Stockton City Council Special Planning Workshop

The Stockton City Council held a special planning workshop on April 1, 2025, from 9:07 AM to 3:08 PM at the University Plaza Waterfront Hotel, 110 W Fremont St, Stockton, CA. Councilmembers Michael Blower, Brando Villapudua, Michele Padilla, Christina Fugazi, Mario Enríquez, and Jason Lee were present; Councilmember Mariela Ponce was absent and sent regrets. The workshop was facilitated by Rod Gould and Jennifer Teal of the Raftelis consulting firm. This was the mayor's ninth priority-setting meeting. The session was informational only, with no formal action taken. It went into recess at 11:12 AM and reconvened at 11:25 AM.

Public Comments & Testimony

• Dan Richardson spoke about North Pershing Avenue, stating that despite being a priority for the last two planning sessions, nothing has been done. He expressed no hope that the federal administration will help and urged the city to make street improvements part of the plan.
• Pat Barrett spoke about the unhoused, hoping the city's plan will move forward and that "a million little people" and organizations working on the issue will be included in the solution, not just handpicked groups. She also raised concerns about street repairs.
• Pandora Crowder, a South Side resident and member of the Housing Justice Coalition, presented survey results: over 350 responses showed 65% of respondents did not believe Stockton is affordable, 59% experienced difficulty finding affordable housing, and 72% spend more than 30% of their income on rent. She called on the city to redefine "affordable," stating it is not the HUD standard, and argued housing is a basic right. She also called for a moratorium on penalizing unsheltered individuals and for supporting nonprofits like Red Rabbit.
• Dominic Gooley (listed as "Dominic Guilli" in the minutes; the transcript says "Gooley"), a licensed civil engineer and small business owner who works on Delta levees, expressed support for a diverse marine-based business future, including shipbuilding and recreational boating. He cited local shipbuilding history and urged redevelopment south of Fremont Street.
• Julie Dunning commended the council for producing what she described as the first document that looks like a strategic plan, affirmed earlier speakers' comments, and urged the council to set priorities and hold them as the basis for every decision, including funding votes.
• Mark Stebbins raised concerns about the federal crisis and faltering economy, called for a permanent year-round downtown farmers market, pushed for San Joaquin Delta College to offer agriculture degrees, and urged restoration of libraries and parks.
• R. C. Thompson said blight and illegal dumping in South Stockton "is getting out of hand," citing a volunteer cleanup that removed 10 tons in four hours, with trucks lining up to dump during the removal. He also asked for more accessible community event space on the South Side.
• James Hill, Senior Project Coordinator for the reInvent South Stockton Coalition, requested that ending illegal dumping be made a higher priority, with more enforcement, cameras, and proactive city responses. He noted that the county's behavioral health outreach team could not attend a cleanup because their federal grant was cut effective immediately, and asked the city to support local community-based organizations instead.
• Patsy Zimaross (transcribed as "Pat Timoraz" in the transcript), representing the East Side Police Advisory Board, opposed the Main Street/Market Street precise road plan that would reduce a main thoroughfare from four lanes to two, citing traffic safety and flood evacuation concerns, and requested more public meetings before the April 15th agenda item.

