Want to know how a city gears up for economic development and retail growth? You can't afford to miss our chat with the City Manager of Hanford, Mario Cifuentez. We're lifting the lid on Hanford's thriving scene, from celebrating the awareness month for Down's Syndrome to the pulsating high school football games. In this riveting discourse, Mario uncloaks Hanford's preparation for the forthcoming ICSC conference and their dynamic strategy to market the city. Hear how Hanford is smartly harnessing retail training, data, and developer attraction to bolster their growth trajectory.
Our conversation takes a deep dive into the bustling developments around Lacey and Centennial, shedding light on Hanford's strategic recruitment endeavours. Hear straight from the horse's mouth about the city's urgent need for more rooftops and increased vehicle miles, and how these needs are tied to their recruitment strategy. Mario brings to fore the ongoing hunt for filling three director positions at the city office, and Hanford's audacious objective of becoming an employer of choice by offering competitive salaries and benefits. Get an insider's view on the city's fiscal decision to transition the public works department from street sweeping to private contracting, and the timeline for these recruitments. Buckle up for an engaging and informative ride into the heart of Hanford's growth strategy!
You can find the Hanford Insider at www.hanfordinsider.com and on social media at @hanfordinsider Thank you for supporting the show!
Want to know how a city gears up for economic development and retail growth? You can't afford to miss our chat with the City Manager of Hanford, Mario Cifuentez. We're lifting the lid on Hanford's thriving scene, from celebrating the awareness month for Down's Syndrome to the pulsating high school football games. In this riveting discourse, Mario uncloaks Hanford's preparation for the forthcoming ICSC conference and their dynamic strategy to market the city. Hear how Hanford is smartly harnessing retail training, data, and developer attraction to bolster their growth trajectory.
Our conversation takes a deep dive into the bustling developments around Lacey and Centennial, shedding light on Hanford's strategic recruitment endeavours. Hear straight from the horse's mouth about the city's urgent need for more rooftops and increased vehicle miles, and how these needs are tied to their recruitment strategy. Mario brings to fore the ongoing hunt for filling three director positions at the city office, and Hanford's audacious objective of becoming an employer of choice by offering competitive salaries and benefits. Get an insider's view on the city's fiscal decision to transition the public works department from street sweeping to private contracting, and the timeline for these recruitments. Buckle up for an engaging and informative ride into the heart of Hanford's growth strategy!
You can find the Hanford Insider at www.hanfordinsider.com and on social media at @hanfordinsider Thank you for supporting the show!
Speaker 1:
On this episode of the Hanford Insider, we get a chance to speak with Hanford City manager Mario Cifuentes. Eric will update us on all the high school football action and Rob will give us a rundown of all of the upcoming events.
Speaker 2:
Welcome to this episode of the Hanford Insider. I'm your host, Rob Bentley. This week's weather is going to be very nice, with temperatures in the mid 70's to 80 degrees. In Hanford City Council News at last week's meeting the council presented a proclamation of Down's Syndrome Awareness Month and presented a certificate of recognition to Daniel Coakley. They also recognized the King's County Special Olympics for their hard work. City manager Mario Cifuentes announced that Jack Amoroso has been named the Interim Police Chief for the City of Hanford, while the search for a new chief is being conducted. Mr Cifuentes also announced that Chief Pendergrass of the Hanford Fire Department is also retiring and moving to South Dakota. The council did decide to keep the existing school resource officer contract with the Hanford High School District in place for this school year and develop a new agreement for the beginning of the 24-25 school year.
Speaker 1:
The High School Football regular season wraps up this week, so let's get you caught up on all of the action. We'll start with Hanford West, as this past week the Huskies traveled to Emanuel and unfortunately struggled to find the offense as they were shut out by the Eagles. Final score of that game 29-0. The Sierra Pacific Golden Bears also were on the road as they traveled to Exeter, where they also struggled to find the offense and lost a very close defensive battle. Final score of that game 12-7.
Speaker 1:
And the Hanford Bullpups were also on the road as they headed over to Tulare to take on Mission Oak, and the Bullpups were able to sneak away with a 35-34 victory over the Hawks Trailing 35-28. Mission Oak had the ball and they were able to score a touchdown with 54 offense left and could have tied the game with an extra point. Instead they elected to try a two point conversion to give them the lead. But it was the Bullpups defense that forced an incomplete pass and Hanford was able to hang on for the win. This sets up a big time rivalry game on Friday evening, as the 8-1 Bullpups will battle with the 7-2 LeMore Tigers for a winner. Take all showdown in the milk can on October 26. The winner of that matchup will also be crowned the West Yosemite League Champion.
