Good evening and welcome to the June 18th of Walnut Creek City Council meeting.
I'm going to start with welcome and an introduction.
The City Council is conducting this meeting from the City Council chamber.
This meeting is being video streamed and can be viewed live or later on the city's website.
Some attendees may be participating in their first Walnut Creek City Council meeting.
I want to welcome everyone and talk briefly about public comment process.
For each agenda item, there will be an opportunity for public comment on the item.
Thus, if you desire to speak on an item on the agenda this evening, please hold your
comments until the City Council considers that item.
Additionally, we have a section on the agenda titled Public Communications for which public
comments for items not on the agenda.
comments during public communication should not relate to an item that is on
the agenda this evening. Consistent with section 9.5 of the City Council
Handbook, 30 minutes will be initially allocated for public communications for
items not on the agenda. Additional time for public communications for items not
on the agenda will be provided at the end of the open session portion of the
a meeting if necessary.
If you desire to provide a public comment,
please complete a speaker identification card
and line up behind the lectern at the appropriate time.
Wait your turn and when you approach the lectern,
please state your name, city of residence for the record.
You will have two minutes to address the council.
Please keep in mind that this is a city business meeting.
The city council has adopted rules of decorum
ensure that meetings are conducted efficiently and effectively and that all
members of the public have a full, fair and equal opportunity to be heard. The
City Council Handbook outlines decorum expected in the City Council chamber and
can be found on our website. All remarks should be addressed to the City Council.
Please do not use threatening, crophane or abusive language which disrupts,
deserves or otherwise impedes the orderly contact conduct of the city council meeting.
Again, each speaker will have two minutes to make your remarks. Written comments submitted and
received after two hours before the meeting have been posted to the city's website for review
and are included in the meeting record but will not be separately read into the record.
All righty. And now will you stand with me and say 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.
May I please have the roll call? Absolutely. Councilmember Francois? Here. Councilmember Silva?
here Councilmember Wilk. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Darling. Here. And Mayor Hask you. Here.
Okay and next on the agenda is a proclamation for June 18th so um in September whereas in September
of 1862 President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation officially ending
slavery changing the status of more than 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the
Confederate States of America. On June 19th, 1865, two years after signing the Emancipation
Proclamation, Union General Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston, Texas to inform the
enslaved African Americans of General Order Number Three. The people of Texas are informed
that in accordance with the proclamation
from the executive of the United States, all slaves are free.
This involves an absolute equality
of rights and rights of property between former masters
and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing
between them comes as between employer and hired laborer.
Juneteenth, also known as Juneteenth Independence Day,
Emancipation Day, Emancipation Celebration, and Freedom Day
is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration
of the ending of slavery in the United States.
Juneteenth represents freedom, as well as
how the emancipation was tragically
delayed for enslaved people in the deepest
reaches of the Confederacy.
This is a painful chapter in American history
that also serves as an opportunity for us
to recommit ourselves to combat all forms
of modern-day slavery, human trafficking,
and racial injustice,
as well as to continue to fight for freedom.
In 2002, the state of California passed legislation
officially recognizing June 19th
as Juneteenth's National Freedom Day
to celebrate African Americans' significant role
the history of the United States and society through their steadfast commitment to freedom
and equality. Whereas the City of Walnut Creek commemorates the anniversary of June 19th
in recognition and celebration of the great contributions African Americans have made to
the United States, California, and the City of Walnut Creek. Now therefore, Isla Wellah
Hask U mayor of the city of Walnut Creek on behalf of the Walnut Creek City Council to hereby
proclaim June 19th, 2024 as Juneteenth National Freedom Day and encourage the community to honor
and reflect on the significant role that African Americans have played in the history of the United
States and how they have enriched society through their steadfast commitment to promoting unity
and equality and we have somebody who will be receiving this proclamation, so please
come forward.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Let's see what Mary would say.
Well, I think Mary would say thank you very much for this recognition and proclamation
and we really appreciate the opportunity to be able to accept it.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Are we still doing pictures?
No.
Okay.
I have two proclamations that will look remarkably the same. So, gratefully for you, I'm only going to read one.
Whereas in the 1960s and 70s, Walnut Creek was experiencing major growth in commerce and housing.
Several forward-thinking citizens believed that natural beauty of Mount Diablo should be preserved for future generations.
thanks to the collective wisdom of a number of Walnut Creek residents and civic leaders an effort
was launched to take on the daunting task of acquiring land we now know as Walnut Creek Open
Space. Those citizens formed a committee to get a bond issue passed and set about convincing people
to voluntarily tax themselves 35 dollars, currently 205 dollars in 2024 per year and
in additional property tax to pay off the bond issue required to purchase the property.
Incredibly, the R8 bond was passed and over 33,000 acres of land were purchased
and amenities to improve the open space were added. Lime Ridge, Shell Ridge, Sugarloaf,
and Aquilanus became permanent parts of the open space thanks to this bond issue.
The Walnut Creek Historical Society will have a summer-long exhibit highlighting the milestones
and events crucial to the success of the Open Space Foundation's mission in preserving the
city's natural environment. This exhibit will pay tribute to the community activism and participation
that enabled the purchase of so much land and the city of Walnut Creek appreciates the Walnut Creek
Open Space Foundation for its commitment to ensuring our parks remain their near natural state
and Walnut Creek Historical Society for preserving the history to the public. Now therefore,
I Luella Hask you Mayor of the City of Walnut Creek on behalf of the Walnut Creek City Council
to hereby recognize Walnut Creek's open space 50th anniversary and thank the citizens who
supported the bond measure and those that continue to advocate for open space as we look forward to
the next 50 years and I do have two plot proclamations ones for the historical society
and one is for the Open Space Foundation.
So would anybody who would like to help me
give these away please come forward?
Sure, I'd love to say something.
We are excited to participate in this celebration.
We've had a great time collaborating
with the city of Wona Creek,
with the Open Space Foundation,
with the Rangers, of course, Mike Vickers,
his assistant, Belinda Tan.
We have, Jackie here has worked diligently
to put together a fabulous exhibit,
so I hope everyone has the opportunity
to come to our museum.
We have Lindsay Museum with their taxidery animals on display.
We have Valley Art, actually a gallery,
from only creating beautiful paintings.
I think there's like 20 or 25 paintings,
the whole bottom floor.
And there's just a lot of fun facts, photographs,
and just interesting things.
So hopefully you'll come and check it out.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much.
Excuse me.
Wait a minute, whoa, whoa, come back please.
Please, please return.
We have a question from the council.
So where is this exhibit and what days of the week
and hours of the day is it available to the public?
Thank you for reminding me.
So it's the Shadelands Ranch Museum.
We're at 2660 Ignatius Valley Road.
That's where our Walnut Creek Historical Society
houses all of our events and houses our memorabilia.
And Jackie is our office manager.
And our hours are still just Sunday and Wednesdays, 1 to 3,
1 to 4, sorry.
But there's a special, special event coming up Thursday.
We have our wine and history night.
So I put some flyers that Jackie brought on the back
if you're interested.
You can come see the exhibit.
You can listen to our Ted Doves from our board.
We call it the Ted Talks at the museum.
And he'll be discussing all of the open space history
and touring people around the house and wine.
Well, it sounds wonderful.
But if I'm not here in the room to get a flyer,
how can I find the information?
Our website.
So the website is www.walnutcreekhistory.org.
Is it Walnut Creek History or WC History?
Sorry.
WC History.org.
You've heard it here.
WC History.org.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And will you please come forward?
Mayor Haskew, city council members.
I am Kym Smith.
Oh, sorry.
I am Kym Smith,
president of the Walnut Creek Open Space Foundation.
On behalf of the foundation's members, their volunteers,
and the board of directors,
I thank the citizens of Walnut Creek for this proclamation.
It's a testament to the thousands of volunteer hours
and other contributions our organization has given
to preserve and enhance the Walnut Creek open space,
and to our efforts to encourage the community
to engage with this unique resource.
We also want to thank the city
for the support we've received over the years
from its Open Space Division and other city agencies.
We're committed to continuing this fruitful collaboration
with the city in the future,
further enhancing the open space for public health,
vitality, and quality of life.
This year, the Waller Creek Historical Society,
the city and the foundation will have a number
of special events to celebrate the 50th anniversary.
please check our websites for details where wcosf.org.
The open space is one of the things
that makes Walnut Creek special.
Enjoy it, learn about it, protect it.
Thank you.
Thank you for coming.
All right, next on the agenda is the consent calendar.
Does any council member wish to pull an item?
Yes, I'd like to pull items E through I for a comment.
Thank you and
Is there anybody in the public who wishes to make a comment on any item on the consent calendar?
Seeing no one may I have a motion move to approve items to a through D and
To J through L second
Thank you roll call vote, please
Councilmember Wilk. Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Darling. Aye. And Mayor Haskew. Aye.
