2008 Could Be Pivotal for Tulare

Tulare - Look for lots of debate in 2008 as Tulare gets ready to decide several major issues, including whether to allow a 700-acre motor sports complex adjacent to the International Agri-Center.

The environmental impact report on the mammoth project—which several city officials have said could change the face of Tulare forever—is due at the end of this month and City Manager Darrel Pyle said the City Council could make a decision in June.

 “When I first heard about this project, I thought there's no way this thing is going to fly, but so far the proponents have done everything they've said they're going to do,” Mayor Craig Vejvoda said.

“Some people are dead set against it and I can't blame them, but there's a whole host of other people who see this as a marvelous opportunity for our community and there should be a lively debate on it,” Vejvoda said. “Hopefully, people's opinions will be heard and respected.”

The motor sports project isn't the only major decision the community must make in 2008. Also on tap:

• A new General Plan, which is expected to guide growth through 2030. The environmental impact report on the plan is done and the public has until Jan. 31 to comment. The plan could go before the Planning Commission and City Council at the end of February or in March, Pyle said.

• A proposed meat packing operation adjacent to the city's wastewater treatment plant. Attorneys representing two different groups have logged objections to the plan, which Pyle said could go to the Planning Commission as early as February.

· A City Council election in November in which the seats of Vejvoda, Vice Mayor Phil Vandegrift and Councilman Carlton Jones will be up for election.

· An election to fill the District Two seat on the Tulare County Board of Supervisors. Incumbent Connie Conway is not seeking re-election, having decided to run for the state Assembly. The period for collecting signatures in lieu of filing fees is in progress.

Vejvoda said he does not see the council changing its top two priorities—public safety and economic development—in 2008.

“Measure I has been working out great for us on public safety,” he said, referring to a voter-approved sales increase which has allowed both the police and fire departments to increase their staffs and has helped fund road projects.

“I see us getting really involved in the county on these gang issues,” Vejvoda added. “Hopefully, we partner up with other cities in the county on these issues.”

Coordination of efforts is important in dealing with gangs, he said. “It's like a rat infestation. Your neighbor gets rid of his rats and where do they go—into your back yard.” The council helped fund the gang summit held in Visalia in late 2007.

New Gang Unit

Police Chief Roger Hill said his department will create a separate three-member unit to beef up the city's response to gang activity and will continue to work with the 3-year-old Tulare County Gang Task Force, which takes on special challenges throughout the county.

In 2008, Hill also said the department has plans to or is considering:

· Assigning two more police officers to the middle school campus. Two officers currently serve all four campuses and Tulare City School District officials have expressed interest in having a full-time officer at each site.

· Adding one officer to the traffic division, which currently has one sergeant and four officers.

· Reopening the neighborhood community centers at Lincoln and Mulcahy schools. The centers have been closed because of staffing. “We're hoping to do this by the middle of the year,” Hill said.

· Bring back the Problem Oriented Policing unit, which was disbanded a few years ago when the department did not have enough officers to staff it. The POP team is assigned to neighborhoods or problems that need special intention.

Hill had hoped to have the POP team and community centers open in 2007, but the department is still filling new positions made possible by Measure I, Hill said.

The department has been so selective in hiring that the patrol division did not fill all its authorized positions until December, he said.

Fire Department

The Fire Department expects to have a master plan in place by end of the first quarter of the year.

Police Chief Michael Threlkeld said the department logged a 13 percent increase in calls—5,113 in 2007 compared with 4,526 in 2006—and the study by Ron Coleman of Emergency Services Consulting will project how many new fire stations will be needed and where.

The increase in calls, Threlkeld said, is the direct result of the city's growth.

If the council accepts the master plan early in the year, Threlkeld said it is possible the department can begin planning for the relocation of Fire Station 2, which is on E Street, to West Street, just south of Cross Avenue. The move will provide for better response times in West Tulare.

When a new Station 2 is built, he anticipates the code enforcement division of his department, now situated at the Tulare County Housing Authority building, will move to the location, the chief said.

He believes the master plan study also will indicate a need for a fourth fire station in the area of Cross Avenue and Mooney Boulevard in northeast Tulare. The department is also looking at a possible fifth station in the area of Turner Drive, south of Paige Avenue.

The department is also getting ready to hire additional paramedic/firefighters, Threlkeld said, adding the City Council has already allocated the department six of the nine additional positions it will need to staff a fourth station.

“It's going to be an extremely busy year for us,” Threlkeld said.

The year will be a busy one in other sectors of city government and the community, where work continues to:

· Build a new public library, which is expected to break ground in the fall.

· Open Mission Oak High School on Bardsley Avenue east of Mooney in August.

· Put together an economic development strategic plan for the city. The city is working on the plan with the Chamber of Commerce and others in the private sector.

