Good evening and welcome to the Walnut Creek City Council City regular meeting.
Before we start the meeting I am going to read a little preamble here.
Welcome to our meeting of the Wal Street of the Walnut Creek City Council.
The City Council is conducting this meeting from the City Council Chamber.
meeting is also being video streamed and can be viewed live or later on the city's website.
As some attendees may be participating in their first Walnut Creek City Council meeting,
I wanted to welcome everyone and talk briefly about the public comment process.
For each agenda item, there will be an opportunity for the public to comment on that item.
Thus, if you desire to speak to an item on the agenda this evening,
Please hold your comments until the City Council considers that item.
Additionally, we have a six section on the agenda entitled Public Communications,
which is for public comments for items not on the agenda. Any comments during public communications
should not relate to an item that is on the agenda for the 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
meeting if necessary. If you desire to provide the public comment, please complete a speaker
identification card and line up behind the lectern at the appropriate time.
Wait your turn and then when you approach the lectern please state your
name and city of residence for the record. You will have two minutes to
address the City Council. Please keep in mind that this is a city business
meeting. The City Council has adopted rules of decorum to ensure that the
meetings are conducted effectively and efficiently and that all members of the
public have a full fair and equal opportunity to be heard. The City Council
Handbook outlines the decorum expected in the City Council
Chamber and can be found on our website. All comments should be addressed to the
City Council. Please do not use any threatening, profane or abusive language
which disrupts, disturbs, or otherwise impedes
the orderly conduct of the 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 website for public review
and are included in the meeting record,
but will not be read separately.
That being stated, may we all stand
and let's pledge 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?
Councilmember Francois.
Here. Councilmember Silva.
Here. Councilmember Will.
Here. Mayor Pro Tem Darlene.
Here. Mayor Haskew.
I am here as well.
Okay, next on the agenda is the consent calendar.
Does any council member wish to pull an item?
Seeing none, does any person in the audience
want to make a public comment on anything
that is in the consent calendar?
Again, I see nobody making a move.
May I have a?
Move to approve the consent calendar.
Second.
Nope.
Now may we have a roll call please. Councilmember Francois? Councilmember
Wilk? Councilmember Silva? Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Darden? Aye. Mayor Haskew? Aye. Motion carries unanimously.
We're now public communications. This portion of the meeting is reserved for
comment on items not on the agenda under the Brown Act. The council cannot act on
items raised during public communications but may respond briefly to
statements made or questions posed, request clarification or refer the item to staff.
Consistent with section 9.5 of the City Council Handbook, 30 minutes will be allocated at this
time 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 meeting. Would anybody like to
come up and make a public comment.
Good evening, Mayor Haskill, City Council members, and staff.
My name is Ellen Osmanson.
I'm a Walnut Creek resident.
And this evening, I would like to share
with you some exciting news about the Walnut Creek Village.
Walnut Creek Village is a part of the national grassroots
movement to reimagine aging and provide
platform for seniors to connect and continue to find meaning and purpose in life as they
continue to age in their own homes.
Our mission is that Walnut Creek Village will build an active community among seniors to
promote social connections, support independence, engage volunteerism and continue growth through
education.
We would like to provide opportunities for seniors in Walnut Creek Village to continue
to make friends, learn and explore their hidden talents, keep healthy with
movements and exercise, know who to call when help is needed, stay informed in
community affairs, and volunteer when possible and appropriate to feel useful.
We are currently in the pre-launch stage. Our first pre-launch event is coming up
on Friday, November 22nd, and we called it Smell the Roses Walk.
We are pleased that Mayor Haskill and City Council member Kevin Wilk are going to join
us, and we appreciate that.
And it is going to be held at, we are going to start walking at Sports Basement and we'll
walk to the Rose Garden at headphones park.
We start at 11.
For those who would like to join us, scan the QR code here.
And we have also scheduled a pre-launch reception to officially introduce the Warner Creek Village
to the community.
And it will be held on Wednesday, January 22nd, 2025.
And of course, they would like to invite the entire city council to join us at that time.
And it will be held at the Mount Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church.
Okay, more information to follow.
And thank you very much.
You're welcome.
Hi. How are you? Yes. Can I ask a question? Yes. I noticed you referenced the QR codes for those at
home that aren't seeing the QR code. Is there a website that someone could go to to find out
more information? We do not have a website yet currently, but to find out more information we
have a Facebook group page that you can find us. Our group is called Walnut Creek Village
pre-launch, and we have a lot of information there.
Excellent, excellent.
Thank you so much.
Thank you for doing that for the community.
Good evening.
My name is Marty Veluva,
and I'm also a resident from Walnut Creek,
and I'm here also tonight to talk to you
about the Walnut Creek Village.
The village movement is nationwide
with 25 villages in the Bay Area,
including Sausalito, La Marinda, Clayton, Berkeley,
Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Benicia.
I attended a two day California village conference
in La Jolla in September, and here are some of the things
that the other villages are doing
to provide social connections and access to resources
and volunteers that help seniors stay in their homes
and avoid isolation and loneliness.
Ashby Village is gathering stories from their seniors
to preserve history which they call
kitchen table conversations.
There are buddy walking teams.
Santa Cruz has bocce ball.
One village provides drive-by cupcakes
delivered to their members on their birthday.
Another village calls each member quarterly
to ask if the village is meeting their needs
and what could they do for them.
Clayton Village has a men's group
with outings to Mayor Island,
Travis Air Force Base and car shows.
Lastly, Marin Village partners
with their fire department emergency services.
Villages provide support to seniors for health and safety,
transportation, community engagement and social well-being,
far beyond what a retirement community like Rossmore
or a senior center or senior classes can provide.
As we age, we lose friends and loved ones
and seniors move away from their homes.
We lose mobility, some of us lose the ability to drive
and this leads to depression and loneliness.
Villages are a very effective model
who address these needs.
Let's work together and join the 25 other Bay Area villages
to build and grow the Walnut Creek Village.
Thank you.
Hello, I am Donna Labriola.
I'm with the Walnut Creek Downtown Association
and I live in Benicia.
Tonight I just wanted to come.
We've given you each an overview of Oktoberfest.
We didn't have a chance earlier to give you the details
and wanted to do that tonight.
First off, thank you so much for your support
of the organization and for our events.
So, Oktoberfest was held on September 27th and 28th.
This year we had over 20,000 attendees,
which is a huge increase from last year,
about 64% increased.
We had 95 vendors in Civic Park East.
We had over 850 kid zone passes that were sold this year.
That's a 70% increase from last year.
So the kid zone is really going at it.
And we increased our income by 74.6% this year.
So huge, huge jump.
A little bit of the marketing overview.
We had 53,256 visitors to the webpage
find out about Oktoberfest. We had a 52.2 percent open rate of our dedicated emails
for Oktoberfest, which is also a very good number. We had 1.2 million impressions of
our patch ad, which is also a really great number, which shows in the number of attendees
that came out this year. We increased our sponsorship dollars by 47 percent to $54,200.
Our entertainment, we had two stages this year. One was a community stage where we had
18 performances from community-based organizations, and we had five bands on the main stage, two
two of which were Oktoberfest Music Centered.
Sorry.
And finally, we had over 200 volunteers that came out
and filled 430 volunteer shifts.
So thank you again to the council
and to the community for coming out
and supporting our events.
I think there are some council comments.
Thank you and thank you for doing this overview.
We got this at the Walnut Creek downtown board meeting
the other day, and we're really proud of how hard
Walnut Creek downtown to pull off something
in spite of the fact that it was stifling
how hot I was working in the ticket booth.
But I really liked the community stage
and then the chill zone.
Those were both unique, you know,
the chill zone was there last year,
but the community stage really brought out a lot of,
I saw it, little Taekwondo kids and all kinds of things
from my place over at the ticket booth.
So thank you guys for a good job
and a good job really increasing the reach of the event.
Great.
Thanks.
And thank you to the work that Walnut Creek downtown does.
And maybe we could work in something about the ice rink.
Yes.
So they're going to be such a nice.
What are the rules?
The ice rink is being set up right now
and will open on Friday the 22nd.
We also are doing a tree lighting ceremony in Civic Park.
We'll have the Northgate acapella group
out to sing some songs,
and most of the city council will be out,
and a lot of the community will come out to support that.
And Free Hot Chocolate.
And what date is that?
That's Friday, November 22nd, sorry.
Any Friday, pick a Friday.
Any old time?
from 5.30 to 6.30.
And thank you.
Is there a rain plan since?
There is a rain plan in that we are
going to make a decision on the rain plan tomorrow.
And so if we do have to reschedule it,
we are going to push it to Tuesday,
which seems to be the day where we'll have less rain.
The atmospheric river will have run its course, hopefully.
Hopefully.
Well, hopefully not.
So tomorrow we'll make that decision
and then send out a lot of social media and emails
everyone. Thank you very much. You bet. Thank you. I was gonna promote the tree
lighting and the ice rink as well. Thank you mayor. And is there any kind of this
the downtown, Wanna Creek downtown have any insights into why the dramatic
increase in attendance? Was it the timing or holding it earlier? Some of the
events that were held or? I do think we benefited from having it a little
earlier this year and we have scheduled already and are holding our date for
civic park for september 26th and 27th for 2025 so i think it did it made it
definitely made a difference okay thank you so thank you
all right thanks no any other people want to
brave the standing up in front of the council looks like it's not going to
happen all right then we're going to move on to
the next item. That will be council members staff announcements and reports
on activities or requests. City attorney please. Thank you Madam Mayor there were
three closed sessions this evening. The council provided direction on all three
of those items and there was no reportable or there was one reportable
action by a 5-0 vote the council did authorize the city to resolve an
and insurance claim that the city has against
one of its insurance companies.
There is no other reportable actions.
Thank you, city manager.
Yeah, good evening.
Dan Buckshi, city manager,
and I am going to do one of our mayor's favorite things
to do, which is to brag about Walnut Creek
with two updates here this evening.
The first is related to the election,
and I wanted to speak about the process
and the role that we played here in the city.
We have two drop boxes here at City Hall,
one on Main Street and one behind off of Broadway,
And we had the most ballots dropped off of any location
throughout Contra Costa County.
I believe there were approximately 20 different locations,
give or take.
We had over 10,600 ballots dropped off
and that was the most out of any site.
And that's been the case for a few different election cycles
now that Walnut Creek has had the highest number dropped off.
So thank you for everybody for turning in their ballots.
And then secondly, City Hall was also a location
for early voting for the few days leading up
to the election day.
In fact, this council chamber was the site
and we had a tremendous amount of turn out
if anybody was here, you know,
that we had lines out the door and as a result,
I also wanna thank our clerk team here,
our city clerk team as well as some of our communications
team who helped shepherd and manage that process,
was in touch with the county clerk, register our voters
to help ensure that we could move things along
and get as many folks through the process as possible
to support a positive election in terms of participation.
That in mind voter turnout was 72%,
at least at this point in time in Walnut Creek,
which is a relatively high number,
and congratulations to all the winners
in the election locally and otherwise.
The other thing that I wanted to highlight,
the other bragging point,
is we did receive another award here in Walnut Creek,
which is the Beacon Award related to sustainability.
I guess because it's sustainable, it's small and wood,
so it really doesn't look that impressive,
but it is a really nice achievement here.
Maybe we have to enlarge it or something, I don't know.
But I wanted to speak to this
for just a moment about the award.
So the Institute for Local Government,
Selective Walnut Creek is one
of the Beacon Spotlight Award winners.
For the past 14 years, the program has encouraged,
supported, and recognized voluntary action
by local governments throughout California
to address climate change, promote energy innovation,
and create more sustainable communities.
And this year, Walnut Creek received
the Platinum Recognition Award
that is actually the highest level honor
for sustainability practices.
And Walnut Creek was able to demonstrate 66 best practices
across 11 different sustainability categories.
And this was effectively done
by the city's longstanding commitment to sustainability
and to new programs undertaken since the adoption
of the updated sustainability plan
that occurred in 2023.
Some of the best practices include
what we're doing at Heather Farm Park
with the new design of the new facility,
brought outreach to the community,
as well as updating many of our buildings
and implementing various efficiency measures.
So thank you to everybody who's been involved
in our sustainability program,
both in the present as well as in the past
because we have received this award in prior years.
And that's my update, Mayor, thank you.
Thank you, I like it when other people brag
about our community.
Can we start with Matt Francois,
cause that's as far as I can see.
Yes, you can.
Good evening, Mayor.
So we had a busy few weeks since our last meeting.
I did attend, as a liaison to the Chamber,
I attended their board meeting on October 17th.
Thanks to the city manager, provided a good update
in terms of what the city's been up to.
