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Mike Harris Newsletter — October 5, 2026
📞 On Call with Mike Harris | District 3 | October 5, 2026
Morning, Merced,
Two weeks ago I told you I would keep pressing for the near-term Bear Creek clearing while the big restoration project waits on its 2027 construction start. Tonight, that push shows up on paper. Item H.3 on this evening's council agenda is an agreement with the county to clear vegetation along Bear Creek from Crocker Dam to Campus Parkway, right through the heart of this city. I will take a promise that turns into an agenda item every single time.
It is a full week beyond the chamber, too. The county starts mailing ballots today, the South Merced Center opened its doors for good on Wednesday, and more than 100 neighbors filled the MCOE Mondo Building on Tuesday to size up the superintendent candidates. Let's get to work.
🗳️ Your Ballot Is On Its Way
🔹 Ballots hit the mail today, so set up your tracking now. The county begins sending ballots for the Nov. 3 election today, backed by the 21 drop boxes we walked through last week. Before yours arrives, spend two minutes signing up for the state's Where's My Ballot tool, which sends you a text or email at every step, from mailed to received to counted. After last year's late-mail headaches, I want every Merced ballot accounted for, including yours.
👉 Sign up for Where's My Ballot
👉 Visit the county elections page
🔹 Do your homework while the envelope is in transit. The Merced FOCUS published two recaps this week worth your time. The first covers the council candidate forum at the Multicultural Arts Center, where District 2 and District 6 hopefuls debated everything from dark streets in south Merced to whether a data center belongs here at all. The second covers Tuesday's superintendent of schools debate, where Ana Boyenga and Richard Lopez fielded 18 questions in front of a full auditorium. Neither race is on a District 3 ballot, but every one of these winners will cast votes that reach your street.
👉 Read the council forum recap
👉 Read the superintendent debate recap
🚨 Public Safety
🔹 The Bear Creek clearing I have been pressing for is on tonight's agenda. Item H.3 is a memorandum of understanding that folds the city's stretch of Bear Creek, from Crocker Dam to Campus Parkway, into the county's larger vegetation maintenance project on behalf of the Merced Stream Group. Joining the county's effort means economies of scale, an expedited schedule, and potentially lower costs than the city going it alone. Right behind it sits item H.4, a resolution proclaiming the threatened existence of a local emergency due to the developing 2026-2027 El Niño, which positions the city to move faster and seek outside help when the storms arrive.
→ 💬 My take: This is what follow-through looks like. Our neighborhoods south of Bear Creek remember 2023, and they deserve a cleared channel before the first atmospheric river, not after. Paper tonight, chainsaws soon. I will be watching the timeline like a hawk, and you are welcome to hold me to that.
👉 Read tonight's agenda packet (PDF)
🔹 Fire Prevention Week runs through Saturday, and the theme is very 2026. This year's national campaign, Oct. 4-10, is "Charge into Fire Safety: Safe Charging Is a Superpower," aimed at the lithium-ion batteries in our phones, e-bikes, scooters, and power tools. The short version: charge on a hard surface, use the cord the manufacturer gave you, and unplug when the battery is full. Fitting timing, since tonight the council also considers accepting a $278,182 federal Assistance to Firefighters Grant for our fire department. Small habits at home, real resources at the station: that is how a city gets safer.
💼 Economic Development
🔹 The South Merced Center is open, and the doors are the whole point. After last Tuesday's celebration at Stephen Leonard Park, Merced College opened the center for good on Wednesday at 640 T Street. Services are phasing in, starting with study space, tutoring, financial aid and college application help, and career and transfer support, with the first classes planned for spring 2027, including a certified nursing assistant cohort. The college even threw in about $25,000 in park improvements, new basketball hoops and a court mural included. President Vitelli said the partnership "creates an incredible opportunity to bring Merced College directly into the South Merced community."
→ ⚡ Why this matters: I said my thank-yous to President Vitelli, the board, and the college staff on Instagram this week, and I will repeat them here, because this is an investment in families, not just a building. And do not skim past that nursing cohort. Future caregivers trained blocks from home is good for wages, and, take it from a career EMS guy, good for every patient in this county.