· Construct a skate park in Topham Park on the southeast corner of Tulare Avenue and I Street.

· Build a new four-story tower at Tulare District Hospital, which will include a new emergency room.

· Build a series of rural health clinics in Tulare and outlying areas of the Tulare Local HealthCare District.

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Outlet Center Permit Issued; Expansion Expected in Spring

by Rick Elkins

The city issued the construction permit the last week of December for the $10 million expansion, which is expected to take at least 10 months to complete. The expansion will add 30 to 40 more stores to the center's existing 54.

City Manager Darrel Pyle is pleased to see the expansion.

“The expansion will further put Tulare on the map,” said Pyle, noting that the outlet center is already a shopping destination point in the Valley, drawing people here from up and down Highway 99.

More than 4 million people visit the center each year, with that number growing 24 percent over the past 18 months. When the center opened at midnight on Thanksgiving, more than 60,000 people visited before 6 a.m. Friday.

6 Million People

“We feel we can draw 6 million. That's why we bought the land adjacent to it. We have about 45 acres we can develop on,” said Don Chapman, managing director of operations for Ariel Preferred Retail Group, which purchased the center in 2006.

The project is the fourth phase of the center, which opened in November 1995 with 138,647 square feet of retail space. Phase II, completed in November 2003, added another 31,400 square feet and Phase III, which opened in November 2005, added another 56,358 square feet, bringing the total to 226,405 square feet. Galaxy Theatres was added in 2004.

Phase IV will add another 164,000 square feet. Names of new tenants have not been announced. The new phase will also add additional parking for the center. With the expansion, the center will have nearly 400,000 square feet in retail space and more than 100 stores.

 “This [phase 4] clearly makes this our largest center,” Chapman said.

More Expansions

Senior Planner Bonnie Simoes said two more expansions are planned, both on the east side of Retherford Drive, extending all the way to Hillman Street, bordered by Covina Avenue on the north and the Hillman property on the south.

She and Pyle both said the new owners of the outlet center have been wonderful to work with and she has been impressed with their progressive thinking.

“We just kind of get out of the way and let them do what they need to do,” Simoes said.

Chapman told the city when he first met with them after purchasing the center that he saw a project half done, Pyle said. “When he [Chapman] rolled out his plans for phases 4, 5, 6, I had tears of joy. The next three phases will more than double what's there now.”

Ariel Preferred purchased the center in July 2006 and then purchased the land immediately to the north of the existing center for the Phase IV expansion and the land to the east for Phases V and VI.

The plans approved by the city show two roundabouts on Retherford Drive, the first at the existing main entrance and the second at the newest entrance on the north end. The stoplight installed there will be moved to the future Covina Avenue extension from Hillman.

“The market will drive future growth,” Chapman said. He described the Tulare market as very robust and said while plans have not been finalized for phases V and VI, it is very likely they will occur.

Pyle said that no matter what new stores are brought to the center, it would draw more visitors to Tulare.

“Because the outlets have been, and continue to be, so successful and have become a destination shopping location, it fills a huge need,” Pyle said.

Past expansions have triggered increases in sales tax revenues, not a dilution of sales, he said. “We will see a new group of shoppers to the center. This was confirmed to me when I got calls from people wanting to confirm Banana Republic was coming,” the city manage said. Banana Republic opened with the Phase III expansion.

Along with Phase IV, work has begun on the Boot Barn, a specialty cowboy boot store being constructed at one of the pads along Highway 99.

Pyle said a restaurant, something unique to the area, is slated to be built just south of Boot Barn. “When you get this large, there are a number of restaurants that will want to be there,” said Chapman, without naming any.

All the construction there means more revenue for the city.

“As we regain what we previously lost in sales tax, it does improve the quality of life,” Pyle said.

Of course, there are growing pains as well.

 The expansion will put more pressure on the city to move quickly with plans for improvements to Cartmill Avenue, including a new freeway overpass and interchange, and to the traffic circulation around the center.

“We're moving as fast as we can to accommodate their move to Phase V and VI,” Pyle said.

Ariel owns seven outlet centers across the nation and is developing two more.

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TDH Board OKs Expansion Plan, But Will City?

Tulare - With a pledge they would keep “talking to our neighbors,” Tulare Local HealthCare District board members approved by a 3-1 vote a revised plan that would realign rather than close Gem Street after the hospital builds its new four-story tower.

The approved plan also calls for closure of Terrace from Cherry to Auburn avenues—a move attorney Dennis Mederos, whose law firm is off of Auburn, said could create problems for that office.

“We are all ears,” board President Parmod Kumar told Mederos before the vote. “You've been a good neighbor and we're going to work with you.”

