Documented by Jackie Schuster
Here’s what you need to know
- The Visalia City Council allowed a motion by Council member Emmanual Hernandez Soto to add an item to discuss the limit of 12 street closures in a year in the newly adopted special events ordinance to a future agenda die.
- The council also heard many comments from residents requesting the city work with First Pitch Entertainment, the owners of the Visalia Rawhide, to pay for ballpark renovations mandated by the MLB.
Visalia City Council members
Liz Wynn, District One
Vice Mayor Brett Taylor, District Two
Mayor Brian Poochigian, District Three
Emmanuel Hernandez Soto, District Four
Steve Nelsen, District Five
The Scene
The Visalia City Council meeting started at 7:01 p.m. All council members were present.
Actions/discussions/public comment
- Before the public comment period opened, Poochigian emphasized that since the litigation between First Pitch Entertainment and the City of Visalia is both not on the agenda and is a pending litigation, council members cannot comment on it during this meeting.
- Public comment
- Charlie Sabanaran said he isn’t here on behalf of either side but would do anything for his kids who have made great memories at the ballpark with their family and friends. He said recently the city released a statement with the returns of baseball over the last 20 years, and as a businessman, he understands that you want to see a return on your investment. He said the city’s investment pays off when families and friends go to Rawhide, so the city should find a way to keep this investment going.
- Victoria Peris said she was a Rawhide fan since she was a child, and if the city allows the ballpark doors to close, so many children will miss out on those memories.
- Shanna Meier, president of the Enchanted Playhouse Theater Co., said that Rawhide and First Pitch support many nonprofit and children’s programs throughout Visalia, and they are one of them. She said they would not have been able to keep going throughout the pandemic without their support. Meier said losing Rawhide to another city would be more than a loss of baseball, it would be a loss to community nonprofits.
- Tasha Pequeno asked the city to do whatever it takes to keep baseball alive in the city. She said when she moved to Visalia, the people at Rawhide became her first friends and her daughter’s first job. She said her previous city lost baseball because of a stadium that was not able to be updated and it was a great loss. She said Rawhide provides jobs and venues for community events and high school baseball games. She said other cities that are less financially stable than Visalia have been able to make the accommodations needed.
- James Alves from Able Inc said that for multiple years they have had the opportunity to provide training opportunities with Rawhide, and Rawhide has hired many of Able Inc.’s clients. He said the thought of losing that opportunity is devastating because Rawhide has staff that listens to their clientele and helps them get needed vocational skills. He said he hopes the city can find common ground with First Pitch to keep Rawhide here.
- Mia Serrato said she has been with Rawhide for 25 years working in various positions at the stadium. She said that families from the ballplayers come in and want to know where they can go for lodging and meals, so this revenue that comes into the city would be lost. She said her children have also been employed by Rawhide and kept going back because of the people they met. She said people who stop in the city on the way to the mountains come out to ball games because that’s what Visalia offers.
- Amanda Pichurko said she has been coming to games since 2009, has been a season ticket holder since 2011 and her daughter has worked for the Rawhide for multiple years. She said the updates to the ballpark are not extravagant, and she has toured the ballpark to see what needs to happen. She said the clubhouse facilities don’t have enough room and the facilities for female coaching staff are just a bathroom with cubbies. She said the nails in the outfield wall have had to be hammered in before games because they are coming loose. She said during her time at games she’s met many people who talk about how lucky we are to have so much baseball history here and have a downtown stadium so close to the Sequoias.
- Kent Copeley said he has asked both entities to work within their contracts and make the changes needed to the stadium. He said he is a third-generation Visalian and his grandfather was mayor in the 50s and 60s. He said his grandfather had City Council notes from meetings where he was asking for upgrades to be made to the stadium to keep baseball in this community.
- Johnathan Burton said the notice the city put out didn’t say that the city was paid back part of the money they spent on Rawhide. He said he wants to know if it’s council members who go to negotiate these things or if the council members send someone to do that for them. He said Rawhide is a place where people can reconnect with friends and family. He asked if the stadium is let go, then what was the point in the money the city already invested in the improvements and legal battle?
- Julian Rifkind, Rawhide’s co-general manager, said that the city is failing to recognize that Rawhide is working with many nonprofits to support them, hosts community events and hosts state championships. He said the city has stopped hosting its own Fourth of July event but will promote the Rawhides event. Rifkind said council members have failed to do their job by not engaging with the solutions the Rawhide owners have proposed and allowing the city manager to let the situation fester. He said sarcastically that he hopes the new civic center will be great since the council is willing to spend so much money on that.
