Mitzy Perez, the resigning council member, attended her last Los Banos City Council meeting on Aug. 20 via Zoom.
During the meeting, the council continued to expand the new in-house legal department, reduced the scope of Fire Station 4, made one more step to expand the city’s sphere of influence and paid the county a $250,000 reimbursement for paving a portion of Pioneer Road.
Additionally, just under half a million was spent on the consent agenda.
In her report, Perez gave a farewell. “Although it was cut a lot shorter than I anticipated and hoped for, I’m still very grateful for the opportunity to serve.
“There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes that the community is not aware of, and I definitely gained a lot of respect for our staff. The community is left in good hands with our current council,” she said.
“We wish you nothing but the best in your next chapter of your life,” Mayor Michael Amabile said in his reply.
Perez represents District 1, which has had unusual turnover during the current term. Kenneth Lambert won reelection to the district in November 2024. He resigned for health reasons by Jan. 15, 2025.
An election was required because the majority of a council cannot be appointed, leaving the seat vacant for months until the August 2025 special election. Perez won that election. With her effective resignation taking effect by Sept. 1, she will have served just under a year of the four-year term started by Lambert.
City Attorney Mary Lerner explained to The Express that her resignation comes too late to be on the November general election ballot. An election is required to fill her spot, but a date hasn’t been determined yet.
According to Lerner, the council will discuss its options at the Sept. 2 meeting. For the upcoming months, District 1’s seat will be vacant.
According to Amabile, hiring outside legal firms cost the city over $1 million a year, and the services were usually specialized and detached from the city as a whole.
City Manager Nirorn Than pointed out, “Because of how expensive they are on an hourly basis, (staff) was not able to use them to the full ability.” Using outside law firms “impacted providing service(s) to Los Banos,” Than explained.
Robert Lomeli was hired as the second assistant city attorney at the meeting. “(Lomeli’s hiring) allows us (succession) flexibility and gives a sense of comfort for staff as well as for our community that you have a reliable city attorney’s office,” Than said.
Lomeli brings over 25 years of municipal law experience to the position. He will be paid a salary of $234,996 annually.
According to Public Works Director William Via, the previous plan for Fire Station 4 with a separate emergency operations center and fire station will be revised into a single building. The $13 million budget will not be enough to cover the full construction, he explained.
A preconstruction contract for $283,125 was approved by the council for Quiring General, LLC, to make all the necessary revisions to the plans. Councilmember Marcus Chavez joked that it would now be a “duplex.”
According to Than, in just six weeks the county and city amended and approved a new property tax sharing agreement. Despite sounding routine, this is the final step required before bringing Los Banos’ proposed sphere of influence (SOI) to the county Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO).
As previously reported by The Express, Los Banos has not had a fully adopted SOI change since 2004. The SOI is the legal limit of urban development, which the city has been looking to expand for two decades.
The final decision will be up to LAFCO if the city can fully adopt the SOI laid out in the 2042 General Plan. Community and Economic Development Director Stacy Elms told The Express that they expect to negotiate and potentially make compromises on the SOI during the approval process.
Via explained that the county was already repaving a stretch of Pioneer Road from Volta to Los Banos Creek, and it saved money to have them pave from Los Banos Creek to Ortigalita Road for the city.
Via explained that it saved the city up to $100,000 in the process because the city didn’t need to bid out the work or administer the project. The council voted unanimously to reimburse the county with $250,000 for the work.
. . . Exactly $476,272.58 was spent in the consent agenda. An amount of $179,997 alone was spent on implementation of the Drone as First Responder (DFR) program by Motorola Solutions BRINC.
Exactly $104,400.25 went to shade sails and park structure roof replacements. An amount of $109,805.33 went to rifle suppressors and radios for police, and $77,070 went to aeration units in the wastewater treatment plant.
. . . Mayor Pro Tem Deborah Lewis expanded on her concerns about city tree maintenance. She requested that a future meeting include a report on the subject.
. . . At the beginning of the meeting, 11 new hires and eight promotions were introduced to the council by department heads.
. . . Public Works Maintenance Worker Salvador Rodriguez was recognized as Employee of the Month for July 2026.