Speaker 1:
And if you're wondering why I didn't mention the upcoming games for Hanford West and Sierra Pacific, well that's because they play each other. It's the clash of the clause crosstown rivalry game that will be taking place on Thursday night at Neighbor Bowl. And, as I mentioned to start, this is the end of the regular season, so the Valley playoffs will begin next week. We'll have bracket information for you on next week's show, as always. If you're a fan or a coach, send us an email if you want your team covered. Hanford Insider at gmailcom. I'm Eric Bentley and this has been your Hanford Insider sports report.
Speaker 2:
Well, we're here with Hanford City Manager Mario Safuentes. He's been City Manager for four years here in Hanford and we have had some outstanding things happening. It's a great privilege for me to welcome him to the show. Until tomorrow, thank you very much.
Speaker 3:
I appreciate it. I've heard great things about your podcast and I was excited to get the invite.
Speaker 2:
When I had this conversation with Brian Johnston a few weeks ago about things that Citi is doing to attract more businesses to Hanford we talked about this ICSC conference. I told my listeners that we would visit this again before the conference to see how the City of Hanford is preparing to take Hanford on the road and market it to potential businesses that will be coming to town. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Speaker 3:
Sure, I'd love to. This began with a chance meeting with Matt Tate from Retail Strategies at the League of California Cities, and we were interested in getting some insight or at least some coaching on how you begin to do some economic development from a retail standpoint. We had some anecdotal evidence that we had a good median income that we know were the retail center of the county, but separate and apart from that we didn't really know anything else or have anything to quantify it. We ended up entering into a contract with them. Council approved a contract for us to do some retail training, but not only that, but they can provide us with data on what's a five minute drive to our retail hub, what businesses do we have that appeal to a 20 minute drive, that sort of thing. The end result was with them providing us with some measurable data. For instance, one of the key points that has served us well is we know that our Walmart is seventh in the state of all Walmarts in terms of total traffic. When we've shared that with developers, it peaks their interest. We've had numerous meetings. Our retail team consists of myself, my deputy city manager, jason Lauders, and Brian Johnson, our community relations manager. We've had in-person meetings. We've had some Zoom meetings that we have introduced to them. At that same time, we provide them with housing data, because when you talk with some of these developers, the first thing they'll say is we've had contact with this retail grocery store, but they need more rooftops in the area. That's the number one thing the developers look for. We've then created a list and said listen, we have over 2,500 housing units currently approved in tentative maps in the city of Hanford. That peaks their interest. I jokingly said before that developers are like sheep. When they start to see a development that occurs in a city, they're looking like hey, why are they grazing over there? Is the grass greener over there? That sort of thing. I think Brian would attest to the fact that he's getting outreach from folks that we didn't even know had an interest in the community.
Speaker 3:
You're in for the long haul. I think that's the one thing that I want to say to folks is yes, we're going to go to ICSC and we're going to come back, but we're not going to be able to come back and announce, say we have a deal with these folks. Once we have a deal with it, they will tell you in retail that loose lips sink ships. Once you have a deal or a letter of interest, you sit on that. Generally, from a time you have a retail development that says, yes, we want to come in, to the day you open the doors is two to three years. This is that long haul and starting to develop that and working on several areas concurrently.
Speaker 3:
Brian went out yesterday with some of our guys and we got some excellent drone footage of the different areas here in the city that we are working with with developers that they said, yeah, absolutely shop this.
Speaker 3:
Icsc I've coined the term is kind of like speed dating for retail. You'll go down there and you'll have 10 minutes in your booth with this grocery store chain or 10 minutes with Chick-fil-A is one of those that we would love to get. The other thing to understand is and this is the information that retail strategy has been able to provide to us is that each of these retail operations has very specific criteria. You have to meet these four or five criteria before they'll even look at your jurisdiction. We don't want to waste our time on folks that it'd be like, hey, we're not coming to your community, your median income's not enough, you don't have a large enough draw. There are some retail folks that say we're only going into the downtown LAs in San Francisco where we can draw a million people within a 10-mile area. We know who we can fit their model and those are the folks that we're going to go after.
Speaker 2:
That was one of the questions I was going to ask you actually, because on the community surveys that were conducted, some people were a little baffled that there were stores on there that they had never even heard of. But I would imagine that's what you're talking about. Those are businesses that potentially could fit into our market.
Speaker 3:
Absolutely absolutely. And for us the retail is expanding our retail. And folks, you know, I know when on the social media when I had social media you would I would see folks say no chain restaurants. But I also want to. Folks chained, you know. Yes, we have a lot of McDonald's but your chain restaurant can be a franchisee and that's a small businessman. And those folks.
