Good evening everyone I'm Cindy Silva this year's mayor of the city of Walnut Creek and I want to
welcome you to our June 20th, 2023 regular meeting of the Walnut Creek City Council.
The council is conducting its meeting here at City Hall under the current rules and in the
state of California about public meetings. We are also broadcasting this meeting on Walnut Creek TV
on Walnut Creek YouTube channel and over Zoom and we are accepting public comment both here in the
the council chambers and through our video conferencing technology on zoom.
If you would all please rise and join us in the pledge of allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for
which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Would the clerk please take the roll.
Councilmember Darling?
Here.
Councilmember Francois?
Here.
Wilk. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Haskew. Here. Mayor Silva. Here. We have a
presentation this evening from the Contra Costa Fire Protection District and we
look forward to hearing from you. Hi, good evening. I'm Aaron McAllister, Deputy
Fire Chief Contra Costa County Fire and thank you for giving us a few moments
this evening to share a few updates with you and a little bit information for the
community as well. Thank you. The Contra Costa County Fire District is your fire
district. We maintain several fire stations here in Walnut Creek, as well as in the adjacent
communities. It is a good model, a good system. We have resources flowing throughout all the
adjacent communities throughout the day as needed, and we are one of the largest fire
districts in California. We crossed an important milestone last year. We have over 400 firefighters
on our staff and over 500 total employees. In a few minutes, I'll tell you about the couple of
stations we grew in our system last year, but we maintain a number of specialty programs in the
fire district including our ambulance transport model, our alliance as you've heard it called,
our aviation program, a hand crew program, wildland firefighting dozers that we staffed
during the summertime, as well as a number of other specialty programs. A couple things new for
Con Fire over the last 12 to 18 months. We annexed the East Contra Costa Fire
District in East County. They had a historical resource deficit and it was a
concern to Con Fire as we were their closest and only mutual aid partner
through Measure X and through the Board of Supervisors. We made that happen and
Measure X included funding to open some new fire stations in that community and
really what that means to Central County is that there was less reliance on
on sending resources to East County. So we're able to keep more of our resources in their home
stations more often because we increase the resources available in East County.
Of course those are resources that are available to come this direction as well when needed.
We're also now serving the City of Pinal and increased some services over there. As we opened
Fire Station 74, that station had been closed a number of years and through that contract for
for service with that city,
we added a resource there as well.
Same general concept, we're able to rely less
on other resources in other communities
because that fire station is staffed.
Crew 12 was funded permanently through Measure X.
That had been a trial program
that we started for fuel mitigation, emergency response.
It's about 20 firefighters in a bus, really.
They're not on a fire engine
available to mitigate wildland fires,
but when they're not on fires,
they're doing fuel mitigation projects
to reduce that risk from wildland fires.
We're happy to report that Fire Station 4
and Unincorporated Walnut Creek reopened last year,
again, beefing up the resources in this community
by having another adjacent resource.
Fire Station 86 was reconstructed and relocated last year,
and also last year we opened Station 95 in the East County.
So several new fire stations, along with that comes
requirement for excess equipment or extra equipment and the firefighters
that we had to put through academies to have the staff to enable us to do that.
We're also planning replacement of three new fire stations throughout the
district and then we aggressively pursue federal funding and that allowed us to
get funding for a dedicated rescue which we're going to staff this month. That'll
be based in Bay Point at Fire Station 86. Good access to Central County, good
access to East County. The dedicated rescue allows the crews that work on that rescue
to focus on urban search and rescue programs whether it's building collapse, vehicle extrication,
high angle rescue that we had here in Walnut Creek with the window washers last year that
were needed assistance getting off that location. And then this year we also added a canine
program we have one of the only accelerant sniffing dogs funded through
the ATF in northern California and that lives here at Confire and that dog's
name is Baxter. Here's a look at some activity in the city of Walnut Creek.
Last month we had 711 emergencies. It continues to see the bulk of those EMS
related. We did have a few fires and we expect the fire number to climb as we go
throughout the summer. We're gonna see more vegetation fires, exterior fires, a
a number of vehicle accidents here in Walnut Creek and you can see kind of that steady
increase in calls for service over the last three years. In addition to the emergency medical calls
that are listed here on the next slide, we have 230 EMS calls that did not get a fire engine. They
were emergencies, they were urgent calls, somebody needed to get transported to the hospital but it
didn't require a fire engine. One of the things we hear is why do you have to send that big engine
to everything and the answer is we don't. We triage those calls in our dispatch center and
if it's appropriate we send an ambulance only without the fire engine, but there could be a
number of reasons that the fire engine is needed. It could be a long ETA for the ambulance,
could be a critical incident that requires the extra hands, but 230 times in Walnut Creek
last month got just ambulance only. We're well into fire season, peak fire season is coming,
it's a little bit delayed this year because of the late rains. The downside of that is that
we have increased grass crop and growth because of those rains, so there's more fuel that's
available to be consumed by wildland fires, but we won't hit peak fire season until July,
whereas we normally see that in June already this time of year. This is perhaps the most important
issue and item I want to focus on tonight, and that's the wildland fire threat zones. You've
You've probably heard the wildland fire hazard severity zones.
They're done by Cal Fire.
These are done at a statewide level.
Currently, they've done the state responsibility area.
That's what you see reflected on this map.
Those are last year zones.
Those zones have not been updated in a decade.
They have out new proposed zones, which are going to increase the severity of those zones.
We have areas that are currently moderate.
They're going to go to high.
They're going to go to very high.
And then next year after they finalize the state responsibility area, which is essentially
everything outside the city limits, we're going to see local responsibility area zones
created by CAL FIRE.
That will include all of the city limits.
And what we're seeing so far is that they have drastically increased those zones.
And we can see other areas of the county where a community is completely surrounded by very
high, and we anticipate incorporated areas, parts of cities being put into very high zones.
Again, those zones aren't out yet. There's a public hearing process through the state,
but what all this means to the community is it translates to insurance issues.
We get those calls daily in our office. We participate in this rulemaking process and
the public hearing process. We provide feedback to Cal Fire where we think they may have missed
the market might not be appropriate, but we have little to no control over those zones
and the designations.
Now, to be fair, CAL FIRE will tell you that those zones are hazard zones and the insurance
industry uses risk zones, and they're two different animals, but it's not a leap to
say that there's a connection between those two.
Such a major issue that the fire districts engage.
actually meeting with congressional representatives tomorrow to tell that
local story of our communities and what we hear from our communities and the
impact of all of these zones and moving pieces in the insurance business on our
communities. A new evacuation tool it's been out a couple years it's called
zone haven it integrates with the community warning system it's really
evacuations for to hit the easy button used to be old school we're drawing
maps and drawing the box at the side of the fire SUV evacuate from this street
to this street. The whole county has been pre-designated. The zones are all
risk. They could be used for a law enforcement emergency. They could be used
for an environmental emergency that originates with a refinery or a
wildland fire scenario. The community can go to the community warning system
website, find out what zone they are in, and as we're conducting
evacuations, they can look ahead to see if this fire is still growing. Is it
going to reach my zone, so they have that identification with their zone.
There's some resources available on the CONFIRE website at cccfpd.org.
That includes the Residence Guide, some steps they can take to protect themselves, to be
prepared, to prepare their home, and those resources are there at any time.
And with that, I'm happy to take any questions.
Thank you very much, Deputy Chief McAllister.
questions councilmember darling well thank you for station 4 excess my
station so we really appreciate that I was curious with the new 988 call center
coming online are you guys integrated into that with the mental health
response or do you you know how are you working that with the police departments
we are working through that process right now with public health with law
enforcement. There's certainly some chance that fire needs to be involved
and ambulance needs to be involved where they're also involved so we want to make
sure we get that triage process right and send the right resources to the
right calls. So we're working through that now. Okay and then so on the zone
haven so everybody's already zoned and everybody should go and find their zone.
zone. I guess that's my thing. Go find your zone. That's all. Thank you.
So what would you suggest is the start of fire season? What would you suggest to residents
and businesses, but residents primarily, who may feel that they're living in a wildfire
hazard zone? Those tips are on our website, but the most
important thing is if you've not taken the time to cut your weeds, cut your grass, give
us the defensible space that's necessary to protect your structure now is the
time. Mo before noon, don't do it in the afternoon when the humidities are lower
and the temperatures are higher. We see that every year well-intentioned
individuals that are out there trying to cut their weeds, cut their grass, and we
get that grass fire from that blade strike that happens. So those are more
likely to occur in the afternoon. So mo before noon, improve that defensible
space and be prepared. If you feel that you need to evacuate, if there's smoke
in your neighborhood, you hear a lot of sirens, don't wait for somebody to come
knock on your door, don't wait for us to call you. If you feel threatened and
endangered, go ahead and leave your property now.
Mayor Pro Tem. So some of us have neighbors that don't follow the rules
and have lots of weeds and we still have to live next to them. Is there any way
that we can get help getting their area cleaned up? Yeah, we have a couple of
programs available. Number one, we do take complaints and we will act on
complaints so contact CONFIRE. There's an email address on our website, you can
call our office and get routed to code enforcement in the hazard abatement
division. But we also have some programs available for folks that just aren't in
a position to take those actions and that's funded by our Measure X program
and you can get to a link on our website where you can apply and request
assistance with some of those. And if you have a neighborhood that wants to do a
community project, a firewise community, an entire court, an entire street wants
to come together, we will help fund removing those fuels. So if you do your
part, get it off your property, we'll bring out a dumpster, we'll bring out the
hand crew and help offload those fuels. Any other questions? Well, thank you so
much for being here this evening and please extend our sincerest thanks to
all 400 members of the fire crew and the 100 administrative staff because you
can't do anything unless you have your administrative staff processing the
payments and we'll keep our fingers crossed that it's a safe summer. Thank
you. Oh no fireworks, no fireworks. Yes, no fireworks. Thank you. Before we go into
our actual business portion of the meeting we actually need to recess the
meeting we were in upstairs with the city attorney helped me do the right
thing. The council we would just note in the record that the that at 550 the city
council recessed the special meeting and the council may reconvene that later
this evening following the regular meeting. Thank you very much and my
apologies for forgetting to do that at the outset of the meeting. Next on our
agenda is item 2, the consent calendar. We have 10 items on the consent calendar
this evening. Does any council member wish to pull one of the items? I would
like to pull item J just to ask a couple of questions. This is does any
member of staff need us to pull an item? Do any members of the public wish to
speak to one of the 10 items on our consent calendar? Please come to the
podium. And if there's anyone on Zoom who wishes to speak to one of the ten items
on our consent calendar, would you please use the raise hand feature in order to
let us know that you wish to be brought into the meeting?
Jan Warren, Walnut Creek, Woodlands. Good evening.
Good evening, Jan Warren.
Oh, there you are.
It's always so fast, and I had some questions in there, not in front of me.
So let's see.
It has to do with the police department, and last session we needed extra funding for equipment,
and we didn't have the people to use that equipment yet, so this time we're looking
for funding to do a branding for the police department to recruit more people because
there's not enough people who want to be police officers anymore.
So I just, at some point, I'd like to have a presentation from the chief, or someone
who works for the chief, on our status.
How many people do we have, what kind of jobs, or who's doing what, and where are the deficiencies,
and it would be helpful not the piecemeal stuff.
Thanks.
Thank you.
Anyone else wish to provide public comment?
I see Steve Elster has raised his hand in Zoom.
Good evening, Mr. Elster.
When you come in, please identify
what item you're speaking to on the consent calendar
and you will have up to two minutes to speak.
Good evening.
Hi.
Good evening.
Hi, I'm sorry, I was calling for the public,
the general public comment here and I'll wait.
All right, thank you very much.
So we will enter, we have pulled one item, item J.
Do we have a motion to approve A through I?
Move to approve items two A through I
on the consent calendar.
Second.
We have a motion and a second.
Can we have a roll call vote, please.
Council member Wilk.
Aye.
Mayor Pro Tem Haskew.
Yes.
Council member Darling.
Yes.
Council member Francois.
Yes.
Mayor Silva.
Motion passes. Thank you very much. Item J, if the chief has a moment, oh you have
a friend with you. I do. Jamie Knox, Chief of Police I brought with me our
professional standards sergeant who authored the agenda report, Scott
Morehouse. Sergeant Scott Morehouse. Thank you and it appears it's challenging to
recruit police officers. We've been hearing about that for two or three
years can you just elaborate a little bit on what the challenges are? Certainly
this is a national trend right now and and we're seeing it regionally here. The
Bay Area is unique because the cost of living is much higher here than it is
in other places but money is not everything. There's also a public
sentiment that has shifted over the course of the last several years when it
comes to policing. In the past my understanding is we would receive about
a thousand applications for every police officer posting and now we're at about
maybe a hundred if we're lucky and this is a this is a common trend not only in
the region but nationally. And the what is the solution that the EPIC service
provider offers that will make us unique and different? What make them unique is
Is there a sole source in terms of being able to offer not just the website development
for the recruiting website, but also the video production?
Their program will include three days of onsite production with our staff after having met
with our command staff and getting a sense of the culture, the personality, and the need.
Additional capabilities that they have are search engine optimization, search engine
marketing.
what makes them stand out as a sole source provider
being able to provide that service in addition
to video production and website development.
Some alternatives to electronic advertising
or conventional media, whether it's a billboard, a print ad,
a TV ad, those types of things.
And our research has shown that electronic advertising,
especially targeted advertising, is far more impactful
and we get far more results rather than conventional media.
And our HR department will still be involved
in the process of recruiting and hiring.
Absolutely, they will still play a very vital part.
All right, thank you.
Any other questions for, yes.
So Chief, just to follow up on Ms. Warren's question
about staffing levels, where are we?
Kind of what are the number of authorized positions?
Yes, so currently we have 80 authorized
police officer positions.
We have 74 of those positions filled,
so we're down six, but we don't count trainees
that are in the academy.
So we have one trainee who's due to graduate in July.
We have four trainees on deck
that will go to the next academy,
but we also have eight to nine sworn officers
who could potentially retire in the next year.
So we're trying to be nimble.
The other challenge, or maybe it's an opportunity,
is if this council adopts the budget tonight,
then by July 1, I'll have five more vacancies to fill,
which is great news, but we want to try to get ahead of the curve.
So currently, 80 authorized if the budget's approved, 85?
That's correct.
Okay.
Well, and yes, give me a moment, just one, what you said triggered the thought that some
of this is basically our demographic, our age, the silver tsunami, so to speak, that
people are retiring.
And that's not a statement about your hair or my hair, it's really about retirement is
typically between 50 and 55 for most police officers.
Yeah, correct.
I didn't ask you what your age was.
Thank you for that.
Yeah, the job can take its toll,
so it's gonna be harder and harder for,
especially with pension reform,
for 57-year-old police officers
out pushing a black and white,
or in our case, our new fleet being all black now.
So there's challenges to the job,
And we're seeing much less interest
in law enforcement as a whole.
So we're just trying to be as creative as we can.
And our labor market has certainly shrunk
over the last couple of years.
Council Member Welk, I apologize.
No, that's all right.
Thank you, Chief and Sergeant Morehouse.
So it was my understanding that there were
an additional five approved positions through ARPA funds.
Would that take it then to 85?
Or is that part of what you're waiting
for in the budget tonight?
So your council authorized ARPA funding
for five additional officers.
That funding was temporary.
It was not permanent.
So what we've done is we're asking for those five positions
to be permanently funded.
That'll be part of the budget presentation.
Even though the ARPA funds haven't been used
because we haven't been able to hire.
Well, we have been using them for overtime
to staff downtown, the downtown area with overtime.
Okay, great, thank you.
Council Member Francois.
So when you, I mean, just for,
when you hear 100 applicants for one position,
it's down from 1,000, but it still sounds like a lot.
It sounds like a lot,
but usually there's a paper cut involved,
so a lot of people will apply
that don't necessarily meet the qualifications.
The other challenge is you're required
to pass a written test with,
and we actually have a higher score that's required.
Some other agencies have a little bit of a lower score,
but our philosophy is we don't want to sacrifice
our standards just because we need to recruit officers.
The other challenge is there's a whole litany of things
they have to get through,
from a professional panel interview,
to a background investigation,
to a polygraph examination,
to a medical examination and a psychological examination.
So in my experience, usually it's one out
of 100 applications make it to, yeah.
And let's say you get two officers hired,
there's a 50% chance that they may not make the academy
or their field training program.
So a thousand applicants sounds a lot better to me
than a hundred.
This contract, we're hoping helps us increase
the pool of potentially qualified candidates.
Yes, and the nice thing about this company
is they'll come in and meet with us
and we'll talk about our commitment
to things like diversity, equity and inclusion
and being very intentional in how we recruit people
so that we can ensure that we recruit a police force
and our professional staff that is representative
not only of the community who lives here,
but the community who visits here.