All right, those who have pulled items get to tell us why. Thank you very much. I
pulled items through I this evening because they represent five contracts
with our five very important miscellaneous employee groups and I want
to thank the 280 employees that are represented by these five units for
first and foremost the hard work they've put in through the last five years of
their five-year contracts and in particular because that was during the
time of COVID and it was doubled the amount of work on every level across the
organization so I want to thank our employees for that and then I want to
thank them for working collaboratively with us over the last few months on
reaching an accord on these five that these five new three-year agreements so
So thank you very much and I'm happy to move the item.
Would you please?
Second.
All right.
Roll call vote please.
Councilmember Silva?
Aye.
Councilmember Wilk?
Aye.
Councilmember Francois?
Aye.
Mayor Pro Tem Darling?
Aye.
And Mayor Haskew?
Yes.
Okay.
Next on the agenda is public comments, communications and I read a whole bunch of stuff about this.
I hope you all remember it so that I
don't have to repeat it again.
OK, would you please come forward and sign a card
if you have something to report or make a note of.
Thank you.
Hi.
Hello.
My name is Pete Bennett.
The council has heard me speak probably 50 or 60 times.
They're well aware of what I've gone through.
My story's very bad.
I have lost friends, family, girlfriends, roommates,
others, police officers that I've worked with.
They're all dead.
I'm here.
I started this in 2011.
I've been beaten up in Walnut Creek repeatedly.
I've had my ribs broken by a library guard.
I had a guy try to strangle me death on the library floor.
It's pretty bad.
I've asked for in my police reports, nothing.
Nothing in 10 years.
I'm caught up in a big public corruption case involving
police officers that have been indicted or convicted.
To be in these shoes is very difficult.
Nobody in the room likes to hear this, but nobody in the
room is helping.
I have a website that you're going to learn a little bit
about what I've been through,
but I'm gonna be very nice to the department.
It's called walnut Creek police.com.
And I'm gonna share what I've been through.
It really is kind of unacceptable
to be beaten up in the library by a guard
or by a suspect that nearly strangled me to death
and I was blacked out on the floor.
It's getting old.
Although things are better now I'm living in Concord.
I've had a long journey with murders and arson,
extortion and racketeering.
Walnut Creek police comm and my other site Bay Area homeless comm which I'm building out to help the homeless like me
I live in the shelter
Finally after 10 years difficult
Next speaker, please
Good evening council
And staff. My name is Bill Whitney. I'm the executive director for the Contra Costa building trades council
And I'm here tonight to speak about a upcoming complex construction project that you're going to be talking about in the not-too-distant future out there at Heather Farms.
I'd like to ask you to consider putting that under a project labor agreement.
I think if you bring in skilled and trained people, you'll see a project that gets built on budget on time, that gets built right the first time, and it's built safely.
safely. When you bring in skilled and trained workers with a PLA, you're also supporting
the youth of your city. We spend nationally, North America, over two and a half billion
dollars in educating the next generation of skilled and trained workers. So we create
opportunities. By your considering doing a PLA, you're creating opportunities for the
youth that will be the craftspeople of tomorrow. We also, through our organization, have a
helmet to hard hat, so we create opportunities for veterans to come in and work on construction
projects that heretofore did not exist. We also have a local hire. Many of our people
can live here. And you know why they can live here? It's because they're paid wages and
benefits. And those wages and benefits are paid on public works jobs as well as private
jobs so they can afford to live in this wonderful community which I grew up in, went to Ignatial
Valley.
It's a great city and I hope that you'll give us some consideration on that because
local hire, what that does is it creates an opportunity for those people that are earning
their wages to spend their money locally.
So you get this ripple effect into your economy because people that live here locally spend
their wages locally. They'll buy their food here locally, etc. Thank you.
Good evening. My name is Annette Ramirez, Teamsters representative and I'm here
tonight. The purpose of my presence is to thank you all, Council and Mayor for
acknowledging the importance of our safety dispatchers and our city workers
with a fair contract. We just finished that and we're very thankful for that
that you truly show that you cared and valued their hard work and dedication
and this will help with retention and return they we expect that they will
continue to work hard and dedicate their time for this wonderful city so thank
you again and we appreciate your acknowledgement thank you and thank you
for all your hard work good evening mayor council members my name is Chris
Palomo and I'm a field rep of the NorCal Carpenters Union at a local 152 in
Martinez representing all the Contra Costa County first like to thank you
guys for allowing me to speak tonight. I'm here to talk to you about the current
PLA that has been brought to your guys's attention tonight. While I believe the PLA
is a significant step forward for the betterment of the workforce in Walnut
Creek, I urge you to pause these negotiations until the Carpenters Union
has a seat at the table and has taken an active part in the discussions themselves
and not just ask to sign it once it's complete. The Carpenters Union is
responsible for the general contractor and more than 50% of the work on
construction projects in our community. Excluding such a vital group from these
negotiations undermines the fairness and inclusivity of the agreement. It is
crucial that our expertise and concerns are part of the dialogue to ensure that
the PLA truly benefits all workers. The PLA is designed to protect workers'
rights, secure fair wages, and maintain high standards on the job site. However,
these goals cannot be fully achieved with the largest group on the projects
are not being represented under negotiations. By having the Carpenters
Union involved from the beginning of the negotiations, we are promoting transparency
and inclusivity that builds trust and cooperation between all parties of the
agreement. I'm respectfully asking the City Council and staff to not move forward
with the PLA negotiations until the Carpenters Union
is actively a part of the discussions
from the beginning until the end.
Our participation is essential
in creating successful agreement
that serves the best interests of the entire workforce
and our community.
Thank you for your time.
Anyone else?
Coming forward?
Hello, yes, my name is Tom Hanson.
I'm the business manager at IBW Loco 302
and also the president of the Building Trades Council.
I apologize for the carpenter's behavior just recently.
This is not something should be brought out
in front of you.
This is an internal matter.
The local 152 of the carpenters
quit the Contra Costa building trades.
Sometime back, they left of their own accord.
We represent all of the workers that the PLA would cover.
We've always allowed them to sign it.
We always allow their language into it.
We represent all of the trades workers.
Not every single local union sits in the negotiations,
so it's improper for them to ask to be there.
We represent all of the people that we cover in the PLA.
So we believe that we've always treated them with respect
and dignity they deserve.
And it's inappropriate for them to come to you
before you on this when we were trying to work together
for the betterment of all workers.
And for them to do this is embarrassing for us.
So we're sorry that they came and did this.
All right, is there any other person
looking to come forward?
Seeing none.
I have a question for the city manager.
how does it typically work when we've got a city project,
which I don't believe I've read about on council,
something for certainly this large,
like the Heather Farm Project,
how does it typically work when we're looking
to have discussions of who the labor is going to be?
In the past, the city has not entered
into a project labor agreement
and we have issued requests for proposals
or requests for quotation depending upon the type of work
and have solicited bids from the work,
Historically, Walnut Creek has encouraged union participation
of the general contractors in Walnut Creek,
being a public entity, has required those that work
are required to pay for a prevailing wage.
Okay, so I'm not quite sure I understand the disconnect
between some of the speakers that we heard,
but I would ask that,
and I don't know if we need three approvals on this,
but I would ask that we at least have the discussion
with labor, whether it's for a project labor agreement
or how we can work with labor in this kind of an instance
for the Heather Farm Project.
At least go into those discussions
and hear a report back on how those would go.
Yeah, I would support that as well.
And maybe if I could reframe it,
I think my request of staff would be to understand
kind of what the options are
in terms of a project labor agreement
and maybe not choosing sides between the carpenters
and the trade council,
just kind of what the Council's options are for proceeding with that sort of agreement
for this project.
I think my interest in it, it's always on a big capital project, schedule, budget, deliverables.
And how would this effort work with that and either keep us on, you know, how can it help
us get to schedule budget deliverables?
But, of course, we have limited amount of money.
So what would this potentially do to the estimate of costs?
I think that's all important to understand.
What I'm hearing from counsel, if I can summarize,
and Mayor, I don't know if you wanted to add anything or not,
but is direction to staff to research options
related to project labor agreement
relative to the project at Heather Farm,
which is the aquatics and community center,
and to report back to council with pros cons,
cost impacts and give you the general lay of the land.
If amenable to council,
I'd recommend we do that roughly
by the end of the calendar year
so that an informed decision could be made
before we go out to bid for the project,
which we're hoping to do first quarter
or second quarter calendar quarter of 2025.
Would that entail then meeting with people within,
whether it's building and trade or.
I mean, we'd be researching information.
We may talk with various folks.
I wouldn't want to limit who we talk to
or not talk to at this point.
We would do adequate research
and report that back to your council.
All right, thank you.
And I think my interest in this is,
you know, schedule is important and what would it take?
I've heard different things,
and I'm curious about that issue particularly.
Okay, is everybody in council comfortable
with where we are.
Thank you.
We will now move to the next item on the agenda,
which is closed session announcements.
City attorney, please.
Yeah, Madam Mayor, there was no reportable action
from closed session this evening.
Thank you, city manager.
I do not have an update this evening, Mayor.
Oh, let's see, let's start with Mayor Pertin.