- Joe Ross, Rawhide’s director of community and entertainment, said he has met all the council members, and doesn’t want to believe any of them want to let baseball go; however, all five council members have let staff take the lead on this, hidden behind closed doors and not taken action. He said the city manager and staff have told Rawhide to sue the city if they don’t like the way things are going. Ross said that people won’t remember the city staff let baseball go but will remember the council members who let it go. He said that council members say $6 million to $8 million is too much to spend on Rawhide but continue to maintain the convention center even with a net loss of $2 million a year. He said the new civic center is very expensive and will bring in less money than baseball would.
- Candice Ayers, vice president of the Enchanted Playhouse Theater Co., said that she has a backyard that needs maintenance all the time or else it goes to waste, but she maintains those things because she likes to have her friends and family gather there. She said the ballpark is like the city’s backyard and needs to be taken care of. She said if the council takes care of the ballpark she doesn’t know if council members will have special seats designated to them, but they can sit with her family and experience the magic of the ballpark.
- Eric Douglas said that he remembers being 8 years old and having a training session at the stadium that he thought was the coolest thing ever. He said people would leave and go to other places if baseball is lost, and asked where would they go for Fourth of July or to celebrate law enforcement with law enforcement days. He played a recording of commentary during an Oakland A’s game where Douglas said commentators mocked Visalia’s stadium. He said First Pitch and the council need to get this fixed, and he’s sorry the MLB has put the city in this position. Douglas said he hopes council members do their jobs and he gets to vote for them again.
- Margaret Carter said she moved to Visalia a little over a year ago to a house with almost no electricity, and they ended up having to go to the city to have them intervene because the landlord wouldn’t do anything. She said they went to code enforcement in February and code enforcement didn’t do anything until May. She said there are protections for landlords but none for renters other than code enforcement and the courts. She said other cities have programs where you can talk to people. She said Visalia also has a big homelessness program and they aren’t dealing with it. She said she doesn’t know what the solution is but the city can’t overlook their renters.
- Brady Hochhalter, Rawhide’s assistant general manager, said he fell in love with both the city and Rawhide but unfortunately, both are at a crossroads. He said the city has had no problem using taxpayer money to go through litigation over this issue for two years but the city says it’s too much money to fund the stadium. He asked council members what they plan on telling their children who can no longer hold their birthday parties at Rawhide, or telling teenagers who work at Rawhide each summer. Hochhalter said 70% of fans who attend the games don’t recall the final score but remember the experience they had. He said if the funding isn’t secured then the council members will all be responsible for letting baseball go in this city.
- Heather Angely said when she moved to Visalia and learned there was a baseball team she was so excited to take her kids and mom, and they are now season ticket holders. She said they have held many celebrations there and attend every event possible. She said the community loves Rawhide, and all anyone can talk about recently is what will happen to Rawhide. She said people at Rawhide treat everyone like family and this is the only affordable entertainment in the city.
- Ron Gonzalez said he knows the City Council members care about Visalia. He said when he returned from Iraq he smelled Four Seasons BBQ and knew he was home. He said that it’s more than just a team, the name and owners don’t matter, what matters is making baseball stay in Visalia.
- Mave Blaco said she is a sixth-grader and thinks every child in Visalia deserves the same memories that she has had.
- Rodney Blaco, president of the Sequoia Softball league, said Rawhide has supported them with money and experiences. He said Rawhide is the foundation of the family experience in Visalia. Blaco said the Rawhide experience won’t show up on a balance or economic income sheet but on our hearts. He said the city was lucky to survive the MLB downsizing so it would be a shame to let Rawhide go.
- Britney Bly said that she had her first job at Rawhide when they were still the Visalia Oaks. She said her oldest daughter’s first job was at Rawhide and she doesn’t want to explain to her youngest daughter that she may not get that opportunity. Bly said there is a rise in crime in Visalia but she feels safe knowing she can drop her kids off at the stadium and they will be safe there. She told the council members to watch kids light up when players hand them baseballs. She said she understands that Rawhide and the city have been butting heads on this but they have got to come to an agreement on this because there is nothing else to do in the city.
- Patrick Salazar said he has advertised his business at Rawhide for the past 23 years and he’s a season ticket holder. He said the West Visalia Kiwanis Club raises money through Rawhide that they then put back into kids in the community. He said he has some of the greatest memories at the stadium.
- Nate Wingert said he knows the council members care about Visalia. He said there are probably things that happened in the decision-making process that civilians don’t get but he still stands by what everyone has said tonight. He said he has seen so much good done at Rawhide and as hard as it may be, he hopes the council makes the right decision.
- Francine Galicia said that as a season ticket holder, Rawhide means a lot to her because she has been able to make bonds with the community. She said Rawhide has had a positive impact on thousands of families in the Central Valley.
- Charlie Norman said he lives in this area because of the quality of life here. He said he gets the business side of this, and it’s unfortunate that MLB is proposing new standards, but to lose a community fixture like this would be disappointing. He said community centers are black holes in the general fund but they have to be had for the community.