Thank you very much and I apologize
for not letting you know I was going to ask a question,
but you looked, you were right in my line of it.
It's all good.
That's why I sat where I did.
Thank you very much and thank you.
Thank you.
I will move the item.
I will second it.
Roll call vote, please.
Mayor Silva.
Aye.
Mayor Pro Tem Haskew.
Aye.
Council Member Darling.
Aye.
Council Member Francois.
Aye.
Council Member Will.
Aye.
Motion passes.
Thank you very much.
Next item on our agenda is public communication.
This portion of the meeting is reserved for items,
for comment on items that are not on our agenda this evening.
And if you were waiting for either the budget
or the sustainability action plan, this is not your time.
Under the state's open meeting laws, the Brown Act,
the city council cannot act on items raised
during public communications.
However, the council may respond briefly
to statements made or questions posed.
We may request clarification
or we may refer the item to staff.
For public communication and per our City Council handbook,
section 9.5, each speaker will have up to two minutes
to speak whether you are here in person
or you are providing comments remotely.
Also per our rules, we will initially allow 30 minutes
in total for this item.
Then if needed, we will provide additional time
for public communication after all other business
at the end of the regular meeting.
This format ensures that everyone has a chance
to speak to us on items not on the agenda.
When I open the public comment period,
here's what you need to do.
If you are here in person, you will come forward
and line up to speak along the window wall
and behind the lectern.
We also ask that you complete a speaker card.
Cards are available in the counter near the entrance.
Once in line, you will wait until called upon.
When you are at the microphone,
please first state your name and city of residence,
then make your comments.
If you are joining us remotely,
you need to alert us that you would like to speak.
If you are on Zoom, please use the raised hand feature
to let us know that you would like to speak.
If you are connected only by audio, please press star nine.
Once we bring you into the meeting,
please state your name and city of residence for the record
and then make your comments.
Please note that we will first hear those
who are in person at the meeting
and then promote public comments.
To provide a live remote public comment,
please join the Zoom video conferencing meeting.
The webinar ID is 899-879-4145.
And the passcode is 273525.
If you are planning to speak,
please remember this is a city business meeting.
The city council has adopted rules of decorum
to ensure that meetings are conducted
efficiently and effectively.
Also, we want to ensure that all members of the public have a full, fair and equal opportunity
to be heard.
In all cases, please address your remarks to the City Council.
Please do not use profanity.
I would also like to highlight that the United Nations declared Sunday, June 18th as an international
day for countering hate speech.
With that in mind, the City acknowledges that members of the public have the right to be
but the city also wants to emphasize that we have a zero tolerance policy for
discriminatory and harassing conduct. The city denounces any hate speech that may
be vocalized in public comments and speakers making public comments are not
expressing the views of the city. It is 6 30. We will take public communication up
until 7 p.m. this evening and hi Linda come on down. Thank you so much. I am
I'm Linda Riamat Kohlberg.
I'm a member of Walnut Creek, citizen of Walnut Creek,
and actually representing
the Shade Lens organization this evening.
I'd like to announce that the Shade Lens leadership
is hosting our third annual Made in the Shade
Summer Festival, just in time for the summer solstice,
and just in time for needing some fun.
Made in the Shade will be Sunday,
this coming Sunday, June 25th, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
It's being held on the Shadeland Sports Mall campus
at 2640 Shadelands Drive in Walnut Creek.
I think we all know the Shadeland Sports Mall.
It's a fabulous 115,000 square foot youth athletic facility.
Made in the shade, beer, live music, food trucks,
and exhibitor booths, free and premium sports activities,
some for participation and some for demonstration.
We're talking yoga, volleyball, gymnastics,
basketball, baseball, swim, Taekwondo, and soccer.
Something for everyone.
It's free, it's family friendly.
It's June 25th, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Hope everybody can make it.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Linda.
Thanks.
Next speaker, please.
Hi, my apologies if I need to come back for a later item.
I'm not sure, but I'm gonna talk about pickleball.
So if you want me to come back later, I can.
No, we don't have pickle ball on the agenda.
Okay.
Go ahead.
So good evening council.
I am Shiva Sundaram and a resident of Walnut Creek.
I represent the neighbors on the pickle ball task force
to solve the pickle ball problem at Rudgier Park.
As you know, the Prose Commission approved
the new courts at Heather Farm
based on the task force recommendation.
I want to thank Prose Commissioner Cook
and Parks Director Kevin Safin
for their hard work, oversight and leadership.
We urge you to vote yes to this proposal
and fund this project.
The task force worked extremely hard
overcoming significant challenges
trying to meet the stringent demands of the pickleball
players.
But there are two sides to this story.
Voting yes will satisfy the needs of the pickleball
community, but will still not address the root cause
of the problem.
It could take months, if not years, to build a new facility.
Even as we approve this proposal,
the pickleball community wants more and refuses to get out.
Harm to society can come in many forms,
like violent crimes, bullying, or hate speech,
like what we saw in the city meeting last week, last month.
These things should not be condoned.
Likewise, pickleball problems at drug gear
is a form of bullying.
Excessive noise and public nuisance
cause harm and have long-term effects on people
and severely degrade quality of life.
These courts were built illegally without any due diligence.
It also violates city, county, and state noise and health
ordinances.
For five years, our neighborhood has been ravaged.
Have you forgotten the nonstop noise, parking violations,
indecent exposure, even public urination, mobbing of city
meetings, and even threats against residents?
The city has known about this issue for over 16 months,
yet these courts continue to operate.
This sets a dangerous precedence by enabling offenders
and encouraging them.
All we are asking is for our basic rights to live peacefully.
Please, please shut down these courts at Radgier Park
as soon as possible.
This should not be reliant on when
the new courts will be available. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Next speaker please. Hello Mayor Silva and Council members. My
name is David Rangel. I'm a Wanna Creek resident and a retired Wanna Creek PD
Sergeant. I spoke to all of you back in September 21st 2021 in regards to the
uptick in crime here in Wanna Creek and the lack of police productivity. Since
then some of you have characterized crime here in Wanna Creek as constant or
or even stated the crime is actually down.
Recently, Council Member Wilk finally admitted that I quote,
and I quote,
unfortunately property crime has seen an increase
over the last few years, end of quote.
My neighborhood has experienced several auto burglaries,
stolen vehicle, residential burglaries,
and even an attempt rape on a 14 year old girl.
This was unheard of when I first moved here,
and worse, police visibility and productivity
activity in my neighborhood is practically non-existent.
More of us may be speaking to you in the near future, describing their own experiences in
their own neighborhoods.
Some may even provide actionable items and suggestions.
We hope that neighborhood concerns will become the top priority for you council and our chief
of police.
And you all start getting more involved in the public safety of we, your voters and residents.
I thank you for your time.
your comments. Next speaker, please. Good evening. My name is Laura Halpin. It's good to see all of
you. I'm a resident of Walnut Creek. I'm here tonight just to express my solidarity with
Councilmember Kevin Wilk. I'm so sorry about the anti-Semitic threats that were directed your way.
I heard about the comments that came via Zoom at our last council meeting that I didn't
attend, but I am just so sorry that it has shown up inside the council chambers.
And again, just here to express my solidarity and standing against all hate in Walnut Creek.
I wanted to thank Councilmember Cindy Darling
for attending a really fabulous seminar offered
by the Other and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley.
It was a seminar called Cities Against Racism,
and it was, for me, it was very powerful, very innovative,
with leaders from Europe, from Chicago, from Seattle.
And I just, again, want to thank you for your participation.
I think that kind of innovation is really important.
And I think especially when we're exposed to such vitriol,
it becomes really clear that flags are symbolic
and symbols are very important as a solidarity statement,
but they're not protective.
And so I'm just really curious about what
strategies we can implement as a community
to make our community more resilient
Against hate on all levels and targeted especially to vulnerable communities. So
Anyway, thank you for your time
Thank you very much
next speaker, please
Good evening mayor city council members. My name is Thomas bloxham
I'm a local attorney. I've been practicing law for over 45 years. Can you raise the microphone slightly?
That better that is better. Thank you
Hate speech is speech that you hate.
But speech that you hate is protected speech.
So says our US Supreme Court, as recently as 2017,
Mattel versus Tam, reaffirming.
By the way, this is including Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan,
the liberals.
They all say there's no hate speech exception
to the free speech rights included in our first amendment.
Thus, state action, for example, this city council,
cannot suppress speech it does not like.
This is settled law.
That's why I was appalled, contrary
to the other speakers.
During the last city council meeting,
You suppressed the speech of the Zoom caller,
who expressed his views on a religious group.
You can't do that, even if you hate the speech.
I do not share his views,
but I support and defend his right
to share his views in a public
and government-sanctioned forum.
and so must you.
You are not the last elected officials here.
Somebody down the road is gonna be elected
and that person is gonna hate your speech.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Good evening.
Good evening, council.
I apologize, these are not prepared comments.
I also wanted to briefly acknowledge the hate speech
that did occur at the city council meeting
just a few weeks ago at city council meetings throughout the time that I've
been listening to these meetings councilmember Wilk has been regularly
speaking about up about their increase in and rise in anti-semitism that's
occurred throughout the Bay Area which has been highlighted the importance of
not looking away it's also highlighted that these are not fringe or isolated
incidents I also do appreciate the questions that were posed by this
council during that meeting to ask clarification from our city attorney as
as to where hate speech diverges from freedom of speech,
and to narrow down our protected rights for speech,
which we highly value, of course,
but also wanting to understand in these public forums
where hate speech diverges
from what is our protected right to free speech.
So thank you for asking for those clarifying questions,
and I appreciate the city attorney's response.
Well, these most recent incidents targeting Jewish people
are horrifying and some of these acts
are explicitly anti-Semitic.
We must remember that these acts also serve the purpose
of sowing division and are a threat to democracy itself.
As many in our community have been stating
in the following, in the past weeks,
regardless of our political or personal policy views,
we must stand together against this
and stand for our own and others' humanities,
and not humanity, and not shy away from conversations
about acts of hate in those spaces that we occupy.
I also wanted to share that I appreciated
Council Member Will later comments in a different moment
where he shared that he had participated
in the Clayton Pride Parade and the importance of doing so
because he was proud that he was able to raise the flag here
in Walnut Creek and also participate
with the resolution in Pride Month.
And that doing so was understanding
that this is not just about anti-Semitism,
that this won't stop with anti-Semitism.
So thank you for speaking up and thank you all.
Thank you very much.
Does anyone else here in the council chambers
wish to speak at this time?
We have four speakers who have raised their hands on Zoom.
We will bring them in one at a time.
I'll go ahead and bring in Michelle Sheehan.
And again, just a reminder, you have up to two minutes.
Anybody hear me?
Okay, I'm trying.
Yes, we can hear you, sorry.
Okay, good, good.
Nobody's listening now.
All right, good evening.
I'm Michelle Sheehan.
I'm a resident of Mala Creek.
And I'm speaking to you today about the procedures
for today's earlier closed session public comment period.
Before accepting public comment,
the council rightly made the point
that the public comments were to address
only the items being discussed in closed session.
One item being the transfer or sale of lot A.
Speakers opposed to the lot a transfer clearly discussed the ramifications the transfer would bring to the city their community or their neighborhood.
They address the fact that an alternative county access exists, among other things.
Mayor Cindy Silva cut off one speaker who she perceived to be going off topic, because the speaker was addressing some larger negative elements of the development proposal, and their overall negative impacts on the city.
That cutoff was understandable.
However, when speakers obviously in favor of the project added no real reference to the lot A decision at all, they were allowed to continue speaking.
This included the developer's partner and representative, Troy Bourne, who at no point gave any reasons or further information for the council's closed session as to why the transfer of lot A should or should not take place.
He added no information of value on the lot A item.
He was even given extra time to speak but did not address the agenda item.
It was very disturbing to find the mayor allowing him and the other off-topic speakers to continue.
I am the founder of Save Seven Hills Ranch.
I've been strongly opposed to the development proposal as inappropriate to this site.
I did not speak today because lot A and the access is not what Save Seven Hills Ranch was about.
I would love to speak about all the reasons we believe the entire project is a bad idea, but that was not on the agenda today.
This is Laura Patch.
We ask that you make all the
speakers stick to the council's
closed session public comment
parameters, including and in
particular the developer's
representative.
Thanks for listening.
Thank you very much.
Next speaker, please.
Next speaker is Laura Patch.
Hi, this is Laura.
Can you hear me?
Yes, we can hear you.
Hi, my name is Laura Patch.
I use she, her pronouns.
And I'm speaking today to show my support
for the Jewish community that comments expressed
during our last city council meeting were horrifying.
I want to thank council member Kevin Wilford
speaking out later that week,
and I'm sorry that your beliefs and the fact
that you were publicly addressing the issues
made you a target for those comments.
I hope that our council can continue to work
with the DEI committee to find ways to make our city safe.
I acknowledge that prejudice and discrimination
exists in a variety of forms and can occur anywhere.
But I hope to see that Walnut Creek, our city,
and our council members continue to make this a place
where anyone feels comfortable and belongs.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you.
Next speaker.
Next speaker, Steve Elster.
Good evening, my name is Steve Elster.
I'm a resident of Walnut Creek.
I'm here to denounce the unseen cowards
who used the last public comment period
to mutter support for white supremacy
and antisemitic conspiracy theories.
I'm also here to express my support
for the Walnut Creek City Council
and for Kevin Wilk in particular,
who must deal with these bigots who shiver in the shadows.
Attacks like this on anyone is an attack on all of us.
It does not represent our city
and reflects the most abhorrent in our country.
Kevin was targeted specifically because he has spoken up
in support of others facing discrimination.
It is said that the only thing necessary
for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.
All good people should join
in denouncing these bigoted attacks.
Thank you.
Thank you for being here this evening.
Is there one more speaker?
We have two speakers.
Next speaker is BG.
Hello, my name is Barbara Guinness and I'm a resident
along the creek since 1996.
I had a few questions for the city council
and particularly maybe the city manager
as these questions have not been answered by city staff.
First question is,
what is the service level on public records?
Is it still 10 days for many most requests?
There are some requests that have not been completed.
They were rendered in 2022
and they're just getting some documents now, et cetera.
So I'd like to have you please advise
on what the public should expect
or on public record request completions.
Second question is the public has been waiting
for a long time to be able to travel safely by foot
on single track trails and open spaces.
For the past couple of years mountain bike traffic
in our open spaces has been rampant and enforced
and very dangerous for individuals who are on foot
and tried to safely enjoy the trails.
Please advise one trail enforcement with citations
the municipal codes will begin. Third question, public has been waiting a long time also to
receive the status report on this item. Explore the possibility of a new multi-use flow trail
in Lime Ridge. The NCE contractor was hired in May of 2022, yet no updates from city staff
on status now for 14 months. So I'd like to update on that. Number four, with more than half the
monies as of the end of April being spent with NCE on the environmental studies for the mountain
bike flow trail, why does the city not have any deliverables? The public is told there's no meeting
minutes with NCE, no meeting minutes with tribal representatives, no drafts of any documents,
no feedback on the January 2023 environmental survey. Just wondered why the city would spend
over $30,000 with no deliverables to show for the consultants work. Thank you for your attention
to these matters and for the very public facing matters that they are and they deserve your
attention. Really appreciate all you do and thank you very much for the city of Walnut Creek.
Thank you very much. Next speaker is Scotty. Can you hear me? Yes we can. Yeah I just wanted
to call in to uh let you guys know that I'm the guy that you guys shut down in the last meeting
and what you did was completely against our constitution and what it stands for. I just
want to remind you guys you guys took an oath you swore to defend and uphold the constitution
directly as it is just because I want to point out Jews are responsible from for lots of
all the negative shit in this world, that doesn't mean you can shut me down. And I just want to ask
Wilk, how do you like those banners? Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Next speaker is Darryl.
Hello, can you hear me? We are a worldwide legal, peaceful, and anonymous initiative that
furthers the interests of white people through real life action. We seek to create a white racial
consciousness by encouraging people to demonstrate their love for their folk through real life action.
WLM activists do not reveal their identities publicly, and anyone claiming to represent
WLM non-anonymously is an imposter.
We welcome support from anyone of noble character.
However, activism with us is only done anonymously and legally.
We believe it is long due to take a stand and delaying our goals could very well be
our final demise as white people.
WLM is apolitical yet racial, and action-focused yet anonymous.
We act, we do not talk.
We are not concerned with the economic or even political landscape.
However, our views regarding those two are, if it helps the interests of white people,
we are for it.
If it does not, we are against it.
When it comes to actual goals, we will fight for and will achieve one.
