Documented by Rachel Youdelman
Summary: What you need to know
- Desirée Martinez, the plaintiff in the affordable housing lawsuit brought against the city, final appeals for which the city lost in April this year, was present to comment about affordable housing in Clovis during the public comment portion of the meeting. The matter has appeared on the council’s closed session agenda nearly every meeting for months, though no public announcements have been made about it, including at this meeting. Martinez talked about the lack of resources in Clovis for homeless people as well as the continued scarcity of affordable housing as required by law.
- The council approved the 2022-23 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR). The city’s beginning general fund balance was $36.7 million; ending balance was $37.8 million. Revenue total was $99.7 million; expenditures were $99.3 million. In revenues, property taxes increased by 9%, transitory occupancy tax (TOT) increased by 14%, but sales tax declined by 3%.
Council and Staff
Lynne Ashbeck, mayor
Vong Mouanoutoua, mayor pro tem
Drew Bessinger, council member ABSENT
Matt Basgall, council member
Diane Pearce, council member
John Holt, city manager
Andy Haussler, assistant city manager
Scott Cross, city attorney
Karey Cha, city clerk
The Scene
The Clovis City Council met on Monday, Dec. 4, 2023, for its first meeting of the month. Mayor Ashbeck called the meeting to order at 6:01 p.m.
Mouanoutoua led the Pledge of Allegiance. City Clerk Cha called roll; Bessinger was absent; all other council members and staff were present.
At 6:30 p.m., the council adjourned to attend a public Christmas ceremony outside the civic center. A choir from the Clark Intermediate School sang, and a person dressed as Santa Claus arrived with a police escort on the town’s “trolley.” The council reconvened about 7 p.m. No other religious customs of the season were mentioned.
Ashbeck as usual maintained a cordial tone throughout the meeting.
About 20 people attended in person, about 30 viewed via YouTube, and one via Webex. A handful of members of the public were present to comment. The meeting lasted an hour and 40 minutes.
There are several ways to participate in the council’s meetings: in person, you may comment on specific agenda matters as they are discussed, or on those not on an agenda at the scheduled time. Just show up. Commenters are normally limited to five minutes each. Note that laws regarding public meetings preclude council members from making definitive responses about matters which are not on the agenda. You can also call in to a Webex when the meeting is in progress, or you can submit a written comment. Easy instructions are found here.
All council members are elected at large; none represent specific districts of Clovis. To contact any of them with questions or to comment about issues, phone 559-324-2060 (one phone for all) or email:
Lynne Ashbeck lynnea@cityofclovis.com
Vong Mouanoutoua vongm@ci.clovis.ca.us
Matt Basgall mbasgall@cityofclovis.com
Drew Bessinger drewb@cityofclovis.com
Diane Pearce dianep@cityofclovis.com
Members of the public may attend meetings at the Council Chamber, 1033 Fifth St., Clovis, CA 93612, or online via Webex. The next meeting will be Dec. 11. Videos of past meetings and agendas are available here.
Public comment This is the segment of the meeting for members of the public to raise any issue which does not appear on the agenda but is within the council’s jurisdiction.
There were four parties commenting on various issues. The first, whom Mouanoutoua said he had invited, was a group of relatives and friends of the late Dr. Sidney Carpenter, a pathologist at the Kaiser Permanente hospital, who was killed 2 years ago when the driver of a car accidentally struck him in the Temperance-Bullard intersection as he was walking toward his home after finishing his habitual daily public dancing to music on his headphones. Carpenter was known as the “Dancing Man,” as he frequently danced on the corner and was a beloved figure in the community. Clovis city staff managed the installation of a memorial plaque and a bench in Carpenter’s honor, located at the Temperance-Bullard intersection. Carpenter’s friends each thanked city staff.
The next speaker was Desirée Martinez, the plaintiff in the affordable housing lawsuit brought against the city and final appeals which the city lost in April this year. The matter has appeared on the council’s closed session agenda nearly every meeting since, though no public announcements have been made about it. Before Martinez began speaking, Ashbeck pointed out that a new timer clock had been installed in the chamber and would be used to limit the time of each public commenter who spoke. Martinez talked about the lack of resources in Clovis for homeless people as well as the continued scarcity of affordable housing as required by law. She emphasized that many homeless people are elderly and hence particularly needy. When would Clovis start building, she asked, pointedly asking about the use of funds allocated for such building. No council member commented or responded in any way.
Nathan Magsig, Fresno County supervisor for District 5, which covers Clovis, was present to speak during the public comment period. He was there, he said, to thank the council for continuing the Christmas tree lighting event. Then he added that he “wanted to appreciate Dez [Desirée Martinez]” who had just spoken and mentioned her involvement in “homeless communities.” He then cited a few Clovis housing projects, such as Butterfly Gardens and Habitat for Humanity projects. However, the city is still over 4,000 housing units short of compliance with state housing law, which Magsig did not mention. He said he “agreed with Dez” that “a rising tide lifts all boats,” a phrase she did not use. He said that he hoped for collaboration with the county via “cutting through bureaucracy” but was not specific. “As a builder,” he noted, it was becoming “more difficult to build,” but did not disclose any current professional role in construction. Finally, he thanked the council for their “great work.”
Ashbeck responded by saying that “we are working intently” on housing solutions. Now addressing Martinez, Ashbeck said, “Dez, we agree with you; we have solutions to things you described, probably not quite accurately,” adding that “this is not the place to debate.” She then thanked both Martinez and Magsig.
