The Merced City Council held a special meeting on December 16, 2025, at 5:30 PM in the City Council Chamber to honor local high school sports teams that won section and NorCal championships, as well as community organizations that supported the Police Athletic League (PAL) program. The meeting lasted approximately one hour and was entirely ceremonial, with no public comments or other business.
We want to call our special December 16th, 2025 meeting of the Merced City Council to order. We're going to begin with a Pledge of Allegiance. So if everybody could please stand and our city manager will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Okay, agenda item B roll call. Councilmember DuPont. Tao. President. Harris. Present. Smith. Zhang. Mayor Pro Tem Boyle. Here. And Mayor Serrado. Here. Hey, Mayor, I'd like to remind the audience that if they wish to address the city council, they must submit a green request of speak form located at the podium in the back of the chamber. Agenda item C, public comments. Members of the public who wish to speak on any matter that is only specifically on this agenda may do so and we'll be allotted three minutes. So far, I haven't received any. Okay. Seeing none, we'll proceed. Okay, agenda item D, ceremonial matters D1 certificate of recognition to the El Capitan High School Girls Varsity Tennis requested by Mayor Mary Serrado. Thank you, Jim. We're gonna go a little out of order. I think the uh uh Merced High Girls Fled football team, a lot of their players, coach uh told me a lot of their players are also playing basketball, so they have a game tonight. So we're gonna we'll go a little out of order with uh then what is compared to what's on the agenda. Uh but we're here tonight trying to really make it a special night. It was really a you know, all of us here, we we were proud of our city, proud of our people, and especially our young people, and to see uh young people in Merced thriving, doing so well, uh and just doing great things. We this town can really raises a lot of great people, uh, and you make us proud. So we're here tonight to celebrate you to celebrate all your accomplishments. Um and the city of Mercedes did something very unprecedented this year. We had four teams that won section championships. Um team, the girls' water polo team that won the NorCal championship as well. So we're proud of you. We're excited and honored for all the great things you do to serve Merced, and we're here to recognize you tonight. So without further ado, we'll uh invite Coach Victor. Come on down, sir, and we're gonna honor the uh section champion, Merced High Girls Flag Football team. Uh first of all, thank you, uh City Council and the mayor for putting this together. Uh, really appreciate it. Uh, we're excited about the great season we have this year. Um black football. Flag football, this is only the third season, and we were able to win a section championship, so it's the first time there's been a section championship in our area. Uh primarily it's been in Sacramento the last two years, so it's kind of nice to bring it down to a small town like Merced. Um so that's pretty much it. It was a great season. We hope to repeat it again next year. Tell us about the team. Tell us about some of the good moments about the team. Um the biggest thing I would say about our team this year is that we did a different game plan with our schedule. Uh, we went down into LA to challenge some teams, won all three games in LA.