Alright, good evening everyone. I'm Cindy Darling, Mayor of the City of Walnut Creek,
and welcome to the Tuesday, February 18, 2025 regular meeting of the Walnut Creek City Council.
The City Council is conducting this meeting from the City Council Chamber, and the meeting
is being video streamed and can be viewed live or later on the City's website. As some
attendees, and I see a few new folks out here, may be participating in their first Walnut
Creek City Council meeting, I wanted to welcome everybody and talk briefly about the process.
For each agenda item, there will be an opportunity for public comment on that item. So if you desire
to talk to us about something that's on the agenda, wait till that agenda item. We also have a section
on the agenda titled public communications, which is for public comments on items not on the agenda.
And so any comments during public communications should relate to something that is not on the
the agenda and consistent with section 9.5
of the city council handbook,
we have 30 minutes will be initially allocated
for the public communications for items not on the agenda.
Additional time for public communications,
if necessary, will be at the end of the meeting.
If you desire to provide public comment,
either on an agenda item or not,
there are speaker identification cards in the back.
And when it's time, we usually ask people to line up
behind the lectern and we'll go through.
everybody will have two minutes,
the little timer's on the wall,
and the nice city clerk will start glaring at you
if you go past your two minutes.
We will all,
I know, I have a hard time glaring as mayor,
so I'm, you know, but please keep in mind
that this is a city business meeting.
The city council has adopted rules of decorum
to ensure the meetings are conducted efficiently
and effectively, and that all members of the public
have a full, fair and equal opportunity to be heard.
The City Council handbook outlines decorum
expected in the council chamber
and can be found on our website.
All remarks should be addressed to us, the City Council,
and please do not use threatening, profane
or abusive language which disrupts, disturbs
or otherwise impedes the orderly conduct of the meeting.
And again, everybody will have their two minutes
to make their remarks.
We have gotten written comments beforehand.
We have all reviewed those and they are included
the meeting record and will not be read separately into the record. So now, please join me in
the Pledge of Allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for
which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Thank you.
City Clerk, please call the roll.
Councilmember Davine?
Here.
Councilmember Francois?
Here.
Councilmember Silva?
Here.
Mayor Pro Tem Wilk?
Next on the agenda is a proclamation for Black History Month.
Before I start in on that one, I wanted to take a quick moment to explain how Walnut
Creek intends to respond to the federal direction relative to equity and diversity.
I'm sure I speak for my fellow Walnut Creek City Council members when I say we are standing
behind our city mission statement, which is to create a positive environment where all
people can live, work, and play a vibrant local economy to enhance and sustain
long-term fiscal stability for all and a progressive workplace where dedicated
employees can make a difference. I believe we are stronger when we recognize
and value the diversity of the human experience and so we are going to
continue with the long city tradition of recognizing and honoring that diversity.
So that brings me to tonight's, I know my assistant is pointing me in. I've got it here my
thing sorry. We are recognizing Black History Month and we are celebrating the achievements
and contributions made by black Americans to our economic, cultural, spiritual, and political
Development. Black History Month has grew out of a 1926 establishment of the
Negro History Week by Carter G. Woodson, so we've had 99 years of this
recognition. The theme this year is Black Americans and Labor and examines the
intersection of employment and work with the black American experience. Black
people's work has been transformational throughout the United States and here
in our community. The 2025 Black History Month theme sets out and highlights and celebrates
the profound impact of black labor in building and shaping our nation. The observation of
Black History Month calls our attention to the continued need to battle racism and build
a society that lives up to those democratic ideals. And the City of Walnut Creek continues
to work towards being an inclusive community where all citizens, past, present, and future,
respected and recognized for their contributions and potential contributions
to our community, the state, the country, and the world. The City of Walnut Creek
is proud to honor and celebrate the contributions of black Americans in our
community who have indelibly shaped our history.
According to the National Institute on Mental Health and the National Alliance
on Mental Illness, some mental illnesses are more prevalent in the black American
community as compared to other groups in the United States. Mental health and
substance abuse issues and the devastating impact of COVID-19 are among the leading
causes of health challenges for black Americans in our region.
