item_3_public_comment_provided_by_torie_cortez_dtd_june_9_2026_and_july_13_2026

Item 3 Public Comment Provided
by Torie Cortez, Dated July 13, 2026

WRITTEN PUBLIC COMMENT
City of Lathrop City Council - Regular Meeting of July 13, 2026 Submitted by: Torie Cortez, Lathrop resident and mother Submitted: July 13, 2026, by 4:00 p.m., per the deadline stated on tonight's agenda Re: Documented pattern of institutional non-responsiveness, March 23 - June 9, 2026; the June 9, 2026 collision and its official fault determination; the City's post-incident conduct; and matters on tonight's agenda directly relevant to this record I. Introduction and Scope
I am submitting this written comment in my personal capacity as a Lathrop resident and as the mother of the child involved in the collision described below. This statement is not submitted on behalf of any organization. My daughter's own legal rights and claims are hers alone, are being pursued separately, and are expressly reserved - nothing in this comment waives any right on her behalf or my own. To protect her privacy as a minor, she is referred to herein as C. Cortez.

I am not submitting requests tonight. I am submitting demands, supported by a documented record — as the mother of a child involved in a collision the City's own investigating officer attributed to a City employee's failure to yield, and as the witness of record to that collision, after four separate written warnings to this body went unanswered.

II. The Documented Pattern: March 23 - June 9, 2026
Beginning March 23, 2026, I submitted a series of written requests to this Council raising concerns about driver safety at locations used daily by children in this community, at no cost to the City. These requests were repeated over the following weeks. My fourth and final written request in this series was submitted less than twelve hours before the incident described below. None of the four requests received a substantive, direct response from this Council prior to that incident.

I raise this timeline because it is the basis of my position tonight: the events of June 9th were not an isolated incident. They were the culmination of a pattern that this Council had four separate, written opportunities to address before it occurred. Four opportunities to respond to a resident as a resident. Four times this Council instead let the silence stand - the first sign of the administrative retaliation posture that runs through every section of this record.

III. June 9, 2026 — The Collision and Its Official Fault Determination On June 9, 2026, my seven-year-old daughter, C. Cortez, was involved in a collision with a vehicle driven by a City of Lathrop Finance Department employee, at the exit of the City Hall parking lot onto McKee Boulevard. The incident is documented under Lathrop Police Department Incident No. 2026-1647, Officer Koron Taylor.

The investigating officer's written conclusion states, in full: "The cause of the collision is due to (P-1), Lea Meneses, not yielding to V-2 as she was exiting 390 Towne Centre Dr.

This is a violation of 21804(a) CVC." The report quotes the statute directly: a driver about to enter or cross a highway from private property "shall yield the right-of-way to all traffic." No citation was issued despite this finding.

I am listed in this report as Witness Number One. My statement, as recorded by the officer: I was in the area with my children and saw the vehicle exit the parking lot onto McKee Boulevard at a high rate of speed; I did not see the vehicle. come to a stop; | saw my daughter on the ground beside it. That is the City's own record of what I witnessed - not my characterization of it.

C. Cortez's own legal rights and claims are hers alone, are being handled separately, and are not the subject of this written comment.

IV. The Same-Day Record - Fault Assigned Before the Investigation, and a Coordinated Response
At 12:00 PM on June 9 — the day of the collision - Captain Barries reported to Chief Sealy by text message that "the child was riding against traffic on the sidewalk with no helmet and collided into the side of the vehicle." Chief Sealy's reply: "Thanks. Let me know how that investigation goes." A characterization placing responsibility on my seven-year-old was communicated to the Chief of Police before the investigation he then asked about had concluded.

Separately, at 7:20 PM the same evening, in a group thread that included the City Manager, Captain Barries was directed to work with an outside communications contractor to draft the City's public message in response to my email to this Council earlier that day. In that same exchange, Chief Sealy wrote, of me: "Definitely has an agenda." I raise this not to ask this Council to explain it tonight, but to place it on the record: the characterization of a parent asking this Council for driver safety was formed in the same conversation, on the same evening, as the City's coordinated public response to her.

This has a name. It is called administrative retaliation posture - when a government entity begins treating a constituent as an adversary to be managed, rather than a resident it serves, specifically because that constituent is asking legitimate questions and documenting the answers. This record shows that posture forming in real time, on the same day, in the same conversation, before any investigation had concluded.

