Documenter: Ramiro Merino

Purpose of Agency

The five City Council members are elected at large to serve four-year, overlapping terms. Municipal elections are held in November of even number years. Council selects one of its members to serve as the Mayor, who presides at meetings and represents the City in all official matters and at official functions. Council Members do not spend all day at City Hall; they have regular jobs like everyone else. The variety of experience they bring to meetings helps them as a group to make wise decisions. 

Lemoore City Council Board Member Duties

The City Council is responsible for approving all legislation and formulating City policies. The Council’s objectives are broad and include translating public attitudes and service requirements into policies and programs, so that desired levels of service can be provided efficiently and economically. The Council keeps abreast of current State and Federal legislation. By participation in the League of California Cities, Council members are able to compare policies, techniques and procedures with other cities throughout the state. Close liaison is maintained with other Kings County elected officials to insure that Lemoore’s policies and programs are coordinated with other public agencies. 

Lemoore City Council Board Members

  • Stuart Lyons, Mayor, Council Member for District A

  • Patricia Matthews, Mayor Pro Tem and Council Member for District E

  • Jim Chaney, Council Member for District B

  • Frank Gornick, Council Member for District C

  • David Orth, Council Member for District D

The Scene

The Lemoore City Council meeting was called to order at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, February 16 by Mayor Stuart Lyons. The meeting was streamed live virtually through Zoom, where a total of six participants showed up throughout the night. The in-person meeting consisted of four out of the five council members, including the Mayor (Stuart Lyons), Mayor Pro Tem and Council Member for District E (Patricia Matthews), Council Members for C and D (Frank Gornick, and David Orth). City Council Member for District B, Jim Chaney, was absent. City Staff and contract employees also present were City Manager Olson, Assistant City Manager Speer, Police Chief Kendall, City Attorney Lerner, and City Clerk Avalos. Due to the global pandemic, physical attendance by the public cannot be accommodated given the current circumstances and the need to ensure the health and safety of the City Council, City staff, and the public as a whole. The Zoom camera was directed towards the Council, where you could see four of City Council Members. The Council all wore masks for the duration of the meeting. 

  1. Call to Order

  2. Invocation 

  3. Pledge of Allegiance 

  4. Roll Call 

  5. Closed Session Report 

  6. Agenda Approval, Additions, and/or Deletions 

  7. Public Comment 

  8. Ceremonial Presentations

  9. Department and City Manager Reports 

  10. Consent Calendar

    1. Approval – Minutes – Regular Meeting – February 2, 2021 

    2. Approval – Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Lemoore and Tim Welsh – Skate Park Concession 

    3. Approval – Bid Award – Lemoore Youth Sports Complex Shade Structures  

    4. Approval – Resolution 2021-03 – Authorizing Amendments to the City’s Salary Schedule and Implementing Position Allocation Modifications as a Result of the Water and Wastewater Divisions Reorganization

    5. Public Hearings 

  11. Public Hearings

  12. New Business

    1. Report and Recommendations – City of Lemoore Audit for Year Ended June 30, 2020 (Speer) 

  13. Brief City Council Reports and Requests 

    1. City Council Reports / Requests

  14. Adjournment 

Closed Session Report

  • There is no closed session report. 

Agenda Approval, Additions, and/or Deletions

  • There was a discussion to remove items 3-2 and 3-4 from the meeting agenda. 

Public Comment

  • There was no public comment.  

Ceremonial Presentations

  • There were no ceremonial presentations. 

Department and City Manager Reports 

  • City Manager Olson stated that “downtown has started to shape up” with new planters. The City Manager took his wife and daughters to check out the planters and Sheila from the Department of Parks and Recreation is excited about it as when it started. He thanked the City Council for their support. 

Consent Calendar

  • Item agenda 3-1: Approval of the Minutes for the Regular Meeting on February 2, 2021. Motion passed to approve the agenda item, 4 to 0. 

  • Item agenda 3-2: Approval of the Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Lemoore and Tim Welsh regarding the Skate Park Concession. Motion passed to approve the agenda item, 4 to 0. 