By any means necessary, ensure the physical, cultural, and spiritual continuation of our
people in all of the countries or continents that we have built.
By physical continuation, we mean an absolute white majority population in these nations
from now and until the end of time. Two, that the states or countries or nations that white
people have built are repurposed with the main goal of ensuring white people's existence.
Anything else comes second. We do not condone the authoritarian state and believe the sole
existence of the state is to ensure the peaceful and prosperous continuation of its racial
stock. Three, that the real history of our people once again be taught, exposing the
lies that have been circulating in the past 100 years. For more context of our worldview watch
Europa, the last battle available at Europa the last battle.net. For more information you can find
us on Twitter, Telegram, and GAB at White Lives Matter California. We must secure the existence
of our people and a future for white children. Time's up. Does anyone else wish to speak
under public communication? There are no additional hands raised. I am so glad all of you are here
tonight. I am so glad that we are in a community that appreciates the
contributions of everyone and we are colorblind to that. So thank you all for
everything you do for our community. Thank you to my council colleagues and
we are going to go to our reports of staff and do we have closed session
announcements? Madam Mayor there are no closed session announcement from today.
City Manager, do you have any reports? Give us some good news.
Good news is hopefully you adopt a budget this evening and we'll get that going for next year, I do not have an update otherwise.
Councilmember Darling, because we have a very heavy agenda tonight, let's keep it to two items each. Make your choice.
I am going towards the light. As we talked about at the end of the public comment last time, love is always stronger than hate.
Councilmember Wilk and I got to go to the pride celebration at Bedford where
the fabulous Miss Ronnie Nothingmore came and read stories to our children
and taught them that you value who people are, not by anything other than
the goodness of their soul. That and we also had really a bunch of interesting
other discussions but I will just focus on coming out of the shadows and coming
into the light and focusing on taking care of each other.
Councilmember Francois?
I'm gonna go toward the light too.
I'm sorry that you had to experience that.
None of us should be discriminated against
in this country based on our religion of all things.
It's what this country was founded on.
And those comments are not who we are as a community.
Who we are as a community and as a council
is a community that embraces diversity.
It's one of our priorities.
recognize Juneteenth and Pride and Jewish American History Month last month.
So that's who we are as a community.
And I'm disturbed by those comments and I think, you know, I'm inclined for us to
consider limiting comments by Zoom if this is our future because I don't want to be subject to that
anymore. You want to come out of the shadows and stop being a coward and make your comments in
public, not anonymously, if you're going to spew that vial because I don't want to hear it.
I attended the chamber board meeting with there was an update on the on the
successful 40th annual art and wine festival final numbers aren't in yet but
they ran out of rose and Chardonnay so they thought that was a good sign we
heard about made in the shade on the 25th I attended last year was a really
fun event out in Shadelands in the sports mall complex is remarkable so I
encourage everyone to go out there. The then though there's an economic
development working group meeting through the chamber that's being active
in contributing to our economic development action plan and so they
wanted to express their continued thanks to staff for having the forum and the
ability to have input on that and I will leave it there. Councilmember Wilk.
Thank you. So first I'm just going to address the hate speech and then we will
I'll go to my points.
I just would like to thank the people that have reached out
to me over the last couple of weeks.
It's one reason that I stand up for everybody
is because anti-Semitism is probably the oldest form
of bigotry and discrimination in the world.
And people don't stop at one.
They just move on to others, as we certainly know.
And what an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us
because it is divisive and one way we can rebuke this
is by standing up for each other as a community.
It's why I stand up for LGBTQ and Asian and Latina
and black and anybody in marginalized communities
that are just showing pride in themselves.
What I think is interesting is that these people,
these hate speech, these hate groups
that are so prideful in what they say is their own race
that they hide in the shadows,
that they don't show their face on Zoom,
that they use anonymous names,
and all they do is hide
because they know they'll be rebuked,
they'll be fired, they'll be ostracized.
And so they stay hidden.
And I think we do have to consider this as a city council
to see if we want to be able to allow
this kind of anonymity to be able to call in
rather than show up in the future.
It's unfortunate, but I think we do have to
at least have that discussion.
But again, thank all of you for those
who spoke tonight in person,
for those who did speak tonight in Zoom,
and for my fellow council members,
your support as well, as well as the entire community,
because I received dozens of outreach support,
so thank you for that.
Now to the light stuff.
So I'm on the board of two different committees.
One is the DRAA, Diablo Region Arts Association,
and I do wanna mention that there is a Fiesta Cultural
from June 20th to 25th in Walnut Creek,
a week-long celebration of Latin American art and culture
at the Lesher Center.
I will be there.
And also there is a new season of headliners
and arts and events have come out
and check out the LesherArtsCenter.org
for all the details on that.
I also sit on the board of the County Connection
and we did receive,
we probably see all this in the news last week,
$1.1 billion by the state for public transit,
not all the County Connection, by the way,
but to public transit in general.
And we need to understand how this will be distributed.
It does impact, it will help BART,
it will help all the feeder systems as well.
And to add to that, we've got a 50% discount through MTC
for the youth program, which would start in 2004
for two years.
It's an extension that had previously been at 20%,
so ride them buses.
And the electrical buses availability on those vehicles
are now up to 80% from 57% in 2021.
There is a supply and change shortage,
but as we have sustainability on the agenda tonight,
I thought that was some good news that I would share.
Mayor Pro Tem.
It's hard to know how to address
all of the feelings I feel when I've been attacked.
These colors have offended me to the core of my being.
And ultimately, my heart aches for them
because they're so filled with hate and negative thinking
and how much they miss in joy
and knowing the rest of the world
and how much they give up
to be as narrow-minded and hurtful as they are.
So they don't listen,
but I hope they hear that I am concerned about them.
I had several meetings,
all of which were administrative
and I'm not taking anybody's time for that.
Thank you again to my colleagues and to those of you who were with us this evening.
I would mention that the Recycle Smart Board will be meeting this week. We are beginning
a new franchise process, which you might hear more about as we discuss the sustainability
action plan later, but I will mention that this Thursday at our board meeting we are slated to
adopt an integrity guidelines for the procurement process. It will encompass multiple years
and these integrity guidelines are for board members,
potential board members, as well as staff
and the consultants that support us.
But the bottom line is really we want to keep
the process transparent, fair, equitable,
and so that was what the board will be discussing.
Council member Darling and I were on the ad hoc committee
that worked a few weeks back to interview
four teams of architects for the design and development of the new aquatics and community
center facilities at Heather Farm and we indicated our preference for the architect team and staff
is negotiating and we will be hearing more in probably by early August. And the East Bay
Regional Communication System Authority Board met last week. This is the basically the public safety
radio system board that encompasses two counties. It's an interoperable radio
system. It was built with homeland security and UASI funds post-9-11. We
adopted our budget and we also had a very serious cost discussion
because costs have been rising and we've been trying to maintain the per-month
subscriber per radio cost and the time has come to fruition and so in the next
year we're going to be looking at how we can incrementally increase those rates
so that we are able to take advantage and respond
to technology improvements and aging equipment.
So just a heads up and then I will remind everyone
that the 4th of July is when we celebrate the anniversary
of the United States and all that we represent.
And this year I invite everybody to come out
and celebrate in the park at 6 p.m. in Civic Park
with the Walnut Creek Concert Band as they salute America.
and it's always a fun evening.
Bring a chair, bring a blanket, bring a picnic dinner
and enjoy the fun.
And with that, we will move to our first item
is a public hearing, item five,
for the adoption of our biannual fiscal year 2024-2025
operating budget, capital budget and master fee schedule
as well as the adoption of the resolution
establishing the fiscal year
2024 annual appropriations limit. Boy, was that a mouthful? I hope you have shorter sentences than that one.
Hi, Katie.
Good evening Mayor Silva, Mayor Pro Tem Hask you and members of Council.
My name is Kirsten LaCasse, Administrative Services Director, and I just want to start
by taking a moment to thank all of the department directors and their staff for all of their work on the biennial budget.
This has been an ongoing effort that took a lot of teamwork.
I would also like to acknowledge our budget manager Katie Bruner for all of our hard
work throughout this process, her efforts and skills are very much appreciated, and
I'm grateful to have her as a member of my team.
And also I would just like to thank these efforts and the leadership of the City Council,
the Finance Committee, and City Manager Bakshi, so thank you all for all of the work that's
gone into this budget.
And with that, I will hand it over to Katie for tonight's presentation on the fiscal year
and fiscal year 25 budget
Thank you, Kirsten. Good evening mayor Silva council members
I'm Katie Bruner your budget manager, and I will be presenting the fiscal year 24 25 operating budget
capital budget and master fee scheduled this evening
So tonight we are recommending that the City Council conduct a public hearing and adopt the four resolutions before you
Appropriating the operating budget and the capital budget for July 1st
2023 through June 30th 2025
adjusting fees and charges for city services and activities and
Establishing the fiscal year 24 annual appropriations limit, which is also known as the GAN limit
So tonight I will be walking through the proposed fiscal year 24 and 25 operating budgets for the city's general funds
Which specifically include our general operating fund the measure O fund and our newly created pension trust fund?
all of our other City funds, the fiscal year 24 and 25 capital budget, and the
master fee schedule. So where we started at staff level and as Director Lacasse
indicated, staff has been working on this since the fall of 2022. All of that
staff work with the departments brought us to our first finance committee
meeting on the budget in April of 23 and we've held multiple meetings with the
Finance Committee and your council to get us here this evening for budget
adoption. So getting into more of the details across all of our city funds, the
fiscal year 24 budget includes a hundred and eighty four point five million
dollars in revenues and a hundred and eighty three point four million dollars
in expenditures which results in a one point one six million dollar
contribution to fund balances. The fiscal year 25 budget is recommended with a
the $146.6 million in revenues
and $158.9 million in expenditures
with a use of $12.25 million of fund balances.
And I'd like to point out that many of our funds
in the city accumulate funds for use
over time for future purposes.
So the $12.2 million of fund balance in fiscal year 25
is an intentional use of that accumulated fund balance.
Is that primarily in the capital?
Yes.
Thank you.
So to go into a little bit more detail of the general funds,
our general funds group includes the city's general fund,
which is our main operating budget,
the newly created Measure O fund,
and a newly created pension trust fund.
So the fiscal year 24 and 25 operating budget
includes up to eight and a half million dollars
of funding for the following city council
and community priorities.
expanded arts and recreation programming including implementation of the leisure center for the art strategic plan
community outreach and community survey fund funding
diversity equity and inclusion programming which includes citywide dei trainings the creation of a dei
analyst position to support activities and funds for a city council dei initiatives
funding for implementation of the economic development action plan
Downtown events and initiatives as well as additional development review staffing
The city sustainability action plan, which you'll hear more on later this evening
Which includes the addition of a sustainability analyst to manage the implementation of the sustainability action plan and funding to support
implementation activities
Homeless services programs extra open libraries at the Walnut Creek and Ignacio Valley libraries
Parks facilities and infrastructure funding which includes capital improvements to city facilities
public safety and funding for security cameras crossing guards the continuation of funding of five police officers and
Expanded funding for emergency management planning and disaster response activities
So in total the 24 and 25 general funds budget and this includes the general fund measure O and the pension trust
Over the two-year budget have two hundred and twenty nine million dollars in revenues
two hundred and nine
Excuse me. Two hundred twenty nine million dollars in revenues two hundred nine million dollars in expenditures
the use of fund balance in fiscal year 24 that includes the use of
1.9 million dollars of American Rescue Plan Act funds and
9.9 million dollars of facilities reserves for capital projects and then the use of 1.1 million dollars of
allocated measure O fund balance for one-time costs,
and then fully funds our emergency reserves
and sets aside $18 million for future pool
and community center costs
for the facility at Heather Farm Park.
The general fund specifically,
which is the city's main operating budget,
after estimated contributions to reserves,
we're projecting a $710,000 contribution to fund balance
in fiscal year 24,
while Fiscal Year 25 is projected to have a $90,000 contribution to fund balance.
And again, the general fund operating budget in Fiscal Year 24 includes the authorized
use of $1.9 million of ARPA funds and $9.9 million of the facilities reserve, which are
general fund reserve designations for capital projects.
So Measure O is our 10-year half-cent sales tax that went into effect this past April.
And the 24-25 Measure O Budget is balanced in fiscal year 24 after contributing $9 million
to reserves for future pool and community center costs and the use of $1.16 million
of unallocated fund balance.
And then fiscal year 25 is projected to have a $1 million contribution to fund balance.
As of June 30, 2025, general fund reserves are projected to be $54.7 million or 53% of
the operating budget, and this includes our emergency reserves of $16.8 million and pension
reserves of about $26 million.
And then we will be contributing $9 million of measure O funds in both fiscal year 24
and 25 for a total of $18 million reserved for the future aquatic and community center
So the city's other funds include enterprise funds, internal service funds, and special
revenue funds, which are enterprise funds or business-like activities, internal service
funds, we accumulate funds for future city needs, and special revenue funds are restricted
by the types of funds revenues received.
So the operating budget for fiscal year 24 and 25 includes the creation of new funds
as of July 1st, 2023.
I've already discussed the pension trust fund,
which is part of the general funds group,
and it's really just a moving of the pension trust
from a reserve designation into its own fund.
We also are recommending, or includes the creation
of two new special revenue funds,
for one for Measure J, 28A funds,
and then another fund for development technology fees.
These, Measure J is transportation funding received
from with the Contra Costa Transportation Authority,
and the city receives funding under two Measure J programs.
One gets directed for roadway maintenance projects,
and the other funding, Source 28A,
the city uses for transportation planning purposes.
And then development technology fees are collected
by community development and public works
to support technology-related needs
development services. These fees have previously accumulated in the
information technology internal service fund and so we are rec we're creating
these funds to account for them separately. The fiscal year 24 and 25
parking fund budget is a transitional year and it has small surpluses in both
fiscal years and it includes annual contributions to the capital budget of
dollars annually and it also is supporting the implementation of the
outdoor dining program. The Boundary Oak Golf Course budget also has surpluses in
both fiscal years and covers all of the contract operations and city oversight
of the golf course including funding for non-routine maintenance projects. And then
other funds have revenues and programming restricted for specific
purposes, where our budgeted expenditures exceed revenues,
accumulated fund balance will be used.
Authorized positions in the budget include 388.5
full-time equivalent or FTE positions in fiscal year 24.
That includes about 330 FTE in the general fund,
nine FTE funded by measure O,
24.7 positions funded by the downtown parking fund,
and then 24.76 positions funded by all other funds.
The capital budget funds-
Can we stop you there?
Absolutely.
You get a break and I'm gonna see
if any council members have questions at this point.
Any questions about the general fund operating budget?
Is it, it's okay to say no.
Okay.
Okay.
So the capital budget funds projects to create
and preserves the city's physical infrastructure,
which includes our buildings, our roadways, our parks.
So the 24-25 capital budget allocates funding
for repair and maintenance of city roadways,
building and facilities projects like heating,
ventilation and air conditioning, flooring and roofing,
storm drain maintenance, repair and replacement projects,
pedestrian and bicycle safety projects,
improvements to the Boundary Oak Golf Course driving range,
design of the Heather Farm Aquatic and Community Center project,
the installation of lights at the Tice Valley sports fields,
and then the installation of all-weather sports fields
at Heather Farm Park.
The 24 and 25 capital budget allocates $47 million
in funding for capital projects.
These includes $11 million in grant funding,
almost $10 million from the facilities reserve,
about $4 million from the Boundary Oak Golf Course.
Our general fund contributes a total of $3.8 million
over the two year budget,
$2 million of Measure O funds,
and $1.9 million of ARPA funds.
And we have other funding sources like our gas tax,
Measure J, the parking fund, and our in lieu fees.
So the master fee schedule is reviewed
as part of the budget development process every two years,
and departments have reviewed
realigned our fee categories and ranges and updated fees and charges to meet
cost recovery goals. Main changes are in the Arts and Recreation Department to
maintain their flexibility to respond to market conditions and meet their cost
recovery goals and then community development and public works in their
permitting and planning and inspections. And then general government has updated
their city attorney review fees and incorporated fees for the permanent
outdoor dining program. So in total, our total recommended expenditure
appropriations in fiscal year 24 is a hundred and eighty three point four
million dollars across all funds. This includes a hundred and fifteen point
four million dollars in general funds. Again that's our general operating fund
measure O and the pension trust. Thirty one point eight million dollars in
capital funds and thirty six point one million in our other city funds. And the
Fiscal Year 25 recommended appropriation is a hundred and fifty eight point nine million dollars which is a hundred and five point three million in the general funds
categories twenty point seven six million dollars in our capital funds and thirty two point eight million dollars in our other funds so again this evening we are
recommending that City Council conduct a public hearing and adopt the following four resolutions the first is appropriating the operating budget from July
1st 2023 through June 30th 2025 appropriating the capital budget for the
period of July 1st 2023 through June 30th 2025 adjusting fees and charges from
municipal services and activities and establishing the fiscal year 24 annual
appropriations limit and this concludes my presentation and staff is available
for questions thank you thank you very much questions from Council council
member Francois thank you mayor Katie could you just go back two slides it's
really just a kind of hoping for myself and maybe for the benefit of the public
a little clarification on the term appropriation especially when we're
talking about measure O and the pension trust so the appropriation limit it is
by fund, so we set the budget by fund. The total appropriation is how much we are authorized
to spend, kind of, and so the totals are by category, and that's really based on our expenditure
budget adds up to the total appropriation by fund category.
