The Journal asked Turlock City Councilmembers what their top priorities are going into 2024 and the challenges they foresee in reaching their goals.  

Three Council members responded. Here are their answers:

Pam Franco, Vice Mayor/District 4

Top Priorities 2024:  My main priorities will continue to be focusing on repairing our roads, finding ways to assist our citizens with our housing funds and making sure our police and fire departments have everything they need to protect and serve our city.  I would also like to see us have workshops regarding our Housing Element and General Plans, since we must update the Housing Element.  It makes sense to look at the General Plan at the same time.

Challenges:  We need more funds to repair more roads.  We are currently utilizing all our SB1, Measure L, Measure A set aside funds and other funds as they become available to repair as many of our roads as possible.  We have repaired, engineered and planned for more roadwork than any other council in the last 30 years.  The problem is that road repair work is expensive.  If we want to repair more roads, we need additional funds.  I want to see the City look into bonding, but citizens must be in agreement before entering into it, as this would place a financial burden on future taxpayers.  

Housing funds and helping citizens: As you know, I have been outspoken regarding this funding my entire term.  We now have more than $22 million in various funds that the HOME Consortium and/or Turlock need to utilize.  I have asked many times to have workshops and proposals to spend the funds.  My focus has been and will stay senior housing repairs, assisting citizens so that they do not get evicted or foreclosed on (homeless prevention), helping veterans, helping families with children who are homeless/couch surfing and making sure we spend the funds wisely, timely and where they can assist many, not just a few.  We must consider that the Consortium funds are Turlock managed, but belong to all the cities of the county and Stanislaus County rural areas, except Modesto, which has their own direct funding.  We need to have a plan to utilize the funds in the most effective manner.

Police and fire: I have always voted to give our police and fire departments what they need to get the job done.  We have fully funded staffing for our police department, funded drones, FUSUS, body cams, license plate readers and other equipment that make our police officers safer and better equipped to protect our citizens.  Our fire department has full staffing funded, we purchased four new fire engines, completed a comprehensive fire study that helps us determine how to better staff and equip our fire fighters, entered into an administrative agreement with Modesto that allowed our fire fighters with advancement opportunities, training opportunities and a better comprehensive countywide coverage for incidents.  I will continue to work with fire and police departments so that I can better understand the specifics they need.  A challenge in District 4 is that our fire station is a temporary station that has been “temporary” since May 1993.  For more than 30 years, we haven’t had a permanent station.  It is time to prioritize the citizens of District 4 and finalize plans for a permanent station.

Housing Element and General Plan: These two go hand in hand.  We are mandated by the State of California to update our Housing Element this year.  This work has been funded and contracted already.  We need to have workshops so that the citizens of Turlock are the ones setting the future growth boundaries together with elected officials.  Turlock must plan more housing in order to be compliant with the State of California.  Future funding for roads and state funding sources will be jeopardized if we do not meet the state mandate.  Additionally, we have fallen far short of our current General Plan goals for housing, as have most cities in the state.  That is part of the reason we have such a housing shortage, which affects affordability.  We have an assessable housing problem — not enough housing that people can afford at their income level.  Many believe that because I am a developer/builder, that I am for big growth.  That couldn’t be further from the truth.  I am for smart growth that meets the needs of our city and funds the services that will be utilized by the new growth.  I am for growth in all districts and areas of our city.   I am for various types of housing, not just single family homes.  One area and one size does not fit all.  We need apartments, condos, small lots/small houses, mixed use (commercial and residential in the same complex), as well as single family housing.  Our challenge will be to balance the needs of the citizens with the state mandates for transit based housing.  We will be having workshops in 2024 on our Housing Element, then General Plan once the Housing Element is finalized.

Cassandra Abram, District 3

Top Priorities 2024 and challenges:  The City has until the end of 2024 to allocate our federal COVID relief funds (ARPA funds). This funding is an opportunity to make lasting investments in our public safety and community infrastructure, and I would like the Council to have meaningful discussion about how to spend the nearly $2 million that is still available and to reevaluate the policy decisions for the remaining unspent funds. 

Also, community issues related to homelessness are among the top concerns the Council hears from residents. In 2024, I want our Council to have more dialogue about our policy direction regarding homelessness. Nearly every community in California is facing similar issues, and our city would benefit from our Council openly debating and evaluating all the policy approaches out there. Homelessness is a difficult issue and tackling the community concerns will lead to challenging conversations and tough decisions, but I think our residents expect their Council members to deal with the tough issues. 

 Kevin Bixel, District 1

Top Priorities and Challenges for 2024:  My top priority is our homeless population. The difficulties with this problem are multi factorial. The population is mixed with problems of mental health, drug and alcohol abuse, and those affected by the cost of living in our state. 

It is my opinion that a hand up is better than a hand out. We have to understand that there is a population of the homeless that are there by choice and chose to live without the rules of society.  I would love to see the city, county, and state work together to identify those individuals that need help and are willing make necessary changes in their lives to be able to get off our streets and into housing. Obviously families with children that are unhoused should be our first priority. 

If we are able to get services to those that are willing to participate and deal with what ails them, be it drug and or alcohol treatment, mental health treatment, then we go a long way to improving the homeless problem. 

For those that chose not to get help and chose to continue living on the streets, we have to strictly enforce our cities ordinances.  We need to support law enforcement with their efforts to have safe clean parks, streets free from people who chose not to accept help. 

One of the biggest obstacles in dealing with the unhoused is the cost of housing in California. As a city, the resources and ability to fix this is very limited. There is going to have to be some serious out-of-the-box thinking with the city, county, state and federal governments to come up with solutions.  If money alone was the fix, cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles wouldn’t have a homeless problem because billions of dollars are being spent in the name of homelessness.