Okay, a whole bunch of fun things going on.
We are celebrating the 50th anniversary,
and I think most of us were at the Historical Society event,
and my family and I walked over to Borges Ranch
on Saturday for that,
and got to do a bunch of fun things there.
I did have, I was at the farmer's market
this Sunday after the accident,
and it was really heartwarming.
The farmer's market team had a basket there
for people to drop off condolences to the family,
to the two workers who had been injured.
And I did manage to go around and talk to some of the folks
and they had already done a good job of going through
and talking to their different vendors.
But it definitely was one of those moments
where you pulled together as a family.
I did get a chance to go on a closed toed shoe walkthrough
of original Joes and pinstripes,
both opening downtown here in the near future.
And Angela Sway came with me and that was really exciting.
original Joes folks in pinstripes are both so excited to open up. Can I ask
what's the timeline on those? The pinstripes was much further along. They
were waiting for one last permit and they were assuming August original Joes
had just got their construction permit. They had to go drop off a big check and
they were gonna get a permit and they were gonna start construction. So they
have finished their demo but they so they're a little bit out beyond pin
stripes. Let's see, we all went to Civic Affairs and had... Tim Hale. Tim Hale. You
were really much better at names than I am. I'm like, okay, the tall guy that
talks really excited about traffic, but he talked a lot about transportation in
Contra Costa County and that was really great. And then we had the free shuttle
at Shadelands. Many of us were there because there was free Cali Craft beer
and so of course we will be there. And cookies cookies and beer not the best
combo and that was really a lot of fun and it was great to see those new buses
with their wraps and see the changes coming at Shadelands and the last thing
I did was kind of a fun thing as a throwback to the old days there's a
group out at Rossbourn that wants to do a there's a bigger watershed management
plan going on for the Walnut Creek watershed writ large and they are the
Friends of Tice Creek, which is a small group interested in
what can they do to better conserve Tice Creek
where it runs through the Rossmore community.
So I put on my old funky hiking clothes
and went and talked to the Friends of Tice Creek
and talked to them about watershed management
and that was a lot of fun.
So that's what I've been up to.
Next, there might be others, Cindy.
Thank you very much, Mayor.
And thank you everyone for being here this evening.
The Ruth Bancroft Garden recently opened their annual sculpture in the garden event,
it was last Saturday night, I want to congratulate them and just tell everyone you can visit the
Ruth Bancroft Garden and not only enjoy the dry garden experience but also the outdoor artwork
that is on exhibit and can be purchased as a fundraiser for the Bancroft Garden. The sculpture
in the garden event is ongoing through August 11th. A Walnut Creek downtown will kick off the summer
this Thursday evening with its annual uncorked event which is SIP Saver and Stroll in downtown
from 5 30 to 8 30 this Thursday June, that's today the 18th so it's the 20th, June 20th and
for more information go to walnut creek downtown.com. I agree that the Shadelands kickoff of their new
branding effort was exceptional and I really appreciate the colors. They're vibrant, they're
vital and they exude vitality. That's an inside joke for those who were here during that whole
conversation. The congratulations to the Walnut Creek Historical Society and the Walnut Creek
Open Space Foundation and our city open space division for a great kickoff for the 50th
anniversary celebration and the Borges Ranch Day. I did not walk from home to get there but I did
enjoy getting there. The um and finally I will mention that last week I was in the Sacramento
area for the summer leadership meeting for the National League of City. There were about 300 to
400 of us there and there were a number of interesting presentations but one of which was on
housing, the unhoused, homelessness, and how the collaborative series of activities that Rancho
Cordova does in that space, and I think there's some interesting opportunities to learn from them.
And thank you, everyone. Kevin, please. All right. At our mayor's conference last month,
I was appointed to another term as the Family Justice Center representative and liaison. The
Family Justice Center serves families affected by domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse,
elder abuse, and human trafficking. Think of this as a way that a lot of families,
some of whom may be immigrants, some of whom were where English is not their
first language, is provided a guideline of how to get the services and how to
access county help where they might not be able to. So it's really important
more and more of these centers are opening up. I'm very proud that I was
appointed for a second term on that. I also wanted to mention that I was at the
Shadelands Farmers Market on the Saturday, our Saturday farmer market and
helped honor them as the Farmers Growers Association in California, voted them as
the top in the state. I don't know what those, I don't know what the parameters
are, but we have a Saturday market that was voted top in the state by one of the
organizations that makes those votes. And we have two, I just, we have two great
farmers markets. I think we're really, we're blessed with that, exactly. I was
also at the historic car show where I helped to provide some judging. I see
that Andrea already left which is disappointing because there were some of
the most amazing cars that I've ever seen and here they were right off of
Ignacio Valley Road. Some cars as old as, like a Model A 1929 that was in
gorgeous condition. When this comes around annually, next year typically the
weekend before Father's Day, I encourage everybody to just go by. It's free. There's music and
food and it's amazing. These are just amazing cars. So I provided, which I'm sure that the
mayor will give her update, I provided her with my loan vote of what I thought.
And lastly, I do want to talk about on one of the issues, the Senate bills that we've
heard about for the last several months. It's Senate Bill 1031 and this was something
as being a liaison as our representative on county connection.
This is involving transportation across the boards.
We heard from Tim Hale, as Mayor Pro Tem mentioned, in our civic affairs meeting.
But this would combine all of the public transit agencies that are county connection, AC transit,
All of these local transit agencies into one, which truly would not be as efficient, even
though it sounds like that would be efficient, it wouldn't be, and this was of real concern
to all of the operators in the Bay Area.
Anyway, this has been put on hold for at least a year, I'm sure we're going to hear a lot
more about this than the year to come, but because it's been so top of mind, including
an editorial in the newspaper just a few weeks ago, I did want to mention that it's been
and put on hold, and so that's my report.
Mr. Francois.
Thank you, Madam Mayor.
I had the pleasure of attending Borges Ranch Day,
which was mentioned and part of the open space
50th anniversary celebration.
I wanted to thank our staff who was out there
working hard all day, Ranger Corey,
our public works director, Heather Ballinger,
Mike Vickers was there as well.
And it was just, and I did see Council Member Darling
and her husband, I was there earlier in the day.
It was just really a special, wonderful event
with a lot of families and young children, pony rides,
petting zoos, there was a band that was playing
kind of folk music and bluegrass.
And it was really, really wonderful to experience.
So I'm hopeful that we can continue those types
of activities and bring them back on a more regular basis.
And what's remarkable is when you walk up to the ranch,
it really cements what sacrifice and what
a tradition and legacy we have from the folks who
agreed to tax themselves 50 years ago to acquire
that property, and it led to the restoration of the ranch.
And you just feel like you're walking back in time
when you see the hill-studded oaks and this historic cattle
ranch right here in our own hometown.
My other update is I attended,
I served on the Recycle Smart Board
along with Council Member Silva
and I serve on the Franchise Ad Hoc Committee
to select a new franchisee for our contract
which will expire in 2027.
So we did go out for bid for the post collection,
not the collection services,
the trucks that come down your street,
we're separating those.
And looking just at post collection services now,
We did receive several proposals for transfer
and disposal, recycling processing.
So the ad hoc committee is in the process of,
with our staff and consultant of evaluating the proposals
that were received, some of which differ somewhat widely
on costs and distance to the facilities
and to the point where we will be refining
and making a recommendation to the full recycle smart board
later on this year.
That's my update.
Thank you.
I was inundated with transportation issues.
The CCTA Planning Committee spent some time
talking about trying to get Richmond, the city of Richmond,
in a place where they can provide
much more accessible transportation.
They're spending a lot of money and not
getting a lot of work done.
I also attended Transomak, which is the sort of baby team
that then goes up to CCTA.
And we did some time looking at our future
and approving allocations for Measure J funds.
Transomak has a special allocation for people
who need rides because they're elderly
or because they have challenges.
I did go to the car show and council member Will did lobby hard for one particular car
but I knew that car was already going to get a prize so I chose my own car and it was cute
and it had –
Your car, is it a nice car, your car?
My car.
Oh, no, not my car that I drive, the car I chose was all decked out and it had a tray
And it was back in it made me feel like the old days when there were car hops and things like that
And so I I dedicated it to the Barbie year and then was corrected because it wasn't pink
It was dusty rose. So it turns out everybody had an opinion
they got the award anyhow the mayor's conference of which I am the chair had a meeting and we
We heard from the head of the library for the county and I learned about programs that the library has that
We really don't take advantage of and we should
I'm the representative of for the council on the DRA a board and we had we talked about plans to
Improve the theater functioning and of course we're getting ready for the big event, which is on
Broadway, which is their main fundraiser
and probably the ritziest thing happening in Walnut Creek.
Then I went to CCTA, another version of transportation.
And we heard a bunch of the things
that I heard on the things on the way up.
But we also did budgeting and other important things
that keep the transportation department going.
And that's it for me, unless I have something on the next page.
Oh, yeah, I actually shared a meeting
of the Accessible Transportation Task Force,
which was formed to have a one-click, one-ride
for people who are challenged
about getting from here to there.
