Lodi City Council to redo public hearing

The Lodi City Council is set for another go at the public hearing and vote on the draft Community Development Block Grant action plan during its meeting Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Carnegie Forum.

The council decided to redo the public hearing after Lodi resident and council hopeful Spencer Dayton accused Councilman Alan Nakanishi of violating the Brown Act during the original public hearing.

According to City Spokesperson Jeff Hood, the redo will result in a two-week delay in releasing funds to community-based organizations, but will have no impact on the city and its capital projects.

Cheryl Francis, the director of the Grace and Mercy Foundation, which is seeking $10,000 in grant funding for ADA improvements, said the delay in funds will not affect the organization.

“The funds are allocated but we’re not really using them yet,” she said. “We plan to, but we have other activities and projects going on continuously so we will just power through until the funds become available,” she said.

Other organizations seeking funding include the One-Eighty Teen Center, which is seeking $78,900 for accessibility, safety and facade improvements; Second Harvest Food Bank, which is seeking $7,500 for its food assistance programs; the Community Partnership for Families, which is seeking $45,093 for Lodi GRIP support; and the Loel Center, which is seeking $7,500 for its Meals on Wheels program.

City projects to be funded by CDBG funding include the Alley Improvement Project, City Hall and Carnegie Forum improvements and Blakely Park swimming complex improvements.

Also on the agenda for Wednesday is a public hearing to consider adopting the final engineers’ annual levy report, along with considering the approval of reducing maintenance at two parks. The council is also slated to consider the approval of the Parks and Recreation Commission’s recommendations for parks capital projects and appropriating funds in the 2017/2018 fiscal-year budget.