I want to be direct about the word Chief Sealy used. My agenda, since March 23rd, has been safer streets for the children of this City. Nothing more, and nothing less. If that is the agenda Chief Sealy and Captain Barries were describing when they discussed me, I am asking this Council to state, clearly and on the record tonight, whether that is also this Council's agenda. Chief Sealy and Captain Barries have made their own position unambiguous. I would hope this Council's position is different from theirs.

V. City Conduct Since the Incident - Records, Cameras, and Contradictions There are two surveillance cameras on the building at 390 Towne Centre Drive. The City released footage from one of them to ABC10 Sacramento and described the matter as closed. The second camera - facing the sidewalk corridor where the collision occurred - was not acknowledged in writing until I specifically itemized it by name and direction in a formal demand. As of this submission, the City's own stated deadline to produce footage from both cameras, extended under Government Code Section 7922.535, is July 15, 2026 — two days from tonight.

EXHIBIT A — Both surveillance cameras documented at the City Hall complex, 390 Towne Centre Drive, Lathrop, CA. Dome camera (west wall, left) - Bullet camera (north corner, right).

Device: Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max | Date: June 9, 2026 | Time: 11:06:57 AM | GPS: 37°48'13.4"N, 121'18'15.89"W| Accuracy: +2.76 meters
On July 2, 2026, the City responded to my request for the responding employee's name, title, and department with: "No records requested therefore no documents responsive." That same response produced, in the same production, records identifying that employee by name and department. A record responsive to my request existed in the City's possession and had already been produced by the City at the moment the City represented that none had been requested. This is administrative retaliation posture applied to a public records request: deny first, produce the contradiction in the same breath, and count on no one checking.

The City has withheld the complete incident report from me despite three separate, independently sufficient grounds for disclosure: I am Witness Number One, named as such in the City's own report. I am the reporting party — I am the one who called this collision in. And I am the parent of the minor victim involved. The City has withheld this record from me on all three grounds at once, citing Government Code Section 7922.600 and Penal Code Section 964(a), and separately demanding proof of my parentage beyond the sworn Report Request Form already on file with LPD Records since June 22, 2026. A victim's own mother should not have to fight this hard to see what happened to her child. This, too, is administrative retaliation posture - treating the parent of the child involved as a threat to be managed through procedure, rather than a family owed answers.

VI. Matters on Tonight's Agenda Directly Relevant to This Record I have reviewed tonight's agenda in full. Several items on it are not separate from the matter described above. They are the same matter, viewed from different angles.

Item 1.2.1 (Closed Session - Liability Claims). Tonight this Council will discuss, in closed session, liability claims from five separate claimants against the City of Lathrop. I do not know the substance of those claims, and I am not asking to. I am asking this Council to recognize the pattern its own closed session agenda reveals: this is not the first liability exposure this City has faced, and it will not be the last, until this Council treats safety and accountability as structural obligations rather than case-by-case damage control.

Item 1.2.3 (Closed Session — Performance Evaluations of the Police Chief, City Attorney, and City Manager). Tonight, in closed session, this Council will evaluate the performance of the three officials most directly connected to the record above. I am formally asking that the documented record in this comment - including the officer's own fault determination, the same-day internal characterization of a parent raising safety concerns, and the City's July 2 misstatement regarding records already in its possession — be made part of that evaluation. Administrative retaliation posture does not appear out of one bad afternoon. It is built, meeting by meeting, by the people this Council is evaluating tonight.

Item 4.3 (LPD Monthly Report for June 2026). This report is on tonight's Consent Calendar. I am asking this Council to confirm, on the record, whether the June 9 incident involving my daughter is reflected in that report. If it is not, I am asking why not.

Items 1.7.1 and 1.7.2 (Drones as First Responders; Potential Acquisition of an Armored Rescue Vehicle). I do not oppose responsible investment in public safety equipment.

But I ask this Council to hold two facts in mind at the same time tonight: this City is prepared to evaluate acquiring a drone program and an armored rescue vehicle, and this City's own deadline to produce surveillance footage already in its possession is still two days away. Equipment is not accountability. I am asking this Council not to confuse the two.

