Full agenda for Merced City Council
Along with possibly naming a new city manager, the Merced City Council is set to discuss challenges facing downtown and to hold a joint session with the city’s Planning Commission.
The council is set to hold a study session at 5:30 p.m. Monday, followed by a closed-session meeting before the regular meeting starts at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 678 W. 18th St.
The study session will be a joint meeting of the council and the Planning Commission, so the two can get a public look at the proposed update to the zoning ordinance code.
The code regulates everything from where a business can set up to the allowed height of a home’s backyard fence. The code describes itself as a guide that “implements the goals and policies of the Merced General Plan,” the document that sets out long-range planning for the city.
City staff and local business people held 17 meetings to comb through the old zoning code in an attempt to streamline it. The original zoning code was adopted in 1964 and has never had a comprehensive update, according to city staff.
A closed-session meeting is set to focus on Los Banos City Manager Steve Carrigan, Mayor Stan Thurston and Councilman Kevin Blake confirmed to the Merced Sun-Star on Friday. The council’s agenda says the meeting behind closed doors is related to the city manager job in Merced.
The meeting of the City Council includes items on appointing a new city manager and hiring current City Manager John Bramble on an interim basis, according to the agenda for the meeting.
Carrigan confirmed he is interested in the job.
Also during the regular meeting of the City Council, several community groups are set to update their progress addressing downtown issues.
Last month, the council asked representatives from the United Way of Merced County, the city’s Economic Development Department, Merced Main Street Association and Merced Police Department to give reports on the feasibility of ideas from the council related to homelessness, panhandling, safety and economic development downtown..
The ideas included assigning a police officer to patrol downtown on foot, boosting code-enforcement efforts, improving lighting, providing transportation to encourage students to visit, and implementing a mobile outreach unit for the homeless.
City Council meetings are streamed live on the Internet; a link to the meeting and past videos is at www.cityofmerced.org. The meeting is also shown live on Comcast’s Government Channel 96.
This story was originally published December 6, 2015 at 3:49 PM with the headline "Full agenda for Merced City Council."