We are committed to empowering black American residents by promoting the benefits of mental
health services through education, advocacy, policy development, raising awareness, and
decreasing the stigma surrounding mental health.
We collaborate with local governments and community-based organizations to support the
innovative A3 mobile crisis response
that is housed over at Contra Costa Health Services
so that it expands resources,
enhancing mental health for all,
especially the black American community.
We support and encourage the efforts
to made to create the Miles Hall Community Crisis Hub
as an easily accessible regional contact center
for people experiencing mental health crisis.
We support efforts for local organizations
to honor those who have or are suffering from mental illness
and supports efforts to strengthen families
in their role in sharing history
and shaping the future of our black residents.
We do recognize the designation of February 15th,
this Miles Hall Day of Remembrance,
and I am now going to invite our friend Mary Taylor
to come up and accept this proclamation
that I, the mayor of Walnut Creek,
on behalf of the Walnut Creek Council,
do hereby recognize the month of February
as Black History Month.
So we'll meet Mary over here,
and then we'll all do a picture after that.
thank you so much thank you so I have a couple words on behalf I'm accepting
for the African-American and Friends Club of Ross Moore as well as other
African-American residents of Walnut Creek I want to thank you for your
continued recognition of the contributions and the presence of
diversity in our wonderful city the city and the City Council's
of DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion or as I call it definitely earned it makes for
a stronger, more well-informed, and unique community understanding that needs vary by
different peoples. And at a time when there's an effort to erase the part of American history
that is black history are valuing everyone's lived experience in creating an environment
where everyone feels that they belong is so very important.
It's a true honor to reside in Walnut Creek, where there is a focus on mental health and
the safety and well-being of black residents and of our entire amazing community.
So thank you very much.
Yes, take a picture.
All right, next on the agenda, Congressman Mark DeSaulnier is coming.
but we are going to wait for him to get here.
And so we will move on to our next agenda item,
which is the consent calendar.
Does any member of the council
wish to pull something off the consent calendar?
Nope.
Do we have a motion?
Move to adopt consent calendar items to A through G.
Second.
Public comment, Mayor.
Oh, good reminder.
Is there anybody that wishes to address us
on any of the items that are on the consent calendar,
items A through G?
Seeing no one, roll call vote.
Council Member Silva.
Aye.
Mayor Pro Tem Wilk.
Aye.
Council Member Davini.
Aye.
Council Member Francois.
Aye.
Mayor Darling.
Aye.
Motion carries.
Thank you so much.
Next on the agenda is public communications.
And this is the portion of the meeting
it's reserved for comment on items not on the agenda.
Under the Brown Act, the council cannot act on items raised
during public communication,
but may respond briefly to statements made
or questions posed.
We could request clarification
or refer the item to staff.
Consistent with section 9.5 of the city council handbook,
we will have 30 minutes allocated at this time
for public communication.
Additional time for items not on the agenda
will be provided at the end of the meeting as necessary.
And so, the balloons have entered the workspace.
So we will go for a half an hour.
For those of you who wish to address the council,
please step forward, give us your name
and your city of residence,
and you can supply your card to the city clerk.
Oh yes, I already did.
Hello everyone, my name is Gregory Masler.
I'm a resident here in Walnut Creek.
I live near Northgate High School.
So the issue I'd like to address tonight
is the reckless driving that happens
right outside of Northgate High School
and in the surrounding neighborhood.
For years, people have been doing donuts
at the corner of Bowling Green and Castle Rock
Right next to the high school.
Recently, this has been happening around 3 to 3.30 AM,
at least twice a week, right outside my bedroom window.
Sometimes people are even bold enough
to do it in broad daylight.
As late as 4 PM, and someone who can't fall back asleep
once I'm awake, it's extremely disruptive,
especially on school nights.
But the bigger issue is the danger
this reckless driving creates for everyone.
Two years ago, during a Northgate versus Los Lomas game,
a girl was hit at this very intersection.
Thankfully, she survived,
but it's a reminder of how serious the risks are.
More recently, my neighbor's dog was hit
and killed by a speeding car.
His name was Buddy.
Not only did they hit him, but they didn't even stop.
To me, that's murder, but the horrors don't end there.