Speaker 3:
I'll tell you when we're not able to give out exact sales tax dollars, but when I look at our top 25 sales tax generators for the city of Hanford there's more than a handful of them that are fast food chains. Those folks are bringing in significant sales tax revenue to our community and so any additional retail that we can get really helps us. And I think it's important that the retail focus is important for a community because that's prosperity. But sales tax is the number one funding mechanism that we have as a city to fund our general fund. The general fund funds police, fire, streets and parks. For the most part Everything else. You have rates and I could go on and on about that, but those are. That's the importance of us to have retail and prosperity here in the city of Hanford.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, we had quite a conversation about that. Regarding the Costco sales tax, I know that was part of the deal for bringing them in, and we talked about the Eastside development closer to the high speed rail station that's going in. But let's look at the Westside. We talked about the 12th and 198 quarter. We see a lot of developments on all sides of 198 actually, if you consider the developments that are going in off of Hanford Armona, and then we're also talking about the new hotel on the Northside. So what are some things in that particular area that we might be looking at?
Speaker 3:
So we have several projects that are already, I would say, either permitted or through our site plan review process.
Speaker 3:
At this point we have another hotel that is proposed on the south side of 198 in the area adjacent to tractor supply. We have some interest in the intersection there at Lacey and Centennial. One of the key things that's driving more of that growth over there is the discussions we've had about rooftop. Developers need rooftops, they want folks in the area and so when you, if folks have driven recently on Centennial where it goes back behind Target, off to the left if you're heading north, there's a tremendous amount of housing that's going in there. We have a project that's previously been entitled in the small triangle area behind the Target shopping center, and there are indicators that that project is going to move forward again. So in terms of residential, which we sorely need, especially multifamily and some high end apartment complexes as well as single family homes, those are all things that would add more vehicle miles and more traffic to that area and make that area even more palatable to developers that we're trying to get in that area.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, certainly a lot, Certainly a lot of development going on between houses and apartment complexes and that. Hey, before we go I'd like to talk about maybe some of the things that you're working on in the city office. I know you've had a number of department heads who are retiring or moving on. Can you tell us a little bit about the efforts to recruit for those positions?
Speaker 3:
Sure, absolutely. We have three director recruitments that are currently going on. We have just finished the application process for our Public Works Director. Our most recent Public Works Director sadly passed away in August and that necessitated us to go out for that, and so we have interviews for that process coming up next week.
Speaker 3:
As most folks know, chief Sever retired effectively last Friday, police Chief Sever and he moved to Hippercity. So we currently have a recruitment going on for a new police chief. That recruitment is an executive level recruitment and closes on October 27th. And then, most recently, fire Chief Steve Pendergrass announced his retirement. He is relocating to South Dakota to enter the profession of city manager at a small community called Millbank, south Dakota, and so we've begun the process to update the job description and then we'll be putting together a recruitment flyer and put that position out for recruitment as well. Typically, executive level recruitment will be open for about six weeks so that you can. You know we would utilize all of the professional associations that those particular positions belong to and get that out, usually on a nationwide basis, for folks to see if they have an interest to come to our community. One of the things that our council has done is made one of their five adopted goals as being an employer of choice, and so, as doing that, we have the approval from council to create a competitive salary structure. We're working to well. We have a really good benefit plan from a medical health care coverage. Some of the times that creates an impediment to us the cost of it and so we're working to add additional plans to reduce the cost of that.
Speaker 3:
With regards to the operation and the continuity, moving forward, the deputy public works director was appointed as the acting public works director. Through this transition, I was able to secure the services of retired Avenal Chief Jack Amoroso, and he's currently serving as our interim police chief. I'm working on securing an interim fire chief and have someone that that is agreed to serve in that capacity. They are retired fire chief and I will hopefully announce that here in the coming weeks. Those are ones that, like I said it, I know there are concerns from folks about folks being in the community and you know there these are positions that are integral parts not only of the organization but of our community.
Speaker 3:
You know we are looking for someone that not only has the professional skills and the skill set to be a director and to run those departments but also understands the importance of community. Obviously, chief Sever was a longtime resident of the city of Hanford, chief Pendergrass with the fire, I would say one of his greatest strengths was how he immersed himself in our community. He was a fellow Rotarian with me. He brought in the open houses, he was an active part of Thursday Night Marketplace, both on the prevention side but also just on being a presence for the community, and our plan is to look for folks that would also be an integral part of this community.