Got updates from Walnut Creek downtown.
The chamber has solidified some of their plans
for the women's conference,
which will be on May 4th of next year.
It will be again hosted in downtown Walnut Creek
here at the Lesher Center.
And some of the keynote speakers,
I believe have been announced,
unless Bob Lynchide tells me not to say them,
are Anastasia Mikova,
who is a French, Ukrainian-born film director
and journalist.
Oh, and I apologize, the date was March 4th.
I think I said March, March 5th.
So I knew one of my colleagues would in a friendly manner
tell me that it was March 4th, then correct me.
Yes.
Okay, so I got distracted.
Anastasia Makova, who's a French-Ukrainian-born film director
and journalist, Broadway Legends,
Sandra Joseph and Ron Bohemer and Rachel Wilson,
who's head of cybersecurity at Morgan Stanley.
So it seems like it's set up
to be another very successful women's conference,
again, hosted right here in downtown Walnut Creek
on March 4th, 2025.
And then this Thursday,
and I'll report on this at my next council meeting,
we'll have a board,
the Chamber is having a board planning meeting
in the afternoon, I believe our city manager
and assistant city manager will be in attendance as well.
So I'll give you an update there.
On October 23rd, I attended the Recycle Smart board meeting
and as you'll recall from some of my past updates,
we're in the process of going through the RFP process
and awarding contracts for our collection
and post collection services.
So we did have a milestone on the 23rd
and the board voted unanimously
to recommend awarding post collection contracts.
And I won't go through the whole list,
but there will be familiar names
because some of them are our current providers,
but rest assured that we went through a competitive process
and came to the conclusion that these providers
are providing the most cost-effective competitive services
in a high result-oriented manner for all of our constituents.
So the landfill disposal will continue to happen
at the Keller Landfill Facility,
which is operated by Republic.
The processing of recyclable materials
will continue to be done
by Mount Diablo Resource Recovery,
as will the transfer of solid waste
and commingled organic materials.
So once we got that big check mark next
to the post collection contract,
issued an RFP for collection contract services so expect more updates as we
move forward with the collection services and I'm told by our Recycle
Smart staff that we've already received something like eight or so interested
parties have come to a meeting with staff to express their interest so it
looks like there will be a competitive process for the collection services too
which is exactly why the board voted to go through this process. Let's see on
On November 6th, I had the pleasure of attending the Citizens Institute and I just am so pleased
that that is back and operational.
This is a program that the city puts on, had put on annually prior to COVID and it gives
residents an opportunity to see how the city works firsthand behind the scenes.
They tour each of the departments and they get an update from each department head.
They also go on a bus tour of their neighborhoods.
I believe council member Silva attended that event.
There were at least 35 or 40 people in attendance,
kind of on a cold November night.
The day after the election, it was really great
to see that many people engaged kind of in the city
and wanting to learn.
It genuinely interested in learning about the city
and there was a fantastic job done at the courtyard
by Rich Payne, our Public Works Director,
and all of our great public works staff.
Along with all my colleagues,
I attended the Veterans Day Memorial.
I'm gonna let the Mayor speak to that,
but I would just like to thank her
for including all of us in the presentation.
I think it made it very personal and meaningful for me.
So thank you for doing that.
And then along with Council Member Wilk
and Mayor Pro Tem Darling,
It was fun to attend the grand opening of pinstripes
at the former Creighton Barrel facility.
It's a really fun new venue
that I think is gonna do extremely well in Walnut Creek
with indoor bowling and bocce and great food
and a full serve bar.
So looking forward to having more family
and fun events planned there in the future.
And that is my update.
was happy. Kevin please. Thank you yeah a lot happened over the last month I also
had a citizens Institute opportunity for the Lesher Center and the the class
gets to go backstage of the Lesher Center and see how all the magic works
but this is a great program and next year when it's offered again I hope that
we get another another many dozens of applications because nobody ever leaves
feeding like they they didn't learn a lot about how the city operates. The
veteran again mayor thank you for the Veterans Day ceremony I heard lots of
comments afterwards about how enjoyable it is to honor our veterans and that
just Walnut Creek does a terrific job annually so that you talk more about
that but again thank you. Pinstripes was great there was another grand opening
just the day before and that was Model Bakery which both of those were long time
waiting to be opened and terrific terrific coming out for so many people
that came to see it as well as the staffs and we looked forward to very
long tenures for both of them. There was also actually a ribbon cutting for Locust
Street because all of that utility work and the public works that were that did
everything on the sidewalks and the and the road work is done and so we can look
forward to ideally getting more outdoor dining and Locust Street is continues to
be open for business so that was great to be involved with as well. I wanted to
lastly mention that Mayor Pro Tem Darling, I think you and I were the
only ones there in Rossmore, there was Coffee with a Cup which we've seen
before in Starbucks in a few local locations where there'll be you know a
a dozen, maybe 15, 20 people from the community out to talk about safety and
what's happening in Walnut Creek. There must have been a hundred people at
Rossmore. Between safety and I see some of our officers in the back and thank
you very much Chief and and Captain Brown and and Lieutenant Slater. It was
phenomenal because being the liaison for Rossmore over the last year and being
involved with so many different parts of what they're doing, safety is a huge
factor for them concern you know and there's so many different issues but
fraud is as well and we don't hear about that as much so I heard a lot of
feedback that really appreciated our department being able to work closely
with Rossmore with their security and again it as the title was coffee with a
lot of cops and it was great so thank you very much I look forward to this
being an annual event, no doubt Ross would really appreciate that.
As liaison and sitting on the county connection board, and this year I'm actually chairman
of the board of county connection, a lot of updates there.
And it's kind of a good news, bad news scenario on a few of these.
I'll start with a bad news, and that is an electric bus update.
So Walnut Creek and County Connection was very proud in being an early adopter when
it came to electric bus and manufacturing for that and being the first in the manufacturing
company, Gilligan, the entire country.
We still have the only two electric bus routes are in Walnut Creek for County Connection,
but there's problems and anybody that's been part of early adopting, there are problems
when it comes to early adopting manufacturers and subcontractors, and this is one of them.
The wave electric and induction connectors are not speaking with our batteries on the
buses.
I don't understand all the technology behind this, but evidently there's been some problems
there.
There's also problems with the company itself that's being used.
We are not alone.
There are other bus companies throughout the state and country that are also having trouble
since they've been early adopters.
And so some of the parts aren't even manufactured anymore.
So these sub-manufacturers are running into problems
all over the country.
We're on it.
And we currently have about a dozen buses
that can't operate right now
that are sitting in the county courtyard
just waiting to be charged.
And we can't just charge them there
and then let them go on the route
because they'd run out of juice
and then we wouldn't be able to get them back.
So it is, it's, we're looking at this
is the number one issue right now in County Connection.
It's why if you've been downtown,
you've seen the Route 4 going by,
why don't we have the trolleys running,
the electric trolleys, and we've got the big buses?
That's why.
So, I'll continue to give updates on that
just as we get updates at County Connection.
A good news is there is an administration building
at County Connection, and it has been renamed now
the Schroeder Family Administration Building.
For those longtime residents in Walnut Creek
and in the county, the Schroeder family is well known
in transportation throughout Walnut Creek in the county.
Bob Schroeder was a former Walnut Creek mayor.
He was also a former county supervisor,
very involved with the Central Contra Costa
County Transportation Authority.
And his son Rob Schroeder was a 25 or 26 year mayor
of Martinez and on the county board connection
for many, many years.
And so the administration building will be named
for the family.
Bad news, people might have heard about the fiscal cliff
when it comes to BART and transit within the Bay Area.
And there was a, we're talking now
throughout all of the transit companies
of how to resolve the emergency situation
between BART and SFMTA, Caltrain, MTC.
Will it involve parcel tax, payroll tax, sales tax?
It's still being worked out through the four county solution
which includes Contra Costa, Alameda, San Mateo,
and Santa Clara, a lot more to come on this.
You're gonna be hearing a lot of this in the media too,
as it continues to be discussed,
but this is a big issue
and all the transit agencies are involved in it.
But to end that portion of it with good news,
County Connection got a $16 million grant
for a solar array in the Contra Costa,
I'm sorry, in the County Connection bus yard
for battery backup storage facility,
which will integrate with the zero-emission bus systems
and modernize its fleet with 27 zero-emission buses
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Now that's ironic based upon what we just talked about
when it came to the charging systems,
but that was a huge win in getting that $16 million grant.
So we look forward to getting past this issue
when it comes to the charging.
And the last point in my brief report
is the Family Justice Center will be opening up their fourth
office in Contra Costa County. The Family Justice Center works with
underprivileged families, immigrant families,
domestic abuse issues that have happened,
and really helps these people that may not have a path of how to get the help
that they so need throughout the county and it
really provides them with those resources. So it's supported by
all of our government up and down, but it's a nonprofit.
And so we were looking forward to opening this fourth
called the South County Office.
It will be in Danville.
It opens on December 10th in cooperation
with Supervisor Candace Anderson's office.
And we look forward to that opening.
And I am a representative for the Family Justice Center
from the Contra Costa Mayor's Conference.
So more on that to come as well.
And that's my report.
Mostly happy news is next.
Thank you very much, Mayor.
And a few things of note,
the East Bay Regional Communication System Authority
which basically operates the two county radio,
public safety radio system is very deep
into really assessing our finances for the long term
going forward, particularly since we're switching systems
and technologies.
Tonight on the council consent agenda,
the last item was approving the receipt
of nearly a million dollar grant
from the Department of Justice COPS program
for us to be able to upgrade our technology
for the radio systems.
And this is happening in the 43 agencies
across the two counties as well.
So we're looking at how we can actually establish
a capital equipment reserves fund
because these things will continue to happen,
not only with the radios but the towers
and the centralized equipment that operates the system
because we wanna be sure that system is operating well.
So over the next few months,
we'll be looking seriously at that.
I continue as of the annual conference
for the League of California Cities.
I continue to serve on the board of directors
and the board over the next two weeks
will be gathering input and consolidating the input
from across the state from all city councils and staffs
on what we should be prioritizing at the state level
as an association and we will finalize that
in the next two weeks, those priorities for the coming year.
We will also have a discussion on how things turned out
at the state level in terms of propositions
and other initiatives and elections that occurred.
Congratulations, by the way, to my two colleagues
for your re-election and to all the others
in the local level and at the regional level
who were elected on November 5th.
I also want to congratulate staff
for all the work you did over the last two and a half years,
I think it was, to get Locust Street refurbished.
It wasn't really your work.
A lot of it was the work of East Bay Mudd,
the Water District, as well as Central Sanitary District.
But you had to navigate and chart that course
and manage those two agencies and their work,
and then do improvements afterward.
And even though I was away, and in another country,
I saw a photo of a piano keyboard
painted across Locust Street.
So something tells me somebody on Rich's team
was out with a paintbrush some night.
And I did have the opportunity to participate
on Saturday, October 19th in the Citizens Institute, and I helped to orchestrate with
our Assistant City Manager and Liz Payne, our communications person, to help coordinate
the bus tour. And we had enough people on the bus to actually have a tour of the whole city.
We were in all parts of town, and we had time to visit some other sites, not just people's
neighborhoods, Heather Farm Park, the gardens at Heather Farm, and other highlights. But the most
important thing I learned was to really admire the tenacity of tour guides on buses who have to talk
and not fall over at the same time. Thank you very much. Okay, everybody else seems to have
this really happy fluffy time with the Citizens Institute. Well I got the night they were doing
community development department and they were grilling me. Those people already know about the
the builder's remedy, when are we gonna have
firewize communities?
They had some questions for me.
They were not all.
I figured there was, like okay,
something going on there.
Also, when we were down at Cal Cities,
I might just be the mayor next year.
So I did attend the training on how to deal
with a difficult audience.
And one of the things I am very proud of our city,
sitting up there with council members from other cities
and hearing the horror stories that they have
about how their councils fighting each other,
how their people, there was one woman who said
that they had not been able to get through
an entire council meeting for two years
without having to take at least a five minute break
to let things calm down.
And I just wanna say, I was proud of our city.
I was like, oh my God, what are you guys doing?
So that was fun.
MCE, we had the retreat for the entire board
where we walked through our,
we're at a point with electricity in California,
the transition to sustainability is challenging,
the costs are high, the PG&E is continually increasing
their share of the rate that we charged.
But we did get to go see some happy joy things.
We went out to the Richmond schools on an electric bus
that is capable of being recharged.
There's electric school bus in Richmond.
And then we got to see the Richmond schools
have installed battery storage.
They've installed windmills
that are a different type of windmill.
They're not the kind that chop up birds this way,
they spin this way.
So there was really interesting to see that.