We talked about training for people
who don't know about public transportation
and making it less scary and how to get people
and how to get new automotive buses and things
so that they don't have to get on 20 different buses
to get to the hospital from where they go to.
All right, that's the end of my report.
And that puts us up to the public hearing.
And that is a public hearing to conduct a public hearing
pursuant to the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act,
TEFRA, and consider resolution approving the issuance
of bonds by California Statewide Communities Development
authority for the benefit of John Muir Health,
and I believe somebody's approaching the lectern
even as we speak.
Welcome.
Good evening, Honorable Mayor and City Council,
Angela Sway, Economic Development Manager.
Tonight for the Tefra, I'd like to introduce
James Hamill of the CSCDA, who will give a brief overview
of the bond issuance, and Michael Munaldo of John Muir
is also available to answer questions.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
And I did mean to say that the public hearing is now open.
So please go forward.
Good evening, Mayor, members of the council.
My name is James Hamill.
I'm managing director with CSCDA
and a pleasure to be here tonight.
As you saw in your staff report,
this is a public hearing for the issuance of bonds
for John Muir Health.
They'll be doing a refinancing of some of their bonds
at the issue through CSCD previously.
Also reimbursing themselves for the new Cancer Center here in Walnut Creek and then also
refinancing some bonds in the City of Concord.
Concord will be conducting their own Tefra hearing next week and as the report outlines to you there's no liability to the city.
These are obligations of John Muir Health. They're not obligations of the city, the state or ourselves and they're directly for the hospital itself.
So I'm happy to answer any questions that the council may have on the project or the financing itself
Do I have any questions? I
Believe not. Thank you
Does anybody else want to come forward?
No, okay
Alrighty, so I guess we need to bring it back to council. We should close the public hearing first. Oh, thank you
We're closing the public hearing. Thank you for the reminder
And we need to take, and do we ask for a public comment?
Yes.
We ask for a public comment,
of which there appears to be none,
so now I officially close it.
And we take action to adopt the resolution.
Move to adopt the resolution approving the issuance
of bonds by the California Statewide Communities
Development Authority for the benefit of John Muir Health.
Second.
May I have a roll call vote, please?
Council member Francois I mayor pro-town darling. I councilmember Silva. I councilmember Wilk. I and mayor husky. Hi
It looks like it's a go. Thank you for coming and thank for thank you for all that John Mu does for our community
You guys are wonderful
All right. Item two in the public comment category is
To adopt resolutions confirming the assessment reports and levying annual assessments for the tourism business
improvement district for fiscal year 2025.
Let me take a moment to explain the process
for public hearing.
In order for the city to level levy assessments
for the tourist business improvement district,
the city must first conduct a public hearing
at which time it must hear and consider all protests
against the levy of assessments.
If written,
If written protests are received from owners of businesses
in the proposed area, which will pay 50% or more
of the assessments proposed to be levy
and no further proceedings to the levy,
the assessment shall be taken for a period of one year
from the date of the finding of the majority protest
by the city council.
If there is no majority protest
and the council may adopt a resolution
confirming the assessment report submitted.
Written reports must be received by the city clerk
at a time before the time,
by the city clerk at or before the time
fixed for the public hearing.
At this time, we will now open the public hearing
for the number five B
for the Tourism Business Improvement District.
I have anybody, I invite anyone who has undelivered
protests to present that to the city clerk immediately.
There seems to be nobody to do that.
Now Angela, would you please make your presentation?
Thank you, Mary.
Good evening again, Angela Sui,
Economic Development Manager.
As Mayor Haski explained, this is the annual renewal
of the Walnut Creek T-Bid.
The annual T-Bid assessment renewal is a two-step process.
The first meeting was held on June 4th,
at which a presentation was given.
Tonight is the second meeting and the public hearing.
So the recommended action is to adopt the resolution
confirming the Walnut Creek TBID annual assessment report
for fiscal year 2023, 2024,
and levying the annual assessment for fiscal year 2025.
Thank you.
Have there been any protests presented?
We have not received any protests.
Okay, then I think we've passed that part of the challenge and we move on to
Please I
Guess we move on to council record public comment
No public comment and I believe that that brings this public hearing to a close and
Now the council may make a recommendation. I
Move to adopt the resolution confirming the Walnut Creek Tourism bid
annual assessment report for FY 23 24 and levying the annual assessment for FY 24 25
Madam mayor just for the record. This is the revised version that was included in the packet as revised. Thank you
Already I guess we need a roll call vote
Mayor Pro Tem Darling, aye. Councilmember Silva, aye. Councilmember Francois, aye.
Councilmember Will, aye. And Mayor Haskew, as well, aye.
All right, thank goodness we finished that part of the meeting.
Now we're on to consideration items and this, we have a priorities update
of before us. Oh, CDBG, it's not on my list.
Here it is. Yes. Yeah. Yep. All right. I I apologize. I
Didn't see my list. So Stephanie you're here
Good evening mayor and council members Stephanie Brine and housing manager for the city of Walnut Creek and I am here tonight to talk about the
CDBG annual action plan and fiscal year 25 grant funding plan
proceeded to be CDBG dollars as
you know the city of Walnut Creek is an entitlement community under the federal community development block grant program and annually receives funds that
Must meet the federal objectives
the city therefore must submit an annual action plan to HUD to describe how the funds will be dispersed and the proposed
CDBG and our action plan describes that disbursement and implements the final year of our 2020 to 2025
consolidated plan
The CDBG program funding has incorporated minor adjustments based on changes to our funding allocations the public services funding as represented here
Increases are determined
Based on previous years adjustments and the amounts the table represents changes from fiscal year 24 to fiscal year 25
So that would be small changes that are going towards empowered aging meals on wheels echo housing and rain rainbow community center
We also have funds available for economic development projects and for public infrastructure projects
Staff is currently recommending or release to the releasing of an RFP to procure new programs
to distribute those funds the
You have approximately two hundred and twenty two thousand dollars available for an RFP
Staff recommends City Council adopt their resolution approving the fiscal year
24-25 annual action plan including the proposed funding plan and allocation of CDBG, CSG,
HSG, PLHA, Measure O, and general funds.
If you have any questions.
Do we have questions?
I do.
Thank you very much for all of this work.
So the state budget has been rather in flux.
And I think they're still grappling with it.
Is there any risk of state funding be,
are any of the state funds that we're relying on
in this plan for the next year at risk?
The only state funds associated with the plan
are the PLH-8 dollars.
And I have not received any indication at all
that those funds are at risk.
So what do we do if something happens in the next 15 days?
Something untoward happens in the next 15 days.
There are a lot of things that will happen in the next 15 days.
Right.
I would imagine then that we would probably come back to this council to discuss options
on how to best fill in the details on the PLHA funds.
Yes, please.
Hopefully we don't see you.
Yeah.
I hope so.
And I did notice that one of the previous grantees was not on the list this year.
I know we had challenges with them.
they be able to come back in at a future opportunity? Okay. Yeah. And then when it comes to echo housing
and the work they're doing with tenants, did they say anything to indicate to you that I know with
the moratorium eviction moratoriums under COVID going away, there was a lot of discussion about
whether or not there would be more challenges in that space that they're working in. And the best
way to keep people off the streets is to keep them in housing. Did ECHO Housing
ask for anything additional or are they feeling good with what they've got right
now? ECHO Housing hasn't asked for additional funds although they have
noted an increase in participation rates and our partnership with ECHO remains to
be very strong and and they plus the partnership with sheltering because the
the two organizations working together have really helped support the renters after the eviction moratorium was lifted
Okay, but so that sounds good. It sounds like the program's working. Well, thank you
other questions I
Don't have any other questions. I'm gonna look for public comment
Magically enough I'm not seeing any public comment
So I'm gonna bring it back to council and council may I have an action move to adopt the resolution approving the 2020
for 2025 annual action plan including the proposed FY 25 funding plan and
allocation for CDBG CSG HS GP LHA measure O and general fund element OP
second you both have that memorized may have a roll call please mayor pro tem
darling I councilmember Wilk I councilmember Francois I councilmember
Silva I and mayor haskew yes motion carries unanimously wonderfully okay now
consideration. City Council priority updates for 2023, 2024 and hurry up
because we're running out of 2024. Alright, good evening mayor, council
members, members of the public, and staff. The item before you is the 2023, 2024
council priorities update. The recommended action before you is
to receive the report. Back in February of 2023 you all set these five priorities to
be worked on for the next two calendar years and we come together quarterly to update you
on progress that's been made on your priorities. My presentation to you this evening will go
through each of these priorities and the progress made since the last update which was in February.
