Library Facility Planning Committee to fill out Tuesday

PPD seeking Council approval of UAS program

Apart from the routine reports and consent calendar item, Tuesday night’s meeting of the Porterville City Council will be host to five items slated for discussion during scheduled matters. Tuesday’s meeting will be conducted over live stream only, and can be viewed via the City of Porterville’s Youtube channel.

The first matter set for discussion on Tuesday night is the appointment of two members of the public to the Library Facility Planning Committee, which consists of one Council member, one Library and Literacy Commissioner, one Friends of the Library member, two city staff members and two members of the public. The rest of the committee has been chosen, with Council member Kellie Carrillo, Parks and Leisure Services Director Donnie Morre and the City Librarian sitting as the city representative on the committee. There are three applicants that will be before the Council for appointment; Carol Brown, Natasha Efseaff and Felipe Martinez. The Council is being asked to choose two of the applicants and appoint them to the open seats on the committee.

Following the appointments, the Council will discuss updating the city’s fireworks ordinance. This item has been a matter of discussion among the dais for the past few months after many members of the public have begun to speak out regarding the nuisance of fireworks in the city. The Council will explore options in how to reduce the annoyance of fireworks within city limits including increasing fines associated with using illegal fire

works and eliminating the sale of specific fireworks, especially the Piccolo Pete type explosives. In light of recent complaints from the public and comments from the Council, vendors have reached out to city staff and have offered to halt the sale of the fireworks that emit shrill noises. If the Council decides to change or update the city’s fireworks ordinance, and would like those changes to be in effect by July 4 of this year, they would need to have a first reading of the draft ordinance no later than their first meeting of May. At this time, city staff is only requesting direction from the Council on this matter.

The third item up for Council discussion is the implementation of an Unarmed Aerial System (UAS) Program for the Porterville Police Department (PPD). PPD is requesting that the Council approve the implementation of a UAS Program, and is hoping to gain Council authorization to purchase five drones that would be used as part of the department’s UAS program. The purchase and implementation of the program would not only allow for the police department to use the devices during public safety operations, but would also for other departments within the city to use the technology as well, such as the Porterville Fire Department. There are already personnel within PPD who are certified as Part-107 operators, which means that they are essentially licensed to use drones for reasons that extend past hobby. PPD is looking to purchase five drones, two day operations drones, two night operation drones and one tactical, more durable drone, in the amount of $18,440.77.

The fourth item slated for scheduled matters is a planning session for the use of CDBG funds and program income. In 2001, the city took out a Section 108 loan through the federal government in order to construct the Heritage Center and have paid roughly half of the loan back. The Porterville Unified School District (PUSD) and the city have been working together to sell the Heritage Center to PUSD. The Heritage Center has been appraised for $1.65 million. Once the sale is final, the city will use the funds from the sale to pay the remainder of the Section 108 loan and the remaining funds will generate approximately $828,000 in CDBG Program Income (PI). Staff is looking for the dais’ direction on how to use the CDBG PI funds. In the staff report attached to Tuesday’s agenda, staff has proposed ideas on how to use the PI funds. One idea is to use the funds to create a lit sports arena on 11.6 acres of city owned property adjacent to the Heritage Center.

Staff is also looking for Council direction on where to place roughly $110,000 in unused Youth Center Program funds, after youth center operations were nonexistent after the youth center was closed to the public due to COVID-19. City staff is recommending that the Council place those funds in a different city program, such as the First Time Home Buyers programs or the CDBG-CV funds to help businesses impacted by COVID. City staff is only requesting direction from the Council on these matters.

The final item up for discussion on Tuesday is the status review of the declaration of Local Emergency due to COVID-19. This item has become a routine item before the Council, but City Manager John Lollis plans to highlight a few of the more recents events in terms of funding and guidelines from the state.

This meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 2, bia the City of Porterville’s Youtube channel, which can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/channel/uc5kuhsrnmnl9nwhjvtnjvva. Any one wishing to submit comments to be read aloud during Oral Communications can email them to Councilmeetingcomments@ci.porterville.ca.us.