And that we're not planning on spending any of the monies in the pension trust, for instance,
during the next two years?
Correct the pension trust specifically we do pay fees for the investment fees for the trust those get paid out of the trust
But they are covered by interest or other revenues earned by the trust all the money stay within that fund
They don't get used for other purposes and we're not using
Recommending any use of the pension trust during this budget cycle. Okay. Thank you
Any other questions count mayor pro tem?
So I would be remiss if I didn't say something
accounting-oriented.
A budget is essentially the best guess
that we can come up with at this moment.
And as we know from COVID, oh my gosh,
your plans can change.
How frequently, I mean, I kind of know the answer
because I've been around a while,
but I think the public needs to know
how frequently do we look at the budget
and reanalyze whether it is effectively reflecting
what's going on at city level.
So we conduct quarterly reviews of our budget.
We bring forward quarterly budget reports
to the finance committee and city council.
And if we look like we need to make budget adjustments,
we may need to adjust our appropriations
if we will bring those actions forward.
And then as we are in a two year budget cycle,
and kind of do a mid-year, mid-cycle look
at fiscal year 25 before the start of that fiscal year
and make any adjustments then
and to see kind of what's changed from where we are today.
Right, so when we approve this,
we have a standard to meet.
We are not going to overspend any citizens or city money.
We are very responsible about our funds.
Mayor, if I may, I just want to add to that.
So what Katie noted is more of our formal updates
to the council and to the public.
In addition, this council gets broken down
into various categories and makes its way
through the organization to not only departments,
but to divisions, to teams, to work groups,
potentially the individuals have spending authority
who are monitoring those budgets on a very regular basis,
sometimes monthly, sometimes daily,
depending upon the nature of the work
and the nature of the budget.
So we do have a lot of ongoing day-to-day budget oversight
in addition to the formal quarterly process
that we just discussed?
I have a question.
Thank you very much for the presentation.
We are setting aside out of the $12.5 million per year
that we expect to receive from Measure O,
we're setting aside intentionally at Council's direction,
nine million each of the next two years
to go toward the rebuilding of the,
or the building of the new community center
aquatics facility at Heather Farm Park. You can see where will the funds be held
and do we have some alternatives that we might want to discuss to ensure that we
are keeping them as the fund grows bigger we can keep an eye on it. So they
will remain within the measure O fund because they are that's the revenue
source of which the funds came from and per your council direction we will make
a fund balance designation to hold those funds in reserve until your council
authorizes stuff to use them for the intended purpose. Similar to, I'll make a
comparison, it's similar to our, somewhat similar to our emergency reserves
designation. We have, council has designated multiple reserve designations
and they are held kind of in the same, in the general fund but set aside as a
reserve as an emergency or a physical emergency reserve intended for the use
of which council has set by policy so that's and we can track them separately
to make sure that they are staying intact until we have the authorization
from your from City Council to use them. Okay where do we park the money? So we
We have all of our funds citywide are invested per our city investment policy and then the
interest on those general earnings gets allocated to each fund as a proportional part of the
earnings and revenues.
Thank you.
Are there any other questions at this point in time?
Then I'm going to open this for public comment.
If members of the public wish to speak to us at this time, please step forward to the
the podium. We will allow up to two minutes. Please remember to keep your
comments polite and focused on the operating budget and the capital budget
and the fee schedule. Okay, Jan Warren, Walnut Creek Woodlands. There's not a lot
I can say tonight except I'm frustrated with the moving around of the money for
our police department, you know, it starts with the ARPA a couple of years
ago and then we had extra funding from that we were gonna use for measure, oh, I
mean then I was very shocked to hear tonight about all this additional
police beyond what I had heard in the in the former, I've been here for the other
budget sessions and so I don't ever get any feedback about okay we hired five
police officers with ARPA and we put them in the Academy. How many of those
people do we still have? Are we still, you know, I have lots of questions about how
we're using the money and it seems like we can find money, not saying they don't
need it, but seems like we can always find money from measure, I mean not
measure but O or the all these different pockets and other folks just get what
they already had and so I you know I just that speaking well but I'm
frustrated so we'll get the answer to your question next speaker please good
evening Catherine Wally resident of Walnut Creek did you know that crime
rates are generally lower in societies that spend less money on police
prosecutors and prisons and that spend more money on health care treatment early
childhood education youth activities poverty reduction and wellness were you
aware that crimes that police prosecutors and crime prevention
specialists focus on are actually
a very narrow category, which disproportionately targets
poor and marginalized people.
And that when we publicly respond to this violence
with more surveillance and carceral brutality,
it leads to more inequity and violence.
Were you aware that the crimes of the wealthy and powerful
are exponentially more harmful, create more economic loss,
and yet go largely ignored?
Wage theft, pollution, foreclosure fraud, tax evasion,
building safety code violations, prison guard brutality,
A legal police spying and sexual assault of the incarcerated
cause objectively higher levels of harm,
and yet we seem to only be concerned about some crimes
committed by some people.
As one example, wage theft in the United States alone
is responsible for roughly three times more economic loss
than all other times of theft combined,
including burglaries, robberies, larceny, and auto theft.
Did you know that in creating a world
that lives up to the ideals of racial justice,
economic justice, and protection of civil liberties,
makes us safer because overwhelming scientific evidence
shows that the root cause of crime and harm in our society
are related to poverty, inequality,
lack of housing, early childhood education, pollution,
and lack of investment in community connection.
I say all of this because a significant portion,
once again, of our budget is going to policing
with heavy investments in branding, marketing,
and staffing.
And we are doing so because we are applying
the wrong analysis to provide the wrong answers
to the wrong questions,
trapping us in cycles of inequity and harm.
Instead, let's apply the right analysis,
ask the right questions,
and use objective assessments of overall threats
to everyone's wellbeing to create true public safety.
And lastly, I'd like to refer you to the work and writings
of civil rights attorney, Alec Karakistanis,
which has informed this public comment,
wanted to cite him, thank you.
Next speaker, please.
Good evening, I'm Jamie Salcedo,
resident of Walnut Creek.
And I first just wanna echo some of the concerns
that were expressed by my fellow residents here.
And my concern lies in the fact that the more
that we dedicate to certain elements of our budget,
the less that we have for a lot of other resources
in our city.
And I feel like a bit of a Walnut Creek booster tonight
because I've just been so enamored
with some of the programming that I've been fortunate
to experience, got to see in the Heights
at the Lesher Center over the weekend.
My daughter has been participating in some
of the summer programming run by our arts
and recreation department in Civic Park
and Heather Farm Park, just wonderful city parks
that we have in Walnut Creek.
And I don't know if we have the right sized budget
or the right sized force of people
for our police department.
But what I do know is that the reason that I love living here
is because of a sense of safety.
And so I feel like there is an element of safety
that needs to be considered.
But I think there are different ways
of bringing safety to the community.
And I think part of it is also just the wonderful amenities
that we have in our community that attract people
who hold a lot of the same values that I hold
in terms of wanting a wonderful place
for our children to grow up in.
And so I really urge the council to continue
supporting the arts, our wonderful recreation department.
I also think we need to,
I appreciate that the budget allocates a position
for diversity, equity and inclusion.
I have some concerns about it being housed in HR
and kind of the limitations
that that might bring to that role.
But I think based off of some of the comments
heard earlier tonight, there is a need to address diversity equity inclusion in this city.
Thank you very much. Anyone else here in the council chamber wish to speak?
Anyone on Zoom wish to speak to this item? There are no hands raised on Zoom. Thank you.
I will bring this back to council and first I think we perhaps the city manager can address the
The question of the five additional police officers,
they were originally funded with one time federal dollars.
Why are we, I won't put my own spin on the words.
Sure.
I can speak to this.
Dan Buckeye, City Manager.
So a few things.
On December 1st of 2021,
your council held an emergency meeting
to deal with some issues related to a large scale
organized retail theft that had occurred,
and we know we'd had other similar issues prior to that.
Your council did add five police officer positions
on a temporary basis.
You also allocate additional funding for over time
and some technology investments.
That funding is slated to run out June 30th of this year,
so those positions barring the allocation
of some ongoing funding would expire at that point in time.
With respect to whether they've been filled or not,
this is, bear with me here, it's a little harder to explain.
So we had 80 positions prior to that.
We had those five added on a temporary basis.
The question of were those positions filled or not
becomes tricky because we had 85.
We have people who leave who go elsewhere.
We have people who retire.
We fill new positions.
So take your pick.
Did we fill the ARPA positions
or did we fill other positions?
There's really no way to specifically target those
because we interchange officers
to different roles and responsibilities.
rotate around the bottom line is for the past roughly year and a half we've had five more
positions than we would have otherwise is the simple answer and those positions were
slated to expire.
So that's what the funding that is proposed to use measure O to help continue those five
positions that would have gone otherwise.
Just generally speaking in terms of the overall approach to the budget to help address some
of the comments and public comment is that the attempt that, you know, staff had laid
out working with finance committee and through council, hearing from the community, both
in terms of outreach related to Measure O, related to council priorities, is to try to
strike balance.
As we know, we have your five council priorities.
We had the priorities you heard from the community related to Measure O, and the attempt is to
strike a balance in all of those different categories, and Ms. Bruner highlighted those
earlier.
We do have, in addition, some money for public safety, and I should add social wellness as
part of that category.
We're also investing to continue the core homeless outreach program that was slated
to expire if it, because those were using short, that was funded with short-term ARPA
funds.
So that would be extended.
And that was actually doubled in terms of the scope of the resources provided with the
use of ARPA and would be doubled compared to what it was prior to the pandemic.
So in addition, we have ongoing support for homeless and housing programs.
There is a considerable investment in the arts, particularly in the Lesher Center, as
is noted to help implement the strategic plan.
There's funding to support not only a DEI analyst,
a position to help lead those activities,
help manage those activities,
but funding for ongoing training for all employees,
for your council, for our committee,
to help with outreach, to recruit additional
committee members on our various commissions
to further diversify our commissions where possible
and to do additional engagement
with the community related to DEI matters.
And also, you know, this next item on tonight's agenda
is related to our sustainability plan.
There is funding in the budget to support sustainability
by way of an additional position
to help manage the implementation of that program
and other matters, as well as funding,
starting with $200,000 a year in the operating budget
to help implement the plan, plus additional funding
in the capital budget for sustainability
and environmental matters.
So, and then obviously there's a considerable amount
funding allocated for the infrastructure that was noted related to the pool and
the community center so I just wanted to mention the attempt is not to overly
focus on one area but to really it's an attempt to be responsive to the
community and to your council's priorities in a balanced manner. So I'm
looking at attachment five which I'm not sure if you have it electronically but
it seems to show that we are the budget highlights and where we're putting
increased emphasis whether it's from the general fund, from Measure O, or other
funds is 16 almost 17 million dollars over the two years and police public
safety represents 2.75 million of that and just the arts and recreation
enhanced programming represents over 5 million of that and that's without the
economic development work, the community outreach, the sustainability, the DEI
and of course when we invest 18 to 20 million dollars of measure O in
community facilities for programming whether it's that seems like a quality
of life issue not a to enhance that so any other questions from any question
further questions for staff discussion I'll start with a mayor pro tem and
you're welcome to make a motion at the end of your comments if you would like
And it's will be may we take all a city attorney may we take all four motions at once or do we need to do?
You can entertain a motion that includes all four items. All right
So as
chair
It's it's it's a two people committee
so chair is not such a big deal because my co-chair is as active and asks better questions
sometimes than I do. So, but as chair of the finance committee, we have seen this many times
pretty much in the finance committee and then here. This is a very thoughtful, realistic budget.
It picks up items that need to be attended to
that we can afford to do and it would cost us more
if we did not do them contemporaneously
with what's going on.
And I also thank the entire staff
of the people here who work for
and dedicate their creativity and their energy
toward making Walnut Creek the incredible city they are,
that it is, and their ability to make things come out of,
outright, and so, thank you very much for your staff
and for every, for our staff and doing what they do.
Apparently, I am feeling very emotional at this moment.
So, at the end of my comments,
I am going to recommend that we adopt
a resolution appropriating an operating budget
expenditures for the period of July 1st, 2023 through June 30th, 2025. I also recommend that
we adopt a resolution appropriating a capital budget of expenditures for the period of July 1st,
2023 and June 30th of 2025. I recommend that we adopt the resolution adjusting fees and charges
for various municipal services and activities and as the final capper, I recommend that
we adopt the resolution establishing the fiscal year 24 annual appropriations limit. Thank
you for your help, Mayor. Would the Vice Chair of the Finance Committee like to make comments
and second the motion? Thank you. This was my first year on finance
committee and it was a great process. You guys helped me really understand all the ins
and outs of how the pieces work together and wanted to share a little bit of what I found
in going through that because there's so many different elements that go into making a great
city and you know public safety being job one and there's so many different ways to
make people feel safe in the community.
There is making sure we recognize diversity equity inclusion and avoid some of what we
heard earlier tonight.
There's making sure that there's lots of recreational opportunities for our kids.
there is making sure that our police force is moving into the modern age.
One of the positions that we're including this year is a very data driven crime prevention
program that can help people understand crime isn't just wave your arms in the air and read
it on next door.
There's a lot of data behind it and we do a better job of addressing it if we really
understand what's going on.
So there's a lot of balance in this budget, a lot of great things when we were sitting
through the interviews for the architects, looking at those dreams of the community center
and the pool and just the how much better Heather Farm is going to be for our kids and
for our seniors and for us and for anybody that might want to have a wedding was really
exciting.
And there's a lot on the plate this year, a lot of really great things.
And I am excited to offer a second to this.
And I wanted to add one little extra story
because we had a lot of discussion about policing
and public safety.
I did a ride along with an officer earlier,
I guess it was last year.
And one of the things that happened that night
was there was a young woman who had perhaps
had a little bit too much to drink.
And the officer stops the car, kind of gets out,
goes over to her, helps her find her friends
and assures that they are, in fact, calling an Uber
and not going to try to drive each other home.
And he said that in the city he had worked with previously,
they didn't have enough police force.
They were just going from one call to another,
and he would have never been able to stop
and help somebody in that way.
And that that was one of the reasons
he had come to Walnut Creek,
because he wanted to be that guardian model.
He wanted to be the person that could stop
and help the poor drunk girl find her friends.
So it's a mix of different things and different approaches,
but I think the budget that you guys put together
does a really good job of moving our city forward,
and I would be happy to second the vice mayor's motion.
We have a motion and a second, any comments further?
Sure, I first want to appreciate,
thank you for staff for putting this together.
I think we dived into a lot of the details
couple of weeks ago and appreciate seeing the final form of it. Thank you
to our committee as well that having been on the finance committee for a
couple of years I know the details that you put in and all the questions that
are happening that is when you are making the soup and so I understand how
how involved that is and appreciate the work that you've done and that we've
been able to put in some of our augmentation. Regarding the police since
that did come up a couple of times tonight we I think we do need to make
sure that we're staffing appropriately. Obviously we haven't reached the cap of
what we have been able to budget and since as we heard from the chief it can
be challenging to be able to recruit I think that we do have to have that
number there so that we can continue to recruit and it sounds like unfortunately
it's going to be recruiting on an evergreen basis where you just have to
continue to fill spots that people through attrition through whether it's
retirement or injury. Anyway, in any case, they're out. And I know we heard a couple
of comments regarding fewer officers means less crime. I'm not sure of the methodology
of that. I'm not sure which cities were surveyed about that. I think in Walnut Creek, a couple
of things that I've noticed over the years, much like Councilmember Darling, I've gone
on several different ride-alongs over the years. In fact, one of them, about a year
a half ago was with Sergeant Silva who's in this room who is the head of our homeless outreach team.
Without enough officers we don't have a homeless outreach team which everybody has said from the
Trinity Center through anybody that connects with them that is essential to helping the homeless.