And a list of all of the accomplishments and completed work is now on the website that
details all of the work in and finished work that's been done on your priorities
thus far and we'll be updating that quarterly as well. So as I go through
each priority I will pause for questions so we can focus on each priority and
then move on to the next one. So the first priority is our diversity equity
inclusion and this priority is really focused on continuing to build an
inclusive community and a welcoming community in Walnut Creek and there are
7 components to this priority and I'll be walking through the highlights of
this one. So in March the council approved a contract with Ready Set who
will be helping us build and evaluate a comprehensive DEIB program diversity
equity inclusion and belonging program for our organization. They started with
launching a survey in May and they'll be providing foundational training for all
of our new city staff and our new commissions that have just been brought
on commissioners that have just been brought on board, and they're also working
on a welcoming ordinance that will be coming to the council this summer. As part
of the DEI priority we wanted to diversify our city commission and
committee's pool of applicants that are coming in to potentially be on our
commissions and committees, and we just finished our biannual recruitment
process, and we're happy to report that this was the largest pool of applicants
that we've had in the last three cycles.
As you can see here, we had 49 applications
for 12 open seats.
We did this through expanding our outreach
and really simplifying our application.
And what we'll be doing is talking to the applicants,
the folks who were seated on these commissions,
and staff to really understand what barriers still exist
for folks who are applying
or maybe considering taking a position
or maybe not considering taking a position
to work through some of those barriers.
And our staff is also going to be working through research
with other cities on how they've diversified their pools
and gotten more diversity on their commissions
and committees going forward.
The city continues to offer cultural events and programs
for the community.
Right now at the Bedford Gallery is the Rediscovering
Native America Stories in Motion with the Red Road Project
Exhibition.
It is on view until June 23, so go see it
if you haven't seen it.
It highlights contemporary narratives
from indigenous individuals and communities
across the country.
It features 100 photographs accompanied
by a selection of 3D artworks
by acclaimed Native American artists.
And June is pride month, happy pride everybody.
Our arts and rec department is putting on six events
throughout June, including yoga in the park,
drag queen story time and crafts,
family pride pool party at the Larky Swim Center,
Pet Pride Parade with Bixi here, as you see on the screen,
Print and Flag Making, and this Friday is Pride Night
at Cabaret at the Lesher Center.
Our Rising Tide is a group of employees
that are focused on inclusion and belonging
in our organization, so in the workplace,
and they continue to move forward initiatives
that advance inclusion across all of our city departments.
We just welcomed 10 new staff members to that team,
and that team is working with our Arts and Rec department
to implement a sensory inclusive certification pilot
at our Shadelands Arts Center.
And this certification process is
through Culture City, who is a national nonprofit organization
that promotes sensory inclusion and acceptance
for neurodivergent individuals with invisible disabilities.
So this caters to folks who have sensory needs,
including folks who are living with autism, PTSD, adults
with dementia or Parkinson's disease,
effects from stroke. So far we've trained and certified 75 staff and we're
putting together signage and preparing sensory kits which include tools that
might help the public who are having sensory overload needs when they're
coming to our programs. And we'll also be evaluating this pilot to see if this
would be appropriate to implement in our other facilities throughout the
organization, throughout the city. And the city continues to partner with our
library staff to help amplify their outreach on special events and
highlighting programs and displays that they have at the library, most recently
an Asian Pacific Islander exhibit and of course for Pride Month. And the city
highlighted has also been highlighting the fact that we offer adult in our
libraries offer adult and children's books in Spanish and Chinese. We're one
of the only libraries in the county that offers a Russian e-collection. And at the
Ignacio Valley Library. We have a Spanish book club for adults that meets monthly and bilingual
story times in Spanish and Mandarin. And with that, I will pause for questions.
Yes, Cindy. Thank you very much. And thank you for the work on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
I had a question about how we diversify those who apply for our commissions and those who
actually are appointed to our commissions. So I assume some of the work you're going to be doing
in terms of talking to other communities, is to see how they get the application and
the recruitment process to achieve that.
But are we also going to look at what our age, gender, and cultural and ethnic diversity
is in our community itself in order to align the two, or are we trying to be even broader
than that?
I believe we're trying to align it with our community.
And after the process was concluded, the recruitment process was concluded, we went back and asked
folks for demographic information
to understand the folks that were coming on board
to see what our makeup was currently
and if it was matching.
So we knew where we were currently
and where the gaps are that we need to look forward to
in the next recruitment.
So are we gonna be able to get that detail?
Just a broad picture.
I mean, we could at a future update certainly.
Thank you.
Kevin?
I don't have a question so much as a comment.
sitting on the League of City's Environmental Quality Policy
Committee, the mayor chairing that for the last year
is the mayor of Agoura Hills, City of Agoura Hills
in southern California.
And she contacted me about six months ago
about how they could raise a pride flag,
because she'd heard that Walnut Creek had raised the pride flag
and had a resolution for this.
And so evidently, we got certainly well
outside of our boundaries.
Well, through seeing what we had done watching our meeting
and seeing the resolution that we put out,
they raised the pride flag for the very first time last week.
Even though there was some contentiousness
about it doing in the area, they did it.
She wanted me to know that, and I want to let the staff know.
Thank you for all the work that you've done
for these last several years on this.
What we're doing is expanding beyond our own city
and even region, and thank you very much.
Thank you. Thank you Carla and the entire city staff for all the hard work on all our priorities
and on DEI, can you elaborate a little bit in terms of the recent training that's occurred
and what we're projecting to occur in the future?
I'll leave that one to the city manager.
I can speak to that. Our HR director is home ill this evening, otherwise she would be here
firsthand, but as you may recall, going back a few years ago, we contracted with an organization
to provide training to all staff, council, and all of our commissioners that was completed.
We did a request for a proposal for a more comprehensive program that would not only
include training but would also evaluate the organization through a survey, look at our
policies and practices, and that's Ready Set who we're working with now.
So we just completed, I think it was our first training with Ready Set for all of our new
I shouldn't say all, but many of our new employees that have started since the last time we did
it, which is considerable, our new commissioners and eventually as new council members come
on board, we would have that ongoing training.
So that's the base level DEI training.
We'll also be expanding with other subject matter area, and that will be informed in
part by the survey as well as their assessment of the organization.
So that's the ongoing effort, and in addition to training, they're looking to help us build
out a program to assess our practices, our communications and our policies, procedures,
where we might be able to be more inclusive and expand our approach.
And when we expand to those other subject matters, will those, will that training be
available for all of us, council, commissioners, staff?
I would say most likely.
The intention, the, I don't exactly know what the subject matter is, but the intention to
I know the prior request and direction from Council was to include Council in our commissions
and the training, so I would imagine we would do just that.
Thank you.
Yes.
And I don't have a question.
I just have a comment.
I did hear from a number of the new commissioners that right away, one of the first things that
they got was they got the training, and they said that really reflected well on the commitment
that we have to making sure that we are a welcoming committee, and I felt they were happy
to do it.
All right.
to our economic development and job creation priority.
So this priority has four components,
and again I will be presenting the highlights of this one.
First with our economic development action plan.
This is a two year plan with strategies
to promote economic diversification,
adapt to changes in office uses,
and capitalize on Walnut Creek's economic strengths.
This draft plan was presented to you last May,
and since then our staff has been working really diligently
on achieving all of the different tasks in their work plan
associated with the action plan.
Some notable achievements, we've completed the annual renewals
of the business improvement districts.
We've began market research to develop economic development
marketing materials to market the city
to potential businesses, companies, et cetera.
We've started initial outreach to the health care industry
to discuss workforce development needs.
We've also continued staff engagement
with our, obviously, our economic development division,
our community development department, Public Works,
and John Muir to really discuss
future development expansion potential and plans.
And then we've also participated in local
and regional industry conferences and events,
and continued quarterly partner meetings
with the Chamber of Commerce, Walnut Creek downtown,
and the Hamno Regional Arts Association.
With Permit Streamlining, we are creating an easier
and more efficient experience for our customers
to get permits through our counter.
We started with, in March, I believe we deployed
our online portal where customers can upload plans
electronically for review and confirm
their inspection time online, so they don't have to call
or come down to make sure that they have
an inspection coming.
We also put our pre-reviewed ADU plans on our website
to make it easier for folks to understand the process
and what they can build on their property
when it comes to ADUs.
We also did a lot of work on the design review process.
We updated our residential
and mixed use objective design standards
and objective zoning standards as well.
We brought forward amendments
to the city's design review process
and roles of the design review commission
all in an effort to streamline and clarify
the design review process for development
and to comply with state law.
And the council adopted all of these changes
last month in May.
Our development services team continues to develop.
And is learning and practicing how to collaboratively problem
solve and manage conflict or conflicting needs really
on the team and with our customers.
And the success of this team, as we all know,
will improve understanding and ownership
and really service delivery to our customers
when they're coming in to do anything related to development.
Staff is working on an implementation action plan
to coordinate all of the various operations
that are happening in our downtown,
which include capital improvements, maintenance,
streetscape improvements, public art, events,
and then changes in businesses
and those permitting processes,
all to aid the vibrancy of our downtown.
Staff anticipates completion of this draft plan this fall.
And we've also done a lot of work
on our outdoor dining program.
We're implementing outdoor dining as we speak
with our restaurants who will be receiving permits
based on what their needs and wants are.