- Tay Aonishi said that she started working at Rawhide as a high school student and is still working there four seasons later. She said she has multiple siblings who also work at Rawhide. She said this ballpark means so much to so many people and hopes it stays in the community.
- Reyna Rodriguez, public relations specialist at Proteus, said that Rawhide has worked with them and many other community partners. She said she is grateful to have learned so many stories of families’ experiences at Rawhide tonight. She said it’s easy to have tremendous assets in the community for so long that we start to forget to go to games and use these assets. Rodriguez said since Proteus is an organization that values job training, it is important to her that Rawide has supported many people by offering jobs and training.
- Public comment regarding consent calendar item 7
- April Lancaster said she was here to ask the council to rescind the 12-week limit on the special events ordinance. She said she has had many jobs in downtown Visalia. Lancaster said downtown Visalia is still amazing, but she chose to put her retail space downtown because of the farmers market. She said the Downtown Visalia Certified Farmers Market (DTV-CFM) has a limited impact on traffic, only 17 parking spots are being used when they’re open and there are parking lots that remain open right by the market’s location. Lancaster said she doesn’t think the market is impacting businesses after they close, and since she does have street frontage downtown she can host the market on her street frontage.
- Elisa Gonzales said her family has sold to farmers markets throughout California for three generations. She said they have been to many markets in Southern California, but now she wants to stay closer to home and provide the local community access to food. Gonzales said they build special relationships with customers at the farmers market. She said a lot of farmers markets throughout the state shut down big streets to make it easier for the farmers markets, not make it more difficult, so she would like the council to make a special provision in the special events ordinance for the farmers markets. Gonzales said she had heard previous comments talking about the farmers market in Hanford as competition for the DTV-CFM, but she has worked at both markets and sometimes makes more money at the Visalia market. She said community members should not have to go somewhere else.
- Andrea Miranda said she is a rancher and this new ordinance will harm her business. She said the ordinance contradicts typical seasonal operations for farmers markets, which typically operate for six months because the special events ordinance would only let the market operate for three months. Miranda said the council suggested the farmers market move to Garden Plaza but it is so much more expensive. She asked if independent traffic studies would be conducted, because the phrasing in the ordinance saying that the city may find events to be obstructive is subjective. Miranda said that other cities let their farmers markets happen on high-traffic streets. She said the lack of promotion from Downtown Visalians, which is supposed to promote all downtown businesses and events, may have affected the low attendance rates of the farmers market.
- Amanda Warsher said a lot goes into making the market something people would like to attend, and that the special events ordinance will have a negative impact on businesses that are benefited by the market. She said the market helps create food access for people who can only go to evening markets. Warsher said Fresno just implemented a specific code for farmers markets, and this ordinance seems like a way to slowly kill a historic farmers market.
- Buddy Jones said he believes strongly in what April represents. He said he has been teaching African hand drums at the market, and he was impressed with the soul of the market, that “the soul is a thing you can’t see on a budget.” Jones said the market is a community gathering and more than 21 people participated in the last six weeks of his drum lessons. He said Visalia has an opportunity to share its soul with people living here and asked the council to consider the decisions they have to make for protecting a soul versus a building.
- Michelle Elise said that she is a local indigenous artist, so it’s important to her to have spaces where she feels safe enough to share her art. She said she found that space at the market and that it is an important space to keep. She said the market is a place where she has had the chance to connect with other community groups and it is convenient for moms like herself to walk through and go visit other businesses afterwards.
- Michelle Can said she fell in love with Visalia because of its farmers markets and downtown area. She said she feels at home here, so it’s disheartening to see limitations affecting the farmers market in the agriculture capital of the world. She said after going to the market, she and her family go shopping at other downtown businesses and it’s a safe space to let her kids run around without worrying. She said “It seems like Visalia is trying to take away family activities” since things like benches and water pads have been taken, and now the farmers market is being affected; as a mother and consumer, she would like to know why.
- Vanessa Gonzalez said that she supports the farmers market as a customer and she wanted to emphasize that there are many customers who like going. Gonzalez said she also likes the Saturday market that council members have mentioned, but this market provides options for people. She said at the last meeting people brought up Council Member Steve Nelsen’s possible conflict of interest, and while it might not be a legal conflict of interest she thinks it might be an ethical one. Gonzalez said that Nelsen also talked about the clientele of the DTV-CFM and said they would be better suited for Recreation Park. She asked what Nelsen meant by clientele and why they aren’t good enough to be downtown. She said there was also lots of complaining about a loss of parking in the beginning but in the end, Nelsen was saying no one shows up to the market, and these statements are conflicting. Gonzalez said the Bank of the Sierra’s location by the DTV-CFM was also brought up, but that as a Bank of the Sierra customer, she likes to see the market there because then she can go to the market after she’s done at the bank.
