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Mike Harris Newsletter — September 28, 2026
📞 On Call with Mike Harris | District 3 | September 28, 2026
Good morning, Merced,
Circle next Monday, Oct. 5, twice. That evening, the council is back in the chamber for our first regular meeting of October. That same day, ballots start landing in Merced mailboxes. Five weeks out from Election Day, democracy is about to get very local, very fast.
The week behind us earned its keep, too. Downtown spent Saturday afternoon happily buried in books for Litfest, a UC Merced hall filled up Wednesday night with neighbors asking hard questions about our rail station, and a Valley coalition put the High-Speed Rail Authority on notice in writing. Add a brand-new emergency department built just for moms, a Merced College front door opening in South Merced, and a mural deadline now 48 hours away, and we have plenty to cover. Starting with your mailbox.
📬 Your Ballot Lands Next Week
🔹 Ballots go out Monday, Oct. 5, and the county wants you using a drop box. The Merced FOCUS reported Wednesday that Merced County will field 21 official ballot drop boxes this election, more than double the 10 the state requires, after postal service changes triggered a wave of late-arriving mail ballots. The numbers behind the decision sting: nearly 3 percent of mail ballots returned in the 2025 special election showed up too late to count, roughly seven times the rejection rate from the 2024 general. Registrar of Voters Melvin Levey says the county's goal is giving voters "as many options as possible."
→ 💬 My take: I spent last Monday's letter walking you through my yes on Measure B, and I meant every word. This week's ask is simpler, and it applies no matter how you vote: make sure it counts. A drop box takes the postmark lottery out of the equation entirely. When your ballot arrives, read it at the kitchen table, mark it, and deliver it somewhere secure. If a question on it stops you cold, my number is at the bottom of this letter, same as always.
👉 Read the FOCUS drop box report
🚨 Public Safety
🔹 Storm prep, the last-call edition. September ends Wednesday, and everything we covered last week about a wet winter forecast still points the same direction, with Bear Creek in the conversation. So here is the unglamorous homework while the sun is still out: clear your gutters and the street drain in front of your house, move anything you cannot afford to lose up off the garage floor, learn whether your block took on water in 2023, and get emergency alerts onto your phone using the signup at the bottom of this letter. Prevention is boring right up until the water rises. Ten minutes this weekend beats a sandbag line in January, and you have my word I will keep pushing on the city's end of that bargain, especially the near-term creek clearing.
💼 Economic Development
🔹 A Valley coalition just told the Rail Authority to stand down on moving our station. The Merced FOCUS reported Friday that California Rural Legal Assistance, writing on behalf of the Community Alliance for Sustainable Economies and groups including Faith in the Valley, the Jakara Movement, and Lideres Campesinas, sent the High-Speed Rail Authority a letter dated Sept. 18 demanding it stop pursuing the proposed station site near Highway 99 and East Mission Avenue, about four miles southeast of downtown. Their argument leans on Senate Bill 198, which directs the initial segment to run from downtown Merced to Bakersfield and caps spending outside that scope at $500 million. The coalition demands the Authority "immediately cease all efforts to reroute the station."
→ 🔎 Where things stand: My colleagues Shane Smith and Darin DuPont spent Wednesday evening at a UC Merced town hall fielding residents' questions on the station, and the same FOCUS report notes the state inspector general now warns the Authority could run out of cash by December 2027. We are still awaiting a formal response to the joint City-County letter.
→ 💬 My take: No corner of Merced has more riding on this station than downtown, and downtown is District 3. Whether the pressure comes from a legal aid nonprofit, a faith coalition, or this council, the demand is the same one I have been repeating for a month: nothing about Merced's station gets decided without Merced at the table, in writing, with funding attached. I will keep you posted.
👉 Read The Merced FOCUS coverage
👉 Read the coalition letter (PDF)
🔹 Merced College is opening a front door in South Merced, and the city helped make it happen. The Merced County Times reported Thursday that the college celebrates its new South Merced Center at 640 T Street this Tuesday, Sept. 29, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Stephen Leonard Park, with games, food, prizes, and free T-shirts for the first 500 people. The city selected the college to lease and run the former Stephen Leonard Youth Center earlier this year, and after renovations it opens for good Wednesday, Sept. 30, bringing job training, college-credit classes, youth and family programming, and student support into the neighborhood. In the college's own survey, three out of four South Merced respondents said someone in their household would use it.