And then we got to go see
one of the newer battery installations.
One of the things that people are starting to realize
when they first started to do large scale
industrial batteries,
they were partnering them with solar farms.
And now they realize, well, that doesn't need to be.
And so this is one really close to a big PG&E substation.
And it had just a tremendous amount of battery capacity.
And it was up and running.
And some of those are the reasons we did not
have brownouts this summer.
So that was good to see.
Let's see.
I did get to go to the Trinity Center fundraiser.
They have their fall fundraiser on Saturday night.
For those of you who don't know,
Trinity Center has been seeing an uptick
in clients coming because of the displacement
from other cities.
And I really wanted to give a shout out
to the police department.
They have stepped up and worked with Trinity Center
to help them keep that center operating in a way that's safe.
It was great to see the community come out
in support of Trinity,
and they raised a fair amount of money.
I'm not gonna, let's see.
The other really fun ribbon cutting was Holly's Homegrown and SIP Goods and that's a pop
up there on Main Street and it's just like, if you need to find something unique for somebody
for Christmas or Christmas stockings, it's really cool stuff.
They lost their lease in Lafayette and Brian Hirahara says it saved him on Valentine's
Day numerous times and so he talked them into coming to Walnut Creek as a pop up.
So go support them because we need to keep Brian happy.
And then last but not least,
Visit Walnut Creek had their Calapolitan.
This is one of those like tough things
that you have to do every now and then.
So I got together with Brian Harahara and Barney Fonzie
and Tracy Deetland from Broadway Plaza and Boozy,
who was an Instagram influencer.
And we tested the Calapolitan cocktails
and we picked the Calapolitan cocktail
that was made by the bartender from Tiki Tom's.
It was just a fabulous drink.
It had like olive oil on it.
It was really weird, but it was really, really tasty.
And we drank them all.
There aren't our samples here.
And last but not least, I did go to the trunk retreat
put together by our arts and rec program.
And that was just fabulous.
The partnership that got together to make that safe.
I saw the CERT volunteers helping kids
across the street with the flags.
I saw people everywhere.
And I saw that I was there for the quiet hour
at the beginning where they had less
of the big boisterousness for the kids
who were a little bit more noise sensitive
or the mayor pro tems who were a little more voice sensitive.
So I really wanna give a huge shout out
for the arts and rec staff, that was a great event.
And that is it for me.
I have a bunch of other things, but we'll talk about later.
So I got appointed to Contra Costa Transportation Authority
and we had a retreat where we're looking at
potentially in about five or six years,
having to renew our right to sales tax.
And we've tried to go to the population
for two times and not had any success.
So they're trying to come up a way to let people know
what they are and how much they do
and how it improves their lives.
Contra Costa Transportation Authority,
marquee job was putting the extra bore at the...
Caldecott, thank you.
And so we don't have anything that's as impressive as that,
but we still do amazing work,
and so we're trying to let people know about that.
I also, during all of the hubbub with the voters here,
had a Cub Scout group come and learn about government,
and it was ideal because we could walk in
and watch the voters actually voting.
That was pretty exciting for them.
A number of people mentioned Veterans Day,
and I want to thank especially my friend,
Betsy Burkhart, because she did a fantastic job
of helping out and planning and marshaling people.
And one of the things that we had as part of that
was from Joy Bound, the group that took over ARF,
and they had a soldier who had attended
There's no cost services for people with veterans.
And he, the veteran was as nervous as somebody could stand
and still do a job about telling us how important it was
to have this amazing dog come and live with him
and make him more able to deal with the public
and just day-to-day life.
It was very, very impressive.
Let's see.
We did four of us, we're down at five if you count,
six if you count everybody from here.
We were down at the League of Cities conference
and we all kind of set out to find our thing
that we wanted to focus on.
And I actually attended a thing on the new housing rules
and was kind of, they figured it out
as like a Jeopardy! challenge,
and threw candy at you if you got the answer right.
The next time Transpac, which is my lead
into Contra Costa Transportation Authority,
the local regional team, had a presentation
about the new Naval Weapons Station development
and the developer came along with somebody from Concord
and did a deep dive into what the plans are
to see what's going to happen out there.
And then I chaired the mayor's conference
and, magically enough, they showed up again
and I got to hear the whole thing two times in a row
On the same day, it was hard to stay awake.
This very afternoon, 48 young people from Kita, Japan,
who have a agreement with Seven Hills School,
came and learned about Walnut Creek, and it was amazing.
It is not easy to make a speech that has to be translated
while you are making this speech.
So we managed to figure out how to ask and answer questions
and had a really, really good time.
And finally, I did a whole day at Calcog in Sacramento.
Calcog is a regional,
an organization that represents regional organizations
and they're doing work with trying to think about laws
to improve our consistency on the housing elements
and also to work together and have the VMT,
the voter vehicle miles traveled, new rules blend in
with the RINA numbers so that we all can manage
to stay lively with the state laws that change daily.
So that's about it for me
and we're ready to move on to the next item.
So that is a consideration item,
the discussion of project labor agreements
and related potential options
regarding the Heather Farm Park aquatics
and community center project.
Hi.
Good evening mayor, council members,
and members of the public.
My name is Carla Hanson, I'm the deputy city manager.
As the mayor mentioned, the item before you this evening
is a discussion on project labor agreements
as they relate to the Heather Farm
community center and aquatics project.
The recommended action before you this evening
is to receive the report
and provide direction to staff if so desired.
My presentation to you this evening
will be broken up into three parts.
Walnut Creek has not engaged with a PLA in the past,
so we're gonna talk about what is a PLA.
How is it structured, what does it do,
what are the common potential positive impacts
and common potential negative impacts.
Then we'll get into how might a PLA affect
the Heather Farm Aquatic and Community Center Project.
And then we'll talk about some options
for you all to consider this evening.
So jumping right in,
PLA is a specialized type of labor agreement
covering project construction.
Essentially, a project PLA is a agreement
between key stakeholders on a construction project.
Entities involved in PLAs are an owner,
which is a city, a county, a district,
a private company, construction trade unions,
or a local building trades council, and then contractors.
PLAs have been in effect for a long time.
They were used a lot in the 1930s
when the federal government was trying
to hire a lot of workers.
And when there was a lot of work stoppages
and issues with keeping workers on jobs.
Work stoppages aren't as common now in the modern times,
but PLAs are still an agreement that is used on projects.
They're most beneficial on private projects
because public entities are required to pay prevailing wage
on all construction projects.
And what prevailing wage means is that all workers
on public projects are paid the same prevailing wage
that's determined by the Department of Industrial Relations.
And it's really, they're paid on the type of work
and the work location.
And the prevailing wage rates are usually based
on the rates specified in collective bargaining units,
so union wage rates.
The main terms in a PLA, and really the bargain here
is the city or an owner receives a possible advancement
of labor peace and project support
and advancement of workforce goals.
And the unions receive broad application of terms outlined
in their collective bargaining agreements.
So how do they work?
So an owner or a city enters into a PLA
for either a single large project,
like the Heather Farm Aquatics Community Center Project,
or a set of projects.
A trades council and individual unions sign the PLA.
And then the city requires a prime contractor
to sign the PLA
and insert it into the bidding specification
so everyone who's bidding on the job
knows that they have to comply with the PLA.
The PLA cannot preclude non-union contractors
from bidding on a job.
And the prime contractor will require subcontractors
to sign the terms of the PLA as well.
And the terms of the PLA apply to both union
and non-union contractors equally.
And folks who are signing on to the PLA,
their workers will also have to comply
with all of the aspects of the PLA as well,
including union dues and things like that.
So what is included in a regular type of PLA?
So I'm gonna talk about the basic terms
and I'm gonna talk about what are common negotiated terms.
So the basic terms really are a no strikes agreement.
So unions are not allowed to strike
or take collective action against the contractors
or the project.
And then there's a compliance with all trade agreements.
So that's that any contractor working on the project
must abide by the terms of the relevant trade
collecting bargaining agreement.
All hiring comes from the union hiring hall.
There's grievance procedures that includes wages, hours,
working conditions, schedules,
and whether work will take place on weekends,
holidays, et cetera.
There's dispute resolutions
for quickly resolving any jurisdictional disputes
between unions that might be under this PLA,
and then a number of technical provisions
regarding how the PLA is covered,
enforcement of the PLA, et cetera.
So these are the common negotiated terms.
Targeted hiring, so this is really focusing
on employing workers from a specific demographic group
or groups of, or communities.
Local disadvantaged workers, so workers from local areas
who may have faced barriers.
Training programs and opportunities to develop skills
through apprentice programs.
Contracting with small or local or minority businesses.
on-site labor, which would include the workforce
that is at the project location.
All of that would be negotiated
and the folks on-site would be union labor.
And then there's also negotiated off-site manufacturing,
which would include union labor that's producing components
at separate locations and transporting them to the site.
So this would include steel fabrication, concrete,
and asphalt batch plant making,
Structural wood products, millwork, mechanical units,
et cetera.
One main point I wanted to make on this slide
was that when negotiating a PLA,
the timeline in general to negotiate these types of terms
takes about six months to over a year.
So the use and impacts of PLAs are heavily debated.
There are, if you ask me, are PLAs good or bad,
I would say it depends.
Depends on the project.
It depends on who you're asking.
It depends on the type of project.
So there's a lot of research out there
that both positive and negative, supportive and not supportive.
These are the potential positive and negative impacts of a PLA.
So on the positive side, PLAs can bring labor stability.
As mentioned, it prevents strikes, lockouts,
and ensures continuous working conditions.
It can help ensure steady supply of skilled labor, which
enhance the quality and efficiency of work.
and it provides standardized working conditions.
So all workers on the job have to abide
by all of the same conditions under a PLA.
On the negative side, it can increase costs to projects
because higher wages are usually required and benefits
reduce competition so it can limit
the pool of eligible contractors and potentially dissuade
non-union contractors to bid on a project.
They can be administratively complex
because it requires additional oversight and management.
It can have a negative impact on non-union workers.
So they may be disadvantaged
because they have to pay into a union.
They have to pay union dues and benefits
than they may not receive.
And then project delay.
Negotiation takes, as I mentioned, six months to a year
and may cause delay to a project.
Okay, so now we're gonna get into the specifics
of the Heather Farm Aquatic and Community Center Project.
I'm gonna call that the project
because this is a very mouthful of a title for this project.
So, this project will replace the Clark Swim
and Community Center that was built in the 70s,
and this project has been a priority
for this council for a very long time.
The adopted budget for this project is 77 million,
is primarily funded by Measure O,
which was a 10-year half-cent sales tax
passed by the voters in 2022.
Measure O will be funding this project,
but it will also be funding a number of other services
and programs aimed at improving the current
and future quality of life for Walnut Creek residents.
The project will also be funded by a partnership
with the Walnut Creek Aquatics Foundation,
who through at MOU,
a Memorandum of Understanding with the city agreed
to fundraise $3 million and contribute that to the project.
Like any major project, there is a project schedule
and it is tight.
But just achieved a major milestone back in October
when the city council approved the design specifications
for the project.
And now moves into this next year of milestones
that are before you on the screen.
That the project must meet
in order to be complete by 2027.
So as I mentioned, negotiating a PLA
takes about six months to a year. So if the council directed staff to start
negotiations, a PLA becomes a critical path aspect of the project schedule. It
would need to be, we would need to have a completed, negotiated, and approved PLA
by the City Council by March 2025. So now we're going to jump into potential
impacts of a PLA on schedule and then budget of the project. So as I mentioned,
PLA must be completed by March 2025. Why? If not completed, if the project is
delayed, it puts at risk the Walnut Creek Aquatics Foundation's three million
dollars of fundraise funds. Because in that MOU that we agreed to, we said we
would have a contract in place by the end of 2025, December 2025. So if we're
delayed six months or two a year, that could put that at risk. On the cost side
of things. If council directed us to enter into a PLA, the major cost driver
cost impact would be on the labor side would be off-site manufacturing, as I
mentioned, which was anything that's occurring off-site on the project, so not
on-site labor. Our project team estimates that if that's included in the PLA, there
may be a three million dollar impact to the project cost.
In addition, if the project is delayed,
there's a $200,000 per month cost
for each month we're delayed.
To a lesser extent, legal fees for negotiating costs
would be included in the cost impacts as well.
Something that would not necessarily impact the cost
of the project would be onsite labor impacts,
as I mentioned, prevailing wage is a norm
for all public projects.
It's a requirements of state law.
So any onsite labor,
we would be paying prevailing wage anyway on this project.
And so as prevailing wages are very similar to union wages,
that wouldn't have a heavy impact on the project cost-wise.
Okay, so moving into options to consider.
