Turlock council plans close look at city operations

Mayor Gary Soiseth has announced a series of public workshops related to his campaign pledge to do a 100-day review of city operations.

The effort will start Saturday with a look at the city’s strategic plan and continue with meetings examining specific areas such as water, transportation and public safety. It will wind up April 28, making it technically a 102-day review.

Workshops will be held mostly on the first and third Tuesdays each month. The council will hold its regular meetings on the second and fourth Tuesdays.

Soiseth announced the workshops at the end of Tuesday’s council meeting. “I think that there are great times ahead, so that is why it is such an aggressive schedule,” he said.

Soiseth was sworn in Dec. 9 after defeating Mike Brem in the Nov. 4 election. Councilman Bill DeHart was elected to a second term and Matthew Jacob to his first, joining Amy Bublak and Steven Nascimento on the dais.

Turlock has started the new year with an improving budget, thanks mainly to increased sales and property taxes. It faces several major issues, including a proposed Tuolumne River treatment plant to augment city wells and funding for street repairs after voter rejection of a sales tax increase for this purpose.

The mayor’s workshops will be at Turlock City Hall, 156 S. Broadway. Saturday’s will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The others will be at 6 p.m. on these dates:

▪ Jan. 27: City finances

▪ Feb. 3: Water

▪ Feb. 17: Roads

▪ March 3: Police and fire

March 17: Parks, recreation and arts

▪ March 31: Building department

▪ April 7: Relations with California State University, Stanislaus

▪ April 21: Strategic plan and budget priorities

▪ April 28: Review of results from previous workshops

Also this week, the council postponed action on a rewritten zoning code that includes the controversial topic of downtown food trucks. DeHart said he would like the city staff to provide a clear comparison of how the new rules would differ from the old.

The new code is intended to fit with the Turlock General Plan, which was adopted in 2012 and lays out the basic policies of how the city should grow and redevelop.

The food truck debate dates to 2013, when Christopher Shaun sought to set up a trailer at West Main Street and Broadway to sell smoothies, crepes, salads, wraps and fresh fruit bowls.

The business, Vida-Vita, drew a protest from the Turlock Downtown Property Owners Association. It said mobile vendors do not have to pay the extra property tax that brick-and-mortar businesses do to help maintain the district.

This story was originally published January 14, 2015 at 5:42 PM with the headline "Turlock council plans close look at city operations."