The vote gave consultants who prepared the redesign the go-ahead to ask the city Planning Commission for the conditional use permit and variances that will be needed before the hospital can build on the northwest corner of Cherry Street and Terrace.

The variance is needed because:

• The four-story tower, which will include a new emergency room, exceeds the city's 30-foot height limit in the zone by 64.5 feet.

• The city requires 834 parking spaces, but the plan provides for only 777. The plan proposes a program that would make up the 57-stall shortfall by requiring the hospital to buy transit tickets for employees, encourage them to rideshare, ride a bicycle or walk to work, implement compressed work weeks and make arrangements to use parking spaces on other nearby properties.

· The plan calls for a temporary decomposed granite parking lot off of Gem Street during construction.

· The board wants to realign Gem Street within 18 months after the expansion is completed, rather than have it in place when the new tower opens. Board members said they were concerned the hospital would not be able to find medical offices within the next two years for the Gem Street doctors who will be displaced from their hospital-owned buildings when the street realignment begins and permanent parking is built.

Mary Beatie of TPG Consulting, which prepared the campus plan, said city staff members have said they will not support temporary parking at the hospital.

If the Planning Commission agrees with staff and requires the completion of Gem Street by opening day, the hospital district could appeal the vote to the City Council, Beatie said.

The Planning Commission could balk at delaying the realignment because of its past experience with the hospital when Evolutions was built.

The fitness and rehabilitation center was allowed to open in 2005 without the required awnings, which were finally installed in 2007 after repeated prodding by Planning Department officials.

City Schools Pleased

John Beck, superintendent of Tulare City School District, said he was pleased with the realignment plan for Gem Street. The school district had vehemently opposed the closing of Gem Street, which is a main connector to Garden School that is just south of the hospital.

“The issue I really had was the closing of Gem Street. That seems to be resolved,” said Beck, adding he has asked the hospital to make a presentation on its parking and traffic plan before the school board. “It's their decision,” he said, adding he could live with the closing of Terrace Avenue, but only from Cherry to Auburn Street.

Opposes Plan

Board member Deanne Martin-Soares opposed the plan, saying she did not think it will provide enough parking.

She said she doesn't agree 50 parking spaces can be found on the east side of Cherry Street as indicated by the plan.

During and after construction, the hospital is going to have “a huge problem” with parking, Martin-Soares said.

Martin-Soares' husband, Joseph, is a partner with Mederos and Joseph Horswill, but she said she did not have conflict when it came to voting because her husband is not a property owner. Board member Roger McPhetridge was absent from the meeting.

Mederos thanked the board for listening to the concerns of neighbors and Tulare City School District officials, who had opposed the initial campus plan, which called for closure of Gem Street.

“I think realignment was a good compromise,” he said.

He said he has heard no compelling reason to close Terrace and said technology exists to stop traffic when ambulances or other emergency vehicles are turning onto the street to enter the hospital.

He expressed concern the closure of Terrace will send traffic along an easement that runs alongside his office building.

“That will be a disruption to the property and to the practice,” he said.

The closure also would make it difficult for the firm's clients and would present a major obstacle should the firm want to expand to its northern border, he said.

Beattie said the hospital planned to landscape its property to the east of the law firm in a way to discourage traffic from using the easement. She did not address the expansion issue, but board members hinted the law firm might consider selling its property to the hospital.

“That would make a great medical office building,” Dr. Lonnie Smith said.

In addition to the closure of Terrace, Mederos said his firm was concerned about the plan to put emergency generators on hospital property immediately east of his building.

Beatie said the hospital is required to do an environmental study that will consider the impact the project will have on noise levels in the area.

“We'll keep talking to our neighbors,” board member Dr. Prem Kamboj said before seconding a motion by Smith to accept the campus concept and take it before the city.

TPG and Harris & Associates plan to submit the hospital's applications to the city this month, Beatie said.

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Vandals Hit Downtown Areas Same Night

Tulare - Vandals struck downtown Tulare at three locations the same night, covering a large portion of Tower Square with graffiti and igniting a fire in the new restroom at Zumwalt Park. Graffiti was also found at Stiles Flower Shoppe.

Frank Furtaw, arson investigator for the Tulare Police Department, said there is no evidence the fire and the graffiti incidents are related, even though they all occurred the night hours of late Jan. 2 and early Jan. 3.

“It may be the same people, but there's no obvious connection,” Furtaw said.

The fire did about $2,000 damage to the restrooms, which were opened last fall, Parks Superintendent Robert Doi said, adding the incident likely occurred after dark but before 9 p.m., when the building was locked.

An employee who went to lock the building did not go inside because the light did not work, so the damage was not discovered until workers went to fix the light the next day, Doi said.

 “Someone lit the toilet paper dispenser in the women's restroom. It's a good thing it's a block constructed building or there could be more damage,” Doi said. 