Buddy was struck so violently
that his skull was protruding from his head.
He had a sister marshmallow
who now struggles with being alone.
She doesn't understand why Buddy is gone or why it happened.
And it's heartbreaking to see her confusion and sadness.
imagine if this was your dog, your cat, or even your child.
And it's not just happening near the high school anymore.
A bicyclist was recently hit and killed
right in front of Target, here in Walnut Creek.
These incidents are happening too often,
and the consequences are devastating.
Just yesterday, we saw the Cadillac
that's been doing donuts at 3 a.m.,
the one that's been waking up,
the entire neighborhood, week after week.
We chased after him until we got every single digit
and letter number off of his plate.
it is 8VRZ052.
We reported it and I'm grateful
that steps are now being taken to address this issue.
A few weeks ago, I was actually robbed
standing in my driveway.
Among the stolen items were my house keys.
And the police, they're so stretched thin
that they're unable to perform their jobs
at the level we require as a city.
Years ago, I heard that there were around 16 officers
on duty in Walnut Creek at any given time.
Now I'm hearing we're lucky
if there are even four at any given time.
Yet somehow the city found $30 million
to pour into the Walnut Creek Library.
Thank you.
Ryan Hibbs, one of our officers, is here.
If you do want to talk to Ryan, I'm
sure he'd be happy to talk to you at the back of the room.
Thank you.
Good evening.
My name is Steve Elster.
I'm here on behalf of Friends of Walnut Creek.
We advocate for the environmental quality
of the community.
I'm here regarding the Mitchell Town Homes Development Proposal in the Shadelands.
This proposal would add almost 1,000 cars to the traffic congestion on Ignacio Valley
and Oak Grove.
It would feed that traffic from the development in ways that would create significant traffic
hazards within the Shadelands, and it would uproot numerous local businesses.
None of this is permitted under our general plan.
However, instead of taking a transparent approach by asking the city to provide some kind of
experience, the developer is trying to force its development in under the guise of the
builder's remedy. This would tie your hands as our elected officials and prevent you from
representing us by denying you the ability to address this development in light of our
general plan and other planning considerations. The developer has even been spreading the
word that its development is supposedly a done deal in which we residents, your constituents,
are simply passive vassals who must quietly accept whatever the developer imposes on us.
Yet, it's not at all clear that the builder's remedy applies here.
The builder's remedy only applies if a city's housing element is not in compliance with
certain standards when a developer submits a proposal.
Here, by the time this developer submitted its proposal, our city council had already
approved a housing element that was found to be compliant.
I'm asking that the city council bring up for discussion whether the builder's remedy
applies to this proposal instead of waiting until it is proceeded through the city's application
process, with the developer claiming it is already a done deal.
Right now, this development is mostly below the radar, and most people are unaware of
it. But if this development is built and adds nearly 1,000 cars to the existing congestion,
a great many of your constituents in every single neighborhood along Ignacio Valley and
Oak Grove will be outraged. So before the builder's remedy is exploited to tie your
hands as our elected city government, I am urging you to look into whether it even applies
to the Mitchell town homes proposal. Thank you very much. If you do have
questions our community development director is here and Eric it could
probably help you understand it's a very complicated and rapidly evolving
portion of state law. I would actually like to make after we finish public
communication I'd like to make a comment regarding that. Anyone else? Thank you.
Come on up. Hi my name is Gail Hayden and I'm not I came here to talk about the
Mitchell development but when they talked about Buddy dying I just wanted to
tell you my son-in-law was killed in Walnut Creek two years ago from a
speeding day LaSalle student and so I echo what he says we we need to do
something about speeding up and down treat for at least trying to get these
students to stop speeding around so much. I'm here because I'm out at the farmer's
market all the time and people are coming up the information booth
Outraged where can they go? What are they doing and all upset about this Mitchell development?