Three options before you hear,
I'm gonna go through each one.
So the first one would be no PLA on the project.
This would be like a status quo option.
We have not done a PLA in the past
for major projects like this.
So this is the status quo option, no PLA.
The city would still pay prevailing wage
for onsite labor on the project.
And because of the size of this project,
our project team is estimating that 90 to 90% of
labor on this project would be union labor.
This option would avoid any schedule delays
or related cost increases related to offsite labor
because there would be no PLA
or potential loss of funding
from the Walnut Creek Aquatics Foundation
because there would be no delay on the project.
Now option two would be no PLA
but an encouragement of union participation,
local workforce and a focus on labor compliance
and enforcement through a pre-qualification process.
So what does that all mean?
So the city would continue to pay prevailing wage
for onsite labor with this option
and would encourage increased union participation
beyond the expected 90 to 95%
through an enhanced pre-qualification process,
which means contractors would be evaluated
through projects of similar size and scope,
but also incentivized by being granted additional points
for using union contractors and local contractors.
There would also be enhanced labor compliance and auditing,
which would include field interviews with trade workers
and spot audits to ensure they're receiving
proper wages and benefits.
It would include notifying contractors
any missing documents or corrective actions,
verified payroll records, fringe benefit statements,
apprenticeship documentation,
and also monitoring site activities
and reporting of non-compliance to the city.
This option avoids any schedule delays,
again, because there would be no PLA,
so no offsite labor cost impact
and no potential loss of funding
from the Walnut Creek Aquatics Foundation.
And the third option here would be to negotiate
and enter into a PLA with the Building Trades Council
and Carpenters Union.
We did meet with the Building Trades Council
of Contra Costa County and the Carpenters Union
and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
understand their thoughts on a PLA and what we what we understood was that the
Carpenters Union and the Building Trades Council are now separate entities so if
you were to enter if you were to direct staff to enter into a PLA we could
potentially be negotiating a PLA with both the Building Trades Council and the
Carpenters Union separately which may impact the the time it takes to complete
the negotiation. So under this option it does support union workforce on the
project. However, opening negotiations with both entities could cause delays and lead to cost
increases for the project and then potential cost increases if off-site manufacturing is included.
I think the benefit here is there would be 100% union participation in the project.
That concludes my report. I am here to answer questions as well as our Public Works Director
Dr. Rich Payne and our John Hughes from Griffin Construction,
our construction manager for the project.
Thank you, pretty clear report.
Anybody have any questions?
Why are you looking at me like that?
I'll go first.
Good.
Thank you, Carla, for the report.
If you can go back to the slide before with the options.
So if I'm reading this right,
kind of the way the staff is framing this
that all the options, well,
option three has 100% likelihood of union labor,
but even option one without a PLA
has an estimated 90 to 95% union labor.
So I'm imagining option two
fits in the middle of those two.
Correct.
What is the 90 to 95% based on under option one?
Based on the size of the project
and we're located in the Bay Area,
I think our project team, their experience
working on these types of major public works projects
say that most contractors that are signing,
that are getting these types of projects
are union signatory.
So they've signed on with unions to come on
and have their workers participate on the project.
So the pool that we would be recruiting from
for a project of this size would be contractors
that have worked on other kind of major projects
in the county and that tends to rely on skilled union labor
to do those types of projects?
Correct.
Okay.
Then under option two, you did a good job,
you read off all the enhanced kind of labor compliance,
auditing and enforcement.
Kind of in your experience or the consultant's experience
are those, have those been beneficial and useful
in trying to make sure, I'm told that cheating can occur
when there's not that sort of enhanced
kind of auditing an investigation.
So I'm interested in knowing what that process
kind of looks like.
I'm John Hughes with Griffin Structures.
Sorry.
My voice still sounds like I have a cold,
but I assure you I don't.
Yeah, so right now, state law requires
that all public agencies pay prevailing wages.
And it also requires that all contractors
that bid on public projects register
with the Department of Industrial Relations
for all of their labor.
And it's already state law that they have to submit
all of their certified payroll to the state
for this Department of Industrial Relations to audit.
As you can imagine, that's a very voluminous amount
of paperwork, and so you often hear from trade councils
that there's things that slip through the cracks or could.
So what we often do, and we see other cities do,
is provide enhanced certified payroll labor auditing,
where that same information is uploaded
to a specialty consultant who goes through every pay app,
makes sure that all the wages are correct,
the fringe benefits are correct.
They also produce or provide pre-construction meetings
with the folks in the field
so they know exactly what the wages should be.
They're available for questions and answers.
And then they will flag those issues
for us as your construction manager
to say, oh, we had a problem here
and this needs to be rectified.
And then it's our job to rectify that
before the next pay app,
otherwise that next pay app is withheld until it's resolved.
Usually, circumstances like that
occur once or twice on a project,
and it's usually clerical error with no ill intent.
But it is at an extra enhanced level
of certified payroll auditing that the city could employ
to make sure that the prevailing wage requirements
are enforced.
And in your experience is that an effective means
of doing auditing and ensuring that people are paying,
being paid what they're supposed to be paid?
Yes, I do.
And do you have an idea of kind of what the additional costs
are associated with that?
About $200,000.
Okay.
Those are all the questions I had for now.
Thank you, Mayor.
Okay.
Thank you, Mayor.
And Carla thinks that was really clear
and I was able to follow along every step of the way,
so thank you.
So some of the questions I have,
and I may have more afterwards as well,
but let me know if these aren't something
that staff can answer and they would have
to actually go to somebody that's more affiliated
with labor in the union.
How many of our surrounding cities participate in PLAs?
Do you know?
So the one thing I did mention,
it's mentioned in the staff report briefly,
Most cities have community workforce agreements,
which is a type of PLA,
but it applies to more than one project.
So what we covered tonight would just apply
to Heather Farm, our project.
Most cities have community workforce agreements,
which essentially say any project over a million dollars
that's a construction project would be under a PLA.
And so the PLA would cover your CIP,
your capital improvement budget, that kind of thing.
I would say they're the most common type of PLA
employed throughout our region and throughout Contra Costa
County.
So cities like Richmond, El Cerrito, Concord.
I'm sorry, I'm totally, I had this list.
I know the ones who don't have them, but yes.
I would say they're including, I would say,
Hayward, San Leandro, a lot of cities
that are a little bit out of our region as well.
But they are more common than just one big project.
They're, that's more consistent.
Citywide, which may also involve private projects?
Yes.
I'd like to offer just one clarification.
Most cities that are using some form
of a project labor agreement have the workforce agreements.
However, the majority of cities do not have a PLA
or workforce agreement in place.
Okay, all right, thank you.
When we negotiate with the contract for this,
it's essentially it's a number that whoever we go with
agrees to meet that number, right?
So what I'm trying to get to,
if there's apprentices working on the job
are probably paid less than somebody
who's fully in the union,
but that's not a concern of the city, right?
There is a number, an agreed upon budget
that the contractor agrees to with the city, right?
So, and at that point they're paying the union wages
and apprenticeships are gonna be lower.
This may be a question that's more for the union,
but I just wanna understand that
we're negotiating a bulk number.
Exactly, yeah.
Okay.
I've heard that when there are union,
when a PLA occurs and it's union workers that,
it's local workers that work on the project.
Is this something that we've understood in staff or is this typically been the case that we've seen in examples?
Potentially, I think the definition of local is important. So it could be local to Walnut Creek
It could be local to our region. It could be local to Contra Costa County. I think
How we define local when we negotiate the PLA will be very important. Okay, okay
That was answered
Does a PLA necessarily have to extend to off-site manufacturing, off-site specialty work, or off-site
subcontracted employees? No, it's a negotiated item. Okay.
And does a PLA, let's take
work stoppage out of it.
But does a PLA help a project typically to come in on time when you're talking about skilled labor ensuring a better likelihood that there aren't cost or
or
and cost or project overruns that it's that
It there's a better chance of it coming in on time versus it being delayed for one reason or another not enough employees
Or not enough staff that can be working it. I
Would say it depends and I'm gonna look over at John
Yeah
so
Carla's right. It does depend and it really could depends on the size of the project. So I
I think we would all agree that if you had union skilled labor on a project versus non-union
unskilled labor, the union skilled labor are going to do better and they're going to be
more on time.
The key thing to understand here is that the majority of your contractors and subcontractors
on this project are going to be union anyway, because you're raising your rates up to union
wages already.
So now there's a level playing field.
And so in all likelihood, if you have a PLA on this project or you don't have a PLA, it
It probably would not have any substantive issue one way or the other on the schedule.
The entire industry is struggling with labor availability overall, union or non-union.
In many ways, you want to create an environment where you're maximizing the maximum amount
of labor participation possible because the industry is already experiencing a significant
labor shortage just macroeconomically.
So what you're saying is that if non-union labor was also included, it stands to reason that there are more employees, more potential staff that could be working on the project because they're not excluding them. Is that what you're saying?
Sort of. What I'm saying is that a PLA requires everyone to sign the PLA. And if someone doesn't want to sign it, they won't bid.
they're out. Yeah, okay, thank you. The last question I have actually comes down to the
negotiation itself of the PLA, which is obviously a big factor in the staff report on this because
that's the part that we're looking at potentially delaying the entire project and putting at
risk millions of dollars that others have committed to if it's completed by the end
of 2025, or at least the contract's completed by the end of 2025. So knowing that there's
that kind of a compressed potential timeline, what could be done by both parties to ensure
an expedited time to negotiate and agree to a PLA so that the needed start date doesn't
get delayed?
I mean, I would assume that this is as important to who we'd be negotiating with as it is
to us, because they want to make sure that it's done.
So it doesn't necessarily have to be six months, I'm hoping, that there's a way in being able
to expedite that.
There could be a way, however, I think if we're looking at our schedule, and I can go
back to kind of our milestones that we're trying to reach here.
So if council said, yes, go forth and negotiate this PLA, we would essentially have about
three months to do that, given the holidays.
So we'd start in January and then we need to get to you all for a meeting to approve
it in March.
So it's really three months.
I think if we were saying yes to the kind of general boilerplate terms that the building
trades council and the carpenters union wanted us to say yes to and there was no negotiation
or hey can we switch that or I think sure we could do that.
Is that in the city's best interests?
Probably not because we would want to know what impacts those boilerplate items in the
the PLA would have on the project.
And we would want to do some analysis and things like that.
So three months is a very, very, very tight timeline,
and it is unlikely we could meet it.
So what would happen theoretically
if there was that negotiation
and it didn't get met in three months?
Would there be enough time to go through the contract
or pre-qualification process
with other non-union contractors?
No, we would have to have an approved PLA
to be inserted into the pre-qualification process
so that the contractors that want to be pre-qualified
would understand what they're being qualified for.
They would need to understand all the terms of the PLA.
So we could not do it separately.
We would have to finish by March.
And is it possible to then, would it be possible to say at,
let's say by the end of March,
we just felt we were too far apart.
Could you then say we're gonna negotiate
with other contractors,
we're not going to be looking at a PLA then.
Would there be enough time for that?
Effectively, you would be abandoning the PLA process
and you'd go back to what you were going to do anyway.
And there'd be enough time for that?
Yeah, right now, the schedule shows us
doing the pre-qualification.
It's a three-month process from April, May, and June,
and then we turn right around and bid the job
June, July, and August.
So if negotiations broke down
and you couldn't come to an agreement,
you could just abandon that effort
and go out and pre-qualify without.
Okay.
Those are my questions for now.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So what are we doing from,
if we were to take that route,
it sounds like we can't work in January, February and March.
Is there work that can continue
or do we have to stop work while we figure out weather?
And I'm gonna ask the city manager of this because.
Yeah, there's a couple of things here.
So what's occurring right now
is working on the construction documents.
That's the focus.
The council approved the design in October.
That is just the design.
Those designs need to be translated
into construction documents
so that then firms can bid on the work
based on those documents.
That is what is occurring between now and April.
And as you can see on the schedule,
April to June is when the pre-qualification would occur.
What I'm effect, what I think council member Wilk was asking
is there basically a concurrent path that could be pursued,
one that assumes no project labor agreement
and we are ready to go out
and do the pre-qualification beginning in April
while concurrently potentially negotiating a POA
and hoping we can pull off a miracle
and have that done in three months.
And so those are the two timeframes
that we're looking at and the potential parallel path
having an option A and an option B
of how do we proceed to stay on the April timeframe.
And if a POA agreement was not reached by April,
the two options would be continue to negotiate
and put the project at significant risk
from a timing and cost perspective
or drop the POA negotiations and proceed without.
And is that feasible to have a two-path process?
I suppose anything's feasible,
but it adds complexity to the project.
I don't have any other questions.