Discussion Items

Department Presentations

• City Manager's Office (Steve Colangelo, Interim City Manager) – Described internal and external city services and divisions including the Office of Violence Prevention, Office of Performance and Data Analytics, and Environmental and Sustainability Division.
• Police Department (Captain Annabelle Morris) – Reported a $186 million annual operating budget. In 2024: over 35,000 calls for service, over 80,000 reports taken, over 10,000 cases assigned for follow-up, over 8,000 arrests, and over 7,000 animals taken in by animal services. Recruitment efforts resulted in 4,700 applications; 66 sworn personnel were hired, a 120% increase over 2023, with an average hiring rate of one out of every 100 applicants. The department also hired 43 full-time and 19 part-time professional staff. New technology investments include FUCSIS, Peregrine, and Prepared 911.
• Fire Department (Chief Richard Edwards) – The department serves approximately 369,000 people, including four contract districts, with 210 uniform personnel and about 12 vacancies (6% of staffing), to be filled in the August academy. The fiscal year 2024-25 budget is $86.2 million. Staffing includes 59 firefighters on duty daily across 13 firehouses and four truck companies. In 2024, the department averaged about 166 calls per day, responded to 194 structure fires, and 13% of all responses had a homeless component. The dispatch center answered more than 224,000 calls. Chief Edwards announced his last day will be July 25, 2025, and discussed a succession plan with a deputy chief returning to shadow him. Councilmembers asked about pre-bankruptcy staffing ratios (four firefighters per apparatus versus current lower levels) and emphasized sharing the department's work publicly.
• Community Services (Chris Farrow, Director) – The department operates recreation and library divisions with 28 full-time recreation staff plus 240 part-time positions, and 79 full-time library staff plus 80 part-time staff. There are 13 vacancies, three held for the Northeast opening. Key accomplishments include real-time translation software, the Playmobile, LinkedIn Learning, and Project Toolbox. Projects include opening McKinley Park Pool, Victory Park Pool, and the Ursula Meyer Library and Community Center this calendar year, plus designs for the Cesar Chavez Central Library Renovation, Van Busker Golf Course Reuse, and Maya Angelou Library renovation. The Van Busker reuse is approximately 35-40% through design and will include a skate park, splash pad, and community garden. Farrow noted a request for a marketing position. The mayor and council raised the possibility of re-engaging with the Boys and Girls Club.
• Economic Development (Tina McCarty, Acting Director) – The department oversees real property, business operations, housing, homelessness, events, and parking. In the past year: 106 outreach events, 59 pre-permit meetings, 49 council reports, over half a million in downtown event attendance, 225 special event permits, over one million vehicles parked downtown, and 10,832 parking citations. The department manages $114 million in grant funding and processed 1,500 financial transactions. Upcoming projects include the consolidated plan and annual action plan (due April 15), the Buckley Cove dredging project (first dredge in at least 30 years), and Banner Island Ballpark renovation. The department has three leadership vacancies. Councilmember Lee questioned why housing and homelessness sits within economic development and suggested it should be its own division; McCarty acknowledged synergies but said the department spends more energy on housing than economic development. The acting director confirmed the navigation center remains on track for May occupancy and the Pathways project should open by summer.
• Community Development (Stephanie) – The department has 51 full-time staff, 10 part-time staff, and 5 contract staff, with 2 vacancies. Per-capita staffing is one employee per 6,265 residents, compared to Sacramento and Modesto which have 94% and 37% higher per-capita staffing rates respectively. The department is primarily self-funded with only about 3.5% general fund contribution. It processes about 12,000 permits annually, conducts over 22,000 inspections, and serves nearly 16,000 people at the permit center. Building permit turnaround times have been reduced 32-59% since 2021, saving customers an average of 7-23 days. The department is updating Title 16 (development code), the PFF Nexus study, and the ADA transition plan.
• Public Works (Chad Reed, Director) – The department has 170 budgeted positions with 141 filled, a $70 million annual operating budget, and an active CIP portfolio of roughly $538 million, with 116 projects in design and 43 active construction projects. Accomplishments include removing 2,463 tons of illegally dumped trash, 1,150 tons from Mormon Slough, filling 17,000 potholes, completing 34 construction projects, and securing $19.2 million in grants. Reed noted that resurfacing investment is about $6 million per year while the pavement management system indicates $20 million per year is needed just to maintain the current PCI, meaning the city is falling behind. He also discussed tree stump removal, the airport bike lane maintenance issue (noting the city does not budget adequately for bike lane maintenance), and a new CIP management system. Councilmembers discussed the need for public education on street prioritization and project tracking transparency.
• Municipal Utilities (Jeff Morosvich, Deputy Director) – Substituting for Dr. Lytle, Morosvich described water, wastewater, and stormwater utilities with 233 approved positions (202 filled). The wastewater treatment plant has a 55 MGD capacity, averages about 33 MGD, and includes a co-generation facility. A $20+ million plant modifications project is underway, including new headworks, UV disinfection, and a new outfall discharging directly into the San Joaquin River. Stormwater utilities include about 700 miles of pipes, about 22,000 catch basins, and about 70 pump stations, plus a trash boat used to clean McLeod Lake.
• Information Technology (Jamel Nyazzi, Director) – IT supports city systems with 43 full-time positions (one vacancy, one in police background check) and an ERP team of 10 limited-term positions (seven vacancies). The department fields about 145,000 daily attempts to break into city systems on the firewall and conducts cybersecurity training. The department is also developing AI policies and templates.
• Human Resources (Rosemary Revis, Director) – HR has 37 full-time employees across six divisions, with three vacancies. Priorities include filling vacancies, expanding internship programs with local colleges including Delta and UOP, correcting payroll errors, and negotiating tentative agreements with safety units prior to expiration.
• Administrative Services (Courtney Christie, Deputy City Manager) – The department has 91 budgeted positions and is carrying about 20 vacancies, with the majority at the upper management level, including vacant CFO and both assistant CFO positions. The Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFER) was due at the beginning of the year with the extension period ending March 31; the city now expects completion in May, which will likely result in audit findings but no financial penalties. The budget module within Munis has been down since February, requiring manual entry. Consultants are being brought in for an assessment and efficiency study, CFO/ACFO recruitment support, and accounting staff augmentation.
• Procurement (Stephanie Link, Acting Procurement Manager) – Described procurement thresholds: purchases up to $10,000 require a single source; purchases between $10,000.01 and $100,000 require an informal solicitation or minimum of three quotes; purchases over $100,000 require formal solicitation and city council approval. Exceptions to competitive bidding are governed by Stockton Municipal Code 3.68070. In FY 2023-24, procurement processed 7,100 purchase orders worth $94.5 million, 387 contracts, 52 single-source justification forms, over 16,000 PCard transactions worth $6.6 million, and 41 formal solicitations.

