What happened: At its Monday meeting, the Visalia City Council voted 4-0 to approve the first reading of an ordinance that would update the Visalia Municipal Code’s section regarding special events. Council member Emmanuel Hernandez Soto was absent.
Tracy Robertshaw, the city’s neighborhood preservation manager, said some of the changes to the section would involve creating a list of downtown annual community events that would allow organizers to access a streamlined policy for event route approval, allow permit applicants to submit proof of obtaining the proper trash containers and staff – in lieu of a deposit – and limit events that are consistently held on public streets or property to 12 times a year.
Council member Steve Nelsen is the executive director of the business organization Downtown Visalians. During the initial public comment portion of the meeting, Visalia resident Barry Kaplan asked that Nelsen recuse himself from voting, or if he chose not to, for city attorney Ken Richardson to explain why it was not a conflict of interest.
Nelsen did not abstain from voting, and Richardson said Nelsen was allowed to vote because council members must decide on their own whether to recuse themselves. Richardson went on to say that the city’s charter does allow him to provide confidential legal advice, which is subject to attorney client privilege and not open to public discussion unless a council member would like to waive that privilege.
Although Nelsen told Richardson that he was “more than welcome to say whatever you want to say about me,” Richardson declined to do so.
“I don’t feel like it’s good or prudent practice for me to air my legal advice to all individuals here in a public forum,” he said. “And so I’m going to decline to do that.”
Multiple events listed in the ordinance as downtown annual community events are organized by Downtown Visalians, including Hometown Heroes and the Candy Cane Lane Parade. However, Nelsen said that since he is not the one who fills out event packets or does marketing of events, there is no conflict of interest. By voting to approve the first reading of this ordinance, Nelsen has made it easier for an organization he is part of to obtain event approval.
Two Visalia residents commented that some of the changes in the ordinance don’t seem fair to smaller or new events.
Multiple members of Downtown Visalians and its Property Owners Association Board of Directors voiced their support for the ordinance. Janeen Robbins, vice president of the Downtown Visalians Board of Directors, said that for any event to obtain approval to close a street, it “should be beneficial to merchants and property owners.”
And also: The council also held the second reading and adopted Ordinance 2023-04, which grants the Visalia Public Cemetery District (VPCD) request to change the zoning designation of 3.41 acres from residential to quasi-public.
The zone change will allow VPCD to expand operations as the current space fills up. Of the 15 properties being rezoned, eight are vacant. During a previous meeting, Visalia Associate Planner Cristobal Carrillo said VPCD plans to expand onto the vacant lots first, which could keep the cemetery in operation until 2030.
Up next: The Visalia City Council will meet again on Dec. 18.
Correction: An earlier version of this meeting brief implied that city attorney Ken Richardson made a personal decision not to discuss legal counsel he may have provided to Council member Steve Nelsen. During the meeting, he did cite the city’s charter that he said allows him to provide confidential legal advice, which is not subject to discussion at an open public meeting unless the attorney-client privilege is waived, as it was by Council member Steve Nelsen.