    • Tim Welsh approached the City of Lemoore to make required upgrades by the county in order to have a concession stand in the skate park. He will pay a fee of $100 to lease out the property. Should Mr. Walsh decides to not operate the concession stand in the future, then the City would be able to lease the building out. 

  • Item agenda 3-3 – Approval of the Bid Award for the Lemoore Youth Sports Complex Shade Structures. Motion passed to approve the agenda item, 4 to 0. 

  • Item agenda 3-4: Approval of the Resolution 2021-03 regarding the Authorizing Amendments to the City’s Salary Schedule and Implementing Position Allocation Modifications as a Result of the Water and Wastewater Divisions Reorganization. Motion passed to approve the agenda item, 4 to 0. 

    • The City of Lemoore started a TTHM Project, which is the state mandated water equality project. There are two new plants that are in construction. The City received notice from the State that the current plants will be grade from a higher water grade. The State requires proper and current certification for employees operating the plants. The commission process can be started but not completed due to the out of date certifications. The City did an analysis of the position and they found that some of the positions were underpaid compared to the current job market. Approval is needed to match the current positions with the proper salary range. There is funding in the budget to support the change in salary schedule, however the current issue is due to the pandemic, the State is not hosting any test sites to allow positions to take the test and receive the proper certification. 

Public Hearings

  • There were no public hearings. 

New Business

  • Report and Recommendations – City of Lemoore Audit for Year Ended June 30, 2020. 

    • Brian Henderson from Hudson Henderson and Company, an independent audit company, presented on the financial statement audit for the City. Briand stated that their responsibility as the auditor is to provide “reasonable assurance that the financial statements are presented in all material respects (free of material misstatement).” He also stated that this does not address the financial condition of the City. The purpose of the audit is not to detect fraud nor can they take responsibility for finding fraud, should it exist. They consider internal control over financial reporting for the purpose of expressing their opinion on the financial statements, but not for expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of internal control. Last year, the suit indicated that there were four findings, which include material weaknesses for financial reporting, bank reconciliation, capital assets, and payroll reporting. This year, there was only one finding, which is that the golf course prepaid assets and inventory were not recorded during the financial closing process at year end, which made this a material weakness. Motion to approve and file the audit passed 4 to 0. 

* At 8:12 p.m., the Zoom meeting stopped recording. Brian Henderson was assigned as the host for the meeting, but when he left, the link would not work anymore. The Council resumed the meeting, which was recorded by audio and uploaded to the archive website. The recorded parts of the meeting can also be found on the City’s YouTube channel. 

Brief City Council Reports and Requests

  • Council Member Orth: Thanked the City employees for completing the City Report and the efforts to improve the downtown area. 

  • Council Member Gornick: He noticed that the unused vehicles have been removed. 

  • Mayor Pro Tem Matthews: Stated that if the public is interested in the context of the meetings, to click on the agenda packet rather than the agenda to get more information about the upcoming meetings. She expressed the positive improvements of downtown Lemoore with the planter boxes. She also thanked the City staff, specifically Michelle, for her hard work in improving the audit findings. 

  • City Manager Olson: Received correspondence from the California Cities for Local Control, which wants to prevent Sacramento from passing laws and regulations that are unfunded mandates from cities. He expressed his support in not wanting the City to lose local control. It is up to the Council to bring this as a resolution at an upcoming meeting, which the Council agreed on. 

  • Mayor Lyons: Thanked those in the meeting and for making it feel like normal again. He also thanked the City staff and the Parks and Recreation Department for the planter boxes in downtown Lemoore.  

One of the Council Members brought up the golf course prepaid assets and inventory, but the Council decided to table the discussion in order to include the public on the topic. It was stated that Kings County is the lowest ranking county in the state regarding the number of vaccines per 100 people. An update will be provided on this in the next City Council meeting. 

Adjournment

  • The meeting adjourned at 8:20 p.m. 

Summary

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