ORANGE COVE – The Orange Cove City Council delayed hearing and voting on an item that would put the special property tax for police and fire services, known as Measure O, onto the ballot for the third time in a 12-month period.
After voting on just one consent calendar item and allowing for public comment, the council adjourned until 6 p.m. Aug. 1, at which time it will hear items related to the petition that aims to place Measure O on the November ballot. No city staff or council members cited a reason as to why they adjourned the meeting to a later time.
Orange Cove Fire Protection District (OCFPD) Chief Tom Greenwood approached the council to ask if he could still speak about Measure O even though it was removed from the agenda. OCFPD announced earlier in July that it wished to be removed from Measure O, which allocated 80% of its revenue to the Orange Cove Police Department and 20% to OCFPD, a special district separate from the city.
“I know you removed it from the agenda but I just wanted to talk about the fire department’s position of what we’re taking on Measure O to clear up a lot of nonsense that’s going around town right now, if I may,” Greenwood said.
City Attorney Megan Crouch advised the council they should technically only hear comments on items on the agenda when those items are heard by the council — meaning they should wait until next week — but they had the option to allow comments on the item. But if they chose to do so, they would have to provide that opportunity to everyone who wanted to speak.
Ultimately, the council chose to not allow comments on the item at the meeting, which prompted frustration from residents who were at the meeting specifically to speak about Measure O. Nearly 20 residents — more than twice the amount regularly present at council meetings — attended the meeting in person and over Zoom.
When the meeting resumes Aug. 1, the council will hear two items related to Measure O. First, it will receive a “certificate of sufficiency” filed with the Fresno County Registrar of Voters confirming that the citizen-led petition secured the signatures needed to place the special tax on the ballot. Second, it will vote on a resolution to submit the special tax initiative to the voters in the November general election.
Unlike the two previous attempts by the city of Orange Cove to pass the initiative, which failed just a few votes shy of a two-thirds majority, if the petition is successful it will only need a simple majority to pass. This is because while special taxes proposed by cities must pass a two-thirds voter threshold, measures initiated by citizen petitions do not have the same requirements.
The petition to put Measure O on the ballot was initiated by Councilmember Josie Cervantes in her capacity as an Orange Cove resident. While the measure would not impose a new property tax — instead continuing the tax that has been in place since 2014 — it would remove the sunset clause attached to the tax so that it continues indefinitely.
Council members said they would adjourn until 6 p.m. Aug. 1, which is half an hour earlier than the council’s normal meeting time and on a Thursday instead of the usual Wednesday. Under the Brown Act, the council must post a new agenda for the meeting because it is more than five days after the original meeting.