I told him I don't know anything about it
But I wanted to tell you that I was a tenant in citrus 3000 Citrus circle
For eight years they were telling us you we're not going to extend your lease
You can't stay here and they manufactured vacancies so that they could do 42 townhomes
The building is now sitting empty. They turned off all the electricity. They turned off all the water
they ran everybody out so that was 12 businesses that went out. We're now
looking at 10 of those buildings in the Mitchell supposed proposed development
have businesses in them and I understood Walnut Creek was work play live. So I now
had to move our business over to conquer because we couldn't find anything in
Walnut Creek that was within our price range after we've been here for 20
years and I'm just saying that right now there's so much confusion out there that
that if we're looking at doing variances of the general plan and we're going to change
from what we promised everybody to work, play, live, then we need to get it out before it
gets baked into all these commissions and get it out and let the people talk about it.
I can tell you that when you have 10 people come up at the information booth about one
topic, there's a problem.
And so I'm just letting you know that it needs to get out before it gets through all these
different commissions and design review and all of that.
It's too late to do anything by then.
So if we can get it agendized and get the public, no,
because what happened with our particular thing
is that the hearing notice is only supposed
to go out 100 feet and that's not gonna work here
because there's no houses within 100 feet
for the hearing notices.
So we've got to do something different.
Thank you very much.
Any other public comment?
Seeing that, we'll close it and bring it back.
So Mayor, I'd like to make a comment
based upon some of those comments on Mitchell,
on the Mitchell Homes and Builders Remedy.
And I'm here, excuse me,
I'm hearing a lot in the community about this,
especially since I live out in that general area.
And I do think that there's enough discussion,
information and misinformation
that I do think that we need to agendize this sooner
rather than later so that we can have
an open council discussion if this even is justified
under the Builders Remedy and let our residents
able to talk about that and make their comments known about that. So I would
like to, I don't know if we need a motion for this, but I would like to...
I will turn to the city manager and the attorney.
Depends how you'd like to handle it mayor. If this is something that a majority of
the council would like to have agendized at a future meeting we would certainly do
that and Steve I know there are legal issues around this project that yeah if
the council wishes to have an update we could schedule an update the and report
to the council with regards to the issues of whether the project qualifies
as a builders remedy project and what the status of the project is at the
current time so we can provide that if the council desires yeah I'd like to add
on to that too. I agree with Kevin. It's one of the reasons I brought it up in
my public comments in January is I hear a lot from the community about this
project and I know there's a lot of concerns and it is a complex issue and I
think getting ahead of it is really a good idea and having it discussed here
and council would be I think helpful to the community. Okay I think with that I
will work with the city manager to agendize this. Understanding that we're
going to have some heavy months with meetings ahead of us.
Can we ask for this update no later than April?
Right in the middle of budgets.
I'd like to look at the calendar,
April or May timeframe,
but I can work with the mayor on scheduling.
Okay. All right.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Can I ask a question?
Yes. Go ahead.
Ask a question to staff.
Given the complexities of the builder's remedy, the law,
Can we clarify here what kind of,
you clarified it, Mr. Mattis,
but I think maybe clarify it again,
how this would be different than a regular proposal
being basically presented to us for an opinion.
This is an update as to what the builder's remedy is,
whether it qualifies, of course, that could be litigated.
And help us understand the difference here because.
Yeah so a builder's remedy project under California is a relatively new concept in the sense of it's in the sense of it being implemented in California and what happens with a project that's identified as a builder's remedy project is that under a set of state laws housing laws the housing accountability act.
If a city does not have a certified housing element
by the timeline that the state has set as a requirement,
then an applicant can file an application
for a residential project.
There are requirements associated with it
for affordable housing and whatnot.
And the project can be on land
that isn't zoned for residential.
And in that instance,
The cities have very limited grounds, assuming the project qualifies as a Builders Remedy
Project, the cities have very limited grounds upon which they can deny them, and cities
can't require, for instance, a general plan amendment before they approve it.
As the council is aware, and as the public may be aware, typically when a property owner
wants to come in and seek a general plan amendment to put residential development on property
that is not designated for residential,
they have to come in and seek a general plan amendment
and the builder's remedy laws allow an alternate course
to potential approval of a residential development
under certain circumstances.
And I think this is a very complicated issue.
It is a evolving area of law,
and we will work to get this on the agenda
in an upcoming meeting.
