The Visalia City Council met on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, starting with a 4:00 PM work session followed by a 7:00 PM regular session. The meeting included a special recognition, a presentation on the Parks and Recreation Master Plan, a public hearing on eliminating Transit Fixed Route 17, approval of the CAPER, a public hearing on the Prohousing Designation application, adoption of an urgency ordinance temporarily banning new data center development, and a public hearing on the 5-Year PLHA Plan. All votes were 4-0 with Councilmember Steve Nelsen absent.
Good afternoon and welcome to the Visaya City Council work session. We're gonna go ahead and uh have our roll call. Um, Councilmember Nelson is out today, and then I think we are expecting Councilmember Soto to be here shortly. Um, we are gonna start this meeting um by uh actually having a special presentation. So um, can we have our speaker come forward, please? Although I may look a little pregnant at Ratchet, I'm sorry, guys, but I've got important things to say. Um, I'd ask Ms. Cavilia if I could have my two minutes of time, and I'm gonna try to do it without crying. Don't look at me. I just want to let you guys know that when I was in high school. You started with the city win. So fine. Oh, can you hear me better now? So when I was in high school, I watched my mom make a total career change. She went back to school, she got a college degree, and she became the best version of herself. Um if my dad was here, he would be up here giving a funny speech and making you guys all laugh. But I watched my mom start as a thousand-hour employee with the city of Viselia, which is huge because I also was a thousand-hour employee back in 2008 for Viselian Police Department, and so I know how it is to live off that minimum wage and the hours that the city gives you just to make ends meet, and to do that with the family. I was a kid. She wasn't a kid, she was a grown woman with almost grown kids. But I watched her transform her life from yard sale signs to shopping carts, which I've been personally victimized by the shopping cart ordinance. Let's talk about don't park in Viarta on the north side of the Target shopping center, because you will not get your shopping cart back. Um but she has done so much that goes to show me as a young adult, um, we'll say medium age adult, that if you put your mind to something, you can really do it. I watched her develop the sweep team. I watched her take over and fill in for some parks and rec and some other nonsense that I didn't quite understand. But nothing makes me more happy to go see her live the rest of her best life. She is going to become a vacation Barbie. She is she is trading in her shopping cards and her yard sale signs for suit cases and passports. And I know she's sad about leaving, but I've learned a lot from her. I know my brother has. You've got two kids that have been part of city government because of her. And um, I'm gonna step back right now because I promised Leslie that I would only do two minutes, and now it's Garrett's turn. All right, so uh my mom Tracy is retiring this week. Um, she's been in public service uh longer than I've been alive, so which is uh not that long. Um specifically, she's been with the city of Isaiah since I was very young, uh, decades later. Uh I can look back and see the impact that my mom has had on the uh city of Isaiah. I have not been directly impacted by the shopping cart ordinance, but I do here apparently it's a thing. Uh I am a public servant myself. I've worked in um multiple cities, and what I can tell you about working in all those places that no one I've ever crossed paths with uh is cut from the same cloth as my mom. So uh she's an innovator, she thinks critically. Uh still have multiple programs in the city that have led to blight reduction and increased safety and uh overall improved life for everyone who lives in the city. My mom's a leader, she's uh looked out for her people, led by example and committed herself entirely to a career. She's extraordinarily intelligent. I can tell you that to this day as a grown man who supervises his own people that she proofreads multiple documents for me. Uh because she no one does it better than she does. Uh Vicelli will not be the same without her. And I know that you all will have trouble replacing her, and I think you know that because uh she is impossible to replace. No one will do her job better than she does. Uh my mom loves this city, and all of you that she's worked with. If you see her, please congratulate her on her well-earned retirement. And from all of us who have uh lived in this city during their lives, thank you, mom.