Can I ask a follow-up question?
If we have two people, two parallel, does that mean we have to have extra staff dedicated
to this, one going with the non-PAL and one going with the PAL, and does it then cost
us money to not be able to stand up and make a choice?
Yes, it's certainly more work.
You know, I would ask either John or Rich if you want to add to that, but effectively
we'd be, yes, pursuing two paths, so there would be more work to pull that off.
There might be additional costs associated with our project manager to work on both.
There might be additional costs with our attorneys to draft both approaches, but I don't have
a number for you of what that looks like, but presumably there would be additional work
and additional costs to some extent.
Okay, a lot of good questions have already been asked, so I'm going to cross those off
my list.
But going back to the timing, my only experience with PLAs is on very large projects, and it's
built into the timeline from the get-go.
Do we have – I've talked to several officials in other jurisdictions and gotten different
numbers from them.
have any real-life case studies where a city was working on a PLA how long it
took do we know any of those numbers or is it just six months to a year I would
say six months to a year is probably on the quicker side I've heard as long as
five years I've heard as little as six months so I think I would say six months
to a year was kind of that middle ground that we were trying to reach of what
could we what could we do? Okay and then so then focusing back in on the idea we
are doing brief qualification for the contractors and it sounds like there are
measures that could be included there that will help achieve some of the goals
of you know helping develop the workforce look you know local hire
apprenticeships. How would that work if we make an eye contact? Yeah, so the
pre-qualification process is based on the Department of Industrial Relations
questionnaire that they publish, but it can be enhanced. It's editable at your
discretion to include things like local hire incentives. You can add additional
points for that. You can add additional points for, if you're signatory to a
union already. So there are and then of course there's standard qualifications
criteria for just are you good at these kinds of projects, have you succeeded in
this way, do you have the right financial wherewithal. So you do a broad based
analysis, both financial safety, track record, personnel, resumes, but you can
add to that certain criteria that says we're trying to incentivize local hire
and we're trying to incentivize union participation by giving additional bonus
points for those contractors.
And if we had, if we wanted to make sure
that we were supporting the apprenticeship programs,
because we've all talked about the shortage of skilled labor
and it impacts so much from housing to this to that,
is that something you can deal with in that way
in the pre-qualification process?
And the apprenticeship program requirement
is part of state law already.
So you're already bound to have participation
in apprenticeship programs that are not affiliated
with the unions already.
That's already part of the prevailing wage requirements
is to have apprenticeship programs.
Does that include, is it, is there,
are there any standards on the apprenticeship programs?
Do they have to be state recognized apprenticeship programs?
Yeah, there are, there, I don't know exactly
the specifics of that,
but I know that they have apprenticeship programs
that are certified or state endorsed programs
that are part of the requirements.
And that's part of that enhanced auditing service
is they can provide those resources
and make sure that they're using
the right apprenticeship programs to do that.
Okay.
And then on the two other areas
so I could understand this better.
When it comes to the requirement
that health care be provided to the workers,
I hear that there are contractors
who just give the employees the money
and say, go buy your health care.
And then there are employers that buy into the union health
care, and that gets deducted from the paycheck
and provided to the worker.
How does that difference work?
If you had a PLA in place, then all of the fringe benefits,
the healthcare, all of that would go through the unions.
And then they would effectively become members
of the union for that duration of that project.
There are certain fees that would be deducted
from their paycheck that go towards the union
that if they decided not to stay in the union,
they would not recover those.
If it's a prevailing wage project,
they're obligated to pay those wages,
but the manner in which healthcare is provided
is still left up to the employer.
they provide a plan or they just give them the to them in cash that's that's
still open to interpretation on their end they just have to guarantee that
they pay them the proper fringe benefits and wages. So if you're going with so
under prevailing wage you have to provide enough money for the employee to
get the health care it's just whether you provide the health care as a
deductible expense ahead of time or you just give them the money. I would be
stretching my legal understanding to know
exactly what's required on that level.
I just know they have to pay them,
and it's dictated by the federal government.
It's called Davis Bacon Wage Rates, and it's by region,
so it's open and fully, open to the public.
Everybody knows what those rates are.
And then that auditing service
that does certified payroll,
they go through on a fine-toothed comb
to make sure that they do it.
They also do field interviews.
So you actually go and you interview the workers
in the field, they're bilingual, to make sure,
because sometimes there's even accusations
that employers will say they're paying them,
but then you talk to the worker and they won't.
So they'll actually do field interviews as well
to make sure that they are in fact getting paid those wages.
How does that field interview,
I mean, I could see it being a little awkward
if you're the employee out in the field
and somebody comes up and, hey.
It's pretty common.
I mean, on public works projects, prevailing wages,
field interviews are a standard thing so they're all used to it. And then the
information that comes out of that auditing, if it turns up you know kick
backs or somebody that says you know they say they're paying them but they're
not, what are the remedies? Usually the remedy like I said earlier is just to
correct the error and it's usually clerical in nature. If there's something
egregious you report them to the Department of Industrial Relations and
and they can take action against them and find them
and penalize them and the city can take action
to not pay them until it's rectified.
So there's a whole series of enforcement tools
that, you know, to ensure that contractors
are paying their employees properly.
Do the unions ever play a role in double checking the work
or is that, is it usually just the city?
It's usually just the city that looks like that.
Let me let me finish going through because I think I'm really close to being done so
in your pre-qualification process, you know, Kevin asked you about the you know
the the standard well-trained employee. Do you think that pre-qualification
process helps you get to I've gone through state contracting that ended up
with some pretty abysmal contractors. Do you feel confident in your
pre-qualification process, the ability to weed out,
given the amount, we're not trying to do,
go out to bid like in June for a project
that's gonna start in July.
We're going out to bid a year ahead of time,
and so we'll have a fairly robust pool of contractors.
Yeah, the, that's a difficult question to answer,
because the pre-qualification process
is designed to maximize your bid pool,
because the more bidders you have on a project,
the more competitive your bids will be.
So if you have seven or nine pre-qualified bidders,
you're gonna get better results, numerically.
On the other hand, if it's too wide,
that means that you've maybe allowed some
that aren't quite as qualified as others.
And so it's a bit of an art more than a science,
but that's why we use the State Department
of Industrial Relations questionnaires
so there's a standardized point scale to it.
Like I'd said earlier,
There are always challenges on projects.
This project will have a lot of challenges.
There's gonna be challenges with getting labor out there
regardless of a PLA or not.
But the pre-qualification process is your best defense
to mitigate those potential problems.
So it's not necessarily a guarantee
that you get a stellar, perfect contractor,
but not doing it is almost a guarantee that you won't.
I have done that in the past.
I know what happens then.
the pre-qualification process are they required to have their suite of subs in the process?
Not necessarily. However, so the way this state has formulated the questionnaire, it's not required.
And you don't want to include all of the subs because now you're locked in, you want them to
have a competitive element to their bidding process too. However, for your project we might,
and we haven't even gotten this far yet,
but is recommend pre-qualifying key subcontractors.
The two that come to mind on pool projects
are the pool contractor and the pool decking contractor.
Those two things tend to be the things
that have the biggest challenges throughout the project
in terms of just long-lasting, capable, good contractors.
So there is a way to pre-qualify the subs,
but it's a give and take,
because if you do only pre-qualify, say,
two or three pool contractors.
That means you only have two or three pool contractors
that are gonna bid your job,
and their prices might be a little higher.
So that's a little bit of a city decision
about a cost benefit analysis.
And I could see, for some of the specialties like that,
there might only be two or three really good ones,
and that's where you are.
And that's why those two tend to fall in that category.
Okay, are there any of the other specialties,
because we'll have solar, we'll have electrical,
we'll have just the plumbing, we'll have.
Yeah, I probably wouldn't recommend pre-qualifying.
Maybe the contractor who does the work on the pond.
Yeah, the pond was the other one that I was like.
But we haven't dove in that deep yet.
Don't dive into that pond, it's not that clean.
Yeah, okay.
All right, that's good for now, thank you.
So you left, don't you?
Yes, I do.
Because the two of you were talking.
And so the prevailing wage requirements
in the state of California, and also the Davis Bacon,
Bacon Davis.
Right, Davis Bacon, yeah.
Bacon last, OK, I'll have to remember.
Eggs before bacon.
Between the two of those, one is federal and one is state,
they not only stipulate the amount
wages that would be paid for each category of labor based on a region?
Yes. So the rates here would be different than the rates in Imperial County?
That's true. Okay. Then the, but the other half of us is these two state and federal regulations, would
specify the level of health benefits that must be provided?
No, they don't specify what kind of care.
No, it's a dollar amount.
It's a dollar amount.
And that's regionally calibrated as well, I would assume.
Yeah.
Yeah, so when you, and there's not
a conflict between Davis-Bacon and state-preventing wages.
They just reflect each other.
Well, the Davis-Bacon is the name of the rate sheet itself.
OK.
And it's nationwide, and it's region.
But then the state takes that and applies it.
All right.
But if you were to look at it, it's like a spreadsheet,
journeyman plumber, base wage is $37 and $50.
Fringe benefits is $2 and $7.
Health benefits and contribution is $7,
and it just spells it all out.
And that's what you verify that they're actually getting.
It doesn't necessarily say you have
to have this kind of help.
Do the fringe benefits and the health benefits
differ depending on families single?
Yeah, I don't think they make a distinction there.
Okay, that's what I wanted to make sure I clarified. Thank you
Before you sit down just to get a sense of the
the scale kind of it's a
Contractor and then various different subs. I hadn't even kind of really drilled down till
Mayor pro-tem about we might have a pond subcontractor
How many subcontractors do you envision electrical plumbing?
35 to 40 subcontractors on this job. Okay
And how many employees total would you estimate total like workers? Yeah. Oh boy hundreds. Yeah. Oh, maybe
over a thousand
Hmm. I mean that might be a little bit much but there'll be a lot
Yeah, I mean you'll on any given day when things are really happening. You could have 200 people out there working on a given day
Okay
Thank you
Anybody want to cut me off again?
All righty. You can sit down because you answer only really complicated questions. I actually
want to know a little bit about the pressure we're under in terms of the status of where
the community center is and the existing pool. What kind of timing pressure are we under
in order to meet the community's expectations of having those facilities?
Good evening, my name is Rich Payne, I'm the public works director.
To answer your question, Mayor, we, the schedule is, we're still in the design stages of the
project.
We're hoping to have the first set of plans by the end of February and so we're still
doing okay in terms of timing with regard to that.
We're working through some of the environmental constraints associated with, obviously there's
a turtle out there that's creating some grief, and then along with that, as we've turned
in all of our applications to all the environmental groups, and so we're at sort of their mercy
in terms of the timing, so we're waiting to hear back from them.
So with regard to the constraints associated with the project, that's what we're dealing
with at the moment.
What is the shape of the old stuff?
How effective is it to do?
How effective is the pool?
How much do we spend just trying to keep water in it?
Oh, in terms of the existing pool.
Okay, okay.
I apologize.
I misunderstood your question.
Oh, you answered a good question.
I just couldn't think of it.
So with regard to the existing pool, we're doing fine.
We're able to maintain it in its current condition.
It takes a little bit more work.
And every day we're just keeping it together and we should be fine based on the information
that we have and based on the level of maintenance that we're providing.
We're going to be okay with regard to our current schedule and where we're at.
So I'm hearing that this schedule is almost critical in terms of what we can deliver to
our community.
Yes, as the schedule is right now.
Okay, I don't know even to whom to ask this question,
if there are cost runs that occur
while the PLA is in effect, what happens?
Do we have to eat them or, you know,
you promised us you'd supply us with everything we need
and you don't deliver?
Yes, it'll definitely impact the cost
of the budget of the project.
And we'd be the payers?
Yes.
Okay.
And do you have anything to add?
Good.
So that's a separate issue that's not before the council
tonight, but there are different forms of contracts
that you can enter into that address whether or not cost
overruns can be charged to the city or not.
There are different contract forms
and different kinds of contracts.
And there are forms of contracts out there
where there's a guaranteed price now.
And the subject of competition for laborers
has come up a couple of times.
Can somebody give me some kind of quantitative,
if it can be done, value between the ability of a PLA
to supply just sheer numbers of people
to get the job accomplished versus just going back
the old fashioned way where you don't have a PLA?
You're all looking at me as I've,
they're used to my questions, they interpret them better.
Yeah, I'll ask John here to elaborate more detail.
I think it's similar to what he mentioned earlier
about wanting to have as many workers available
and potential companies, qualified companies,
to do the work is the goal given the tight labor market.
That's what I was gonna say, yeah.
In many respects you're going to end up in the same place either way.
