City Council — October 20, 2026

I would like to note that the interpreter this evening is Astrid Rambales. Please raise your hand and ask her for a listening device if you would like interpretation services. So, I guess we don't need it. And I would also like to call this meeting to order for the City Council October 20th, 2026. Madam Clerk can you please call the roll?

this evening

Tonight we'll be doing a presentation proclamation for World Polio Day and Council Member Aguilera will be presenting this award

Whereas Rotary International and the Rotary Clubs of the Santa Maria Valley in Epoma have been engaged in a 38-year campaign to eradicate polio worldwide. And whereas Rotary brings 121 years of history to this initiative, its members are business professionals and community leaders who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards, and help build goodwill and peace in the world.

Over 35,000 Rotary clubs located in more than 200 countries And geographical areas build coalitions and initiative service projects to address today's challenges, including illiteracy, disease, hunger, poverty, lack of clean water and environmental concerns. Whereas when Rotary began its mission to eradicate polio, more than 350,000 children in 125 countries were stricken with polio every year. And nearly 1,000 people were affected by the crippling disease every day. Since 1988 we've seen a worldwide reduction in polio cases of 99.9%.

Only two countries remain polio endemic. Afghanistan has 35 new cases in 2026 And Pakistan has five new cases in 2026. Whereas today only two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan remain polio endemic due to the efforts of the Rotary and its partners, the world is on the threshold of ending polio forever make it only the second disease after smallpox to be eradicated. And whereas public awareness advocacy and funding remain crucial to Rotary and its partners, the World Health Organization, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and UNICEF Now therefore Alice Patino the mayor of the City of Santa Maria hereby proclaims October 24, 2026 as World Polio Day in the city of Santa Maria and she has signed here by her hand and has caused the seal of the city of Santa Maria to be affixed here to this proclamation.

And to accept this is Holly Eads the Rotary Club of Santa Maria Breakfast.

Madam President, if you want to say something you can.

There's a microphone. We don't have microphones in our meetings. So thank you very much, just thank you very much to Mayor Patino and to each of our council members. Polio is a disease that Rotary has for years dedicated resources to and our goal and our hope is that someday it will no longer cease to exist and children will no longer be affected by it so we just appreciate your recognition of World Polio Day on October 24th and our community support these efforts

Thank you. Thank you.

The next proclamation is code enforcement and Councilmember Soto will be presenting this award.

Whereas the second week of October is designated as Code Enforcement Officer Appreciation Week throughout the state of California to recognize and celebrate the role code enforcement officers have in our communities. And whereas, code enforcement officers provide for the safety health and welfare of residents through the enforcement of local state and federal laws and ordinances dealing with various issues of building zoning housing environmental health and safety. And whereas code enforcement officers are dedicated, highly qualified and highly trained professionals who strive to assist communities in the prevention of neighborhood deterioration as well as enhance communities, ensure safety and preserve property value.

And whereas code enforcement officers often have a highly visible role in the communities they serve and regularly interact with the public And a variety of federal, state, county and local officials. And whereas the City of Santa Maria wants to recognize and honor its code enforcement officers who continue to serve the community in a variety of ways to improve the quality of life for residents and businesses. Now therefore, Alice Patino, the Mayor of the City of Santa Maria hereby proclaims the week of October 11th through the 17th as Code Enforcement Officer Appreciation Week in the city of Santa Maria. And here to accept the recognition is Don Palacios.

This is for tall people. Okay, good evening council members. I have alongside me Supervisor Fuentes. We really appreciate the support and giving us this proclamation. We have a very tiny team and we're doing our best to address all of the community's concerns and assisting the other departments and divisions and just really appreciate it. Thank you so much.

And I personally want to recognize them for their hard work and their labor and issues that we've been having in our city with parking issues, code violations. And I just want to say thank you to you Don and your team for the effectiveness that you've been doing on our streets every time. I know a lot of my constituents have called you and I mean I know you guys are out there trying to take care of that, the trucks everything else that's going on in our city but we appreciate you Here in the city of Santa Maria for all that you all do. And I know your team is small, but we appreciate all the hard work that you do.

Thank you our job is not always easy but it is rewarding seeing the difference we make out in the community.

Yes,

thank

you. Thank you. I want to say that we get feedback and you guys are doing an amazing job. I know you're a small team but you're small but mighty and you guys do a lot with the limited resources that you have so I really want to congratulate you on the good work you guys are doing.

Thank you so much for saying that. Have a good evening.

public comment. Madam Clerk, will you please read the criteria?