- Maria Guillén said she chose to move to Visalia from a big city and when friends visit she boasts to them that she knows people who lead healing drum circles. She said she goes to the market to learn about new things that are good for her and to make friends because those are important things for living a long, healthy life. She said it is also a way to support farmers, who are artists, too. She thanked Soto for requesting the agenda item.
- Lisa Alvarado said every Saturday she visited the Visalia Farmers Market, and one time she couldn’t afford it so she asked them to hire her so she could keep accessing the market. She said after two years working there she realized more people like her needed to be there so she started volunteering to make markets more accessible. Alvarado said that investing in farmers markets improves quality of life. She said that as she begins to dig deeper into this policy it feels racist and misogynistic because she has been to the DTV-CFM and it has had personal attacks. Alvarado said when she worked at the Saturday market they never had code enforcement watching them. She asked if the market is being targeted because it’s mostly attended by people who look like her, and are these people who don’t deserve access to farmers and markets?
- Justin Putanoma said that it seems like the council is about closing access to the community here between Rawhide and the farmers market issues. He said he knows a second Costco is coming in but you can’t go into a Costco and ask how the meat was raised, you get these community connections at farmers markets. He said special events are being pigeonholed in this ordinance, and leaving out events like farmers markets shows that there’s a need in the municipal code to add specifications for farmers markets. He said he and his wife participate in both farmers markets as farmers and they take great pride in being involved with the community, so he hopes that the city defines farmers markets clearly in the code.
- Trina Rodriguez said although she has been the daughter of farmworkers for many years she is the first one in her family to have the opportunity to actually grow and sell food. She said to do that she needs help from the community, and others need to feel like they can thrive out of Tulare County as well. Rodriquez said that small farm owners would love to keep investing in spaces like this and she hopes the council also feels compelled to invest in spaces and small farmers. Rodriguez said it’s awesome that farmers can share their gifts in other towns but it’s better to keep resources like this available for people here in Visalia.
- Consent calendar
- Taylor pulled item 7 from the consent calendar.
- Nelsen moved to approve all other items on the consent calendar and the motion passed unanimously.
- Item 7, request by Soto for the council to consider placing an item on a future agenda for discussion of the limit of 12 street closures in a year in the newly adopted special events ordinance.
- Soto said he requested this item be added because during the first work session for this ordinance, all council members agreed that they should have a stakeholder meeting. He said the staff report said a majority of stakeholders did not want the 12-week limit. Soto said the stakeholders spoke so he doesn’t understand why the city isn’t moving forward with what the stakeholders wanted.
- Wynn asked how many people were at the stakeholder’s meeting.
- Tracy Robertshaw, the city neighborhood preservation manager, said 18 people were there.
- Nelsen said the council has never stated they want to shut down the DTV-CFM, but they need to move the location so it isn’t closing streets or parking. He said suggestions have been Garden Plaza and Recreation Park, and that is all that has ever been suggested by the council so he doesn’t understand why those options have not been looked at. Nelsen said people say that it’s a cost issue but there haven’t been any conversations about the cost. He said the farmers market at the government plaza building on Saturdays doesn’t impact public roadways.
- Wynn said she has reached out to a few businesses to see if any of them would be willing to partner with the city and Garden Plaza to see if the DTV-CFM can be moved to Garden Plaza for little to no cost. She said they are trying to find a solution that will work, and she hopes that if the DTV-CFM moves to Garden Plaza they will be back in a year to say they need a different venue because they’ve outgrown Garden Plaza.
- Taylor said he pulled this item because they’ve discussed it at least three times now and he doesn’t think it is good governance to keep hashing out items just because you don’t like the vote. He said it is wasting city staff members’ time.
- Poochigian said he also pulled this item because he would vote no on it. He said he had spoken with Lancaster before and did speak with her earlier today to start going over potential options. He asked Robertshaw if an owner has store frontage, is it true that they could only hold an event in front for 12 weeks?
- Robertshaw said if you have store frontage you can hold an event more times, but only 12 times if you don’t. She said what the DTV-CFM has been doing so far has been working, so their license for the beginning of the season has been approved.
- Soto said he doesn’t think a lot of staff time has been spent on this item.
- Soto moved to approve the item, and with no second, the motion failed.
- With no regular items or public hearings, it was reported from the closed session that the city has closed out the purchase of land from the Blankenship Family Trust for the Caldwell Improvement Project for a price of $21 million .
The meeting ended at 9:03 p.m. The next Visalia City Council meeting will be held on Feb. 5.
If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at fresnodocs@fresnoland.org with “Correction Request” in the subject line.