We don't have enough officers for a school resource officer program which as we know is essential to be
able to keep our schools safe, but also works as really a resource, a community resource,
for those schools. One of our officers a few years ago actually took away a loaded gun from
a student who had in his backpack that the rounds made it to that officer who was able to disarm
the student without any kind of confrontation beyond going and just talking to the student.
Those are the kind of things that we're able to do to keep the community safe. It's one of those
kind of things that you don't know how safe you are because they're doing a
good preventative job until after the fact. And so I think that having enough
officers to be able to staff programs like that is essential to helping the
overall community. And I've heard, I can't verify this directly, but I've
heard other larger cities in the Bay Area, you can figure out which ones I
suppose, I've heard that officers don't actually even go on to property crimes
or be able to take much more than a very superficial report on a car break and
because they don't have the amount of staff able to do that job. Thankfully
that is not the case in Wallach Creek. We're able to take those reports and
follow up and our detectives can catch people then. So after the fact. So I
think all of that works together as a holistic way in keeping the community
safe and so I think it's important to make sure that we do have the police
staff that is recommended in the budget and we continue to discuss this budget
annually to see do we have enough officers do we want to reduce by one
which we actually did do a couple of years ago when the pandemic hits so this
is this is something that is constantly monitored and I think that we do have an
appropriate number based upon the budget right now for what we need to do for the
city and I'll be supporting this as well.
there's not a lot left to be said I think but I was struck by what the thank
you to staff first of all and to the Finance Committee having served with the
chair I learned a lot and kind of saw how the soup was made and and we did
have a meeting a couple meetings before where we asked a lot of detailed
questions so but the city manager kind of I think encapsulated best by saying
the budget reflects a balance of our priorities
and the community's priorities.
I don't think it's overly focused on one element.
I appreciate the mayor's comments
about really how much of the Measure O funds
are going towards the quality of life issues
with the community center and the pool.
And what I had learned from serving
on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force
was a need for us to have internal resources,
staff people that are experts in the area
that can help shape and guide us
and provide input on key items like training.
So this budget provides for that.
In addition to sustainability,
which is another one of our priorities
and the next item on the agenda,
so we can actually start implementing some of the items
in the plan, which has some pretty aggressive targets
for 2030 and beyond.
And on the public safety, you know,
Our voters told us pretty, our residents told us
pretty loud and clear on the community survey
in regard to Measure O that that's one of their top items.
And so as a representative of them,
I share that sentiment as well,
but I think that's what our community is telling us
and that's where it's appropriate
that we have the five extra officers.
I appreciate and share your frustrations to some extent,
Ms. Warren, in terms of trying to figure out
kind of that matrix of where we are in terms of the numbers
and are we at 85, but,
and we've talked about wanting the police to come in
maybe on an annual basis,
give us an update on what's going on with property crime,
what's going on in the downtown area,
which is where we authorize the five additional officers for.
So, you know, how has that resulted in marked improvements
in public safety in the downtown area?
and then hearing also from our chief's advisory board,
which advises the chief on issues
of concern to the community.
So I too will be supporting the budget.
Thank you to my colleagues, but I'm gonna first start.
Thank you to staff and everyone across the organization.
This is not the finance department deciding
what everyone is going to have for a budget.
This is requests and funding and planning that comes upward.
And I think what this budget really reflects
is not only that the priorities of the community
which we emulate, I don't sit down at night and think,
gee, what are my priorities?
I listen to the community, you listen to the community,
we all listen to the community as does staff
and taking input so that the budget reflects
the priorities we've established
and what we want to work on together.
I also think that this budget reflects
the symbiotic nature of how a city works.
each of these departments do not work in a vacuum.
It's important to have safe roads
because you need to be able to get to and from work safely.
You need to be able to get to and from the park
or school safely.
And our police officers need safe roads to be driving on
otherwise they're bumping around
and just like the neighbors are.
All of this works together.
So I really appreciate how hard the staff works
to make this happen every two years.
I also appreciate the level of monitoring
and attention to detail that will go on now quarterly,
hopefully not weekly and daily,
the way it was three years ago, but that was a nightmare.
And I appreciate all of the input from the community,
both through surveys and what they have told us over time,
as well as during our meetings.
And we have a motion and a second.
Can you please take the roll call vote?
Mayor Pro Tem Hask you.
With pride, aye.
Council member Darling.
Councilmember Francois. Aye. Councilmember Wilk. Aye. Mayor Silva. Aye. Motion carries.
Thank you all very much. We are going to take a 10-minute break while the next
team sets up for its presentations and we get a little moment to pause. Good
evening again and welcome back to the June 20th 2023 regular meeting of the
Walnut Creek City Council. The next item on our agenda is the review of our
sustainability action plan. It's a draft. It's the introduction of the draft plan
and a summary of the phase three community outreach. And good evening. The
item before you is our sustainability action plan. The much awaited, I should
say, sustainability action plan. I'm pleased to introduce this item and
introduce our sustainability team that's with us tonight. So our city staff is
Emily Struthers from Public Works and Catherine Walsh who's our Climate
AmeriCorps fellow and we have our consultants Eli Crispy and Tammy Seale
from PlaceWorks and Darren Newfield from Harrison Associates. So environmental
sustainability has been a priority of the council for a number of years and
we've been working as a leader in this space and inspiring our community to
also be leaders in this space. And since 2019 we've been working on updating the
sustainability action plan. We've developed this over three
phases. We've had transitions in city staff. We've had new state laws and
regional changes in codes and regulation. And for good measure we
threw a pandemic in there while we were developing this plan. So we are very
excited to bring you this tonight. Tonight is a culmination of the work
that we've done with you all and the community and our partner agencies on
how we plan to achieve a sustainable future and how we have planned to
address climate change and its impacts in the long term and how we plan to meet
the ambitious goals of our state in reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.
So tonight's presentation will be comprehensive.
All of these items on the screen here you have seen before throughout the different
development phases, so phase one through three.
However, you have not seen them all together in a plan just yet, so we will be talking
about them comprehensively together.
We're going to start with how the development process, those three phases that I mentioned.
We're going to talk about the targets and the policies that we're going to be implementing
to achieve those targets and those actions that go with those policies.
We're going to talk about phase three's feedback and what we heard from the community.
We're also going to talk about our approach to environmental review and what that means
going forward for CEQA streamlining.
And then we're going to talk about how we implement this plan going forward and for
the next 10 to 15 years.
Separately, we will be talking through a climate emergency resolution, which was something
that the Council and the community has been asking for for some time. So the
recommended action for these two items, the sustainability action plan and the
climate emergency, is just to give us feedback. You are not adopting the plan,
you are not adopting the climate resolution this evening. We want to hear
your feedback because this is the first time you've seen it comprehensively
together. We will take that feedback and bring it back to you. We're hoping on
July 18th for adoption of the plan, but tonight is just about feedback and
hearing your comments and what you think about the plan
and if there's changes you'd like to make.
So to frame our discussion a little bit,
the beginning of this project really started with
creating a sustainability vision for our community.
And this was developed with the community
and with the council.
And it's really a vision for the future
where all people have equitable access to clean water
and air, multimodal transportation,
renewable and reliable energy resources,
parks and open space, efficient waste systems,
and a resilient community that can withstand
the climate impacts into the future.
And so this plan really is a balanced way
of how we're gonna go about achieving this vision.
So what you're gonna hear about in the presentation tonight
and what's in our plan is a focused approach
on actions that are most impactful
for achieving greenhouse gas emission reductions.
It's looking through a lens of equity
at all of the different sustainability issues
in our community.
And it's also really expands the partnerships
that we have with the community
because we cannot achieve this sustainability vision alone.
We are Walnut Creek and we can do a lot of things,
but we need our state partners.
We need our regional partners.
We need our community groups to help us achieve this vision.
So with that, I will hand it over to Emlyn Struthers
who's gonna walk you through the development of the plan.
Wonderful thank you Carla and thank you to everyone from the public and to
Council. What is a sustainability action plan? It is a tangible document that is
supposed to guide the city to help us achieve that lofty vision that we all
created together that we just saw on the last slide. So it is a vision for us to
adapt to changing climate conditions, which is what we call climate resilience
and mitigation. It's also a plan to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions so that we
can achieve net carbon neutrality statewide in 2045. And it also includes other sustainability
measures that are supported by the community. And it's not our first sustainability action
plan. It builds on our 2012 Climate Action Plan and addresses all of those components
of sustainability. So climate adaptation, resilience, and greenhouse gas emissions.
We have some pretty aggressive targets set by the state. We are aiming to achieve 40%
reductions below 1990 levels of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and 85% below 1990 levels
by 2040.
Because we've created a document that allows us to achieve those goals, it's also something
that's able to be called a sequel qualified plan, which would allow discretionary development
projects to use this as their greenhouse gas emissions analysis.
And our consultant Eli Crispy with PlaceWorks will speak to that in greater detail later
on.
How was the plan created?
As Carla mentioned, it's been created throughout three different phases.
In the first phase, we created a vision together with the community of what we'd like to achieve
in a sustainable future.
We also created key technical analyses and documents, including a greenhouse gas emissions
inventory, which is a snapshot of what are our emissions at that point in time, and a
forecast of those into the future.
We also created a vulnerability assessment, which assesses how climate change would negatively
impact our community.
During phase two, we created strategies to address our emissions and those vulnerabilities,
and conducted outreach on all the different strategies.
During phase three, which we're in now, we've brought all of those components together.
So hopefully some of them look familiar.
brought them all together into one comprehensive plan and we've conducted
outreach and community engagement and now we are in the public review phase
where we are getting more feedback from council and the community prior to plan
adoption. The draft plan was released to the community on April 20th just before
Earth Day and here's a good snapshot of what types of outreach were conducted
leading up to then and during in phase three as well.
So during phase one and in essentially all the phases,
advisory body review was performed.
So we went to commissions including
transportation commission, planning commission,
and youth commission.
An online survey was conducted.
Pop-up events were held.
A good example was Earth Day in Civic Park,
which was hosted by some of our community partners.
And we were happy to be able to support and attend and get more feedback there.
Different stakeholder meetings, virtual workshops, and of course, city council study sessions
and meetings.
Through all the phases, we've also had up-to-date information on our city website, been producing
an eco newsletter, which has over 2,000 subscribers and trying to get the word out about the plan
on social media.
So with that, I'll turn it over to Eli who can give us more information on those technical
analyses included in the plan, that informant, the strategies included, and the environmental
review component.
Good evening Council members.
So as you've heard, the overarching goals of the sustainability action plan to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions, to improve climate resilience, and to address comprehensive sustainability
issues in the community, and these goals are supported by two key technical studies that
I'd like to go over.
The first is a climate vulnerability assessment, which is an understanding of how climate change
may affect the natural hazards that are present in the community, who and what may be affected
by those hazards, and how severe those effects are likely to be.
And the second of those studies is a greenhouse gas inventory and forecast.
This is an understanding of where Walnut Creek's greenhouse gas emissions are coming from,
how significant these emissions are, and how those emissions are likely to change in the
future given the city's growth and other considerations.
So to begin with the climate change vulnerability assessment, here are some of the high-level
findings from that study.
We found that there are many community members in Walnut Creek who are likely to face an
increased risk of health hazards and personal harm or injury, including impacts to mental
and behavioral health from changes to natural hazard conditions in the community.
Senior citizens and persons with disabilities in particular are likely to face increased
harm also due to challenges evacuating should the need for that arise.
There are a number of buildings and infrastructure networks in and around the community.
to those networks can result in a loss of service as well as the resulting property
damage.
This is particularly the case with power lines, and we've all seen the disruptions that can
occur when power is shut off deliberately as a result of a public safety power event
or accidentally if lines are damaged by any kind of natural hazard.
Drought events are expected to harm a lot of the local ecosystems in the community.
They can also, in extreme cases, threaten the community's water supply.
There is a much more detailed summary of the vulnerability assessment.
This is a very high-level overview.
For more information, I would point you to Appendix B of the Sustainability Action Plan,
and then the full results will also be included in the City's upcoming General Plan Safety
Element Update.
If we look at the greenhouse gas inventory results, this is a comparison of the greenhouse
gas emissions in Walnut Creek between 2005 and 2017.
that 12-year period greenhouse gas emissions fell about 27%. There are a few reasons for this,
a lot of it has to do with MCE coming online, bringing a lot of cleaner electrical supplies to
the community. Many of the vehicles that were driven in 2017 were much cleaner and much more
fuel efficient than they were in 2005. The city has also produced less solid waste over that
that period despite population growth.
And there has also been lower emissions
coming from outdoor equipment, construction vehicles,
landscaping equipment, and that kind of thing.
In 2017, of those remaining emissions,
about 85% of them did come from two main sources,
from transportation fuels
and from natural gas use in buildings.
So those remain the largest source
of Walnut Creek's emissions.
just a few quick facts about the Walnut Creek greenhouse gas emissions from the 2017 inventory.
We wanted to point these out partly to demonstrate community members' individual contribution to
emissions, but also to identify foundations for creating new strategies to help reduce
these remaining emissions. These are some of the key areas that we have targeted in the
Sustainability Action Plan. So the Sustainability Action Plan is working to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions in a manner consistent with state law. By 2020, the current Climate
Action Plan set a target to reduce emissions 15% below 2005 levels. As I
said in 2017, your emissions fell significantly from 2005 levels, the
emissions dropped 27%, so the city has met and substantially exceeded the goal
in the adopted Climate Action Plan. There are future targets that have been
adopted by the state. The state directs statewide emissions to reduce 40% below
1990 levels by 2030 and 85% below 1990 levels by 2045. These are the targets
that the sustainability action plan is working towards. So the sustainability
action plan does build on several regional and state policies that have
recently been adopted or are planned for. This includes recent actions by the Bay
Area Air Quality Management District to begin phasing out the installation of
new gas-fueled water and space heaters. There are plans by the state to move
towards all-electric requirements for most types of new buildings and the
state has also recently adopted a number of regulations that would phase
out the sale of new gasoline and diesel powered vehicles. So there are five
chapters of the sustainability action plan. Chapters one and two deal with the
background and the context of the plan. This includes identifying the issues that
the plan addresses, going over the regulatory framework that supports the
plan, and describing the process that the project team used to put the plan
together. Chapters three and four are sort of the heart of the sustainability
action plan. This is where those strategies live, the ones that reduce
emissions, improve climate resilience, and enhance overall community
sustainability. And then chapter five contains details on how to implement the
plan. This includes information about monitoring and reporting the results of plan implementation
to community members and to decision makers. There are about 22 strategies in the plan.
They are divided into these six categories. The strategies, as I mentioned, really build
on Walnut Creek's past achievements. And they are meant not only just to continue those
past achievements, but also to accelerate them, to bring in new opportunities that were
were not available when the 2012 climate action plan was adopted.
And they also reflect what we have heard from the community, intending to enhance community
resilience and improve general sustainability, which again were not part of the 2012 climate
action plan.
The strategies do reflect input and feedback from the city council, from the advisory bodies,
from numerous community workshops, surveys, a number of outreach events, and they also
incorporate many of the state and regional standards and programs that I
mentioned earlier. If you were to look at the sustainability action plan and at
the individual strategies in it, this is how they are laid out. Each new strategy
begins with identifying the strategy language and for the strategies that do
have a greenhouse gas reduction benefit directly below the strategy language we
do list that reduction benefit for 2030 and 2045. Following that are one or more
of what are called co-benefits.
These are additional benefits that the strategy provides beyond simply reducing emissions
or improving resilience.
These support the goals and objectives that the community members and the City Council
identified at the very beginning of the process.
It includes things like enhancing equity, conserving natural resources, promoting the
local economy, and so on.
And then following that are what are called recommended actions.
These are the very specific targeted steps that the plan recommends that the city take
to actually implement the strategy and to put it into effect.
And then following that are performance assumptions and indicators.
These are metrics that can be used to track the plan's success and identify how well implementation
is going.
So achieving the greenhouse gas reduction targets in the sustainability action plan
does require implementing the full set of strategies, all 22 of them, but nearly all
of the greenhouse gas emission reductions in the plan do come from six key strategies,
the ones shown here.
Collectively, these are responsible for a little over 98 percent of the plan's greenhouse
gas reductions.
So while we certainly want to be comprehensive and reduce emissions from as many different
areas as possible, we do recognize that these are kind of the biggest successes from a greenhouse
gas reduction perspective. I'll just give a high-level summary of some of these
strategies beginning with those that affect building and energy supply. The
strategies in this topic include those to make improvements to existing
buildings over the next few years for electrification and energy efficiency,
again in alignment with the recent air district regulations. There is an emphasis
on educating community members about available incentives to support
electrification and energy efficiency to help people save money on utility bills.
There are requirements to also begin to construct many new types of buildings to be all-electric
over the next several years.
The plan does assume that there will be some building types that are exempt from these
requirements, in particular restaurants, biotechnology facilities, and health care facilities.