Furtaw said wood was used in the construction of the ceiling so it was possible “we could have lost that entire structure.”

Earlier Lockup

Doi said the city will probably lock up the restrooms in Zumwalt Park earlier in the evening because of the incident.

The Tower Square graffiti was unusual because the clock tower was involved, as well as the Coldwell Banker Choboian Reality building and the one immediately to the north.

“There has been some minor graffiti to the tower structure before, but not that extensive,” Parks Superintendent Robert Doi said.

The monikers of at least five individuals and groups were found among the graffiti, witnesses said.

While the Tower Square incident was major, Furtaw said the graffiti problem has lessened somewhat. “But it goes in spurts, of course.” he quickly said.

Problem Areas

One of the worse areas is West Pleasant past Pleasant school on the block walls that surround yet-to-be built subdivisions, he said.

The Tulare Santa Fe Trail is another on-going problem area and his staff checks it and the Highway 99 overpasses frequently for graffiti and paint over it immediately.

His crew takes care of graffiti on the overpasses, rather than Caltrans, because the city believes removing it quickly deprives the vandals of the notoriety they are seeking, Furtaw said.

Mitch Choboian, who owns the reality building, said the graffiti incident was one of the worse he has seen and he praised city employees, especially parks supervisor John Cook and graffiti removal operator Henry Ramos, for their quick response.

“The employees were great,” Choboian said. “Within hours they had it [the graffiti] all down.”

He mentioned to them the lack of night lighting in the areas that were hit and they returned later that same day and added spotlights, he said. “Our city does a great job.”

Choboian urged others to notify the city immediately when they notice graffiti, so it can be covered as soon as possible.

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Montion Answers Hospital's Suit; Files New Action

Tulare - An attorney for Bob Montion is asking a Superior Court judge to throw out a lawsuit the Tulare Local HealthCare District has filed against the hospital's former chief executive officer, contending the action is an attempt to deprive his client of his constitutional rights.

A hearing on the motion has been set for Jan. 29 before Tulare County Superior Court Judge Patrick J. O'Hara. In the meantime, the two sides are discussing a possible settlement.

“They've made a proposal and we haven't accepted or rejected it yet,” said Russell K. Ryan, a Fresno attorney representing Montion.

The state's anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) law allows defendants who believe a lawsuit is nothing more than an attempt to deprive them of free speech, to ask for a dismissal early in the court proceedings, which is what Ryan has done.

In a related action, Montion has filed a slander lawsuit against John Church, the hospital's interim chief financial officer, charging he did not threaten Church as was alleged in the hospital's action.

Hospital's Suit

The hospital's suit against Montion charges him with waging a “mean-spirited vendetta” against the district's board of directors and contends his actions violated a confidential severance agreement he signed when he resigned last March because of health issues.

The district, which is seeking $75,000 in damages, alleges Montion was involved in the voting rights lawsuit that residents have brought against the district, that he made disparaging comments about board members before and after a City Council meeting and that he urged doctors to speak out on a matter of concern during the public comment portion of the September board meeting.

 “It's an attempt to basically shut Bob up—chill his first amendment rights,” Montion's attorney Russell K. Ryan said after the lawsuit was filed in November.

In a declaration Montion signed in support of his motion to strike the complaint, he alleged the hospital district's action was “politically motivated and retaliation for refusing to permit the district to engage in illegal activities at the behest of one of the current board members … when I was employed at the district.”

The hospital's lawsuit also alleged the Montion confronted Church in the parking lot of Evolutions after a hospital board meeting and threatened him by saying, “You better watch your ass,” and further threatening to “cap your ass.”

Cell Phone Witness

Montion denied that charge in a Dec. 4 declaration filed with the court and on Dec. 21 he filed a lawsuit against Church, charging him with slander and seeking an unspecified amount of damages.

Montion's lawsuit described the conversation with Church as “spirited” and noted that a person Montion had been speaking with on his cell phone prior to the conversation remained on the phone line throughout the incident and was willing to testify that he made no threats to Church during the exchange.

When contacted, Church said he was unaware of the lawsuit and could not comment.

In other hospital-related lawsuits:

· A May 2 mediation date has been set in connection with the Superior Court lawsuit seven hospital district residents have brought, alleging the way hospital board members are elected violates California's Voting Rights Act. Retired Judge Howard Broadman will mediate. If that doesn't work, a jury trial date is set for Aug. 4, although the plaintiffs have reserved the right to request a trial before a judge only.

· Both sides in former Chief Financial Officer Lucy Reimche's lawsuit against the hospital district and Montion have indicated they are willing to try mediation, which will be discussed at a Jan. 14 case management conference. Reimche, who was fired from her job, is alleging retaliation, slander and sexual harassment.

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