Without a PLA, and I can't promise this but I can prudently speculate that you're going
to end up with 90 to 95% union labor anyway.
They're going to be getting their labor from the labor halls.
small 5% that's not union labor, it probably breaks down to one contractor that just happens
to have that many people.
The number of people available to do work, whether they're in the union halls or not,
is limited.
Our recommendation is that you try to do everything you can to maximize as much labor as possible.
That's really the best analysis I can give you because I can't say a union can for sure
deliver more people than a non-union can you you're you're entering into an
agreement and there's a certain level of trust and there's not a whole lot of
guarantee I don't know I mean that's would be kind of the terms of the
agreement but I'm not sure how much you can say they guarantee you that you'll
get enough labor they might have limits of their own so they're there we're
getting into the realm of dealing with market forces that you can't necessarily
predict specifically in that regard. Thank you. I'm done with my questions. Any
any follow-up on anybody else? All right. Have we moved to public comment? We have
moved to public comment by definition. Does anybody wish to make a public
comment? You have two minutes. Please tell us your name and your affiliation or
you're addressed. My name is Bill Whitney. I'm representing the Contra Costa
Building Trades. I was told I had 10 minutes, is that correct? I'm the sole
representative. You are speaking as a group, yes, but nobody else in your group
can speak. Thank you very much. So again, my name is Bill Whitney. I'm the
executive director for the Contra Costa Building and Construction Trades Council.
I represent workers, working men and women, your friends and neighbors. That's
who I represent. Many of them live in Walnut Creek. I think you would be
shocked at how many union members live in Walnut Creek.
We represent approximately 35,000 working men and women
in Contra Costa County, of which 65% of those people
are men and women of color and indigenous people.
So I think we can kind of put to rest this concern
that there's not enough workforce.
We, day in and day out, weekend, month, year in and year out,
We're working on billion-dollar projects,
not just this is a huge project, this is an important project,
but the point I'm making is, is that there's not been
a single project in the close to the decade I've been working
at the building trades where we haven't been able to hit
the workforce number and bring in everybody
and everybody you need, electricians, painters, plumbers,
you name it, they're there and they go to work
and they're there and they're on time.
So, no labor shortage.
Many tradesmen and women, as I've said,
live in Walnut Creek and the surrounding communities.
And it's been my experience that workers that live locally,
they spend locally.
If you have non-union workers on here, and I'm pro-worker,
I'd like to organize all of them,
put them into the unions, frankly,
but they're not living in Walnut Creek.
the people that they go down and they get at Home Depot,
they're not living here in Walnut Creek.
They're not living in Contra Costa County.
So where are they spending their money?
Where they live?
And they live over in Modesto,
or they live in somewhere out
in the far end of Napa or in Sonoma County
or Southern San Jose and those areas.
Nothing wrong with that,
but they're not spending their dollars here.
So you lose that multiplier impact
by not having a PLA and not getting that money.
And that lost economic impact equates to what I believe
is long-term realized higher costs
via underutilization of the true value
of the sales tax funding source of this project,
which comes from taxpayers.
And our members are taxpayers.
We're in this community and we're paying taxes.
And so doesn't it seem fair and appropriate
that all the local businesses would have the opportunity
to benefit from the people that are going to buy their groceries, their gasoline, go
to restaurants, bars, whatever it is they're doing in their lives and do that, to the degree
to say you don't want the PLA is a little bit of like to all the local mom and pop businesses.
Why would we do that? Why not spend that money locally and then get those vibrations going
and building that local economy.
When you get to the, with the PLA,
the union hiring halls are the only source of the labor.
That's the only source of the labor.
And you get stable wages.
To clarify on the prevailing wage, it's total package.
So our wages are negotiated with our signatory contractors,
and the total package we get, those are our wages.
Now, we also choose to take money out of those wages
and put it into our apprenticeship program, put it into our healthcare, put it into retirement
and things of that nature.
But that is what the prevailing wage in the state of California is based on.
So there's one prevailing wage and it's our wages.
And so there is no other lower numbers that you can magically get to, period, in a discussion.
When you go with union labor out of hiring halls, then what you're doing is you're expanding.
This project is a golden opportunity to create jobs for young men and women in your community
through the apprenticeship program.
You build things.
Those things are going to need journey-level people and field leadership, but they're also
going to need apprentices.
And those apprentices can come from areas in and around here.
doesn't really have any apprenticeship program to speak of. Their apprenticeship program
graduates maybe three percent of the apprenticeships in the entire state. And they don't even represent
all the crafts. So the apprenticeship program, you're helping your community and putting
people to work. Again, it's a slap in the face to not support that. Safety. Look at
where your safety claims are. I've got to tell you something. You're concerned about
your timeline. Have a death on your job site. Have a serious accident on your job site.
CalOSHA and OSHA will be in here and bury you in a sea of paper and your
project will go off the grid and that's where from day one when we step into an
apprenticeship program the first thing we get PPE, we're getting our steel-toed
boots, we're learning CPR, protective goggles, vests, hard hats, the whole
magilla is coming from our training that we have. In addition to that you get in
In addition to the local hire, which we already talked about, you have the helmets, the hardhats,
which is a huge benefit for veterans and brings those into the community.
The PLA, just for clarification, covers onsite work.
So there is no offsite.
We're not doing prefab beams or any of that sort of stuff.
That's silly.
Look at maintenance costs.
You're talking about building this.
Does anybody go into a surgical clinic and say, hey, I need brain surgery and I want
your least experienced brain surgeon?
Nobody says that. They want the best. Why wouldn't you want your best labor in here? Because your
maintenance cots are going to go through the roof. And they will. It's just the way it is. You can't
get blood out of a turnip. So the best skilled and trained people come from the apprenticeship
programs of the best skilled and trained crafts in the world. And they're right here in your backyard.
Why wouldn't you use them? It's a little misleading to say PLAs take a long time to negotiate. Just
Just for the record, when I negotiated,
and I do all the negotiation,
you're talking to the guy right here,
for the last, close to decade,
the last PLA we did, City of Hercules, one meeting.
We had one meeting, Dan, we had one meeting.
It was a good meeting too.
And we got it all squared away, one meeting.
These are not, our PLAs are like 18, 19 pages.
They've been vetted seven ways to Sundays for close to 30, 40 years now.
So there's nothing complex in there.
There's no extra staff time.
I mean, you've got an excellent legal staff, trust me.
The first thing I do is I get on the horn and I call Concord or I call somebody else
and I say, hey, what about your bid documents and your PLA, your contract documents?
Takes about one day to get it done.
Then you're done.
There are no other extra costs.
There's no other extra staff, piece of cake.
Public works projects, they're all equal.
Union, non-union, whether you're doing mobilization,
demobilization, hammers, supplies, legal, bonding,
they're all the same.
Even the labor's the same.
So the idea that this raises costs, it's just silly.
It doesn't raise costs.
Now, you can do all the studies you want.
And I've looked at some of the studies that the staff has done.
what does New Jersey and Connecticut have to do with us?
You've got right over here, UC Berkeley Labor,
their staff called them and asked them
about what was going on.
They're the most knowledgeable people
maybe in the world about this.
And in both of the UC Berkeley's studies,
it says no cost increases.
So you know, you got to pick and choose
where you're getting your sources.
Just let me read a quick list here.
Contra Costa County, Contra Costa Community College Jersey,
Conchicasta Water District, Conchicasta County Office of Education, El Cerrito, Richmond,
Pinal, Hercules, Martinez, Concord, Pittsburgh, Antioch, West Conchicasta Unified School District,
John Swett, Mont Diablo Unified School District, Martinez Unified, Pittsburgh, Antioch, Delta
Diablo Sanitation, West Conchicasta Wastewater District, all have PLAs.
They haven't sunk into the seventh layer of hell.
They're not stupid people, and these PLAs are working.
We're building good projects, and we're making that work for them, and they can fire us like
that.
They could end that PLA in the close to 30 years that we've had PLAs in this county.
Not one.
Not one entity has come to us and said, we've had it with a PLA.
We can't take it anymore.
Not one.
So we would encourage you to take a look at that.
across the transit authority, by the way. Just got for the Highway 680 Innovative Project.
They got a huge amount of money. We're the ones that made the call to Department of Transportation.
And we're the ones that got that squared away. And you can talk to Tim Hale if you don't
believe that. So, you know, what we're doing is we're making and helping projects be successful
on work here. I would encourage you to also don't count on this myth about smaller bidders.
You're going to get quality bidders, you'll get plenty of bidders on this project, and
it will work. I'm asking you to stand with workers and support working men and women.
And I really, truly appreciate the time you gave me here to speak tonight. Thank you.
Oh wait a minute, there might be a follow-up question so please. I just had a
couple quick follow-up questions. Sorry, I apologize. That's okay. In the list of
studies, I know the Berkeley Labor Center has found that there are two studies say
there is none, but the Rand study down in LA said that. Yeah that that is like an
apples and orange comparison that's on housing which is an entirely different
beast, and it's like a public-private kind of hybrid.
And so, I'm not gonna apologize for paying hard-working
men and women wages that they can live on.
So if they're working on projects down there,
and I'm not familiar with that particular bond measure,
but is that a requirement for PLA?
Then, you know, right on, God bless America.
And so they're paying them maybe working, living wages.
So, so, but it's a different comparison.
We're talking about a city project.
So you're saying the cost increase
that they saw, that the Rand folks.
Could be a combination of housing.
Reading the study, it sounded like it was a combination
of people, how they, the requirement in the PLA
that a project be a certain size before it applied,
all the projects came in below that at a smaller size.
That study also seemed to me to be
kind of like a snapshot in time.
It wasn't looking at the full breadth of the project.
There were pieces that I think that they missed
in that study, but I could give to staff
and I'd be happy to do that.
I could send you two dozen studies from our toolkit
that would show that PLAs don't cost more
and better efficiency block.
Okay, and then the other question,
project labor agreements.
You said Hercules won meeting.
Say again.
You said Hercules, you had won meeting.
How long did it take you on Hercules to go from beginning to end on assigned PLA?
I would say we went in, staff was given clear instructions.
And so I don't know, I'm not accusing staff of playing games.
But when they get clear instructions, then they know where to go.
And haven't been a former city council member, I get that.
They have to understand what it is you want them to do.
But if you give them clear instructions and you tell them,
hey, by middle of December, we want this PLA back,
I can promise you that we could do this in a meeting,
two meetings, with just having that put together.
But it was a-
How long did Hercules take?
Hercules took, after we got the lunch meeting we had,
so I would say that from the lunch meeting,
Probably 20 days, 30 days maybe.
I'm just saying because of the meetings
and how the meetings fell.
We went to the meeting and we got a favorable vote
and so we have a citywide PLA.
What about like the Concord PLA?
That's the community.
Concord was actually before my time,
so I don't know.
I would say that do they all,
is it all always one meeting?
God, that'd be awesome.
but no, it's not.
But we understand the timelines here.
We're not here to penalize the city
or put the city in harm's way.
We're not gonna do that.
And as again, it's mostly boilerplate print stuff.
And because this would be a project-specific PLA,
you don't have, the citywide PLA
is covering a broader scope of subject.
No, I know.
So it's a simpler PLA to negotiate time-wise.
Okay, thank you.
You bet.
Any other questions?
Yeah, what was the Hercules?
Is it a citywide?
It's a citywide PLA, yes ma'am.
Thank you.
Quick question, thank you.
The question I had asked our staff
was any off-site specialty work or any off-site subcontractors,
do those have to be part of a PLA?
And the response was that that's all part of negotiation.
What is your understanding of that?
The RPLA covers, we have a scope of work,
what the project is, just define the project,
which is what's up there on the screen,
this project out ahead of the farms.
There is no for, you know, bringing pumps
or bringing in manufactured beams, structural beams,
none of that is part of the PLA.
The only thing that is, there's something called fabrication.
The only thing that would be covered in the PLA,
and it's in all the PLAs, is, and it's for two crafts,
for the United Association, the UA, which is the plumbers.
Let's say they're the pipe people.
So you put the pipe racks together
if you've got a structure that has pipes,
and so it actually saves you time and money
because it's built locally, and then they bring it over,
and so you have crews that know how to do fabrication
in their fab factory and then they lift it up in place,
bolt it in and away it goes.
It's the same thing with say sheet metal.
You peel these ceiling tiles back
and you're gonna find ducting up there.
So they could take all this ducting
and they come in on flatbeds and they just boom, boom, boom,
put it in place, connect it, done.
So those are the only things that are offsite
that otherwise everything else is on the site
within the fence line, let's call it the fence line.
