The City of Turlock is looking to hire a full-time in-house city attorney following council action on Tuesday.

Current City Attorney George Petrulakis, a land-use attorney who worked on a contract basis, tendered his resignation last month. The city has not had an in-house, city-employed attorney since March 2018, following the departure of Phaedra Norton.

The council approved making the city attorney’s salary part of the management salary schedule. The position will pay between $20,039 and $24,357 per month.

City manager Sue Borrego said that the city is ready to start the hiring search process for the new city attorney immediately.

Also on Tuesday, the council:

·         Heard an update from Police Chief Jason Hedden on the department’s efforts to increase traffic enforcement. Chief Hedden said last month the department added a third traffic motor officer, bringing the total number of four in the traffic unit. The department also brought out motorcycle units that were in reserve and have trained officers using them for traffic enforcement as auxiliary motor officers on overtime.

“We want to look at how we can do that, to deploy them out into the community and make it safer, because traffic is one of the biggest complaints that I get as a police chief,” said Hedden.

·         Heard an update from Borrego on current openings for commissioners on the Planning Commission, Parks, Arts and Recreation Commission and the Community Development Grant Selection Committee. Applications are available at City Hall. For more information, visit: cityofturlock.org.

·         Heard a report on the success of the Community Cleanup event that was held on Saturday. According to Borrego, 155 tons of waste, 102 mattresses, 96 appliances, 68 TVs and monitors and 381 tires were brought to Turlock Scavenger for free dumping.

“We hosted a household hazardous waste collection event in partnership with the county at the same time and 155 cars came through. This is the highest volume of vehicles in over 20 years. Final numbers are not in, but we estimate nearly 9,000 pounds of hazardous waste from the city of Turlock was disposed properly,” said Borrego.

·         Approved awarding a bid to New Century Construction & Consulting of Turlock in the amount of $141,400 for renovations at the Turlock Senior Center and the Marty Yerby Recreational Facility. Renovations at the Senior Center include replacing all exterior doors and frames with new hollow metal doors and frames, providing an automatic door opener at two of the building entrances to allow access in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, installing touchless faucets and toilets in the restrooms and replacing an existing drinking fountain.

Renovations at Marty Yerby include removing all fiber reinforced plastic wall treatments in the restrooms and installing tile on walls and floors, replacing all restroom plumbing fixtures with touchless style fixtures, removing stall partitions and converting the male and female restrooms into two unisex restrooms to allow for access in accordance with ADA, modifying the existing front door entrance to provide an automatic door opener to allow access in accordance with ADA  and installing new lighting, lighting controls, and exhaust fans in the restrooms