🔹 Downtown's docket tonight: parking, the arts, and Highway 59. Three more items with District 3 written all over them. The council considers leasing 59 spaces in the Ralph Shannon Parcade to the El Capitan Hotel at $2,520 a month, a five-year lease agreement with the Merced County Arts Council, and a $1.22 million engineering agreement to design the Highway 59 Phase 1 widening and the bridges over Black Rascal Creek. There is also a public hearing on vacating a portion of Canal Street between Main and West 16th.
→ 💬 My take: You heard me raise parking structures last month, and the El Capitan agreement is proof that downtown parking is an asset we should manage like one: hotels full, spaces earning, Main Street busy. The Arts Council lease keeps a cultural anchor rooted downtown, and Highway 59 is the kind of unglamorous roadwork that actually moves commerce. If the Canal Street hearing touches your block, tonight is your microphone.
🩺 Healthcare
🔹 One cardiac monitor, sixty seconds of context. Tucked into tonight's consent calendar is up to $60,000 for a new LIFEPAK 35 cardiac monitor and accessories for the fire department's Truck 51. I spent a career next to machines like this one, and here is the plain-English version: it puts hospital-grade eyes on a patient's heart in the field, minutes before any hospital door. With roughly 70 percent of our fire department's calls being medical, this is not equipment trivia. It is response capability, and it is exactly the kind of quiet line item I will keep supporting until Merced's emergency medical coverage matches its size.
🔹 Two proclamations tonight that deserve more than polite applause. The council opens the evening by proclaiming October Domestic Violence Prevention Awareness Month, accepted by Tamica Ingram of Valley Crisis Center, and Breast Cancer Awareness Month, presented to a representative of Merced Fire IAFF Local 1479. September's conversation about domestic violence in our community cannot fade when the candles do: help exists right now, around the clock, and sharing that fact might be the most useful thing you do today. And on breast cancer, one nudge from me to someone you love: schedule the screening. Early detection is the difference between a scare and a story.
→ ⚡ Why this matters: Prevention and early help keep emergencies from ever needing a siren. That is the healthiest version of public safety there is.
👉 Find Valley Crisis Center support
📅 Meetings & Community Events
🔹 City Council meeting: tonight, Monday, Oct. 5, 6 p.m., Council Chamber, Merced Civic Center, 678 W. 18th St., second floor. Our next regular meeting is Monday, Oct. 19. Come tell us what is on your mind, or watch from home.
👉 View agendas, minutes, and video
🔹 Planning Commission: Wednesday, Oct. 7, 6 p.m., Council Chambers, Merced Civic Center. Growth, housing, and land use decisions start in this room, and public seats are always open.
🔹 Merced Certified Farmers' Market: Saturday, Oct. 10, morning, downtown Merced. Every Saturday, rain or shine.
🔹 Food Para Todos Harvest Festival: Saturday, Oct. 10, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., 936 W. 18th St. Free and family friendly, with vendors, live entertainment, a car show, and a Kid Zone. Market in the morning, festival in the afternoon: that is a full Saturday downtown, and I could not design a better one.
🔹 Indigenous Peoples' Day is Monday, Oct. 12. A day to honor the first peoples of this Valley and the heritage that runs deeper than any city boundary. Worth a pause and a thought next Monday.
📢 Stay Connected with Merced
🔹 Get city alerts on your terms. Subscribe Merced lets you pick the topics you want, from emergency notifications to city news, delivered straight to you. With an El Niño resolution literally on tonight's agenda, consider this your sign. If you sign up for nothing else, sign up for the emergency alerts.
👉 Sign up for Subscribe Merced
☎️ The Direct Line
Three asks this week, all easy. Tonight, bring your voice to the chamber or watch from the couch. Saturday, make it a downtown double header at the market and the Harvest Festival. And when that ballot lands in your mailbox, open it the same day and track it like a package, because it is worth more than anything else being delivered this month.
My number is (209) 385-6203. You can also reply to this email or write me at HarrisM@cityofmerced.gov. If a neighbor would find this useful, pass it along.
Have a great week, Merced.
Mike Harris
Councilmember, City of Merced