Whatever the fence line of your project is,
what it's going to be. And I don't know how much fab work you'd have. I don't know. I haven't looked
at the piping. I haven't looked at the structures. I'm sure there'll be some ducting in there,
but it's not going to cost you money. This type of off-site work fabrication,
that's not going to cost you money. That's going to save you money and time because it'll take the
The time to, if you can imagine how each run of pipe
that you had to get in there, measure it,
then bring it back down, cut it, put it back up,
that's all done, they do it at the fab shop
and they just lift it up into racks,
set it into place, it's done.
Does that answer your council?
Yes, yes, it does, thank you.
Alrighty.
You think you can go now?
Thank you.
Mayor, members of the council, Bob Lynshey
for the Chamber of Commerce.
Our engagement in in this project of the aquatic center and community center
began in 2021 with the your parks your future. We attended a number of different convenings
and participated in some side meetings with Mr. Buckshi and Safeen to understand deeply how
this project would affect the community before the election and we did a number of surveys in
collaboration with the city and discovered how important this project was to the community.
And we know for a fact that the ballot measure passed largely because police protection
enhancements were included. That doesn't mean it wasn't important to the citizens at the pool and
community center be built. It just meant that it put us over the top. And as a result of that,
we know that the budget is tight, $77 million that has been identified frankly is a tight budget.
You're required because you're our city to pay prevailing wage on these projects,
so you check that off the list. Just last month our board had a lively discussion
on this agenda topic and to a person we believe
that a PLA will jeopardize the time and the budget for this project and that
to enter that direction would would put the uh
project in jeopardy in our view largely because of the
delays that we believe it would it would affect
and so we favor option number one no PLA. We believe that the cost estimate
for staff administration, which is not necessarily a factor but is called out, is real. And while
it's imperative that this project be on time and on budget, we believe option one is the best.
Thanks for the time. Before you disappear, let me check with the council and see
and see if we have some questions. Do we have some questions? Just one. Have you looked at
option two and the issues around apprenticeship programs
and local hire, has the chamber dove into that at all?
Depends on what you mean by local.
Yeah.
As the staff has mentioned.
Local can be.
Yeah, I think that the more you open it up
for opportunity for the biggest subset of labor
to participate, the better.
So, what about the apprenticeship programs?
You know, every career, every business is having difficulty
with talent.
In fact, talent and workforce will
be a key component of our strategic plan this next year.
We have looked at a number of different fronts,
particularly hospitality and health care.
The apprentice programs are great programs.
but we haven't investigated deeply on that issue.
Thanks, I just figured I'd-
Yeah, sure.
Thanks, Bob.
All right, thanks.
Good evening, my name is Ramona Maral.
I'm a representative for the North Cal Carpenters Union,
Local 152, representing 4,000 members
here in Contra Costa County.
I'm here today to express our support for option two.
This option provides a fair and inclusive framework
that ensures that all bidders have the opportunity to bid
under the same set of standards with existing requirements,
the payment of prevailing wage,
the use of a state certified apprenticeship
and the healthcare provision
that includes the worker and the family.
The compliance component will further ensure
that the contractors are held accountable
for these requirements standards.
However, if the council decides to move forward
with option three, we are prepared to support that direction as well, provided that the North
Cal Carpenters Union is included in all aspects of the negotiation process and making this a
tripartite agreement, early collaborations will allow us to ensure that the needs of
our contractors and members are taken into consideration. I am certain that we can work
together effectively and achieve the city's goal in a timely manner. Regarding the city,
the city concerned about increased costs prevailing wage is union wage.
Pervailing wage projects are absolutely higher than non-union wages because
there is no minimum requirement on non-union projects making the labor
market a race to the bottom. So because this project requires prevailing wage
whether union or non-union contractors win the bid the same wages would apply
regardless. The concern reduces competition can only be attributed to how unscrupulous contractors
would be reluctant to bid under these oversights. We value the opportunity to partner with the
City of Wanna Creek to promote quality, fairness, mutual success, and all building projects. Again,
I urge you to consider option two preferably but would also favor option three. Thank you.
any questions? Oh yes. Can you just elaborate again on why two versus three I know you'd
be happy with three two but but why you started with two and ended with two so.
We fill with option two it the concerns of allowing a broader aspect of
bidders correct as long as there's a set standard that they have to abide by
That's the reason why we are pushing more of option two,
but we don't really have anything against option three
as long as we're considered in all negotiations,
just stating the fact that the carpenters
are its own entity besides the building trades.
And under the kind of a potential PLA scenario
with the carpenters, can you speak
to any offsite labor issues that might arise there?
Mainly it would be what's considered craft,
you know, the obligations of that certain craft.
But besides that, I think that would be the main focus
on what craft covers what work on any given project.
I don't wanna put words in your mouth,
but then is it most of your work is within the fence
as Mr. Whitney said, not outside the fence?
That's correct.
Okay.
And then in terms of timing,
what has your experience been in terms of negotiating PLAs?
My personal experience,
I don't really have it in the sense of negotiation,
but I do have, you know, a team member here
that might be more expert in the sense of a timeline.
It's okay, I mean, is the six to 12 months
that staff had said, does that sound about right,
consistent with your experience?
Well, to my knowledge, you know, everything is feasible,
but each project is gonna vary.
But, you know, I don't see it going excessively long.
So it's in a reasonable amount of time.
Okay, thank you, sir.
I think you can go.
Thank you.
Good evening, Mayor, Council, and staff.
My name is Rick Solis, I'm a senior field representative
with NorCal Carpenters, local 152 in Contra Costa County.
I didn't intend on speaking tonight,
had my colleagues say everything,
but there were a few comments that were made
that were, I think, untrue.
Can't think of a better word.
And I'm not saying this to disparage anybody
that was saying it, but I do want to address them
because when I heard him, I just raised an eyebrow.
So, regarding worker shortages,
that is something that is prevalent
in the non-union industry.
Because I can speak with the Carpenters Union,
I have people, I would say a minimum of five people
coming through my door every day begging to join the union,
and we have no place to put them.
So by having projects like this,
we're creating the opportunity for these people
to enter into the construction industry
and not just doing construction but doing it right
where they actually can work with Dignity,
getting a retirement program, health and welfare
for themselves as well as their families.
But I mean, we have people, I mean, almost unlimited.
And I worked in Santa Clara County for, I think,
since 2009 through 2021.
And we had the largest project probably
in the state of California with the Apple campus.
Probably 5,000 workers on that job site.
And not once did we ever have the need to bring somebody,
but real quick, I'm losing time.
Regardless if it's pre-qualification or PLAs,
they do not raise the wages.
That's what prevailing wage is.
Union wage is prevailing wage.
Pointing out cheaters to the DIR
when it comes to the cities doing the enforcement,
it's not effective.
And the statement that was made
where the unions don't make a difference
when it comes to compliance,
we absolutely make a difference.
We have compliance departments that speak directly
with that scope where we get money for workers,
both union and non-union,
because we don't just represent,
I don't know if you allow me to keep going,
we don't just represent union workers,
we represent non-union workers as well,
and help them get the prevailing wages that are due to them.
So, especially under a Trump administration
where labor standards are going to be really kind of watered
down and he's going to put a DIR director.
But we probably shouldn't travel down that path.
OK.
OK.
So again, regarding the enforcement of labor
compliance, we absolutely have, again,
I could speak for the carpenters,
we have a compliance department that
works on this on a daily basis that
visits workers on the job site and actually visits them
home because they're afraid to talk on the job site. Thank you. Okay. Unless I
have a question, I'm sorry. Okay, no problem. Appreciate the time. Thank you. Any
questions? Okay, thank you. I'd like to ask if it's if it's okay for me to speak on
behalf of sheet metal workers, local 104, not the building trades. It is related to my
name's Eric Haynes. I'm a business representative with sheet metal workers.
Okay. I'm not an expert in who belongs to what and what activity PLAs versus non-PLAs.
We sorted out. Now, we had somebody who spoke for the PLAs and took the 10 minutes. I'm
going to get – I'm going to consult with some people and see if you can speak. So make
yourself at home, please, for a minute. Sure. Thank you.
Is your organization part of the Building Trades Organization?
Yes, we are.
Okay, then you've had your time.
Sorry, thank you.
Are there any other people who,
I don't see anybody left to speak,
so I'm gonna bring it back to council,
and is there a council member
who would like to make some comments
or ask additional questions of staff?
I had a question for staff.
So Mr., and it may be for John,
but the off-site labor,
And I know that we haven't prepared the construction drawings yet, but in terms of the scope of
the project, did it sound consistent with the offsite labor being mostly focused on
that pipework and sheet metal work, or do you envision that there could be other things
outside the fence?
I don't want to negotiate on behalf of one party or another, but most PLAs that we've
seen include concrete batch plant manufacturers, as well as asphalt batch plants.
And then the term fabrication could really apply to anything that's fabricated.
So that could be millwork.
That could be glazing, storefront windows.
It's hard to say.
The key thing is that what, in many regards,
much of what we heard here about prevailing wages
and union wages being the same, we all agree on that.
That is true.
And if the city chooses to engage in dialogue
or negotiation for PLA, the only time we've seen
significant cost increases is when they start
to impact fabrication that occurs offsite.
And that could then impact how long it takes
to come to a deal.
So it's a negotiated item.
It could be broader than just a couple of items.
It could be.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then Mr. Solis mentioned kind of the auditing
and I think it's fair to say was somewhat critical
or suspicious that kind of an additional layer
from the city would be effective.
I know you spoke to that,
and I think we've gotten a good briefing
on kind of what would be entailed with that.
be above and beyond what the state would do.
Now, if a union contractor were hired to do the work,
then I thought I heard that they would also have
kind of their-
That's true, and I don't dispute that at all.
What I meant to say was that the unions don't enforce
prevailing wages on non-unions, and maybe they do.
I don't know.
What I was really saying was that if you did not enter
to a PLA, the city would not be relying on the unions
to then enforce prevailing wages.
I see.
That was my main point.
Now, I do believe that in this project,
most of your contractors will be union.
And the unions will be very engaged
in enforcing their collective bargaining agreements, which
is good for everybody.
And so in many respects, you're going
to get a higher level of quality because you're going to get more union participation anyway.
It's just a matter of do you want to engage in a PLA to take that further.
Okay.
Thank you.
Those were all my questions.
Anyone else?
So thank you for the staff report and the one page in the staff report that had five
sample studies where did where did those come from and I my read of just a basic
description of a study that's related to an LA County bond measure the only
people that can go out for bond measures or public agencies and therefore it
sounds like prevailing wage to me which is what affordable housing is all about
as well but maybe I'm wrong so can there's a hint of two questions in there
or maybe there's three or four.
See what you can do with it.
So the, I believe there is, there's six.
Am I getting that count wrong?
There's six studies that are referenced in the staff report
and why we reference these is to showcase
the academic nature of studies that have been done
on a topic that is very dynamic
in people thinking that PLAs are great
or PLAs are terrible or somewhere in the middle.
So we wanted to give you some academic studies that also show that there is some place in
the middle.
So out of the six studies, there are four that say PLAs have increased costs.
Again, these studies are not comparable to each other, they're just studies.
And then two say that there are no impact on costs.
So the point of this was to show that it's very difficult to find a real world setting
where you can compare apples to apples between PLA projects and non-PLA projects because there's so
much there's so many different variables in a project that we've heard tonight even on this
project there will be lots of different variables. So it's really hard to say a PLA is positive or
a PLA is negative it really comes down to how does it apply to your specific project or your
group of projects. So that's why this was included. Okay so the um John Bill, John could you come back
back up please. Mike, Tom, Scott, answered.
Let's go back again to the primer on California and prevailing wage law. It's more than just
wages. I want to make sure I understand. It also applies to, if it's a prevailing wage
project, which it will be, then it applies to all labor, direct labor on the
construction site. That's correct. And it's not only the wages but fringe
benefits, health care. Am I missing anything? That's about it. Okay. Then
In order to get they mirror the union wage scale
almost identically
So the issue is to go to option two
We get the additional
Aspect related to the prevailing
Not to the apprenticeships or women there's some reference in my notes that there are apprentice requirements
That's part of the prevailing wage requirements also, so you're already bound by that
Now there I I concede that probably the unions have a better apprenticeship program than what they might get outside
but there is the requirement that it's part of
prevailing wage requirements without a PLA
The option two that you might be referring to is that there's an you can employ an enhanced auditing
Dena, so that's the extra for the enhanced auditing, right? Okay. Thank you
Alright, unless there is an absolute burning question, can we start some discussion about
pluses and minuses and what we're starting to understand about the choices before us?
Can I ask a question, are we looking for a vote that's going to be happening or just
general direction and staff would take that direction?
Well, it's two things, this item is an informational update. Back this summer, your council asked
that we provide information about project labor agreements.