And now we will turn to our great Congressman,
Mark D'Saulnier who's in the back, he's scrolling through TikTok, I see it, he's
here tonight to give us an update from Washington DC on all the fun that he is
having. A friend of mine told me that I knew no level of masochism so maybe I'll
take that in your comment. Well I want to thank you so much and for a few
minutes I promise I've got a PowerPoint but I won't take as long as I did last
time I saw you all it's much shorter so there's three pages of somewhat just
background and then three of the real reason I came here was to talk about
community benefit projects of which we have had a wonderful relationship since
they started six years ago so that's our current district you're right in the
heart of that at 24 and 680 it's most of Contra Costa except for West County and
and that little line in the far east is Discovery Bay.
These are just background, pretty much says the same thing.
Next, these are my current committee assignments.
Every two years, these get updated a little bit.
So ranking member means I'm the equivalent.
I'm a minority senior person.
So I'm the equivalent to the chair of the committee.
I was pleased, very honored, to be made the ranking member
by leadership two weeks ago on ethics.
And then I've spent most of the time in Congress,
and most of my time in elected office,
in these two subject areas, particularly transportation,
having started on Transpac many years ago
when I was a planning commissioner, we're all smiling.
So just spent a lot of time in both those fields.
So the real reason I'm here and I've
been going out to different public agencies,
city councils, hopefully school districts,
is to work about how important it's been
and how successful we've been in Contra Costa
because we've been prepared.
We have these great partnerships with the cities,
the school districts, with non-profits.
One thing that changed when Republicans became a majority,
they made it harder to do it through non-governmental agency
because they wanted more responsibility.
Republican Chair of the Appropriations Committee
from Oklahoma is a very dear friend, Tom Cole.
We were on the Rules Committee together
and we like to read American history
and go to Civil War sites, including together.
So he and they changed a little bit, but we're very hopeful.
The nice thing about this is has been,
you hear about a lot of the partisanship,
but this has been a process
that has been keep our fingers crossed.
When it was earmarks years ago,
unfortunately members abused it
and there was public recognition of that through the press.
And both sides have been very good about making sure
we have partnerships that are accountable,
that the public knows what they're getting.
So these three in particular were projects
we worked with your great staff on.
Nation Valley Road, I teased you about
being at the end of that, in Concord and the Clayton line.
It's not to help my commute, it's to get me down here
so that I can spend my disposable income
and down to Walnut Creek.
Don't tell the people from Concord, I said that.
And it's just terrific, you've been great.
And then of course, on the public safety side,
we've done quite a bit with law enforcement
to get these kind of grants, which are popular.
But we've also done other things
with the Contra Costa Transportation Authority
in particular, and again, you were a great partner.
We're getting every signal in the county as our goal
to have the best software and be connected
to central management with all the cities
and the county so that we're moving traffic
and it's connected to Caltrans and the freeways.
And I think we'll be one of the first counties
in the country that get that and sustain it.
We know we can improve congestion,
we can improve pollution,
and most importantly, we can run the system more efficiently
when we're doing that.
So those are examples.
Next.
So this is just, I'm being somewhat redundant,
but that's the real reason to be here is,
other than the fact I follow Tip O'Neill's admonition
that all politics is local.
So I'm, as a former planning commissioner,
I love the comments about development.
God bless you, good luck with all that.
I'm glad I, it's all to the benefit
for future generations when we do it right.
And I think Walnut Creek's done a great job.
And a lot of jurisdictions here have
in difficult requirement environment
where we want to protect the fabulous quality of life
that we have in the open space.
But we also want to provide housing for future generations.
And as you know, that's no small chore.
So all politics is local.
And just the community benefit projects, again,
just the more we can work with you and your staff
to make sure we're prepared,
the more likely we'll be successful.
And every indication is that,
in spite of some of the dysfunction back there,
that we're gonna continue to work together.
And I'm hoping my colleagues will have a conversation
with the administration to explain
that these are really valuable and they're successful
and they give a lot of benefit to the public.
Let's see, and we'll have a workshop with our staff
and your staff and the appropriations staff
just to help with this.
And the last one is just,
this is the successful projects we've had so far,
so we're close, if you see 46 million,
we still have 14 projects from the last part
that have yet to be approved,
but we're hoping that'll happen
and we'll put us over 50 million
and you've got a little over 10% of that.