Item 5.1 (No Parking of Vehicles Over 5 Tons on Yosemite Court). This Council can move a specific, narrow traffic safety ordinance to a public hearing and a first reading in a matter of weeks. I am asking this Council to explain, honestly, why a written safety request from a resident took four attempts and more than two months to receive no response at all, while a parking restriction on one street moved through this process without difficulty. I am not asking this Council to slow down on Yosemite Court. I am asking it to move at the same speed for children.

VII. The Measure C Referral Loop - Bringing This Back to This Council On June 8, 2026, I formally asked this Council to direct the Measure C Citizens' Oversight Committee to place related oversight items on its next agenda. This Council declined. On June 23, 2026, I appeared before that same Committee myself and made the request directly. The Committee responded that it does not make recommendations or direction on its own, and that my requests would be forwarded back to this Council - the same Council that had already declined to refer them. No committee member asked a question. The meeting proceeded to the next agenda item.

I am bringing this back to this Council tonight because there is nowhere else for it to go.

This Council declined to refer it out. The body it was referred to declined to act on it and sent it back. A Council that will not act, and will not let its own oversight committee act either, is not oversight. It is a loop with my daughter's safety inside it.

VIll. Independent Accountability Actions Taken
Because internal City channels have not resolved these concerns, I have pursued independent avenues of accountability, each a matter of public record:
• A complaint filed with the San Joaquin County Civil Grand Jury on June 28, 2026, with a supplemental exhibit submission filed July 2, 2026.
• A Public Integrity inquiry filed with the San Joaquin County District Attorney's office on June 25, 2026.
• A formal written evidence preservation demand served on the City Attorney's office.

I reference these filings for the Council's awareness. They do not substitute for, and should not be treated as a reason to defer, this Council's own independent obligation to respond directly to its constituents. These filings proceed on their own timeline, independent of tonight's meeting — a timeline that extends past tonight, and past this Council's current term, which runs through the November 3, 2026 general election.

IX. Formal Demands
I am not requesting the following. I am demanding them, as the mother of the child involved in this collision, as the witness of record to it, and as a resident with a documented record that speaks for itself:

1. That this Council direct staff, publicly and on the record tonight, to meet the City's own stated deadline of July 15, 2026 for producing surveillance footage from both cameras at 390 Towne Centre Drive, and all associated body-worn camera footage.

2. That the City Attorney's office respond fully and specifically - not partially — to all pending California Public Records Act requests I have submitted, within the statutory timeframes set forth in Government Code Section 7922.535.

3. That this Council direct staff to prepare, for Council consideration, a language access policy consistent with the Dymally-Alatorre Bilingual Services Act (Government Code Section 7290 et seq.), for a community that is 51.4% non-English-speaking at home -

27.8% Spanish, 11.5% Asian languages, and 10.5% Indo-European languages including Punjabi - well above the statutory 5% threshold that triggers this obligation.

4. That this Council extend the oversight framework already established under Municipal Code Section 3.13.180 (the Measure C Oversight Committee) to include civic responsiveness — specifically, public tracking and reporting of this City's response times to written constituent safety requests.

5. That the documented record in Sections Ill through V of this comment be formally entered into the performance evaluation record for the Police Chief, City Attorney, and City Manager under Item 1.2.3 tonight.

6. That this Council confirm, on the record, whether the June 9, 2026 incident is reflected in the LPD Monthly Report for June 2026 under Item 4.3, and if not, direct staff to explain the omission in writing within 10 business days.

7. That this Council state, clearly and on the record tonight, whether it shares my agenda — safer streets for the children of this City — or whether it shares the position Chief Sealy and Captain Barries expressed about that agenda in the record described in Section IV above.

8. That this Council act directly, tonight, on the matters described in Section VIl. This Council already declined to refer these matters to the Measure C Citizens' Oversight Committee. I took them to that Committee myself. The Committee declined to act on its own and sent them back here. I am not asking this Council to refer this anywhere. I am asking this Council to act on it directly, tonight
X. Closing
I want to be precise about what I am, and am not, asking this Council to do tonight. I am not asking this Council to adjudicate my daughter's legal claims, or my own. Those rights belong to us, are being pursued through the appropriate channels, and are expressly reserved. What I am asking this Council to do is simple: stop treating documented failures as unfortunate coincidences and start treating them as the pattern they are - administrative retaliation posture, named, dated, and sourced to this City's own records.

I am the mother of the child this pattern harmed. I am not going away, and neither is this record.