So that's what this is.
Your council does not have to take any action this evening.
You could receive and file this report,
and that would be the end of the discussion.
If your council wants to provide direction,
I would want to vote, and not just general direction.
And if we don't take action, what is the default?
The default would be to do business
as the city has in the past, which is not to use a PLA.
I'm looking for somebody who's got courage and can start. I'll go ahead and start. Thank you mayor
So I appreciate everyone coming tonight
as as usual this process has been a
PhD in municipal governance and I now I can include project labor agreements to the tally I
I appreciate the staff looking into this as we directed. I think we've got kind of a full vetting of
the issues and the factors and I appreciate
Carla and John for both and Rich and the whole staff are kind of teaming up on that.
You know just stepping back this is going to be one of the biggest projects
all of us will likely be involved with during our term on council and so I think there is a
strong desire at least on my part and I think all of our parts to do it right, to do it on time,
to do it on budget and I do think that a key component of that is having a
skilled and trained workforce involved in the construction activities,
the in the fence activities. And so that's something that I think is
important as we're moving forward in, I understand the different options and we
we could take no action in which case option one
would be the default.
I'm more intrigued and interested in option two
because it, I think it increases the likelihood
of union labor being involved on the project
and getting the project done right and on time
and on budget and it doesn't have the negative impacts
to our construction schedules and costs
that we were concerned about.
But I'm also very interested in the city auditing process
because I think that there's not really a reason
to do prevailing wage if someone can cheat
and not really pay prevailing wage.
So I think by going option two, we increase the likelihood
that there will be union labor involved.
That means, and also we'll be doing our own auditing.
and if it's a union shop doing the work,
they'll be doing their auditing.
So there'll be plenty of auditing being done.
And I think it would result in a better project.
I'm also very sensitive to the Chamber's concerns
and I, what I'd heard and I'd heard from members
of the Chamber concerned about kind of the precedent factor
of a PLA, I think that's somewhat mitigated
by the fact that this is a public project.
It's not a private project.
I don't think anyone, we're not having a discussion
about requiring a PLA on any private project.
And so I'm seeing a benefit from going option two
versus just the standard default option one.
And that's kind of, I'm interested to hear
what my colleagues have to say,
but that's kind of where, how I feel about it.
Next volunteer, please, I'll volunteer.
So when we decided that we wanted to have this report
come back to us, I said, the most important things to me
are maintaining the schedule, maintaining the budget,
and getting the best deliverable possible,
the best value for our money for the community,
getting a facility that will last long-term.
And then we as the Council have other goals of, you know,
making sure our community has the workforce it needs
and things like that.
The schedule part of this is the thing
that gives me the most pause
about doing a project labor agreement.
The involvement I've had in other projects in other places
didn't have this kind of time pressure.
It was something that was already dealt with.
But I am skeptical as to whether or not
a 20-page agreement could actually be ready
to come back to us in March.
And so I'm reluctant to start down that road right now
because I know how long a 20 page agreement,
it sounds simple until you get into it.
And that, I'm reluctant to tie our hands on the schedule
because whatever efficiencies you get down the line,
we run the risk of time delays and time is money
on a construction project.
And we run the risk of losing the match
from the Aquatics Foundation.
But I am interested in the budget
and the deliverables part of things.
I have seen construction projects
that have gone exceptionally well.
And I have seen projects that have gone exceptionally bad.
And I wanna make sure that we have the best labor force
here working on the project
and everybody working together as a team on the project.
And so I am leaning towards option two
And I would, I also wanna make sure
that we're building the workforce.
So I am interested in looking at making sure
that we have state certified apprenticeship programs
as part of this kind of long-term helping build
the capacity within our area.
So that's the direction I'm going right now.
I'd be interested in hearing what others are thinking.
Well, I appreciate the people that came out and spoke here, and we heard from a few speakers
and had three different opinions, which goes along with these kind of projects, I guess.
So I have a little different take on this, but I want to look at it from a big picture
point of view.
From what it looks like, the reasons to not do a PLA come down to price.
May cost more to be determined if it would cost more, and it might take a little bit
longer to negotiate than just saying,
we're not gonna do a PLA, which means it may cost more.
So it comes down to dollars.
And obviously again, we've heard the different options
presented by staff and I appreciate that
because it really compartmentalized
what it is that we're looking at.
But the reasons to have a PLA,
I still think are very positive.
There's first of all, skilled labor guaranteed.
And I get the option too has 90, 95%
that would be skilled labor, but I like the fact that there's a local workforce who live
locally and spend their money locally and it goes back into our local economy.
One of the things that we've talked about as our priorities is helping to improve the
jobs housing imbalance and a PLA meets that.
We are getting the local jobs.
The project could come in quicker.
We didn't even really talk about that.
I asked a question about it, but again, it's hard to tell theoretically, but the project
come in quicker with using a PLA and guaranteeing skilled labor and thereby
actually saving costs. So there's a possibility for that. And a project like
this is, as we heard from Mayor Pro Tem Darling as well, it can help with
apprentices and help create more construction jobs that can be used for
affordable housing, commercial projects, and other needs that we have locally and
statewide. We hear about this labor shortage and it sounds like, and the
meetings that I've had before. It sounds like with a PLA and in ensuring skilled
labor that that we are building that labor force pipeline and that there
isn't going to be the labor shortage. It sounds like if this even on an option
too it sounds like there there would be enough labor for this so I think that's
a very positive approach. I do appreciate what the chamber said on this
and hearing from the board on this but I think that we want to make sure
certainly that we have enough labor so there's not any delays that happen due to
was essentially just an unforced error on this.
And we've heard of other projects that have been on hold
or haven't even started
because there have been labor shortages.
I mean, not with the city specifically,
but other just private projects.
So I wanna make sure that that doesn't end up happening.
One of the questions that was asked,
I think I might have asked it, was it doesn't,
if we don't, if we're negotiating it
in the first three months, January through March,
and we don't get a PLA, we still do have the time
to still negotiate and put out to bid
and work on that without the PLA.
We heard from the city manager
that it would be a little bit more complex,
but it could be done on essentially a parallel track.
To me, it just seems like that's,
there's little downside into at least
exploring that opportunity.
We could potentially get it,
and maybe we're able to get it done within a month or two,
And if we do fantastic and if we're concerned that we're not going to meet it within three
months then we're able to go to an option two at that point.
I don't see the downside in at least starting the ball rolling on that.
And one of the things I do want to talk about when we're looking at the larger picture is
various times over the course of the last ten years I would say I've had discussions
with people in academics as well as people in the trades that we need to have a recognized
and reputable alternative advanced degree aside from an academic path, but also a trade
path.
And that track is usually identified as a trade track.
And a PLA helps to ensure that there's that type of alternative to an academic post high
school path.
I think a PLA helps that by employing skilled labor.
We could be part of something bigger, and in helping that kind of a path be more understood
but unaccepted in the larger part.
I think that's important.
I think we're in an era right now
where people are looking for options
other than an academic path post high school.
And this is a way of helping to ensure that that continues.
This project is gonna be part of Walnut Creek
for the next 50 years plus.
Just as the current swim center and community center
has been for well over,
I'm looking at around the room here,
well over half our lives.
it's going to be that for the next 50, 60 years.
So let's do this right.
Let's help our local workforce.
The rising tide lifts all ships in this.
And so while I see the benefits of an option two,
and certainly, you know,
if it were just between option one and two,
I'd say option two.
But I think the option three and moving toward a PLA,
I think that that does a good service for the entire,
the city and the region and our local workforce.
And I would like to see us at least enter
in those negotiations with the building and trade
and with the carpenters union.
Thank you very much.
Thank you to staff for the work.
This was six months worth of work.
So it's not like we're at the starting gate.
This is, I think there is enough information here
to be able to make a decision.
The, this is a really truly complex project.
This is the biggest project the city has ever done.
And this is incredibly complex because of the challenges
of building on top where an existing facility,
multiple facilities exist.
This is not, we will not know the same way
that happened with Larky Pool renovation
and the building of the all abilities playground,
they were built in the same places
that those facilities currently exist.
And we don't know what the project really will be
until you open up the ground, you take it out
And you go, oops, there's more under here than we knew about.
So the project still has this great unknown existing there.
And I also think that negotiating for a large project
like this, with all due respect for whatever Hercules did,
that was one meeting in 30 days.
I don't think that's feasible.
I think six months is the minimum.
I think a year is more complex.
And I think this is more complex because let's see,
tripartite, we're not negotiating with one entity,
we're negotiating with two.
So I beg to differ with that.
And we've had negotiations with Toyota Walnut Creek
that once we had the terms on the table,
it still took months to get the language to agreement
And this is language that's going to have to be in place
to cover 35 to 40 contractors and 1,000 or more workers.
So it's going to be negotiated to the nth degree.
What I see as the goals in this whole project,
I have to step back and say, the goal is not
about to debate workforce standards here.
This goal is to deliver what the community has given us
money to do. And it's more than build a pool and a community center. It is also to take
some of these funds and deliver better public safety services, better homelessness services,
better sustainability infrastructure, economic recovery and economic development support,
library hours, senior services, youth services, a plethora of things are supposed to be paid
for with this money, and this is the bucket of money that has to do this entire project,
sans some money that was already set aside, but also do these other things.
And if these funds, if we go from 77 to 78 million dollars, we're going to have to find
a million dollars from something else, and it's not in the general fund.
If we go from 78 to 80 million, 78 to 84 million, by the way, the bids haven't come in yet,
And did you notice tonight, two of our items on the consent calendar, one of which was
related to the Boundary York Golf Course Driving Range, there have been cost increases over
time to execute on the program that we planned to do improvements to the Lesher Center.
Opening up the walls, they discovered four extra HVAC systems or componentry that had
to be updated as well. Every time we get into these projects, there are, oh, by the ways,
when we're in there. So we, to hold to 77 million and not even have this conversation
tonight is going to be a stretch. And we don't know what's going to happen if the economy,
the last time we had a project come in on time and under budget was in the great recession
And when we opened the bids, and because no one had work in 2008 and 2009, the bids came
in five million dollars less.
That is not going to happen here based on what's going on.
So I think it's imperative that we adhere to the schedule that we have here.
And negotiating a PLA will not allow us to adhere to it.
I think it's, I think it's a promise that will not be kept
because there is no benefit to go fast for anybody,
unless we're willing to take it
and accept all the terms they're willing,
they want us to take.
I think, so schedule is critical
and we have been told repeatedly $200,000 a month
per increase in costs per delay in schedule.
That's not accounted for here and it's not accounted for
in the studies that we looked at.
That's the additional, those studies don't have that in it.
I think it's really important that,
I've said we stick to the budget,
it also means our budget includes that our partner,
the Aquatics Foundation is able to give us
the $3 million.
If we lose the $3 million,
that's a hole in the revenue side.
It's no longer there.
The unknowns in the project I've met, inflation and where it might go, delays, and the fact
that we have to negotiate with two stakeholders in this deal.
And I think I don't want us being turned to the community and say, well, we needed to
do this, and therefore we can't keep library hours, or we cannot address the sustainability
issues the way we'd hope or homelessness services.
So while I, my inclination would be to say don't do it at all, but I understand the value
that can come with option two and I can support option two.
This is not my strong suit.
This whole issue is, you know, I don't even know how to explain a lot of the concerns
I have. I think that we have the ability, I'm gonna just chicken out, I support what,
I tend to support what council member Silva said, I tend to support other concerns. A
lot of the people who are coming out of the union halls, if they don't have this PLA,
going to find a job here and we're going to have a good job. And I'm not sure that that means that
you're I don't I didn't think to even ask the question. If it's a member of your community
and you don't get the PLA don't pay are they blocked from working from us. I don't think that
is the case. I think they need jobs and I think the jobs will be here and they will be good jobs
and they will be paying, the whole thing about the wages being equal was the only thing that
I understood when I walked in the room to start with.
So it made no sense to me to base a decision on that.
I knew prevailing wage was what we paid.
So I'm going to say that I would like to get this resolved as quickly as we can so that
we can get onto the job of building.
I am gonna say that.
I am going to say that I heard two,
at least two of the other councils
agreeing that item two is the one that we can support
and therefore I am going to throw my support
in the second choice.
And I will ask if anybody wants to make the motion
and if they don't wanna make the motion,
I will make the motion.
Okay, I move that we choose item number two as our approach and
Proceed accordingly second. May I have a roll call vote, please?
Mayor haskew I Councilmember Francois I councilmember Silva I councilmember Wilk. No mayor pro tem. Darlene
I motion carries four to one. Thank you and that I believe
ends this evening's entertainment and therefore this meeting is adjourned.