So I won't comment because you know
how competitive jurisdictions can be
and I've got a lot of them.
So that's it.
You do love us best, don't you?
Yeah, because I'm here right now, I do love you best.
Does that sound like a?
I love you so much that one of my key staff person
is a key member of the family, so to speak,
but we won't embarrass her any further.
And lastly, thanks for coming to the town hall.
I don't think I've ever had an entire city council
come and listen to me for an hour.
Well, we appreciate everything.
Do any of my follow-up, do you have a minute
to answer a few questions?
I'm happy to.
Just a quick question.
Thank you for being here, Congressman.
So when it comes to the federal grant,
we keep hearing about how suddenly
there's not gonna be grant, and then there is,
and then we're all over the board.
If somebody from your staff, and we work with,
of course, we have people that are dedicated
to asking for the grants.
If there's any information or advice
on how we can ask for some of those grants
that will not run afoul of any red flags that may pop up
because we've heard about this in the past
and we were able to change those pretty much on the fly
to be able to get the grant funding,
please let's work together on that
because we'd hate to lose something by technicality.
You know, my assumption is that
they're all gonna be as planned.
We're working with our colleagues across the aisle.
They voted on these.
Most of them, they had to go through appropriations.
They had to be largely bipartisan and with them
in the majority for this last appropriation cycle.
So I think we all agree that efficiency is important.
We're happy to look at that, all of us
at every level of government.
So that's a good thing.
But we already have some of that infrastructure
that, unfortunately, a lot of us on both sides
are trying to explain to the administration
some of their folks that inspector generals
are important, the Congressional Budget Office,
the Office of Management and Budget.
They're human institutions. They have their shortcomings.
Let's see if we can make them work better,
but trying to get performance is,
whether it's a local level, state, county,
federal level, is important and should be nonpartisan.
So my assumption is that most of these grants
have been approved by the Congress.
So statutorily, they're required to go ahead.
And so far, all of the litigation
has indicated that that's the way the courts feel.
And again, I think we're hoping to work with our colleagues
across the aisle to get the administration to go,
what's fun programs that are important and work?
And let's question the ones that don't and get rid of them
if they don't work.
Good news.
Thank you.
You know actually the Texas, I tried to do this
when I was in the legislature.
They're required by statute.
They have a Sunset Commission.
And it requires them to go through every single bill
in a process that I think would be good for California.
Some of my colleagues in the Democratic Caucus
didn't always agree with me.
But if you want to get good programs,
why not make them efficient?
But I would go on the assumption
that they're gonna be there.
Congressman Francois, AKA the birthday boy?
Council member.
Council member.
Oh yes, happy birthday by the way.
I moved people around all the time.
Is there a cake?
I was looking around.
Thank you for being here, Congressman.
Thank you for hosting the town hall two weeks ago, one
of your 223 town halls.
That's got to be a record, I imagine, among your colleagues.
And I was just curious, I know that you're
a voracious reader and a passionate student
of American history, and just given where we are
at this particular moment, if you can,
what gives you hope or optimism,
continued optimism about our country and our future?
We go through these cycles.
I, you've heard me as I'm sure I talked about this town hall.
These, we go through cycles.
We've had challenges before,
and it wasn't just the Civil War and the Revolution.
Great book that I mentioned frequently
is The Age of Acrimony
by the Smithsonian's congressional historian
and just talked about post-Civil War.
And the similarities, he really connects a dot.
With telegraph and steam travel, we had big immigration
because the Industrial Revolution,
we needed more labor.
And the telegraph was very much like social media
and technology, that all of a sudden,
you had lots of newspapers getting yesterday's news
from New York and DC.
And they had very subjective opinions
about how they interpreted that.
So it took a while for us as a country to get used to that
and figure out what the new norms were.
I just finished a book by Nicholas Carr,
who's called Superbloom.
And he's written a lot about neuroscience
and how we get information.
And it was really a good book.
And he's dry because he's a neuroscientist,
but he tells a good story.