So for permanent outdoor dining spaces, pods,
or sidewalk dining, public and private patios,
and parking lot dining.
Any questions on the economic development priority?
Cindy Silva.
I barely move and you know I wanna talk.
Thank you for the presentation on this.
This is a rather robust arena of action steps.
Can you, can somebody give me a status on the work
on Main and Locust Street and Bonanza of East Bay Mudd
and now the Central Sanitary District,
so we know when the restaurants might be able
to actually have outdoor dining again.
That's you, Rich.
I'm just gonna try to think of a question
so that every person in the audience has to stand up.
Good evening, Rich Payne, Public Works.
The timing for the project on Locust.
We just finished up the utilities on Locust.
And the next step is to do some site work.
We're going to be doing some concrete improvements.
We've got some drainage in the gutters
that we've got some isolated puddling that we're
going to improve along with some other repairs
to some storm drain.
And then we're going to go through and do
a complete overlay.
And that should happen this.
Well, it should start the end of this month,
and then it'll probably take a few months
to complete that work.
So our goal is to get this done before the fall.
So concrete work is the sidewalks.
Yes.
And overlay is the street.
Yes, thank you.
So wall to wall, everything is going to get touched,
is what it sounds like.
Yes, we're going to complete a facelift to the Locust Street
area.
Great, thank you.
So soon.
All right, back to Carla.
OK.
Thanks.
Thank you.
So how many, do we have an expectation at this point
of how many restaurants are interested
in an outdoor dining program?
I thought you might ask.
So I do have a few numbers.
I have numbers by permit type,
which is a little bit detailed to say out loud,
but I'll summarize.
So for sidewalk dining, we have 10 applications in
and they're at various stages.
Either the permit's been issued or ready to be issued
being reviewed. For city patios we have seven applications, we have three pod
applications, permanent outdoor dining structures, and then we have ten
applications for private patios. And staff does expect, once all the
construction is complete downtown, more applications to come in when there's
more certainty. And this is all in the arena of downtown. Yes. Thank you. Can I
follow-up question on that. What was the first category? Sidewalk dining. Sidewalk
dining. Was it sidewalk and then pods and then patios. Or the sidewalks, sorry to
give. There were city plazas or something. Technical. They have to be a
certain width I assume in order to accommodate sidewalk dining. It's been our
Boardman, Engineering Manager. Good evening. It's been our Boardman,
Engineering Services Manager. So sorry go ahead to your question. So curious in
in terms of the sidewalk permits.
Do they have to be wider than the average width
in order to accommodate that?
Sure, so our one requirement is that
there's six feet of clear space.
So we're really only talking about
what's called the overlay zone,
this downtown overlay zone, these downtown areas.
We do have a lot of pedestrian traffic,
so we're trying to make sure that we still meet that need.
So just six feet clear.
And so a lot of our sidewalks are actually 10 feet,
And that includes around two feet of a tree wall,
or it could be a little wider depending.
So sometimes we have some street furniture
that's sort of on the curbside or on the other way,
and sometimes we can move things around
to accommodate these businesses
so they can meet that six feet clear space,
but there is a little bit of wiggle room
as long as we meet ADA requirements.
That's our absolute, absolute minimum.
I'm thinking of some of the coffee shops
who might not have the resources to apply
for a full outdoor dining permit,
but they could go this route in terms of sidewalk dining
and maybe at least get a few tables and chairs,
it sounds like.
Yeah, and there's some smaller table tops
that are maybe two feet wide.
So it's only room for two small seats,
but it can be doable.
It just really depends on the location.
Okay, thank you.
Sure.
got a question. Okay, you want to go first? I do, yes. That's why I push my button.
When we were dealing with COVID and trying to get as much floor space outside,
the fire department was an interesting challenge. How are we working with the other utilities and
fire department particularly about getting approvals for the people who want to go outside?
Sure, so I know the fire department was particularly challenging when we were talking about street
closures. We're not really in that, we're not living in that environment anymore, because
we just have one very short street closure where there is still access available by fire.
Everywhere else fire still does have adequate access or there's really no change. And then
And otherwise, other utilities have provided us with guidance or requirements for if there's
any kind of additional fees associated with additional floor space, along with our chief
building official.
Okay.
Well, what I was thinking about was the heaters and things and the smoke and that kinds of
limitations that we also had to deal with.
Yeah, definitely.
And the fire department did provide us with pretty direct feedback on that, along with
with our chief building official.
Yeah, and I would just add to that
because it's been a while probably jogging
all of our memories.
You know, when we were in rebound during COVID,
it was an emergency response type of circumstance
in which each of the restaurants were effectively
creating their own pods and we were providing,
or their structures and we were providing input
working with the other regulatory agencies
to see what we could allow.
As Medard noted, now we've taken a methodical approach
in terms of providing input on the designs
that they meet all the appropriate building standards.
Now my turn, I pushed my button.
Thank you, and so thinking about this,
I had a random conversation with one of the restaurateurs
who was working on a pod, and he did say
that the pod was coming out to be more expensive
than he anticipated, and I was wondering
if you were starting to hear that from folks.
I see that only three pods are in the works.
Do we have a sense on what's holding people back?
So there's, I mean, there is a combination of issues.
I think that from a cost perspective,
we were pretty good about giving that information
during some of the restaurant talks
through Walnut Creek downtown,
just sort of discussing what those preliminary
cost estimates were going to be.
But I do think a piece of this too
is that we do have had pretty impactful construction
in the downtown over the last year.
And we did tell business owners,
hey, please put a pause on any kind of ideas
you might have for Locust
because whatever you think you might wanna do,
your sidewalk could be totally different.
We could be making changes to the elevations.
So we wanted to make sure that they didn't spend
a bunch of money on a design
that they couldn't actually construct.
So that now that we have a path forward,
we have sort of that date when we're going to be completed
the construction job on locust, we're anticipating that there could be a
couple more of interest. And you haven't heard overwhelming, oh these are too
expensive so we're not pursuing it or is it just something that will kind of grow
into as we go through this? I think it'll take time you know in the past we did
have a parklet program and there were two that were constructed right so this
is a new program and I know that there's a lot of interest in outdoor dining but
but there's a lot of outdoor dining out there.
It's just maybe not as obvious
because it isn't in a parking space
or it wasn't made of materials
that were kind of off the cuff during COVID.
So we're continuing to support these businesses
with this program and we'll see the numbers continue
to pick up, but in the meantime,
we're in this implementation phase of bringing people
into the program so that they're in compliance.
Okay, then I had one more question back on the permit
streamlining, and since you're here,
and you're engineering now,
with the turnover in engineering,
have you guys looked at ways that you could
encourage the engineering staff to work closely
with the other development staff so that,
I know we're still using a lot of contract engineers,
but as we bring in our new engineering staff,
are you looking at ways to better integrate them
into the decision making and encourage flexibility,
which is a fine trait for engineers to have.
Yeah, so, I mean, what I'll say is
that we do have some contract engineers,
but it's really for specific types of work,
reviewing and retaining walls,
and some other kind of just really, really specific items.
When it comes to more of the collaboration piece,
we do have staff who works very closely
with all the different divisions
under development services,
And we do have, I mean, the initiative was mentioned,
the development services team that is developing.
So, yes, development engineering is part of that group
and we'll continue to be integrating
all of these different divisions
that we can have really just clear, concise, consistent
and just efficient communication with developers
or residents or really whoever needs assistance
from city staff, that's really our goal.
And I know the original Joe's folks gave a big shout out
to the cooperation between economic development
and engineering in figuring out a way through some things.
And they really thought that you guys did a great job
on that one, so pass that on.
Looking for more questions?
Yes, please.
I want to go back to the accessory dwelling units
very quickly.
I think it's very exciting that we have these templates
available for the public,
but I'm not sure the public is universally aware of it.
Is it possible for somebody to give us a presentation
of what they look like and some samples
here at City Council so we can get it on
the regularly watched Walnut Creek TV show
called the Walnut Creek City Council Meeting?
Or maybe we have an on-camera person
who can do a TV show on them
so that the public can see them.
And I think it'd be great.
I'm getting head nods.
Yes.
And I surprised them by saying that, so.
I see some wandering eyes, so I think
we're ready to go on to an item next.
The next priority is environmental sustainability
and climate action.
You all adopted a sustainability action plan last July.
So we're about a year into implementation.
We brought on a team to help implement this program
and really spread the good news of sustainability
throughout our organization.
So we are looking through a lens of sustainability
in all of our different operations.
Since February, we've been implementing the communications
plan that was developed that is really
focused on delivering information
to a broad range of audiences through 11 different mediums.
And we're really focused on communication because out
of the 21 strategies and hundreds of actions,
35 are dedicated to communication and outreach
and getting people aware of what they can do
to be more sustainable either in their homes
or in their day-to-day life.
So this is really a big focus of this team so far
is really creating awareness with the community.
Moving forward to electric leaf blowers.
Good news is that our public works department
is in transition to using more electric leaf blowers.
