At 6 o’clock on January 21st 2025, the first city council meeting of the new year for Fairfield. With the new year comes new debate and new information. From Solano College’s own Michael Wyly becoming the poet laureate to debate between mayor Moy and project manager LaTanna Jones, Fairfield council is officially back in session.
The discussion heavily focused on the housing projects, which lasted for 55 minutes out of the 2 hours and 28 minute long meeting. This was not the only element from the meeting, with plenty of topics being discussed during the session.
The session began with three formal proclamations acknowledging three major holidays: Martin Luther King Jr day, Lunar New Year, and Human Trafficking, and Slavery Awareness month.
Each proclamation was read by council members Patrice Williams, Manveer Sandhu, and mayor Catherine “Cat” Moy. Alongside them was the Tri City National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Asian Pacific American Public Affairs, and the Sexual Assault Response Team who all gave their own statements in reference to the holidays.
After the reading, Joe Joyce of the local Chinese Association came to discuss the upcoming banquet to celebrate 29 years of awarding youth with scholarships. In tow, Mary Ann Butler of the resource conservation district discussed a future presentation for the council.
The public comments section would end and professor Michael Wyly of Solano College would officially begin as the poet laureate of Fairfield. Wyly was sworn in by Karen L Rees, with his job being to write official poems in regards to events around the city for the local government.
Once Wyly was sworn in the official resolution passing would begin. Multiple resolutions would be discussed such as confirming the fiscal year’s expenditures and rehiring two retired employees back into the parks and recreation department temporarily.
For the fiscal year, the 2023-2024 year was approved and our status was deemed clean by auditors, meaning no misusage was found in the budget.
The council also motioned to approve the two new hires, who will be on staff temporarily and will be receiving their original salaries with no benefits.
The main events of the meeting would transpire towards the end with a new housing project being proposed by Latanya Terrones, senior project manager, and LaTanna Jones, the Fairfield city housing director. This portion of the meeting would last for 55 minutes because of heavy debate on whether or not this is a worthwhile investment. The local housing project would be co developed with Danco Group LLC, working to convert the SureStay Best Western hotel into a long term homeless housing facility.
The project currently costs $1,000,000 for funding as well as state level funding, with the goal being to provide support and long term housing for homeless or near to homeless people in the area. Despite the mostly cautiously positive perspectives of the council, mayor Moy was staunchly against the project. “What kind of Fairfield are we going to be? Are we going to put a place where we have mentally ill people living, maybe 85 of them, where we had just built a multi-million dollar bank? Why would we put a housing situation inside a zone that’s meant for business? It doesn’t make sense to me, I think we need to decide that this is one of the entries into the city, and we want a nice hotel down there and a little restaurant.” Moy Remarked during the meeting.
She further elaborates, “Is that compatible with this kind of living situation? My concern is, I don’t feel that we as a council have decided what we want for our main brags. I mean, can you imagine putting that in downtown? People are investing millions of dollars down there!”
Later in the discussion, it was established that drug addicts would be allowed to live inside the property but unable to use substances in the building, with the goal for rehabilitation. This is a part of the homekey guidelines created by the housing department of California, these policies were created to help the homeless.
Mayor Moy would end up remarking about the guidelines presented, “Some of these places i’ve been reading about, they set up their own meth labs in there.”
Despite Moy’s protests, the resolution would be passed 6-1, with funding being approved for the project. It still remains on shaky ground however, with the discussion needing to be brought to the business district on north Texas and state level.