There are a series of strategies to affect transportation and land use.
This is where we have strategies around improving electric vehicle adoption, including EV chargers.
This is also where micromobility lives in strategies that support the use of electric
bikes and scooters, as well as general improvements to walkability and bikeability in the community,
wanting to improve transit-friendly neighborhoods, enhancing the quality of transit systems in
partnership with the local and regional transit providers.
And this is where we have included integrating some of the recommendations from the recent
Rethinking Mobility Plan, such as rightsizing and reevaluating the city's availability
of parking.
On the wastewater and solid waste side, we have a number of strategies related to requiring
water conservation and working to expand recycled water service into Walnut Creek.
There are strategies about improving recycling and composting through education and through
partnerships with the waste providers.
And we're also working to comprehensively reduce the overall amount of waste produced
in the community.
So not only is it about directing waste away from the landfill and towards recycling and
composting, but also reducing the overall amount of waste that is sent to any facility.
And on the greenhouse gas reduction side there is a strategy about reducing greenhouse gas
emissions from outdoor equipment.
This includes a ban on gas powered leaf blowers that would be phased in over the next few
years.
And that phase in period is really meant to reflect the fact that a ban would affect lots
of different people in the community, small businesses, HOAs, including the city's own
maintenance programs, we do want to make sure we are moving forward with that ban in a manner that
is measured, that is effective, and that is keeping the equity considerations in mind. So that is
part of the reason why we had recommended this be phased in over a period of time.
And then there are strategies that relate to community health and resilience. This includes
improving local air quality, supporting green infrastructure, using what are called nature-based
solutions and this is also where all the strategies that help to protect the
community against natural hazard conditions are found. So in total the
plan is projected to reduce Walnut Creek's greenhouse gas emissions to
about 310,000 metric tons of carbon, metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent
or MTCO2E by the calendar year 2030 and then by about, down to about 77,000
MTC O2E by 2045 and this translates to reducing emissions 42% below 1990
levels by 2030 and 85% below 1990 levels by 2045. The targets that we mentioned
earlier again the state has laid out 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and 85% below
1990 levels by 2045 so fully implementing the sustainability action
does allow the city to meet and even slightly exceed the targets that the
state has laid out. This is also intended to support the overall statewide goal of
achieving carbon neutrality by 2045. Lastly I'll just point out that the
sustainability action plan is subject to environmental review under the
California Environmental Quality Act or CEQA. The project team did prepare an
addendum to the certified general plan environmental impact report to
satisfy the CEQA requirement. The addendum found that the sustainability
action plan would not create any new significant environmental impacts nor
would it substantially exacerbate any existing significant environmental
impacts that were identified at the time that the existing EIR was prepared. The
sustainability action plan also meets state and regional standards for what
referred to as a CEQA qualified greenhouse gas reduction strategy, and this would allow it to
support the streamlining of environmental review for new development, provided that that new
development was fully consistent and compliant with the strategies that are laid out in the
sustainability action plan. And with that, I will turn it back to Emeline. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Eli. As I mentioned earlier, we released the draft plan on April 20th,
And since that time we've been gathering feedback from the public through a variety of avenues,
including an online survey, attending Earth Day events throughout the community.
We held a community workshop on May 3rd, a virtual community workshop, and received feedback
through that as well. And we've been promoting it across our social media channels and through our
eco newsletter. And we've received a lot of other emails and comments through that, which you can
see in your packet. Through that process we gathered a lot of really great
feedback that's helped improve the plan, that's included as attachment four, and
we've also have some main themes. We've heard lots of enthusiasm for
restricting gas powered leaf blowers, reducing waste, increasing the amount of
transit oriented development in the city, increasing bicycle and pedestrian
infrastructure, and advancing electrification of buildings. And to that end, we've seen a desire
for more rapid implementation of selected strategies, in particular restricting the use
of gas-powered leaf blowers. On most of those, we've seen a mix of feedback, but that's one in
particular that stood out if you look at the public comments. In addition, a major theme is
is the interest from the community
in seeing continued engagement
and collaboration with the city.
So they want us to communicate more with them
and not less on sustainability topics.
One other thing I wanted to note during phase three,
we also did an eco-art contest
so you can see some of those artworks featured
throughout this presentation, including on this slide.
How are we going to do all of this?
You heard in our last item, the budget item,
that we will now have a full-time coordinator
to help us implement the sustainability action plan.
And that's great news because there's a lot of work
included in the plan to make us, to keep us on track
and make sure that we're implementing the plan as intended
and staying on track to achieve our goals, our methods.
So those will help us monitor and report on progress,
partner with the community to increase our impact
do things we couldn't do all on our own, secure more funding, and routinely update our emissions
inventory and plan again to check where we're at and see if any adjustments are needed to achieve
those goals. Also included is a high level work plan which lays out different actions by
term so immediate or near term which are actions that need to be accomplished right now by the end
of 2023, actions that need to be accomplished in the midterm by 2026 and in the long term by 2030.
And those are included in the plan as tables 9, 10, and 11 if you're so inclined to look at them.
They're also an attachment to the gender report, a little bit of a summarized version to make it
more accessible. And to give you just a few examples, not all of them, but some keys and
and some highlights to help understand what are the types of actions we'll be implementing
by timeframe.
In the near term, we'll continue to publicize Spare the Air events and actions that we and
this community should take in the event of a Spare the Air event.
We'll also continue to identify community facilities as community resilience hubs.
In the midterm, and Eli touched on a few of these, but we'll be requiring all-electric
new construction for residential buildings by 2026 and requiring
electric water heaters for those replaced after 2026. We'll also be
phasing in that community-wide gas-powered leaf blowers within three
years of plant adoption. In the long term, some major actions that we'll be working
towards are requiring electric heat sources. That really means furnaces or
heaters for those replaced after 2029.
So the replacement would be an electric heat pump in that case, to be clear,
um, and requiring all electric new construction for most commercial buildings
by 2029. Uh,
another action that the city will be undertaking by 2030 is adding
40 new publicly accessible EV chargers on city property.
We've already got about 38, but this will add to that network.
and developing and implementing a citywide tree master plan.
We've also heard throughout this process,
a desire from council and the community
for a climate emergency resolution,
acknowledging the threats of climate change
to our community, emphasizing the urgency of action
and committing to take action on climate change,
such as the actions included
in the sustainability action plan.
It's first draft resolution has been included
in the agenda packet for council consideration
and we look forward to hearing your feedback.
And with that, I will turn it over to Carla
to discuss our next steps.
I told you it was gonna be comprehensive.
So again, the action for you this evening
is to give us feedback on the plan
and the climate emergency resolution.
In the packet, agenda packet, attachment three.
Three.
As we were going through phase three,
we were collecting edits, clarifications,
more editorial type of comments that we could include
in the plan to make it a little bit more understandable
for the community and catch those things
that we may have missed as we were drafting the plan.
So those are included in attachment three.
We've also received some from some council members
that are not policy related,
but really editorial in nature
and more clarification in nature
that we can include in the final plan
when it comes back to you in July.
And then you do have the climate resolution
as attachment six to give us feedback on.
As I mentioned, we will be coming back
with your direction in July to hopefully adopt the plan
and adopt the climate resolution.
So with that, we are done speaking to you.
You get to speak to us and so does the community.
Thank you.
Thank you very much to everyone, staff, consultants, et cetera,
and all of the members of the public who have been involved
in providing input on this
and helping to formulate this plan.
We're gonna do some questions from council.
So let's be mindful to focus on technical questions
so we don't drift into comments
before we hear from the public.
So, Council Member Wilk,
do you have any clarification questions
based on the staff presentation at this point?
It's regarding leaf blowers,
whoever wants to answer that question.
Gas-powered leaf blowers.
That's Evelyn.
So I'm just curious the reasons
for the three-year phased approach
of the gas powered leaf blowers.
And our gas powered lawn mower is included in that.
Or is there anything else gas powered?
I mean, we always hear gas powered leaf blowers,
but there's a lot of landscaping tools that are using gas.
So there's a few different things going on.
There's at least two actions that pertain to
what's called small off-road equipment.
So it's the hand tools that we use for landscaping
and other related tools.
One applies to municipal operations.
And for that, we will be phasing out the use
of all gas powered hand tools.
So that would include mowers and blowers
and other things of that nature.
For the community wide action,
it is specific to gas powered leaf blowers.
Simultaneous to what we're doing,
there's actions going on at the state level.
So there will be a ban on sale in California
on gas powered equipment starting in 2024.
So there will be some degree of natural attrition
of that equipment as it becomes obsolete,
breaks down, is no longer in use.
There is also a number of incentives for people
and companies to go out and buy and replace their equipment
with cleaner alternatives, and we've been doing
what we can to promote those
from our partner state organizations
to our local community here.
The rationale that we've heard in prior phases
for a phase ban on use, which complements the ban on sale,
is that most residents find the leaf blowers
to be most disruptive to them personally.
That's what we've seen in the feedback.
There's a time period required for both homeowners and business owners to acquire
Train and implement their new tools
Thank you
Mayor pro Tem any questions
Councilmember darling
I
Did have a couple questions. I was kind of
Proving through the comments and somebody was talking about solar water heaters. I'm assuming solar thermal and PBT
Did we include any of the solar hot water heaters as a technology that we're promoting or is that something that?
We're just focusing on electric water heaters
I'll defer to Eli to answer the more technical aspects of it
But solar would be a methodology of electrifying a water heater. So from that perspective, it's
Complementary or supportive if it's something that we wanted to specifically call out
I think there's a way to do it because it's solar. It's not best suited for every site
You need to have
The right conditions to power it
Is there any other technical aspect that's worth mentioning Eli?
Okay, and then in the transportation part of things strategy eight
I just thought it was interesting that your performance measures first are the number of
Housing units in the west and north downtown specific plan areas. So that's
the thinking there is that
The cloak the closer denser housing is to Bart the more transportation
reduction we get in greenhouse gases I
Believe that's true. I'll let Eli actually speak to why that metric was chosen, but it is specific to
To incentivizing or
promoting more transit-oriented development.
So that's the best reflective metric
that we could speak to, and I'll let Eli say more.
Thank you.
Yes, you have it correct.
Generally the denser, the housing and the denser,
the jobs, the less dependency on cars
and the greater the greenhouse gas reductions.
And we've identified the density
as a metric to track for strategy eight,
because for many of these strategies,
when we assess a greenhouse gas reduction potential
or following guidance that is laid out by the state
and by the air districts.
And for that particular type of strategy,
they recommend assessing the reduction potential
and tracking based on density.
So we've tried to stay consistent
with those recommendations.
Okay, thanks.
And let's see what was my last question here.
In the transportation assessment of greenhouse gases,
we're assessing not just our citizens
greenhouse gas impacts associated with transportation,
but the people who also work here?
That's correct.
So any vehicle trip that begins and or ends
in Walnut Creek is being considered in the plan.
So we're not counting people who are passing through,
commuting from Concord or Bay Point
on the way to San Francisco,
but if anyone who is stopping here, living, working here,
those emissions are included and are reduced through the plan.
And so we had consequently,
we'd have strategies that look at increasing the ability
to both live and work here as a part of that.
Yes, and to do so in a way
that reduces vehicle dependency.
Okay, thank you.
Councilmember Francois.
Just had a few.
Natural gas conversions.
Does that apply to cooktops, residential and commercial?
So the phase out that is,
are you referring to existing buildings or new buildings?
Existing buildings.
So the phase outs that are called for in the plan
are focused on the water heaters and space heaters.
We recognize that there are some people
who will want to convert their cooktops to electric
and we certainly encourage and support that.
But the language in the plan is not emphasizing that
and that's consistent with the approach laid out
by the Bay Area Quality Management District
where they are requiring the phase out of the water heaters
and space heaters but not replacements of cooktops
or other natural gas appliances.
Okay, and then I think this might be more for our staff.
There was somewhere in here in the bowels of this plan,
a discussion about continuing a bike share program.
And I don't believe we currently have a bike share program.
So maybe speaking about,
and maybe it's still in the development stage
of what we think that that will consist of
and how that will be consistent
with our rethinking mobility plan.
So I believe the action was specific to a 2018 pilot that was mentioned and it's about
doing a broader implementation of that for different micro mobility strategies that might
be identified in other plans such as rethinking mobility.
Okay.
That's it for me.
So I have a higher level question but it's attention to detail.
So I don't know who.
We have 20-20 targets, 20-30 target, 20-45 target.
But yet I think our 20-20 target said 518 metric CO2 tons or metric tons of CO2.
And yet we were below that in 2017.
So can, has somebody, does somebody have the data handy where you can kind of say, where
we really are today?
Because these numbers are daunting and maybe they're not, I'm not saying we don't do this.
I'm saying maybe we have a much better likelihood of getting where we need to go because we're
in a little better shape.
So the target I think is specifically identifying what the state requirement is.
I understand.
Okay.
But it's kind of like, but that's not where we're starting, right?
are we today? Anybody got an idea? So we did 27% below our 1990 levels so do you
have the number handier? So somewhere along the line I made a note that I got
from someplace that said something like four hundred and fifty six thousand. I
don't have the precise number in front of me but it is correct that it's 27%
below the 2005 levels as of 2017. We have not prepared a greenhouse gas
inventory since 2017 so I don't know the 2023 emissions if that is what you're
thinking. We think 2017 is today's reflective of 2017 or did we start
driving more because there was no BART? It is based on other trends we've seen
in the region, in Contra Costa County, kind of statewide, it is likely that
current emissions are similar or slightly lower than where they were in
2017, even though there may be more people driving, the vehicles have gotten
more fuel-efficient, there are more electric vehicles on the road, natural
gas use in many cases has gone down, there's more clean energy and so on. I
don't have the precise 2023 numbers in front of me again, but we do expect that
the numbers would be in the ballpark or slightly lower than where they were in
2017. So if I'm looking at table 7, which is in chapter 3, page 33, and this was
I'm gonna make a joke about a circular reference in Excel pretty soon. I'm
going back and forth in the book. We think we might be at 4- after state and
regional actions we would be roughly at four hundred and fifty six thousand or
we're at four hundred and fifty six thousand in 2017 and then state and
regional actions bring us down to 395 and we need to get to in 2030 so as of
2017 Walnut Creek was at about four hundred and fifty six thousand no metric
tons if no action is taken okay let's but that's let's not do that part let's
to, we're doing this, I'm trying to figure out what our target gap is after state and
regional and assuming we're starting at 256 and the state and the regional number pulls
us down to…
So the state and the regional number for 2030 is at the bottom of table 7 and the 29…
That's 395,000.
395 and we have to get to 311?
That's correct.
have an eighty four thousand metric ton gap approximately yes and the action
steps that particularly in strategies three five six nine fourteen fifteen
and sixteen get us to if I remember my numbers right get us to that 311 yes and
a little and a little below it yes okay thank you I'm sure council will have
more questions following public comment but at this point I want to open it for
public comment each person if you wish to speak here in the council chambers
please line up and step up to the speaker podium you will have up to two
minutes to speak and of course remember just focus your comments on the
sustainability action plan and following public comment here in the council
chamber then we'll take public comment from those who are joining us virtually
Seems later than it is.
Um, Jan Warren, Woodlands.
Welcome to our world.
Am I going? Uh oh, quickly.
Um, the world is emitting 50 gigatons of carbon a year
with a carbon bank of 250 gigabytes
left to keep us in the safer zone.
That's five years, and we just spent three years working on our SAP.
The heating of the planet is accelerating, and we need to accelerate
implementation. The transportation sector is Walnut Creek's largest emitter of pollution.
We don't just need to switch to a renewable and clean energy, we need to use less energy.
The city's rethinking mobility was adopted October 2020 and has no timelines or due dates
for the plan. I think we need to move forward to fund ped, bike, and mobility transportation
improvements. I received my mobility newsletter today with a video showing
e-bikes, e-scooters, three-wheel scooters, and quad recycles, which is a car, and
there will be a Micro-Ability America here in San Francisco, October 19 to 20.
