tend to be around big buildings, such as stadiums etc., if this is the case for Gonzales, then have those buildings, such as the Theodore Church increase their parking or any other building where groups of people meet, have them discus carpooling of the source. Again, I am asking you to reconsider this idea of residential parking permits. It does not send a welcoming message to business or the construction of businesses that may want to build here, as well as the residents of Gonzales, may not be able to afford the additional fee. Thank you, Jen.”
Council Action: After general discussion, it was the Council's consensus to direct staff to move forward to put together a framework for discussion at a workshop.
GONZALES YOUTH COUNCIL UPDATES
16. Oral Communications
Commissioners Cardenas and Sanchez reported on their meetings and action items for the year; Community Center Site tour; announced their next meeting on November 7th and information session at the High School from Sun Street Centers this Wednesday during lunch hour.
BUSINESS FROM CITY COUNCIL
17. City Council Board/Committee Reports
a. League of California Cities Monterey Bay Division
Mayor Rios asked City Manager Gil to provide a report since she attended the Annual League Conference. City Manager Gil reported she ran into a good number of colleagues from the County who shared similar challenges regarding infrastructure roads and street funding, and there were a lot of learning opportunities with local and state folks. b. Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments
Mayor Pro Tem Funk reported on the adoption of the final 2026 Regional Growth Forecast and Gonzales being recognized for growth.
c. Monterey Salinas Transit
Council Member Worthy reported on the promotional free fare for anyone who wanted to go vote on election day; the purchase of batteries for electric bus chargers; ridership being up for line 23; and people not being able to stand anymore due to concern on certain areas. She also reported on the presentation they received on cyber security.
18. Oral Communications
Mayor Rios asked Council Member Worthy to lead the Happy Birthday song for our City Manager Carmen Gil whose birthday was today. Everyone present sang and wished her a Happy Birthday.
Council Member Orozco reported on the Health Fair she attended at the park which was very well attended. She also elaborated on the issue the City of Salinas and Gonzales are having now with kids riding bikes on the streets which was scary and dangerous because they were causing accidents. She said we should be concerned with the young adults riding here since we have a lot of seniors driving. She forwarded the information she had to Chief Wise and hoped the school could distribute the information to the parents and students.
Mayor Pro Tem Funk thanked staff for working on preventive measures for the upcoming storms.
Council Member Silva mentioned she was able to give the public an answer she didn't have when they asked her, but after talking to staff she confirmed that the water that went into the storm drains did not go to the treatment plant. She announced there was no Salinas Valley Recycles meeting this month due to lack of a quorum because many members attended the Annual League Conference. She also elaborated on the Rancho Cielo event last week where she volunteered, which was really fun. She reminded everyone about the Listening Session hosted by Supervisor Lopez for District 3 on Wednesday at 5:30pm in the Council Chambers, and the Highway 1 SOS Committee meeting this Thursday at 5:00pm at the Chualar School.
She invited trick-or-treaters to come by the Legion Hall for a goodie bag. She also said if anyone was interested in volunteering for Farm Day, there will be a meeting on Thursday, November 7th at 8:00am and they can let her know if they want more information.
Council Member Worthy added the American Legion would have 100 bags and it would start at 6:00pm. She announced a Veteran’s Day Assembly at Fairview School on November 6th from 1:05pm – 1:50pm.
Mayor Rios mentioned that Senator Caballero would no longer serve this area due to the redistricting and asked Council Member Orozco if she could attend her farewell event and present her with a resolution from the City Council. He also mentioned that Alejandra Flores from the Community Development Department was no longer with the City as she took a job with the County and elaborated on what a great employee she was. He also said he would attend the Trunk-or-Treat event.
BUSINESS FROM CITY MANAGER
19. Oral Communications
City Manager Gil mentioned that we were taking candy donations for the Trunk or Treat event since it was a very well attended event last year and kept running out of candy. She thanked staff for putting together the movie night last weekend which went really well. She announced the Listening Session this Wednesday at 5:30pm in the Council Chambers and invited everyone to attend to share ideas from the community; the Trunk-or-Treat event October 26th where we would have plenty of pumpkins; the Community Gardening Day November 2nd from 11:00am – 2:00pm; the Hometown Heros Program November 6th consisting of unveiling veteran signs at Central Park at 12:00pm followed by a celebration at the Fairview Gym, and snacks at the American Legion Hall. We’re excited about the new program and have 28 signs that will honor our local Veterans.
Community Development Director Kinison Brown reported on the flyer regarding the draft housing element.
Police Chief Wise wanted to add to the parking enforcement issue brought up tonight. He said it was ridiculous to hear that the Police Department wasn’t doing their job and asked anyone who wanted to have facts, he had them. He also said there was a mention about motor homes parked on private properties and elaborated on what the department has been doing about it. He added that he provided a report with information in the activity report every month regarding that. He asked anyone who had any questions to feel free to contact him any time to get information.
ADJOURNMENT
RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Liz Silva, Council Member
SECONDER: Scott Funk, Mayor Pro Tem
AYES: Jose L. Rios, Scott Funk, Liz Silva, Lorraine Worthy, Maria Orozco The meeting was adjourned at 7:57 PM.
ATTEST:
Mary Villegas, Deputy City Clerk