Currently, right now, downtown, unless there's an emergency,
all leaf blowers are electric.
And we expect to be fully transitioned next summer
throughout the whole city.
And then also, we began working with MCE.
So it's Sustainability Public Works and MCE
are working together on a strategic management program
or I'm sorry, Strategic Energy Management Program, CEM,
which is a system of organizational practices and policies
that create persistent energy savings
throughout our facilities.
So this is a two-year program and city staff
will get technical training and analysis
of energy efficiency in all of our largest
municipal facilities and we'll recommend,
MCE will be recommending low or no cost improvements
So we can save energy and therefore save money.
And participating in this program implements Strategy 2 of our sustainability action plan.
Available on the city's website is an action tracker that is tracking our near-term actions
in the sustainability action plan, of which there are nine.
Six have been implemented and the work continues ongoing.
Two are in progress and then one is an upcoming project.
wanted to make this available for the folks who are very interested in
sustainability and what we're doing and how we're doing it. All of that is
available online on the city's sustainability page. And with that I will
pause for questions for sustainability. Thank you and thanks for all your work
on this. It's been fun to watch it come up out of the ground. So 350 Contra Costa
Action had a number of things that they were encouraging us to do and I was
reading through that list and thinking we're probably doing many of these things because
we're doing we're working through communication and helping people understand the different
ways that they could move into electrification of their own house.
Have you taken a look at what their comments were?
Yes, we received the letter and as we went through it we did we did note some things
that we are doing.
So one of the first points of five that were made in the letter, educating the public on
environmental and economic and safety benefits to replacing natural gas systems, we do this
regularly through our outreach channels.
Our eco newsletter, our social media, our website content, and then our various tabling
that we've been doing, about one every month we are getting out into the community and
talking to folks.
And then we work closely with our partners on creating awareness about the benefits of
electrification, but also the rebates that are available for electrification and connecting
people to those benefits.
The city doesn't offer direct benefits for electrification, but our partners do.
So that's a lot of the awareness building that we're doing.
And then we're going to be continuing, as I mentioned in the plan, a lot of this is
education.
going to be continuing doing that throughout the plan implementation.
There was also some comments about educating the public about the Bay Area Air Quality
Management District standards.
Same thing, we're working directly with the Management District on that and helping educate
folks to do, to understand what those standards are and when they're going to be coming into
effect so they can get ready for those. And then yeah as we as we went through
the the letter we do have we have several strategies throughout the plan
that encourage electrification in buildings and transport our
transportation sectors. One thing that we are watching is after the court
decision involving Berkeley and their requirement of or banning of gas
essentially in natural gas in buildings. We are watching that pretty closely in
what our other fellow cities are doing. Our plan is written very broadly so we
can adapt our policy to meet whatever legal standard needs to be met. So we
were taking a slope approach to how we're gonna, because in our plan we do,
I believe we are implementing in 2026 water heaters. I'm gonna look at our
sustainability manager, some of the stuff I can't remember, 2026 yes thumbs up, for
water heaters and so as we're thinking through this we want to make sure that
we're consistent with the law, state law and federal law. Yeah I'm encouraged to
see you working with the partners because whenever you have a program like
this where you're trying to change people's decision-making and you have
MCE doing work and PG&E doing work and us doing work and so the more
Or that's coordinated into one effective message.
I think that makes it, with the water use efficiency that's what we found.
With competing messages it just gets lost and people get confused.
But coordinating it and making it one communication, one seamless communication tool and same message
is great.
Anybody else have a question, Matt, please?
So just maybe more of a comment question.
in terms of partnering with other agencies.
Councilmember Silva and I serve on the Recycle Smart Board
and there's the state and our local agencies
are trying to comply with new laws for organic composting.
So trying to keep as much as possible out of the black can
and putting it into the blue can or the green can.
And Recycle Smart has like a refrigerator magnet
with a QR code that if you go to wherever the QR code leads
you're interacting with, I assume it's some sort of AI
where you're texting, you know, can I recycle this?
And you put that information in and it says yes,
put it in the blue can or put it in the green can.
Might be able, if we're able to kind of get that information
available on our website or some of our city publications,
it's a really easy resource.
The magnets I'm pretty sure are free
so that everyone can have it on their fridge
and make sure that they're putting, you know,
the right item and the right can.
Yeah, that's a great idea.
And our sustainability staff is taking notes.
Excellent.
Okay, anything else?
I see nothing.
Have we run out of items?
No.
We have two more.
Oh boy.
Our parks facilities and other infrastructure priority
is really focused on our three major
Heather Farm Park projects
that are gonna be coming down the pipeline
in the next four plus years.
All Measure O funded, starting with the Heather Farks
Aquatics and Community Center.
The council gave staff some great direction
back in March or April, call it spring,
on architectural style of the building, pool specifications,
and also made some decisions on the level of sustainability
and emergency operations capability
for the new community center.
The community center will be built
to lead silver equivalent standards,
so it won't be formally LEED certified,
but will also support future battery storage.
And then the building will also be upgraded
to an operational emergency operation center for the future.
We'll be along to the lights at Tice Field.
We will be installing lights to extend the use
those fields into the evening. Good news is the CEQA has been completed on this
project and we expect to be bidding it this summer with construction beginning
in the fall. And the ball fields at Heather Farm Park will we will we will
be replacing natural turf with synthetic turf. The final conceptual design was
presented to the Prose Commission in June and we are projected to have a
contract awarded in December of 2024 and anticipated to have this project
completed by fall 2025. Questions? Oh gosh gee Cindy Silva. Thank you very much.
A question about the lights at Tice. We are planning to accommodate them but
we're also looking at the ability to add pickleball courts at Tice. We are making
making sure that the lights are not going to conflict with where the pickleball courts
might be located, right?
Good evening, for the record.
Kevin Saffine, Director of Art and Recreation.
These are two separate paths, right?
There's the lights at the ball fields, and then to the extent that there would be or
could be pickleball courts in the back corner there, those are not proposed to be lit.
So the lights for the ball fields would be directed just at the ball fields.
the lights that are going to be installed for the ball fields will not
the location of those lights will not preclude the locating of pickleball
courts. Correct. If the pickleball courts were to be developed there they'd
be developed separate and apart from where the ball field poles would be
placed. Correct. Great. Thank you. Okay and last but not least our final
priority is public safety and social wellness and this priority integrates
existing and new programs across these five areas so again I will present the
highlights. The Walnut Creek was instrumental in developing and
advocating for the A3 program which is a crisis response program named to
indicate that anyone in Contra Costa can access timely and appropriate behavioral
crisis services anytime and anywhere. The Center operates 24 hours a day, seven
days a week, and the program receives about 400 calls and sends about 50
clinicians and law enforcement when necessary with an average response time
of about 20 minutes in our county. One big milestone of late is the program
deployed a data dashboard on their website to really understand and see all
of the data that is being created by the A3 program. So this is calls for service,
this is response times, this is how many times clinicians have to be deployed and
the contact that they're making. It's also broken down by city. So this is all
available on the A3 website. The Walnut Creek Police Department manages and
participates in several programs including the Regional Crisis
this intervention team, the CORE team, and the homeless outreach program team.
These are all programs that are dedicated to responding to mental health challenges
and connecting residents who are experiencing homelessness with services, and as these challenges
overlap, these programs aim to address these issues in a holistic way.
These programs are well-established and fully integrated into city operations, so this might
be the last time I talk about this but it's also it's a good reminder that we
are addressing mental health and homelessness in a holistic way and it
isn't part of our city operations now so that is the update for that. We're doing
it. Our police department is installing technology that will be providing real
time analysis of crime trends to support staff as they direct law enforcement
resources. This is expected to be deployed this summer and it will
accelerate decision-making, enhance our investigation capabilities and streamline
our analyses to really create some data-driven outcomes when it comes to
crime trends. Also this summer the police department will be implementing a
traffic traffic safety plan that's designed to focus on DUIs, speed
enforcement and pedestrian safety. And then the department will also be
conducting driver education and safe driving campaigns over its social media.
The department continues to build partnerships and relationships with the
community a lot through Coffee with a Cop events. A couple happen downtown and
more are planned for different areas of the city including the north and east
areas. The police department also participated in an event with coffee and
cars at Los Lomas High School recently, and then just I think last week
participated in an emergency evacuation presentation in Rossmore to help guide how law enforcement
aids in evacuation in
emergency situations in that community.