Sign up early, there's a huge discount, otherwise it's expensive, but you get to
write a whole bunch of stuff and all of that. There's also a device, it's called a
clip that you just put on the bike wheel area and it electrifies your bike and
then you take it off and you have your regular bike so they got a lot of cool
things coming out. A suggestion I submitted via email to the council today
combines some different ideas. 24, oh gosh. Encourage neighborhood leadership and
assisting the city and students to ride their bike to school, establish idle free
zones around the schools and consider a bike to school day with the mayor from
specific neighborhoods targeting elementary schools. We need to we need to
move quickly and I didn't get through my notes but you can read what I said
submitted. Thank you. Next speaker please. Good evening my name is Bob Joe. I'm with
sustainable Walnut Creek. We're a 15-year-old nonprofit. We exist to foster a more sustainable
Walnut Creek, provide programs, educational programs, and I believe that sustainability
should be fun. I'm happy to hear that a council member, darling, brought up the element of
solar water heaters, and that is one of the elements that I had also addressed during
the April workshop. And I don't know why it hasn't been discussed at all, because, you
know, if we use the sun to preheat the water going into your water heater, whether it's
gas or electric, you're going to save money. There's going to be less gas emissions used
if you have a gas water heater. And even if you have an electric heat pump water heater,
you're going to save on electricity. So I don't know why. I think it really would be
mistake if this element isn't considered. There's so many countries that they're
mandated to use solar water heaters. So I would really ask that this be considered,
at least considered. Thank you very much. Thank you very much and thank you for the
suggestion. Next speaker please. Good evening Walnut Creek City Council members,
Mayor Cindy Silva and members of the Walnut Creek community. Thank you so much
for having me here tonight and permitting me to speak. I am a teacher in
the Mount Diablo Unified School District but in Walnut Creek at Foothill Middle
School. First I'd like to express my gigantic thank you for reviewing and
potentially approving the addition of a sustainability analyst to lead
the implementation of recommendations from the Sustainability Action Plan by City Council later
in 2023. Thank you so much for recognizing the global impact and magnitude of the challenge,
urgency, addressing climate change calls for leadership in all sectors of society,
all institutions, and all elected leaders. Thank you very much for recognizing that marginalized
communities worldwide such as people of color, immigrants, indigenous communities, low-income
people, those with disabilities and homeless people, are already disproportionately affected
by climate change.
Now, why should we take to heart with great conviction our opportunity to educate and
prepare students for the challenges of the modern world to celebrate, advance, and recommit
to these district sustainability initiatives to engage Walnut Creek community members to
divert food waste from the landfill, compost, and recycle?
Because if we do not, it harms our oceans, our land, our plants, animals, fungi, bacteria,
and our livelihoods.
When you throw away plastic garbage, it is never a way.
I dare you to throw just one way, one piece of plastic away.
Come on, I dare you.
The protocols and procedures associated with Assembly Bill 827 and Senate Bill 1383 are
identified and implemented at school sites and districts by developing an entity-based
plan based on the three spheres of sustainability environment, social and
economic. Walnut Creek City Schools and community members have come a very long
way but we still have a lot more to do in order to help these schools to reach
a green ribbon school award designation of silver and gold. Foothill Middle
School is currently out of bronze so I can help Walnut Creek schools and
everybody go beyond. Thank you. Thank you very much and you didn't mention your
name do you mind sharing it oh I do apologize Devin Jackson and yeah sixth
grade science teacher and Northern California Recycling Association board
member thank you nice to meet you very nice to meet you again
Jamie Salcedo city of Walnut Creek and also a transportation commissioner and I
just want to first start out by saying that I think the staff and the consultant
have done great work in putting this draft together.
Transportation clearly indicated by the report
is by far the largest contributor
to greenhouse gas emissions.
And in addition to the greenhouse gases,
all of the paving for all of the roads and streets
and parking lots contribute to rainwater
and stormwater runoff.
So I think addressing the transportation aspect
of what we can do in terms of improving sustainability
in the city of Walnut Creek is most critical,
just given the percentage of how much that contributes
to various sustainability issues.
And I think improving bike pedestrian connectivity
to all key destinations, schools included,
but also our city parks and community centers,
our city hall.
So tonight I drove here, I considered biking.
It's about 10 minutes by car, about 15 minutes by bike,
door-to-door, it's about the same, based off of where I can park my bike
versus where I can park my car, but I don't feel safe biking down Ignacio
Valley Road. I recently did take that path on my bike and got whacked
in the face by tree branches. And because we don't have any lanes within
the body of the actual street in order to use that for cyclists.
And I am not a Lycra Spandex brand of cyclist, I am more of a commuter
recreational cyclist, and so I don't always tolerate
those types of challenges to overcome in cycling,
and so I think the more that we can do
to really address some of those issues,
it will really benefit the city, it'll benefit the world,
and I would love to see more hard and fast metrics
to measure our success at addressing that,
such as reducing car trips.
Thank you very much.
Next speaker, please.
Good evening again, Katherine Walley,
resident of Walnut Creek.
Thank you so much for this sustainability action plan
and considering approving it, huge fan of it.
Also just wanted to briefly echo the comments
about connectivity and forms of transportation.
So I was able to walk here today
and walk to most of the city council meetings in downtown.
And I'm so lucky to be connected to the Iron Horse Trail
And most of my child, once they go to middle school
and high school, will be able to be primarily
in protected spaces for biking.
And also, I envision, once they're in high school,
very likely technology is changing.
There's going to be so many different types of e-technologies.
They might be on a scooter.
They might be on an e-bike, et cetera.
And this is something that not just children are using.
Adults are using these as well.
And so this is an opportunity not just for safety
and also for reducing our greenhouse gases,
but also envisioning the future generations that
going to be living, which are us, actually, who are going to be using these technologies
in the future at Walnut Creek. And so US leaders have such a great opportunity to build Walnut
Creek to be the city that people will want to continue to move for, because future generations
are going to definitely want that. Again, the key issue is connectivity. So there are
definitely only certain routes that I will go. I will not allow my child to bike to school.
It is definitely not safe for them to bike to their public school. There are no protected
bike paths to get there. Yeah, so connectivity and build for the future. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Any other public speakers here in the council chambers? I will now turn to
the those who are joining us virtually. I see two hands raised.
I'll go ahead and bring in Marsha Leiberson. Can you hear me? Yes, good evening. Oh okay,
I was having trouble. What I don't understand is why does the plan have its that it's three years
to phase out leaf blowers. I think other cities in the Bay Area have certainly created much less
of a time to phase that out. By the way, I'm a member of 350 Contra Costa County and have
participated in the draft plan for quite a long time. So I really feel that that's way too long
of a time where other cities in Contra Costa have certainly gained much more than we have
in developing climate strategies. Thank you. Thank you very much. Who do we have next?
Next speaker is Samir. Yes, hi. Can you hear me? Good evening, yes. Hi, Samir and Bonnie.
Walnut Creek Climate Action Network. Most of you know me. I've been on this issue since around
2018. And I'm glad to see that it's finally making its way through the plan process.
But as you've seen through the survey results and through the emails you received tonight,
I think over 30 emails on this issue. And in their survey results, well more than half of
the people named it their number one issue that they're enthusiastic about, they're happy about,
and they want to see implemented much faster than three years. So clearly there is a lot of
interest in this issue and other cities have done it in a year, Pacific Grove, Monterey, Alameda,
Carlsbad, Palm Springs, the list goes on and on. There's nothing unique about Walnut Creek
that we can't do what every other city that has done this,
50 cities down in California and large cities, they've done it in a year and it shouldn't take
us three years to do what they've all done in a year. Walnut Creek is usually seen as a leader on
environmental issues. Lafayette is well ahead of us now. I think their ordinance is working its way
through and I don't think they're going to take three years to do it. So one year should be more
than enough, you've seen a lot of public input on this issue. People are very enthusiastic,
they're very happy to see it happen. It's a very visible issue. It shows that the city is
trying to leave the way in the Bay Area and so I hope that you look at this issue closely and
realize that one year is more than enough time to do what other cities have done. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Who's next?
Next speaker is Gary Farber.
Let's disconnect him, bring in the other speaker, and then we'll see if he can reconnect.
Okay, bringing in Carol Weed.
Mr. Farber, if you can hear me, try again.
I'm sorry, I forgot to push the unmute.
Okay.
Good evening.
Carol Weed from Rossmore.
I think it's a wonderful plan.
taken a long time to get to this far, but I'm very pleased, as I'm sure most people
are, with the progress that's been made. I would like to request that progress now speed up.
I realize we had a delay because of COVID, so I'm hoping that we don't have to keep
proceeding at the snail's place that feels like we've been at. I want to comment on a few things
is not touched on so far.
One aspect of transportation is idling.
I've talked about it before.
Idling contributes to between 2% and 4%
of greenhouse gases of cities.
That's not a lot,
but it's something that's totally unavoidable
and would save users money.
So when you're not moving in your car,
as in when you're parked, don't have it idling.
It'll be a long time till everybody's in electric cars
and that's not an issue.
Nature-based solutions are addressed
in strategy number 21 of the plan,
and it's inadequate as written.
It mentions citywide tree master plan.
That's a rather vague, diffuse comment.
It was much better in a previous version
where it said specifically an urban forestry plan.
That's a standardized form
where there's benchmarks and metrics
and grant funding available.
So I would like to ask that it please,
the citywide tree maintenance master plan
include an urban forestry plan.
Also there's mention of maintaining the canopy.
We don't need to go for maintaining,
we need to increase the canopy.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Can you try Mr. Farber again?
Sure.
Bring in Gary Farber.
Have you turned, have you turned on?
Hi there, good evening.
Good.
Gary Farber, longtime resident of Walnut Creek,
member of 350 Contra Costa Action,
member of their climate policy team.
And you heard Emlyn Struthers mention tonight
that the plan calls for rapid reductions
in greenhouse gas emissions.
And the plan actually says that,
but the implementation schedules do not reflect that.
And we did, I should say,
we sent you a letter today asking for two basic things.
One is to move up the schedule for building electrification
and the other one's to move up the schedule
for landscape maintenance equipment electrification.
As you may know, there's been over 70 cities in California
that have already enacted building electrification ordinances.
And Walnut Creek likes to say it's a leader.
Well, in this case, it's fallen behind.
And as you probably know,
the International Panel on Climate Change,
the UN's climate panel,
has said we may already be too late
with this feedback effect that's, you know,
where heating releases more greenhouse gases
that then leads to more heating.
So at some point, it's going to be too late,
no matter what we do.
So we need to put the brakes on,
possibly fuel use as soon as possible.
And unfortunately, the plan dates are not reflective
of that climate emergency we are in.
One other thing, the question came up on solar water heating.
So if you would like me to speak to that.
Thank you for all your time.
Mr. Farber, your time is up.
I'm sorry.
Our next speaker is Karen.
Now I had to unmute.
You can hear me now.
I can.
We can.
Are you there?
Check your microphone again,
please.
It's strange, it went back to
mute.
Can I be heard now?
Yes.
I just wanted to first thank you
with the
implementation of the
SAP.
As Eli said, the two
largest causes of emissions
are transportation and
natural gas in buildings.
Since transportation is up
there, there are many things
the city can do.
I also like to remind you, you
will be getting IRA funding
and if ever it was needed to
be spent now is the time.
there's discussion of a climate emergency ordinance or, you
know, resolution resolution. Thank you. At any rate, there,
you know, if anyone has ever driven down Ignacio Valley
Boulevard at around three o'clock, I used to get allergy
shots and I'd be there constantly going to Kaiser. You
know, that traffic is just horrible there. It's a
nightmare. And there could be a lot of cars taken off the road if there were electric buses
that came on a more constant scheduling that came more often, perhaps ran later at night than 6 p.m.
There has to be some electrification of mass transit to get cars off the road.
And there's a lot of good ideas that have been in the plan. I see there, you know,
downtown trolleys, ranging carpools, perhaps for parents, picking kids up from school,
there's car sharing services, the e-bikes. But, you know, I really do agree with everyone who said
that rapid implementation is very necessary. We are past 424 parts per carbon in the atmosphere.
That is something that has never happened in over a million years. We have to go as rapidly as
possible because it is an existential risk and threat. Thank you. Thank you very
much. Are there any other speakers? I don't see any. I'm going to close public
comment, bring it back to the City Council. City Council, are they're trying
to figure out how to ensure that we actually cover the whole document
because they need feedback on all of it, otherwise we're going to have to have
multiple phases, the approval process could look as long as the development process, and
we don't want to do that.
So I'm going to do this a little bit like a live auction.
So I'm going to leave the executive summary for the time being because the executive summary,
as I've had a conversation with somebody, should reflect what's in the plan, not just
be an introduction.
So we have Chapter 1, which is an introduction.
Are there any comments or suggestions that we need to discuss here on Chapter 1?
Flip through fast.
We'll get to the substantive parts, but I don't want to leave.
There's a little bit of a chronological order here.
This is the technical vulnerability assessment.
Did I get that right, Eli?
That's what it looked like.
Oh, maybe not.
Okay.
Introduction.
introduction going going gone chapter 2 anything that we want to talk about in
chapter 2 going going gone chapter 3 now we're they meet all right chapter 3
councilmember Wilk let's take these pages 30 31 32 33 anything that anybody
wanted to comment on 34. I mean I had some questions on the building
electrification. Okay so we're not we're almost there. Okay you wrote 34 so I was
staying close. 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 38, 38, 39. We've had a lot of discussion about the various
deadlines for both retrofits and new building electrification and I have lost
track of where the regulatory requirements are relative to what we're
calling for in our plan how are we where are we relative to the regulations that
are coming out and if you need to be specific there's switching to electric
heat and electric hot water heaters for retrofits and for new.
So, the recently adopted air district regulations would require that any replacement of water
heaters be all electric, depending on the size of the water heater, that phase-in occurs
between 2027 and 2031.
For space heaters, that year to begin that phase out is 2029.
Under the recommendations in the sustainability action plan, we would be looking at water
heaters phase out beginning in 2026, and then for space heaters beginning in 2029.
So the space heaters are in alignment with BACMED.
The water heaters, the phase out would begin a little sooner, but in the same general time
frame.
And what's the thinking on waiting for the air board requirement is that I know with
the inflation reduction act that there's a big push to um and federal incentives now and I know
that the federal rebates are not quite ready yet but would it make more sense to align some of
this with the the federal rebates that are coming online for lower income? The reason for the the
the city going in 2026 and then 2029 is those are when new iterations of the building code
would come out.
Okay.
So that is that code is on a three year update cycle and it would be thought that doing it
at the same time as the city adopted a new building code would be sort of the easiest
and most pain free.
Certainly we want to make sure that we're taking advantage of the IRA funding and all
the other incentives that are out there.
But at the end it was thought that being consistent with the building code would be the best way
to do this.
There is certainly nothing that prevents people from voluntarily doing this before the city
actually enacts changes to the building code.
So if we have both carrots and sticks, and sticks being the air board and building code
and carrots being federal rebates and education, we could definitely be doing the carrots now.
Absolutely.
And if I could just add to that, in addition to the building codes and the feedback we
receive from some of the community outreach from some of the business community and other
partners as well as some updates at prior council meetings was to move forward assertively
but also be mindful of what others are doing in the region so that we're not too out of
steps so that folks that are trying to make changes, make upgrades, comply with new regulations,
that there is more of a regional approach as well so that it's a little easier to do
business so that not everybody has a one-off.
So that was part of this as well in addition to rolling in with the building code.
Okay.
So you were referring to strategy three.
It's actually strategy, I've lost track of my strategy.
Strategy one is solar.
Strategy one is transition to renewable and carbon free energy sources.
And strategy two has to do electrification in municipal and infrastructure.
And strategy three is more the consumer.
Yeah, strategy two is facilitate energy electrification in existing municipal and existing buildings.
And strategy three has to do with the community at large.
So that seems to be where the building code requirements were when I finally, it's on
page 44.
Okay.
So did you get the answer to your question?
Okay.
Any other comments, questions about strategies one, two, and three?
We'll just take them as a bundle.
I have a general comment, but it actually applies to a lot of chapter three.
would be helpful as I was reading it is if these pages which are really easy to
read but then I have to figure out when it's going to happen and I'm flipping
back to the tables at the back of the document if we could integrate the
timing into each of these action steps so when you look at the whole set of
actions related to building infrastructure electrification you could
see okay what's the timing on it because I think that might help and then I was
I was also wondering if the performance indicators,
if we know, it's pretty hard to know
if we've gotten to 2030 performance,
if we don't know where we're starting from.
Do we have current data, and if we do,
can we work toward current data,
because I don't know how we're gonna measure our success
if we don't have a baseline of data.
Is that something that's feasible?
But not, I don't say by July 18th.
Maybe that probably would have been there
if it was all available.
Where are we on that, and what would it take to get that?
As we were building the plan, I had the same consideration.
Where are we now?
Where are we going to know how far we have to go
and how much effort we need to put in?
So in some areas in the plan, you'll
see that there is data where we have it.
Where it's absent is where we don't have it yet.
And I think where we're going to be working with our community
development department and building division and planning
division is really, how are we gathering that data?
Because if we're gathering it now,
it's not easily accessible.
It's not easily found, and we're gonna need this data
to be able to measure it, measure our progress
going forward, so timeline is really,
we're gonna start, as we start implementing this plan
and we start figuring out what are the processes
to educate people about what's in the plan,
how do they take advantage of these,
how do they follow our rules that we're gonna put in place,
but how do we gather their data?