Long-Range Financial Plan (Bob Leland, Baker Tilly)

Bob Leland presented the Long-Range Financial Plan (LRFP), which dates back to Stockton's 2012 bankruptcy and is updated annually. Key assumptions include: 2% annual COLAs, an additional third of a percent net impact of merit increases, vacancy savings declining from 10% in FY25 to 4% by FY30, a 6.2% pension discount rate (versus CalPERS' 6.8%), moderate recessions every seven years starting FY27, renewal of Measure A by the City Council before its FY34 expiration, and expiration of Measure M on schedule in FY33, which would create a major general fund expenditure increase if services are continued. The forecast assumes about $1.3 million in annual capital improvement contributions starting FY28. Leland presented two hypotheticals: adding 10 police officer positions in 2026 would cost about $51 million over 20 years; and a combination of $5 million in ongoing budget expense, one average-cost miscellaneous FTE plus one safety FTE added annually, and COLAs of 2.5% would put the general fund in deficit by FY36. Councilmember Villapudua asked about forecasting growth outside of Measure A, including property tax revenue sharing with the county; Leland said such scenarios could be modeled.

Priority Setting Exercise

The council discussed and debated priority categories. Facilitators proposed narrowing to "big rocks" (three or four top priorities) above baseline municipal services. Councilmembers discussed whether expanding youth activities belongs under public safety, whether parks/facilities should be combined with infrastructure investment, and whether environmental sustainability should stand alone. With three stickers each, the dot voting resulted in: Enhancing public safety (including expanded youth activities) – 6 dots; Addressing homelessness – 6 dots; Infrastructure investment and maintenance (including cleaning up parks and facilities) – 5 dots; Environmental sustainability (including public and environmental health) – 1 dot. Interim City Manager Steve Colangelo committed to bringing back measurable, verifiable actions within current staffing and budget realities and to reporting progress every three to six months; he noted his contract expires in August.

Governance Discussion

The facilitators led a discussion on council-manager government, team formation, roles of the mayor, council, city manager, city attorney, and clerk, and norms from the Institute for Local Government's "Attributes of High Performing Councils." Discussion covered the importance of clear policy/administration separation, praising publicly and criticizing privately, avoiding surprise moves, the "no surprise" rule, and communicating equally with all council members. Councilmembers pushed back on some recommendations, particularly around public questioning of staff and private criticism, with Councilmember Lee stating that accountability must be transparent. When asked what they want the council to be known for, members cited: making a difference, doing what they said they would do, increasing public engagement, being accountable and transparent, supporting staff, working together as a team, actively listening, being fiscally responsible, and maintaining healthy competition.

Key Outcomes

• The council selected three priority areas via sticker voting: (1) Enhancing public safety, including expanded youth activities; (2) Addressing homelessness; (3) Infrastructure investment and maintenance, including cleaning up parks and facilities. Environmental sustainability received one dot and was not selected as a top priority for the coming year, though councilmembers noted it remains important and has existing funding (e.g., TCC grant, AB 617).
• The Interim City Manager committed to return with measurable and verifiable actions for the selected priorities within current resources and to report progress to the council every three to six months.
• The city will continue pursuing a new city manager, CFO, and assistant CFO recruitments; a procurement study session and a CIP study session in June were mentioned as upcoming.
• The meeting was informational only; no formal council action was taken. The workshop adjourned at 3:08 PM.