Speaker 2:
So, yeah, I know that is a certainly concern of community members. That we have people that are all in on Hanford is so many of us are, and it's nice to have this ability to talk to you and get the words straight out. Oftentimes on social media people will put spin on things. I know that the recent transition from the public works department doing the street sweeping to privatizing that. We have just a couple of minutes left. Could you summarize for people what you want them to know about that?
Speaker 3:
Sure, that was something that was strictly an operational decision. I think it should be no surprise to folks that follow our city government that this year, when we adopted the two-year budget, there were some fiscal concerns there and, due to supply chain issues failing and ailing equipment we were struggling to deliver the street sweeping services to this community that we had said we were delivering. Quite frankly, we owned it and said well, folks, we're promised, years ago, weekly service. Quite frankly, in many of our rounds they had been getting monthly service and so we were able to save at least $100,000 a year by going with a private contract. Years ago, I had given my word to the union that, while we would look at opportunities for outsourcing of services if it was fiscally sound decision, no employee would ever lose their job as a condition of us outsourcing, and so we ended up going this route. The service has started. We've been very pleased with the service so far, and so we think it was a good decision.
Speaker 2:
Yes, and that's one thing that I've noticed. I'm kind of biased, I'll admit, but I've noticed that the city is very aware of budget constraints and the issues that may have caused some of those constraints, and working very diligently to tighten the purse and making sure that the expenses that go out are the absolute ones that have to. So I appreciate it and I know a lot of our listeners appreciate it, and I'd like to thank you for coming on the show, mario. I know it's later in the afternoon and you've had a full day and you're getting ready to go to this conference, but I appreciate the time of you coming on the show.
Speaker 3:
No, I appreciate the opportunity to kind of get the word out there and thank you for the new year's support of our operation.
Speaker 2:
Let's check our community calendar. This Thursday night will be the last Thursday night marketplace of the season. There will be lots of Halloween activities and the 80s cover band Max Hedrum will be performing Main Street. Hanford would like to thank everyone for a very successful 2023 marketplace Coming up this weekend. This Friday through Sunday, turnstile Gaming on 10th Avenue will be holding a digital haunted house. Visit their Facebook page for more details. The haunted courthouse and fall festival is this weekend from 6 to 10 pm in courthouse square. On a Friday night, there will be a hocus pocus movie night. On Saturday, there will be a Halloween bash from 5 to 11 at the Hanford Bastille. On Sunday, from 2 to 4, there will be a special Little Monsters event that won't be quite as scary for the little ones. You can find out more about the downtown fund this weekend by visiting the Hanford Recreation Department Facebook page. On Monday, october 30th, the Patty Dance Studio will be holding a Salsum Vachada night. This will be a night of dancing, costumes and more fun. For more information, visit pattystudiocom. On Halloween evening, the Hanford Oaks Lodge will hold their trunk retreat from 6 to 8 in their parking lot behind the post office.
Speaker 2:
With November just around the corner, the Hanford Chamber of Commerce is busy seeking sponsors for the winter wonderland and Hanford Christmas parade. The ice skating rink will be open Saturday, november 18th. Visit hanfordwinterwunderlandcom for more information. I'll be grabbing events as I see them on social media. If you have an event coming up that you'd like some help getting the word out, let's work together. Send your information to hanfordinsidercom.
Speaker 2:
Catching you up on Bandtober the craziest month of the year for school marching bands. In the Vaisoya Band review this past Saturday, in the parade competition, pioneer Middle School placed second in Class 5,. Liberty Middle School placed second in Class 1, and third overall. Lamora High School won the Praise Sweep Sakes Award. Hanford West High School placed second in Class 1 and won the General Effect Award. In the Field Show competition, hanford High placed fourth in Class C, lamora High placed second in Class A and Hanford West placed first in Class A and won the Collegard Award, the Visual Award and the General Effect Sweep Stakes. This coming weekend the CR Pacific Band will be competing in the Selma Band review and the Hanford High Band will be competing in the Golden State Tournament of Bands. Good luck to all of these musicians.
Speaker 2:
You'll get a chance to see all of the Hanford Bands in action on Wednesday, november 8th and the Neighbor Bowl at the annual Hanford Band Showcase. The event starts at 6, admission is free, but donations are always accepted. Well, that's all the time we have for today's show. If you'd like to join the Hanford Insider email list, stop by our website at wwwhanfordinsidercom and sign up. Help me get the word out about the show by liking or sharing on social media or telling a friend For more information about the show. You can find this podcast on Facebook, instagram, threads X and YouTube at Hanford Insider. If you have a show idea, be sure to email me at HanfordInsider at gmailcom and I'll get going on it. Thanks for listening. Have a great week.