A request to cancel the second regularly scheduled Ceres City Council meeting in February met with resistance from Councilman James Casey who wanted to wait and see if pressing business arises.

“There’s items that could come up that might be important, particularly in the financial part and it wouldn’t hurt to wait until the first part of February to make that decision,” said Casey.

City Manager Doug Dunford said he and City Attorney Nubia Goldstein will be out of the country then and said any business could be put off until the March 9 meeting.

Ceres resident John Warren weighed in saying that no meetings between now and adoption of the 2026-27 budget should be cancelled.

“That just makes the March 9 meeting a longer meeting,” Warren told the council. “Every meeting is critical as we move forward in this planning this new budget year.”

Councilwoman Cerina Otero was also against cancelling the meeting given that the council cancelled one in December.

“I understand city manager you’ll be out of the country,” said Otero, who suggested “it’s a great opportunity for someone that is in the acting city manager role to take the responsibility of being part of the meeting.”

She also felt confident someone from the attorney law firm could cover in her stead.

“I just do think there is business to discuss and I would rather see that continue because we don’t know when another holiday is going to hit where we do have to cancel a meeting or schedule a special meeting.”

Dunford reiterated that nothing substantive is planned for the March 9 meeting but also noted meetings will be longer anyway moving forward because of budget and other items.

Casey and Otero were outnumbered by Mayor Javier Lopez, Vice Mayor Daniel Martinez and Councilwoman Rosalinda Vierra who supported cancelling the March 9 meeting.