The Superbloom is a reference to the modern day tragedy
the commons where an influencer went out and took these pictures of this beautiful field
with all spring blooms and a week later a lot of other would-be influencers had trampled
it all to death. So that's where the name comes from. But I will be fine. But I think
one of the big things is this, you know, we're human beings, thousands of years evolution
that we're used to human conversations that we're trying to figure out. That's a lot of
what that book was like is that we're spending too much time having human
conversations in technology that we haven't we're adapting to and the
mean times I think Covid made a lot worse right because you know we didn't
get a chance to meet but thanks for the opportunity thank you I remember reading
somewhere they were talking about the telegraph all of a sudden there was a
need for the entire country to be on the same time zone and we were not we did
not every little thing every town had its own time and we had to figure out
how to get on it.
So now we're just at a different point in life
where we're all trying to get on the same time zone,
it's a little harder.
It's an interesting sort of psychological thing
where it's nice, it's consoling to realize history.
We've been through these things before
but then you don't wanna be complacent
about the urgency to get through it
with the minimum human suffering as possible.
Other questions?
We really appreciate you coming.
We appreciate your steadfast advocacy
to help us solve the problems here in Walnut Creek.
I think we try to find ways to make it work for everybody.
And I think the money that you've brought to the table
really has helped us with some priorities
that will benefit our town and people coming in
and going out and we appreciate everything you're gonna do.
And do you have a minute to do a picture with us all?
I'd love to.
And I'd just like to have one last moment.
I really appreciate you, you know,
you have a wonderful council right now,
which your staff's been great to work with,
to the police, the city manager's office,
everyone has been on delight to work with.
As has your staff.
And you are my favorite.
All right, we'll go ahead and meet you out here.
Got my doe's here for me.
All right, next on the agenda
is council member and staff announcements,
reports on activities or requests.
City attorney, is there any report out of the closed session?
There was no reportable action
from closed session this evening.
City manager, any reports?
I do not have an update this evening, Mayor.
All right, my fellow council members.
Congressman, or council members.
Everyone's in Congress.
Everyone's in here.
I haven't made anybody a sergeant yet.
I usually make people sergeants, yeah.
So yeah, I don't have a lot from the last couple weeks.
I did attend the ribbon cutting for uplift home care,
which was a very nice event.
That's with Adam and Marlene Bartlett.
They just opened up a new home care business
out in the Shadelands.
And the story there was that while I was campaigning,
I knocked on their door.
And as I have a health care background as well,
we kind of hit it off in that regard.
And so I'd been following their progress.
So it was exciting to see them open up.
And they're a tremendous couple.
And I know they're going to bring a lot of integrity
to the home care space.
So that was a joy to be a part of that.
And then we did our council priorities a couple weeks ago, or maybe just a week ago.
And as someone new on the council, that was a nice experience.
I think that it reflects well that our priorities as the city align with the priorities of the
people and that that held true to me from what I experienced talking to
folks on the campaign trail and I think that the the work that we did to to hone
down to what we decided on was was collaborative and bodes well for our
working relationship. Thank you. Councilmember Silva not Congresswoman
council member. I thought you were going to demote me to dogcatcher and that would
be an honor to be a dogcatcher. Thank you very much. A number of items to report on
for the council and the community. Thank you everyone. I'm a member of the board
of the East Bay Regional Communications System Authority which is really a
public safety radio system that covers two counties Contra Costa and Alameda.
At our recent finance committee meeting we received a semi-annual financial
report the good news is that the budget is on track both revenues and expenses
and even better news is that we have additional revenues that we're receiving
because we have been exerting some collection efforts with agencies that
had we're not paying their bills on time so a couple million dollars which will
be able to go back into the system so that's good news at the recent plan
On planning committee meeting of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Association
of Bay Area Governments, we move forward some grants that are going to be awarded to a number
of communities, including seven in Contra Costa County.
These grants are going to provide the funding that communities need to begin the planning
process and how to meet the goals of the transit-oriented community strategies that has been adopted
by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
Unfortunately, there wasn't enough money for Walnut Creek.
Our ask was too big because we have complicated issues
between the downtown Walnut Creek BART Station
and the Pleasant Hill BART Station.