Respectfully submitted,
Torie Cortez
Lathrop resident and mother
ATTACHMENT — My June 9, 2026, Letter to This Council
The City has not entered this letter into the record on its own. I am including it here, in full, as originally sent, so that it is part of tonight's record regardless. It is reproduced below exactly as transmitted on June 9, 2026, at 6:19 PM, to [email protected], with copies to the City Manager, the City Attorney's Office, and Chief Sealy. For privacy, my daughter is referred to as C. Cortez elsewhere in this submission; the letter below is reproduced as originally written and sent.

M Gmail Victoria Cortez <[email protected]>
My Daughter Was Struck by a City Employee Leaving City Hall - Incident No. 2026- 1647
1 message
Victoria Cortez <[email protected]> Tue, Jun 9,2026 at 6:19 PM To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Mayor Akinjo, Vice Mayor Torres-'Callaghan, Council Member Lazard, Council Member Diallo, Council Member Dresser, My name is Torie Cortez. I am a Lathrop resident. My back wall borders the City Hall parking lot. I am writing as Camryn's mother.

On June 9, 2026, my seven-year-old daughter was struck by a vehicle while riding her bicycle on the sidewalk next to the City Hall parking lot exit. The driver drove across the sidewalk without yielding to my daughter, who was already on it and isible. The driver was a City of Lathrop employee. She was wearing a black Finance Department shirt with a City nam ag and confirmed her employment when I asked her directly. Officer Koron Taylor responded and took the report. Incide number 2026-1647. I anxiously await my copy of the police incident report.

This is the fourth time.

On March 23, I sent the Mayor and all five Council members a written request asking for one thing — a community driver education event. Not a helmet course. Not an enforcement program. Driver education. Teach the people behind the whee o yield at crosswalks and driveways. CVC Sections 21804 and 21950. I asked that the outreach be done in English Spanish, and Punjabi so that every family in this city could understand it. It cost the City nothing. I was trying to help Nobody responded.

The first incident near Mossdale Landing is what prompted that request. Two more near-miss incidents happened during the 40 days nobody responded. I documented all three in writing on April 13. I appeared at the May 11 Council meeting and placed them on the public record. Chief Sealy stood at this Council and said his bicycle safety program was a Mayor Akiy asked him direly what the diference was. Chier Saly said was exacty what asked ior or cas not The Mayor's own question proved he knew it was not.
appeared again on June 8 and asked this Council to include a driver education component in the TJKM Comprehensi fety Action Plan that you are already funding. Not a new project. Not new money. Just include driver education in t plan that already exists. In English, in Spanish, in Punjabi - in the languages the people of this city actually speak Twelve hours later, a City employee hit my daughter leaving this building.

I have asked four times. In writing. At the lectern. On the public record. And the only response I have received is a bicycle safety program that was already funded before I ever wrote a word, and silence.

I need to understand something. Is anyone on this Council or in this administration willing to take responsibility for telling drivers in Lathrop to follow the law? To yield to pedestrians and cyclists at driveways and crosswalks? To put down the phone? To watch for children? Because I have been asking since March and the answer so far has been nothing. Not no.

Nothina, Silence and a helmet course.

My daughter was on the sidewalk. She was riding legally. A City employee drove across that sidewalk and hit her. What else has to happen before someone in this City acts on what I have been asking for? Camryn now refuses to ride her bike. She is seven years old and she is afraid of cars. That is what this City's inaction has produced. A child who loved riding her bike in her own neighborhood and is now too afraid to get on it. I am her mother and I feel helpless - not because I haven't tried, but because I have tried everything I know how to do and this City refuses to act on anything other than enforcement against the children who are being hit.

I do want to sav this. Officer Koron Tavior and the other male officer who responded were kind to my daughter. They took the time to talk to her, to encourage her not to give up, and to offer her real advice. They treated her like a child who had just been through something frightening, not like a case number. I am grateful for that. I am also grateful that I had the Think about how small this large community really is. On one evening, a mother stands at the lectern in City Hall and asks this Council to do something about driver safety. She watches a new police officer get introduced. The next afternoon, a City of Lathrop employee strikes that mother's child at the City Hall parking lot driveway. And the officer who was just I am formally requesting:

1. Preserve all security camera footage from the City Hall parking lot and Towne Centre Drive for June 9, 2026. This footage is relevant to an active police incident report and may be relevant to a future government tort claim.

