Developers and residents urge Stockton to release housing-award scores after major grant went to single project

Carol Ornelas, President and CEO of Visionary Home Builders, told the Stockton City Council on Dec. 3 that the city's recent housing-fund award process "was neither transparent nor fair," and formally requested the official scoring for her organization's application.

Ornelas and several colleagues said the allocation at the council's Nov. 19 meeting heavily favored one project. Valentino Silva, chief aide for Visionary Home Builders, said the group's long record in Stockton did not protect it from what he described as an opaque decision-making process. "We often find ourselves fighting harder to perform in Stockton than in neighboring cities like Modesto," Silva said.

Another commenter, who identified herself as Perea and said she listened closely at the last council meeting, cited award amounts in her remarks, saying one affordable-housing project "received over $7,000,000 compared to 747,000 for Visionary Home Builders." Rosa Mesa of the Visionary development team said staff did not provide a formal breakdown explaining why the application lost points.

Council Member Lehi said the comments were concerning and asked the city manager to look into the distribution and ensure future processes are "fair, inclusive, and transparent." The council did not take formal action on the public comment but the request to the city manager was recorded in council comments.

The council meeting record shows multiple public-comment speakers asked for a clearer explanation of score deductions and for the city to release application scoring information so applicants can understand funding decisions.