The next speaker was Malcolm Gibson, retired journalist, who has often appeared before the council lately. As he did most recently, Gibson spoke in support of developing affordable housing, but today he suggested establishing a citizens committee to “investigate the issue and present a plan” to the council. Gibson also thanked Haussler and Cha for their help in finding a solution for helping people attending the meetings who have hearing disabilities.
Consent calendar, agenda items 1-7 Approved 4-0, with one absence. The “consent calendar” is a group of agenda items considered routine; they are decided with a single vote. A council member, staff person or a member of the public may pull any single item for discussion; otherwise, the vote proceeds without discussion. Items included the filing of financial reports, purchase of a sanitation truck and approval of minutes from a previous meeting. No items were pulled for discussion.
About 6:25 p.m., the council adjourned to attend the annual Christmas tree lighting, just outside the civic center. They reconvened about 7 p.m.
Agenda item 8 The council approved an updated master administrative fee schedule, with a vote of 4-0, and one absence. A very brief presentation was made by Haussler. These fees are for a variety of city services and are charged for cost recovery; fees are designed, per Haussler, to reflect actual costs. In the past, fees were updated infrequently; Haussler said that they will now be updated annually. The only question came from Mouanoutoua, who asked about fees for camping at the water-tower parking lot. The response was that camping is permitted only during the time when the rodeo takes place. The new fees will be effective as of Jan. 1.
Agenda item 9 The council approved 4-0, with one absence, the 2022-23 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR). Deputy Finance Director Jeff Blanks gave the presentation. Blanks explained that the report is required by state law and that the city’s financial statements are audited by an independent vendor with which the city contracts for this purpose. He pointed out that there were no audit findings. The ACFR contains the auditor’s report, financial statements for a variety of funding sources, management’s analysis, etc.
For 2022-23, the city’s beginning general fund balance was $36.7 million; ending balance was $37.8 million. Revenue total was $99.7 million; expenditures were $99.3 million. In revenues, property taxes increased by 9%, transitory occupancy tax (TOT) increased by 14%, but sales tax declined by 3%.
Ashbeck and Basgall asked about the decline in sales tax revenue; Blanks explained that gains typically made in about seven years had been made in just two years, so this decline now was expected and accounted for. Nevertheless, Ashbeck and Basgall expressed concern about potential continued loss. Declines in sales of cars and home improvement goods accounted for the loss, said Blanks, who added that the decline had flattened but that revenue from sales tax was not yet growing. Mouanoutoua asked about online sales and how taxes were allotted, depending, for example, on agreements with Amazon warehouses. After Blanks answered the question, Mouanoutoua asked it again. Mouanoutoua also asked about the TOT tax, which was increased recently with the aim of raising revenue to fund more police salaries; Blanks said that this tax “bump” was about the amount expected.
Ashbeck continued to express concern about the decline in sales tax revenue, which she said would be “troubling” if it were a trend.
Pearce, quiet until this point, asked about TOT for Airbnb rentals. Blanks said that they were attempting to “bring awareness compliance” and that the city has contracted with a vendor to manage it. No one asked how many Airbnb properties there were in Clovis or if the number of short-term rentals affected the housing shortage.
Mouanoutoua asked another question, this time about food trucks. Where did their sales tax go? The reply was that the tax goes to the place where the food truck owner is registered, not where sales happen. Mouanoutoua then asked about American Rescue Plan (ARPA) funds: was reporting about spending it complete? The answer was yes, federally required reporting is complete.
Agenda item 10 The council approved 4-0, with one absence, a change in the meeting schedule: Dec. 18 and Jan. 2 meetings will be canceled.
Agenda item 11 – City manager comments Holt had none.
Agenda item 12 – Council comments
Pearce said that she visited the new senior center; it was “beautiful and fantastic,” also “exciting.”
Basgal said that he attended the annual Clovis Children’s Christmas Parade, which he called “truly a main event, for sure.” He noted that he would be absent for the Dec. 11 meeting.
Mouanoutoua also attended the parade, as well as a Southeast Asian Student Success conference. He complimented the city staff again for the Dr. Carpenter memorial and said that the staff “make us look good” because “it seemed like we did it but we didn’t do anything.”
Ashbeck said that she missed the parade because she had contracted COVID. She mentioned the opening of the new senior center, and said that it represented “the best of our community.” A submission about Clovis transportation projects had been sent to the Fresno Council of Governments (COG), she noted. The failure of last month’s vote to increase landscape maintenance fees for Landscape Maintenance District No. 1, Benefit Zones 2 and 5, was a topic on the Nextdoor.com platform, Ashbeck said. Finally, she was glad to hear news of car dealerships and restaurants opening in Clovis.
Closed session – Agenda items 11 and 12 City attorney Scott Cross noted that the meeting would reconvene after closed session but that there may or may not be any action taken. However, the Webex closed at 7:40 p.m., and whether the council returned to chambers was unknown. Clerk confirmed via email on Dec. 5 that no action was taken on any closed session item.
Item 11 concerned Desiree Martinez v. City of Clovis, et al., Fresno County Superior Court case F082914, the aforementioned affordable housing case which the city has definitively lost. The item has repeatedly appeared on closed session agendas for months following the city’s April 2023 court defeat, but there has been no discussion of it in any public portion of any meeting.
Item 12 concerned the city manager’s job performance evaluation.
If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at fresnodocs@fresnoland.org with “Correction Request” in the subject line.