Destruction of this footage after notice constitutes spoliation of evidence.

2. Confirm in writing whether the driver was acting in the course and scope of City employment at the time of the incident.

3. Enter this letter into the public record for the July 13, 2026 regular City Council meeting. am aware of my rights under the California Government Claims Act. I am exploring all options available to me to protec ny daughter and hold this City accountable for a pattern of failure that I have documented at every step and that no one has addressed.

Camryn deserves to ride her bike in her own neighborhood without being hit by a car. She especially deserves not to be hit by the car of someone who works for the City I have been begging to do something about driver safety for three months.

Torie Cortez
(209)305-0823
Item 3 Public Comment Provided
Outlook
by Torie Cortez, Dated June 9, 2026
My Daughter Was Struck by a City Employee Leaving City Hall - Incident No. 2026-1647 From Victoria Cortez <[email protected]>
Date Tue 6/9/2026 6:19 PM
To City Council - Distribution Group <[email protected]> Co City Manager Website Directed E-Mail < [email protected]>; website_cao <[email protected]>; Stephen Sealy < [email protected]> Mayor Akinjo, Vice Mayor Torres-O'Callaghan, Council Member Lazard, Council Member Diallo, Council Member Dresser,
My name is Torie Cortez. I am a Lathrop resident. My back wall borders the City Hall parking lot. I am writing as Camryn's mother.

On June 9, 2026, my seven-year-old daughter was struck by a vehicle while riding her bicycle on the sidewalk next to the City Hall parking lot exit. The driver drove across the sidewalk without yielding to my daughter, who was already on it and visible. The driver was a City of Lathrop employee. She was wearing a black Finance Department shirt with a City name tag and confirmed her employment when ! asked her directly. Officer Koron Taylor responded and took the report. Incident number 2026-1647.1 anxiously await my copy of the police incident report.

This is the fourth time.

Teach the people behind the wheel to yield at crosswalks and driveways. CVC Sections 21804 and 21950.

I asked that the outreach be done in English, Spanish, and Punjabi so that every family in this city could understand it. It cost the City nothing. I was trying to help.

Nobody responded.

I appeared again on June 8 and asked this Council to include a driver education component in the TJKM Comprehensive Safety Action Plan that you are already funding. Not a new project. Not new money. Just include driver education in the plan that already exists. In English, in Spanish, in Punjabi — in the languages the people of this city actually speak.

Twelve hours later, a City employee hit my daughter leaving this building.

My daughter was on the sidewalk. She was riding legally. A City employee drove across that sidewalk and hit her. What else has to happen before someone in this City acts on what I have been asking for? Camryn now refuses to ride her bike. She is seven years old and she is afraid of cars. That is what this City's inaction has produced. A child who loved riding her bike in her own neighborhood and is now too afraid to get on it. I am her mother and I feel helpless — not because I haven't tried, but because I have tried everything I know how to do and this City refuses to act on anything other than enforcement against the children who are being hit.

I do want to say this. Officer Koron Taylor and the other male officer who responded were kind to my daughter. They took the time to talk to her, to encourage her not to give up, and to offer her real advice.

They treated her like a child who had just been through something frightening, not like a case number. I am grateful for that. I am also grateful that I had the opportunity to be introduced to Officer Taylor during the new employee introductions at the June 8 Council meeting just the evening before. Their conduct reflected the kind of care I have been asking this City's leadership to show since March.

Think about how small this large community really is. On one evening, a mother stands at the lectern in City Hall and asks this Council to do something about driver safety. She watches a new police officer get introduced. The next afternoon, a City of Lathrop employee strikes that mother's child at the City Hall parking lot driveway. And the officer who was just introduced the night before is the one who responds.

All within 12 hours. If you are a believer in God, you must see this as a sign. If you are not, then look at it as the data point it is - this City has a driver safety problem and it is happening at your front door.

I am formally requesting:

2. Confirm in writing whether the driver was acting in the course and scope of City employment at the time of the incident.

3. Enter this letter into the public record for the July 13, 2026 regular City Council meeting.

I am aware of my rights under the California Government Claims Act. I am exploring all options available to me to protect my daughter and hold this City accountable for a pattern of failure that I have documented at every step and that no one has addressed.

Torie Cortez
(209)305-0823

Lathrop City CouncilJuly 13, 2026

Lathrop City Council
July 13, 2026