What happened: At its Monday meeting, the Visalia City Council voted 3-1 to adopt an ordinance that would amend the Visalia Municipal Code’s section regarding special events. Council member Emmanuel Hernandez Soto was the sole no vote, and Vice Mayor Brett Taylor was absent from the meeting.
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 place of a deposit and limit events that are consistently held on public streets or property to 12 times a year.
April Treano Lancaster, director of the Downtown Visalia Certified Farmers’ Market (DTV-CFM), voiced her concerns about the section that would limit special events frequently creating traffic flow problems or being held in the same location to being held no more than 12 times a year.
The DTV-CFM, which is normally held on the corners of Church and East Main streets, could be subjected to either only being held 12 times, or finding a new location. Lancaster said that at a previously held stakeholders meeting for this ordinance, multiple people questioned if the city had received enough complaints to warrant implementing this limit. She also said that some of these complaints came from council member Steve Nelsen himself, who Lancaster believes has a clear conflict of interest.
Multiple events listed in the ordinance as downtown annual community events are organized by Downtown Visalians, which Steve Nelsen is the executive director of. During the first reading of this ordinance at the previous council meeting, Visalia resident Barry Kaplan asked that Nelsen recuse himself from voting due to his potential conflict of interest but Nelsen did not abstain from voting.
Nelsen chose not to recuse himself during this meeting either. City Attorney Ken Richardson said that in his legal opinion, Nelsen does not have a conflict of interest.
“He does not have a direct or indirect financial interest that is implicated by this ordinance, there is no special privilege granted to council member Steve Nelsen by this ordinance, it treats council member Steve Nelsen the same as it treats every other citizen,” Richardson said.
Nelsen said that an individual, who he did not name, has “spread her wings to attack people on this council and there’s not one council member here who has ever spoke a bad word about that farmers market.”
He said it is clear-cut that Downtown Visalians did not do anything differently than they did before when he took over as the executive director, and that they always do what they are supposed to do for their special events.
Nelsen said events hosted by Downtown Visalians bring in thousands of attendees, but that the most attendees the DTV-CFM has ever had was when they had a drum circle, and the attendees were primarily the people in the circle playing drums, which he questioned how it benefits downtown.
Soto said that he would not support this ordinance because of the 12-week limit it would implement. He also requested that a future agenda item be added to revise the 12-week rule.
Nelsen motioned to approve the ordinance, and the ordinance passed by a 3-1 vote with Soto voting no.
And also: The council approved initiating the annexation of 59.84 acres into the northern city limits for the Belissa Subdivision Project. This project located north of Riverway Drive between Linwood and Demaree streets will create 309 single-family residential lots, one lot for multi-family development and one lot for future commercial development. Throughout the development will be 11 pocket parks and one trail running along the Modoc Ditch. Adrienne Burns, a representative for the project developer, said they are hoping to break ground on the project next year.
The council also approved the appointment of John Lollis, previously the city manager of Porterville, to the assistant city manager position at a salary of $204,000.
Up next: The Visalia City Council will meet again on Jan. 16.