Regarding fostering a modern and healthy police culture, the city's ABLE program that we presented on in
depth in February,
This training continues and has been added as a new as part of the new higher onboarding training for the police department
And we'll have refresher courses coming later this year for folks all folks in the police department
also presented in February was a
Community engagement tool that allows the department to collect anonymous feedback about officer interactions to date
1200 responses have been received
And these responses will help improve trainings and policies and procedures and the department plans to share this
feedback with the community through its
public data portal on its website
The city is working to improve traffic transit and pedestrian and bike safety
with providing a way for all residents to get to their destination safely and we're doing that project by project by
Incorporating traffic safety elements into the North Wiggett Lane and Locust Street
Rehabilitation projects and the 2020 for slurry seal project
Some features in these projects include bowl bouts
Stripping improved crosswalks reduced traveling widths and bikeway protection where it is appropriate. I
Will pause there for questions
It's a lot of information to absorb council member Silva. Thank you on the a3 program
You mentioned the number of calls that the call center is receiving. It's 400 and I didn't hear whether you said per day
Per week per month. I don't think it's per year. I believe that's per week. Okay. Thank you
Yes
my effort
Thank you, this is a lot to kind of like think through
I'm really glad the the response system so that people can
Provide their feedback on policing. I know at one point in time we were talking about
whether or not the body-worn camera videos were going to be sampled and
Audited to see
You know to add another loop to that and I was wondering and because none of the police officers have gotten to get up yet
I thought I might ask that question and
Please chief Jamie Knox
Good evening. Madam Mayor members of the City Council Jamie Knox chief of police
Currently, we do have an audit program in place for the body-worn cameras where supervisors conduct spot checks of
their direct reports to review
Random calls for service. We have some parameters that we've established so that we don't choose videos that are too short or too lengthy
And that's one element of the audit process
Okay
overall
you feel like the body-worn cameras are working well and
Whatever bag this is going. Yes, I think it was a considerable investment financially
But I think it's paid us back tenfold
Anecdotally there's studies that suggest that your citizen complaint numbers will come down as a result of having the bad body-worn cameras
And we've proven time and time again that they often help us investigate
Complaints and get to the bottom of things very quickly when we have that video. Okay. Thank you
I can just follow up on that. There was a national high profile stop where the
officer forgot to turn on his body camera or didn't and that was a big issue.
How does that work here when police officers make a stop? Are they manually
turning that on? Does it automatically come on? How does that work? Yeah, so
there's a few different ways that the body camera can activate. Most common
way is for the officer or the employees. We have some of our professional staff
that wear them who work out in the field, like our parking enforcement. So they
just manually activate the camera but then we have technology integrated into
the vehicles and on the officer's duty belt when if a taser is pulled or they
turn all of their police lights on on the car the body camera comes on
automatically. Okay great thank you okay. Thank you you nailed it thank you. Wait oh no.
Thank you you you know the answer to this question because I asked you it in
an email last week. There was an article about San Francisco putting in the
automated license plate reader technology in the city. They were
talking about 300 cameras and how they were finding that they were a value in
not only finding suspects for of crimes that occurred in San Francisco but
also in other communities. Do we have that technology here? Not 300 I would
assume. We're not as big as San Francisco and how is it working?
And yes, we do have that technology.
It's working well.
We're looking to expand that technology very soon.
So we currently have about 33 cameras in the city with about eight different intersections
covered.
We have done a study and we've found that that's inadequate.
So we'll be moving forward with an RFP relatively quickly to acquire some new technology for
some strategic locations throughout the city.
And yes, it's an invaluable tool at solving crime.
Strategic locations like Ignacia Valley Road
and the entrance to the freeway.
I mean, what's a strategic location
without giving away trade secrets?
Yeah, we don't want to give away all of our secrets.
But typically, we're looking for points of ingress and egress
through high crime areas, maybe hot spots.
Broadway Plaza is certainly a hot spot for retail crime.
So that's an area that we would like to shore up a bit.
Thank you if you hurry you can get away. Okay, I'm gonna hurry and get away
All right
Last last item not a priority but not a shortage of work around housing element implementation
so a few things of note the city has applied for a pro-housing designation and we're waiting to hear back from the
housing and or a California Department of Housing and Community Development
being designated as a pro-housing city at the state level comes with funding incentives and additional resources to speed up housing development and
then our
housing staff is working to
Improve and implement a
new affordable housing
Process where it's a formal process where developers can apply for housing funds before it was kind of a first come first serve basis
So we'll be implementing this new process in the fall to make it a little bit more transparent and a little bit more
It'll be based on an RFP based on proposals, etc
So that's coming in the fall
Questions, that's the end. Truly. That's the end
okay, I've got a question which is
Have there been any kind of tech statistics on housing and whether as as things are going
we're getting some positive development.
I know we're still waiting for the one on civic,
for the low income housing.
So is anything helping make the housing happen?
Community Development Director?
It's Erica's turn, but she's limping to the microphone.
Oh my.
It's all the hard work on the housing element.
It's late in the evening.
So, Erica Vandenbrandt, Community Development Director, you know, I guess the answer to
your question depends on, since when are we counting?
And since the housing element was just, you know, officially accepted by the state last
October, if we start counting from then, it's a little bit difficult to say, okay, we have
X number of units and so forth.
However, we do have a number in the pipeline, and that is due to not only, you know, the
work that staff has done, but all of you as council members, and making it a lot easier
to have housing here within the community.
So, as was noted earlier, there is the ADU, the previewed ADU, you know, plans.
And then there's Toyota of Walnut Creek, and as just two examples.
And there are a number of different projects in the pipeline, also inclusive of 699 YVR.
And should the city receive the pro-housing designation, that would give substantial additional
points to that project to make it eligible to go across the line for state funding, presuming,
of course, there continues to be state funding.
Yeah, with their budget issues.
Thank you.
while we've got Erica here. Just a quick one. Do we know what the status is on the cottages out at
the church? Grace President. Grace President. So they're in progress, that is what I know.
I haven't been invited to a second ribbon cutting yet, so that's sort of the, you know,
when it becomes real, I guess. Okay, thanks. Speaking of funding, one of our big projects in
in 2022 was the passage of the sales tax measure.
And it's generating about $12 million
in additional funds each year.
And a good portion of those are actually being allocated
toward these priorities.
Can the city manager elaborate on that a bit
and how important those funds are?
Certainly.
Yeah, just to fine tune that a little bit.
We had projected about $12.5 million annually
for this current fiscal year, which is the first full year.
It's actually a little bit lighter, probably about 12.3 million.
Of that, your council either allocated or reserved about $11.5 million directly towards
the council priorities, which not surprisingly align with the feedback that was received
from the community when we did outreach to Measure O.
So there were priorities from the community.
Your council aligned your priorities for the city and the organization around that feedback,
and then Measure O was used to support those efforts.
So there are programs or projects in every one of these categories that are being funded
by measure O.
Anyone else before we wrap this up?
I believe our instructions were that we just need to receive the information.
Oh, and yes, of course I'll do public comment.
Everybody.
Everybody.
Well, and they all work for us, you know, so it's really hard to encourage them.
And we haven't come up with enough questions to get everybody in the room for it.
If you haven't had a question, we'll make up one if you want to come forward.
So public comment is closed, and that takes us to the end.
And do we have any more questions or comments, or are we just going to say, yes, we received
the information and thank you. It is very clear this staff has taken our priorities
very seriously and have been diligent and creative and absolutely stunning in their
commitment to keeping this city a very special place. So thank you very much. Does anybody
else want to add to that? Ditto. Thank you very much. City manager on down and bottom
people on up and everybody in the middle. Alright so we're up to the the sadder part of the meeting
which is the adjournment in honor of our former council member Charlie Abrams. We are closing
this evening city council meeting in member of in memory of former mayor Charlie Abrams who passed
away on June 3rd at the age of 83. Charlie with his wife Janet and their three sons moved to
to Walnut Creek from Washington, D.C. in 1979,
and the family quickly became fixtures
in the local community.
Over the years, Charlie actively supported his sons
in athletic and musical passions
and served as a Little League coach, soccer referee,
football and Northgate parents and booster club volunteer
and board member of the Walnut Creek Fountain of Youth,
Fountain for Youth Foundation.
He was a licensed engineer civil
and registered traffic engineer.
Charlie, he started his business as Abrams Associates
in 1985, a local traffic engineering
and transportation planning constituency consultancy.
For the next 30 years, Charlie was actively engaged
in Walnut Creek business community,
and he served a number of years at the board,
on the Board of the Chamber of Commerce.
Charlie began his civic career by volunteering
in the late 1980s for two of our city's commissions.
First, the Transportation Commission
and then the Planning Commission.
In 1995, Charlie was elected to his first of three terms
on the Walnut Creek City Council.
Over his 12 years on the council,
he served two times as mayor,
first in the year 2000 and again in the year 2004.
While a council member, Charlie played a significant role
on the County Transportation Authority,
and he twice shared that board as well.
If you ask Charlie to list his civic projects
that made him most proud,
he would undoubtedly point to transportation improvements,
such as the new Benicia Bridge that opened in 2007,
widening of Highway 4 between Martinez and Hercules and the Iron Horse Trail crossing
Ignacio Valley Road. Charlie would also talk about the Veterans Memorial Plaza where we now
commemorate Memorial Day each year, and he is sure to mention the downtown Walnut Creek Library,
which broke ground during his last year on the council. For decades, Charlie was a driving force,
not only in Walnut Creek, but for the whole Contra Costa region.
He will be greatly missed, but his legacy will live on through his work.
And with that, we adjourned the meeting and we'll see you in July.