Speakers may provide public comment on any matter within subject matter jurisdiction of the City Council. Each speaker will be limited to three minutes, maximum 15 minutes for a public comment period. Unless majority of the council objects, the mayor may provide speakers more or less time speak. All comments or queries shall be addressed to the council as a body and not to any specific member thereof. Pursuant to government code section 54954282, The Ralph M. Brown Act, no action or discussion But the City Council shall be undertaken on any item not appearing on the posted agenda except to briefly provide information, ask for clarification, provide direction staff or schedule a matter for future meeting. Anybody on Zoom and wishing to speak during public comment once we call you please use the raise your hand feature for callers using a phone press star 9.

Do we have anyone on zoom? We do not okay

I'm going to go ahead and ask Gary Hall to make his way, then it's Damian Davis and then Cynthia Cudino. Gary Hall. Thank you Mr. Hall.

Thank you. Good evening. No Madam Mayor but council members staff and citizens of Santa Maria. Excuse me, my name is Gary Hall. I'm a resident of Rancho Buena Vista Mobile Estates at 2135 North Railroad Avenue here in Santa Maria. I represent the North Santa Barbara County Manufactured Homeowners Team or NESBIT. NESBIT's primary goal remains to provide protection to all Santa Maria mobile home residents presently living in an unregulated parental market.

The 2020 Model Lease and Enforcement Agreement have failed. Now is the time to take action to replace the model lease with a uniform, mandatory and enforceable mobile home rent stabilization program much like those in our neighboring city and county jurisdictions. At the June 7th 2022 of the City Council, a motion was made to either improve or replace the model lease.

But that went nowhere. The outreach efforts made by the city resulted in no improvements. According to the video and minutes from this June 16th City Council meeting this year, now four months ago both council members Soto and Batalla voiced support for bringing forward a discussion of the Model Lease and Enforcement Agreement. Where is that discussion? Why hasn't it become an agenda item? Why does it seem so difficult to get this worthwhile initiative on the agenda?

How much longer do the mobile home residents of Santa Maria have to wait for this council to act effectively on mobile home rent stabilization? This is, of course, an election year and three seats on this city council are up for election. I believe every candidate has voiced or written in support of replacing the model lease but I wonder why That action couldn't start immediately.

Mobile home residents in Santa Maria are in the process of voting, and we're asking why has it taken so long? Let's get started. Thank you.

Thank you Mr Hall. Damian Davis thank you.

Good afternoon City Council members, police chief, fire chief. Mine's really easy I live in the country club area. The military brought me here two years ago we bought a house over there off Banyan Way and I noticed right away in the neighborhood I've gotten to know all my neighbors really well but the neighborhood watch signs are pretty run down and I've heard that's kind of an antiquated system or program back when the sheriffs patrolled that area so really alls I'm asking the city council for and I believe I'm in your jurisdiction is I got about a month of terminal leave where I'm not doing much. Hopefully my wife doesn't watch this, but I'd be more than willing to go around the neighborhood. I've got a little Toyota pickup out there and I'll get a ladder and I'll take down all the signs.

They're run down. It just kind of makes the neighborhood, you know it's an eyesore. You drive around in a cycle okay? Is it being enforced or is it not being enforced? I have been watching you on YouTube so I know that we're under fiscal constraints so I'm not asking for money or time I have tools, I have the know-how. I was a military construction guy so I'm more than willing to go up there and take the damn signs down. I just need somebody to say yay or nay or is this one of those things that I just do during the night?

Kinda like when I plant trees on Broadway in Santa Maria Way during the night and try to make that corner look a little bit better. So anyway it's my way of giving back to the neighborhood. I know it's probably a rare thing during the city council meetings but I'm offering my services I just don't want to piss anybody off. I guess this is the big thing because I heard it used to be a sheriff's program, but I can't get much information through Google or and I don't want to call a phone tree for the city so frankly that's why I'm here

Mr. Davies, Brett will go ahead and give you his card and he'll go ahead and he can go ahead and give you some information regarding that.

Thank you ma'am. You're welcome. Yeah hopefully I can do it. And if I don't hear anything back I want to go on record and I'm just gonna take them down

so... He'll give you a card.

Thank

you for

offering your services and thank you for your service. Cynthia?

Good afternoon. My name is Cynthia Gudino, I am born and raised here in Santa Maria. I've been here 42 years and right now I do wear many hats. Right now the hat that I'm putting on is a committee member for Measure C What is measure C? Measure C is a half cent tax that's going to be in the November ballot here in Santa Maria. The funds stay local to support public safety, repair streets and improve parks programs for youth children and for elderly.