→ ⚡ Why this matters: You have heard my two-part answer on housing: lower the cost to build, and raise local incomes so families can afford what gets built. A training center within walking distance of the families who need it most is the second half of that sentence made real. Trustee Carmen Ramirez, who grew up in South Merced, said the center tells residents "their goals, their children and their future are important." She is exactly right, and this is also the college-town Merced I keep talking about, growing roots beyond the campus.
👉 Explore the South Merced Center
🔹 Mural applications close Wednesday, Sept. 30. Last call for the two $10,000 mural projects at the M Street Bridge and the Corporation Yard. If you have been weighing it, get your proposal in; the arts spending report due to council by Oct. 19 will shape what comes next, and I want Merced artists in this conversation from the very start.
👉 View current bid opportunities
🩺 Healthcare
🔹 Mercy's Birth Center is now a licensed emergency department for moms. The Merced County Times reported Thursday that the hospital's Family Birth Center has earned accreditation from the California Department of Public Health as an Obstetrical Emergency Department, a milestone the team pursued for a decade and marked with a ribbon cutting earlier this month. In plain English: from 20 weeks of pregnancy through six weeks after delivery, a mother with an urgent concern now goes straight to specialized OB nurses, physicians, and midwives around the clock, with rapid triage for complications like preeclampsia and hemorrhage, instead of waiting her turn in the main ER. Nursing director Lindsey O'Banion called it "an environment engineered entirely for maternal safety and comfort."
→ ⚡ Why this matters: I spent most of my working life in emergency medicine, and two things save lives in a crisis: time, and knowing exactly where to take the patient. This gives ambulance crews and frightened families both. For expecting families, it means the right care, faster, without leaving Merced. That is the local emergency system getting stronger, which is precisely the direction I keep pushing.
🔹 How's the air where you live? The Merced FOCUS is gathering residents' input on Valley air quality through an online callout that runs through Oct. 31. Air is a health story in this Valley, ask any parent with an inhaler in the backpack, and answers from Merced neighborhoods make that reporting better. Two minutes, straight from your couch.
📅 Meetings & Community Events
🔹 Merced County Superintendent of Schools debate: Tuesday, Sept. 29, 6 to 7:30 p.m., MCOE Mondo Building, 1715 Canal St. Candidates Ana Boyenga and Richard Lopez, with childcare, Spanish interpretation, and light refreshments provided. I flagged this last week; now it is tomorrow night. Schools shape our workforce and our neighborhoods, so go do your homework on the people who want the job.
🔹 Merced Certified Farmers' Market: Saturday, Oct. 3, morning, downtown Merced. Every Saturday, rain or shine. October mornings at the market are some of the best this city offers.
🔹 City Council meeting: Monday, Oct. 5, 6 p.m., Council Chamber, Merced Civic Center, 678 W. 18th St., second floor. The agenda posts by 5 p.m. this Friday. 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.
🔹 Food Para Todos Harvest Festival: Saturday, Oct. 10, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., West 18th Street between P and Q streets. The second annual edition brings vendors, community organizations, live entertainment, a car show, and a Kid Zone with bouncy houses, all free and family friendly. A downtown street full of neighbors is my favorite kind of traffic.
📢 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 storm season ahead and an election five weeks out, this is the most useful two minutes on your to-do list. If you sign up for nothing else, sign up for the emergency alerts.
👉 Sign up for Subscribe Merced
☎️ The Direct Line
When your ballot shows up next week, do not let it sit in the pile with the pizza coupons. Open it, read it, and if anything on it puzzles you, Measure B included, call me and we will talk it through. And if you stop by the South Merced Center celebration Tuesday, I would love to hear what you think that building should become for its neighborhood.
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, send it their way.
Have a strong week, Merced.
Mike Harris
Councilmember, City of Merced