That's when we're gonna be starting to collect it.
Okay.
So we have some data, other data we're gonna have to
be in the process early on to try to make sure we have data
for all of the performance indicators
that we're trying to monitor.
Correct.
Anything else on building an energy supply,
which goes through page 47.
Just to confirm, it seems that it's strategy number three
that is really significant and important for us to focus on.
I mean, they can't all be important
when one of them can yield 35% reduction
and another one yields a 1% reduction.
The one that yields 35% has to be more important
just because of its yield.
Am I making a correct assumption?
Okay.
Transportation and land use goes from pages,
it has three strategies.
Adoption accessibility of electric vehicle modes,
availability of electric charging,
because if you're gonna use the modes, you gotta charge it,
and electrification of the city's, electrifying,
I don't think it's electrification of the city's fleet.
So any comments or thoughts that people wanna provide
on these?
Page 50, are we on page 50?
Yes, got one for page 50.
Just a general comment,
although it's specific to some of this language
like under Supportive Action 5.2,
I just wanna make sure that we're careful
in terms of when we use terms like rebates.
Because to me that seems like it's more appropriate
at a federal or a state level.
We don't have that built into our budget necessarily
to be offering local rebates.
And so I don't want to commit to, you know,
establishing a new rebate program
that could take on kind of a life of its own.
I'm fine with promoting existing programs that are offered.
And I know there are state and federal programs
that are offered for purchasing electric vehicles.
So just, maybe the language is fine as it is,
but just being mindful of that concern.
Can I add one thing to there?
MCE has a rebate program,
but they've very much targeted it to low income individuals
and they're working to bring that into the dealerships now
so that a low income person doesn't have to pay for the car
and then wait for the rebate.
And so maybe working something like that in here,
because that's the closest we have
to a more regional approach to it.
And the targeting of it is important.
And I think that would fit within the promoting
the existing rebate programs for sure.
So I would make another suggestion.
Take out the word existing because don't you want
to also promote any that might come into play?
Sure.
And that would actually leave room for
if somebody left us a million dollars
and told us that we had to offer rebates
from the city of Walnut Creek.
Anybody out there want to leave us a million dollars?
5.3 I would suggest breaking that into two because we have the ability through
Recycle Smart and the new franchise agreement to actually dictate that our
waste haulers would be either low-carbon or electrification and so
I want to separate that electrified because I want to say electrocuted and
Well, my sense or my limited understanding is those larger vehicles might likely be hydrogen.
So whatever language we have to use to promote the right language for the right vehicle might
not all be electric.
Anything else on the transportation, which is significantly important, is going to represent
two-thirds?
9.7 on page 60 I found that language about continuing the bike share program
so re-implementing whatever we want need to say there to reflect the current
status of the dormant bike share electric scooter program. I had a quick
question on strategy 8. What page are you on? I'm on page 55 and if you look at
Strategy eight it talks about using zoning and the general plan other land use planning documents promote construction transit oriented development and
Then I look at the implementation plan
I mean that is something we do day in and day out the implementation plan has it showing up at a much later date
There might be some way to recognize
I mean we just
celebrated
Walnut Creek Transit Village opening so does this need to be basically saying continue to yeah
I think it's a continue to continue and enhance
continue and double down
Without making it taller and exceeding the voter-approved height limit so never mind
Page 55 so
Yeah, you're waiting. You're waiting where they are yet. Just everybody will hang in there. Okay, 55 to 657 58 59
Sixty I have a suggestion, but did you have something before 60?
the
Employer the two indicators were employers with TD TDM programs and employers installing bike facilities
I suggest it should be employees who have access to
Because one employer with thousand employees could be have a big impact
One employer with ten employees doesn't it's just a slight modification in how the performance indicator work works
but I think it would force us to target the major employers.
61.
Yeah.
I had, I just, and it's a little bit of the nomenclature, work with, provide funding assistance
too on school crossing guards, which essentially we are doing now, I guess, primarily through
Measure O, but work with school districts to secure funding for electric school buses.
I just wouldn't want that to be misconstrued
that we're going to help fund electric school buses
for schools.
So of course, we would support any grant programs
that the separately elected school board
sought for the schools.
So I had a similar kind of, but my head spin on it
was we haven't had school buses in Walnut Creek since Prop 13.
And perhaps what we have here is rather than set
an expectation that we have buses and we're going to get them to be electric is that we
report county connection exactly programs that better utilize transit public transit
services and the vouchers that county connection provides so we heard public comment on that
too about electrifying the transit. So let's maybe we can just rework that so it gets a
a little closer to what's really happening
at the school level in Walnut Creek.
And I had a quick question on that at the school level,
it talks about 10.4 is provide funding assistance
to increase the number of crossing guards.
I mean, we're funding the crossing guards
that I think are required for the current configuration
unless I'm missing something.
I think we're covered for crossing guards.
so it's more of a maintenance rather than increasing,
unless there's something I'm missing.
Unless there's some crossings that are dangerous
and therefore no one is going that way.
Which I don't think we want to have a conversation.
Why do we have to pick somebody
as the crossing guard of the year?
I mean, how does that help?
Yeah, I'm not sure that it does.
I'm not a very.
Look at that one and make sure it's realistic, please.
I think the broader question is,
are we continue to invest in safer routes to school?
Yeah, and we.
That's the broader question,
that the pedestrian and the bicycle connections,
and it could be a crossing guard,
but it could be a new bike lane.
It could be what we're doing up near Walnut Heights School,
We're actually putting a pathway in along and I thought Spadar had a whole
effort going right now to do a big inventory and to look at all the schools and when do you you're starting to stand up
They recently did
Safe routes to school walking audit so that's where they would have assessed the different sites and where
Crossing guards should be properly located
So I think that's a really good edit just
Changing that to say continue to invest in safe routes to school program and identified initiatives build on the audit
That was recently completed because that will be where we it will last longer. Yes. Otherwise, we're gonna get it done in a year
Okay
page 62
We don't have city buses at the top of the page. Take out the word city
63
64, 65, Kevin?
I was just going to suggest that we also partner with water providers regarding
sprinklers and ways to reduce water in homes. This talks about a lot of different saving
water programs and water efficiency through larger appliances, but there's a real basic
program that the water districts offer that we can help to promote with them.
So building on that I think it's not provide the program I think it's promote.
The water districts have more money than we do they are and they have the ability to raise rates
to promote to get rebate programs so I think we need to promote their programs not provide them
ourselves. I would go back to 12.2 on that same page we have converted 7.5 acres of ball fields
to drought tolerant landscaping and I think using the word transition as the verb as opposed
to continue to convert or continue to transition kind of we should take credit for we should
recognize that we have done a lot and the public works department needs to be commended for that.
Water and wastewater is pages 66, 67, anything on strategy 12, strategy 13.
Strategy 14 and 15. I have a big recommendation on this one, but.
I have a small one. On page 69, I thought maybe replacing that picture of the stacked newspapers
with a picture of the fantastic garden. I believe the reference is to the garden at
Heather Farm, the community garden. It's the Master Gardener garden. That's all I got. So my
comment is that both Council Member Francois and I sit on Recycle Smart, which is a six agency JPA,
and I think in reading strategies 14 and 15 they are somewhat redundant. They could be actually
consolidated into a very powerful strategy but a lot of the leadership for
this we get our energy in this case from Recycle Smart not doing work
separately from them other than we're in tandem with them so I would look at
checking to make sure that the maybe this could be one strategy would be
particularly helpful because the performance indicators seem to be I know
No, Eli doesn't think, you can live with this, Eli.
We reduce what we dispose of and we recycle more.
Pages 74, the outdoor equipment, okay.
Page 75, anybody have any thoughts?
Or are we?
I thought the way that Eli explained it
and the thought that went behind it
in terms of it having the equity component
that there are landscaping companies and others
that that would be a significant switch if I think,
even if they had to do it within one year.
And I'm not entirely confident that,
or assured that other cities have done it that quickly.
In terms of the reductions, of course,
we get a lot of public comment on it,
But it's not the most significant reduction
in GHG emissions, it's just not, as a fact.
And I wanna be mindful that we're not
requiring people that are in this business
to change essentially overnight
and require them to acquire all new equipment.
It would create enforcement issues too,
quite honestly, if we're going to actually enforce it
for our code enforcement.
And that's gonna take time to ramp up
and implement as well,
not just the actual purchasing the equipment.
So I'm comfortable with where it is currently in the plan.
I understand the urgency of this issue.
I'm not undermining that or downplaying that,
but I think they reach the right balance.
I sit on the Cal State Committee for Environmental Policy
and that Quality Policy Committee.
So this comes up every quarter when we have meetings.
In fact, I'm leaving for one tomorrow
for a meeting on Thursday.
And I agree with council member Francois on this.
I've been hearing a lot of public comment
over the last several years.
I really appreciate that.
I did a lot of digging into this.
And I brought this up at the statewide committee
about a year ago.
Just for clarification, this is the policy committee
of the League of California City.
So it basically reflects the input of 480 city members.
That's correct, thank you for the clarification
as the former president of the California League of Cities.
And so this was a lot of input by mayors,
council members, and city managers from across the state.
And this topic came up and we discussed it.
And I got a call from the mayor of Santa Barbara
who said, I recommend you really be thoughtful on this one
because we implemented it in Santa Barbara
and it has caused nothing but problems within the community.
they've received neighbors tattling on each other,
calling people out and throwing mud at them on next door.
It's almost impossible to enforce.
And all it's done is create more and more dissension
among the community.
And he said, if there's any way to be able to
ensure that this goes along with a state mandate
and where everybody has to do this at the same time,
it's gonna make life a lot easier.
You're gonna turn neighbor against neighbor.
And I took that to heart.
And so I agree that I think that I understand
what the community is saying on this
and we get all these emails
and I get personal calls about that
and had many discussions.
But I think that this kind of an approach makes sense,
especially when a lot of these landscapers
are coming from outside Walnut Creek
and we're gonna create a real hardship for them
if we insist that they do this overnight
and now all we've done is turn neighbor against neighbor.
So.
Thank you.
Council Member Haskew.
just agree agree and I agree as well I mean I think the equity issue alone from
these are small businesses minority owned in many cases and they struggled
to make it and we will and if it's not universal across the region how do you
how do you hire someone to help you in your yard when you're not sure your
conquered based business can't suddenly come and help you you're gonna be raking
on your own. So that takes care of chapter 3. Chapter 4, page 79, 80, I had a question
that I asked staff about yesterday on page 80, the green buffer between buildings and
sources of air pollutants. I just was wondering if we could amend this and working with our
city engineering staff so that this reflects also the requirements for C3
and you know somehow that we can find a way to integrate it because it's a good
idea but it also counteracts taking more land and less density ages eighty one
eighty two eighty three eighty four eighty three under action eighteen point
for again I just think we want to be mindful in terms of our language if we're promoting
existing loan programs that provide financing for retrofits. I'd be more comfortable with
that in advance of us having an actual line item in our budget having that program so
just supporting existing loan programs or supporting loan programs that provide access
to retrofits. Or maybe we look at the CDBG guidelines because I think that is how you
preserve housing. So just make sure that. Yeah and there again it's another one where
there are existing programs with Bayrun and MCE. Yeah. That are targeted at helping our
lower income families. Which is who you'd want to provide the assistance. If you're
going to provide public assistance, I would think, of those families.
PG-84, 85, nice picture of the library, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90.
We had a conversation about what dining facilities we have in our local government buildings,
but I think the intent was that this was about promoting plant-based meals for community
events. I was wondering where the cafeteria was here at City Hall. It was a vending machine.
And chapter 5, comments? I appreciate in the tables 9 and 10 and 11 that the adding of the
community organizations somehow we need to make sure it's clear that they're not agencies.
If there's a difference between an agency such as MCE or PG&E or East Bay MUD and nonprofit
NGOs, in essence, and also leave an openness to other entities that may come along so that
we're not just excluding it to the list we have today.
Any other thoughts on the Chapter 5?
Otherwise, I'm going to go back to the executive summary and offer I have a couple of comments.
I really appreciated how well-written the plan is and I think it will it's
easy to read and easy to find the information I would hope that we can
find a way to integrate into the executive summary it's spotted another
item to put in it tonight it's the summary timeline this and the staff
report put it into the executive summary it's really easy to follow it's the high
level please and then also tables five six and seven from chapter three can be
summarized somehow in the executive summary because that is the really thing
we need to understand over and over again is where we are today where we
need to go and who else is helping us along the way it isn't just our job it's
the state's doing things the region is doing things so we need to be engaged at
at those levels as well.
So other comments on the executive summary.
I don't, it's not on the executive summary,
but it's somewhere in there.
As a potential action item and it might already be there.
And it came up because of a friend asked where,
you know, where the charging stations at in Walnut Creek.
And I could, I could say generally they're in our garages
or they're some at city hall, they're at the library,
a map, and maybe it's already on our website, that we promote that so that people know where
they are, where the fast charging ones are. They need to get back to Sacramento in an
hour or something like that, that that information is readily accessible.
Who knows somebody at Alphabet who could convince them that their Google map needs to have?
You can find hotels, you can find gas stations, you should be able to-
I mean, I think there are, there are apps.
report. Pardon me? Yeah. And there's also apps that are... Some people think it's easier to ask a
city council member for whatever reason. So the action step needs to be
promote. Yeah, so we can promote the existing databases and tools that people
can use to find charges near them. Great. And then just the consistency
Checklist which will be for new development to show that demonstrate that they're in compliance with I would just
Once the plans adopted like us to move quickly to get that out and available because I think that'll be a very valuable
resource
So we're not quite done yet
the resolution
Okay
Comments I will start with councilmember darling. Did you have any suggestions to it? Thank you for doing this by the way
Loved it
Councilmember Francois. I really didn't have any yeah, I thought it was it was really well done
Councilmember Wilk
Agreed. I'm glad it's there. I'm glad
after
Getting to this point. We finally have this out here. So, thank you
Mayor Pro Tem
If it inspires people I'm for it. If it doesn't I guess I don't care
So I had some editorial comments, which I gave to staff and one suggestion which was that the
section four of the
Resolutions
Paragraphs really felt like a repeat of one of the where-as is if there was a way to integrate section two and section four together
So that we're looking at achieving these goals
with an equity lens
And not trying to separate the equity lens from what we're trying to accomplish
All right, do we need city attorney do we need a motion?
No, I think staff has received all the direction they need to
Update the documents and bring them back to you and then some
All right that that concludes
This portion of the meeting. There are two items that we still need to do first is before we
close tonight's meeting we need to
reconvene in closed session and potentially then continue and adjourn that closed session and
reopen it tomorrow morning. Would you like to phrase what we're going to do, City Attorney?
So Madam Mayor, the first thing I would recommend is that if the Council is done with all the
business in the regular meeting that you close that meeting and then we immediately reconvene
the special meeting. Okay so then I'm going to adjourn tonight's meeting in memory of former
city manager Tom Dunn. Tom Dunn served as Walnut Creek City Manager from 1972 to 1987 and Tom passed
away on May 19th just shy of his 99th birthday. During his 15-year tenure with Walnut Creek,
Tom guided the city through significant change. He completed the we completed the Clark Swim Center
now almost 50 years old, and it became known pretty quickly as Home to Olympians.
During his tenure, we established the First Sister City relationship with Nocetto, Italy.
We envisioned Walnut Creek as a regional destination for the arts and centered that at what has now become the Lesher Center for the Arts.
Downtown evolved with the under grounding of the utilities along Main Street as well
as Nordstrom coming to Broadway Plaza.
Bart arrived in Walnut Creek in May 1973 in his tenure and over the next ten years commercial
financial hub of the East Bay came to Walnut Creek and six million square feet of office
space was developed in the Golden Triangle.
At the same time, during Tom Dunn's tenure, residents sought to protect our open space
hills and stop the plans for the development of 600 homes in Shell Ridge and convince two-thirds
of the voters in Walnut Creek to approve a bond measure to purchase what has become 2,700
acres of publicly owned open space.
Significantly, Tom Dunn guided the city to strong fiscal health during the fiscally tumultuous
years following the passage of Prop 13 in 1979. Tom's legacy lives in so many ways here in
Walnut Creek and we are indebted to him and offer our condolences to his family and this closes our
regular meeting. Now we need to. Now the council can reconvene the special meeting and we can
move to the closed session room. To the extent that the Council ultimately needs to adjourn
the special meeting until a time tomorrow, then we would need to come back into open
session and entertain a motion to do that. What does that mean, Heidi? Well, I mean,
let's go now, get the work done, and go home. Okay, so we are reconvening in closed session.