Why now? The city's facing a deficit. They've already done as much as they can to cut and they froze a lot of positions and postponed a lot of projects. Measure C will cover the remainder, and it will have citizen oversight and independent audits. Measure C is Something the city, we, the community needs here. Once you start getting involved within the city finances, you understand what restraints you guys have and how much money you receive and even the amount of money you receive has restrictions on what you can use it for. And that's what a lot of people out here don't know and don't understand that part. So when they say well you have enough money why did you build soccer fields? Well, those came with grants. Those came in money from the county but they also came with rules.

The rules had to be just specifically to create those soccer fields so it cannot be to refurbish or renew buildings or do anything like that. You guys, you here in the City Council have a lot of restrictions that you can actually or the city. Sorry, the city employees and staff have a lot of restrictions on what that money can be used for and that's what the community doesn't understand If we pass measure C in the November ballot, that half cent tax will stay here 100%.

If we do not pass this measure next year somebody some organization will think about it and that money if it does get approved a sliver a slice will come back to us. And it wouldn't be enough to do what we need to do for the city for the community but thank you so much for your time I appreciate it and have a good evening

Thank you, Cynthia for really being engaged in Measure C and all the work. And going to the town hall meetings and speaking up and being supportive of this measure because we really need to see Measure C passed. Thank you.

Thank you.

So we'll move on to the consent calendar. Does anyone have items they wish to pull for discussion? No. Do I have a motion to approve the consent calendar?

I move that we approve the consent calendar.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Having heard the motion and the second, is there any discussion? Hearing none, Madam Clerk would you please call the roll?

Good evening Mayor Pro Tem Flores, City Council members. We excuse Dave Rollins tonight. Our next city council meeting will be November 3rd and it will be a lighter agenda. There will be three presentations. Businesses of the Quarter presentation for Commander Todorika's graduation from the FBI National Academy and a retirement resolution for Senior Dispatcher Laura Brannan.

Also, we will have one more town hall for Measure C and that will be October 29th at the Elwynn Muscle Senior Center. This is a different time than our previous meeting. It'll be four to five p.m., so that's Thursday, October 29th, Elwynn Muscle Senior Center. This concludes my report.

Thank you. Next we'll go ahead and hear oral reports of our city council members, and I'll go ahead and start with Soto.

On Tuesday, October 13th I attended the ribbon cutting for Klondike Pizza's 30th anniversary celebration. That same day I attended the State of the City and that...I can't recall the exact day. I believe it was Thursday but there was an incident where a An 805 undocu fund rapid responder was detained. And so there was a press conference that took place to shine light and I am proud to say that I spoke, and in that presentation or in that press conference I spoke about SB 54 and the need to ensure The City of Santa Maria is abiding by state law and that we're not aiding immigration in any of its enforcement actions here in the city of Santa Maria. And so I know we're at oral reports, but I look forward to hearing from Chief Williams about how we're going to ensure or how we're going to continue to ensure that no city resources are used To support any type of ice enforcement in the city of Santa Maria.

Thank you

Maribel. On October 8th, which was a Thursday the City Council meeting was rescheduled. There, I attended the gala for the Women Lawyers Association. I'm a co-founder of that organization and we schedule that a year in advance so I attended that. I also attended the State of the City on October 14th. I attended a meeting regarding the hospitals in Santa Barbara County and this week on October 17th, I attended the Black & White Ball and this organization is a Mexican ladies club organization and they raise money to provide scholarships to young girls, and there's princesses that go through the process. There's judges from the community, and then they pick a queen. It's a really special organization, and it was a really nice event.

Betaya?

October 9th I attended the Hispanic Heritage, and October 13th I attended the State of the City. That's it.

Okay. October 9th, I attended the Hispanic Heritage at the airport. October 10th, the Mayor's Ball. October 13th, State of the City. October 17th, the White and Black Mexican Ladies' Ball that I attended. And regarding your comment for Chief Williams, would you want him to address that now or do you wanna have a meeting with

him? I think I would like to ask our City Attorney Tom Watson because I know that was in agendized and so I don't want to. So should we just wait? I think if he wants

a presentation or report it'd be better to allow him some time to do so.

Yeah, I would appreciate that and to also know in that presentation not just our police department but also just The City of Santa Maria as a whole, ensuring that no city resources including our parking lots are used for any staging operations or whatnot. So just a presentation from city staff on what we're doing to ensure that no city resources are used to support ICE's enforcement in the City of Santa Maria.

Thank you Councilmember Soto. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our shortest meeting tonight of City Council. Have a wonderful night!

Good night.