But after 30 minutes of conversation with key staff
after the meeting, they have agreed to come out
and meet with our community development department
and in particular our community development director
so that they can understand a little better
what it's like when you make policies
that are supposed to work all across the region,
and you have one agency at a time, they're very different.
And so come out and have conversations about that,
and hopefully that will help us better address
how we're going to comply with these
density improvements near transit.
So with the change in Washington, D.C.,
the National League of City of which we are a member,
recently has updated its federal legislative advocacy
priorities and I didn't, I can't say I participated.
I logged into a national meeting.
So who knows?
There could have been three people there
or there could have been 3,000 people.
There's probably closer to the 3,000.
But their legislative, what I wanted to let you know
is that their legislative focus is very similar
to what we have in the League of California Cities.
very briefly, the need for ongoing fiscal flexibility in the phase out of ARPA, advocating
for continued funding for infrastructure programs, particularly those established in the last
four years, affordable housing and homelessness, a push for increased funding.
There's a theme here, isn't it?
safety and disaster preparedness for federal programs that improve community's resilience
to disasters.
The broadband expansion and digital equity, it's not just about broadband, it's also
that every community has it in all corners of the community.
Environmental compliance and climate change and local authority protection, opposing federal
preemption efforts that undermine local decision making.
And another item that came up, which I may bring up a little later, is also that in the
need to cut the budget to extend the tax cuts, they have to make some balancing acts.
One of the items that is potentially on the list, and it was in 2017 as well, are the
tax-exempt municipal bonds, which the tax-exempt municipal bonds, which is what we would be
be using in order to finish the project, or actually even start and finish the project
at Heather Farm.
They've been around for over a hundred years.
They were first written into the tax code in 1913.
And they basically, they're issued by state and local governments.
They're used by state, local governments, and nonprofits actually.
And they have been used for three quarters of the infrastructure in this country.
So they are well used.
They basically have lower costs for the agency that uses them.
So they can make our local dollars go further.
And they are at risk.
And I just wanted to raise awareness of that.
I was going to ask the congressmen about it, but I think he knows that that would be a
significant loss.
So then I'm going to mention that Cal City's board meets this week.
I will be in Southern California, so I'm sorry I will miss the Chamber of Commerce event.
And in addition to the tax exempt municipal bond discussion, we will be talking about
wildfire and wildfire resiliency.
And then I will finally mention that our sister cities will be hosting the youth ambassadors
from Noceto and Sheo Folk in the end of April, the week of the 20th. They will be coming from
our two sister cities and it's an opportunity for these youth ambassadors to learn about life and
family life in Walnut Creek, school life, community life and what a city does. So thank you very much.
Okay, along with Councilmember Silva, I serve as a council's representatives to the Recycle Smart
board and then as part of those responsibilities, I'm on the franchise vendor ad hoc committee,
which is a subcommittee of the Recycle Smart Board that is vetting the proposals that we've
received for collection services.
Our contract will be up in 2027.
We received two responses to the proposals.
The names will sound familiar because they are our current providers.
services and Mount Diablo resource and recovery. So at the very beginning of the process, that
will be completed in July when the board selects one of those providers as the future collector.
Let's see, along with the, so I'll be providing future updates on that, but for now we've received
two proposals to the request for proposals for collection services. Along with the mayor,
I did attend the community cleanup crew a few weeks ago and I wanted to give them a plug and
I know that when Kevin was mayor, he recognized Karen Mariner, the founder of this group as a
hero among us and she and a group of 20, 30 dedicated volunteers showed up at the Red Gear
parking lot, uh, Rudgier park and, park and ride, that makes more sense, to, uh, kind
of canvas the area and clean up areas around South main and the off ramps from the freeway.
There's another opportunity to get involved this Saturday. They're hosting a, another
cleanup at 8 30 at the Rudgier park and ride lot. It's about 60 or 90 minutes of your time.
some gloves and if you have one of those things to pick up trash bring that if
not they'll equip you with all the equipment that you need and it's
something that you feel like you're doing something positive in your
community and you're meeting other like-minded people and you're doing
something positive so if you're at home feeling despairing about there's not
anything that I can do to make a difference there is show up on Saturday
at 8 30 at the Red Gear parking lot, parking ride.
Parking ride, parking ride.
Congressman, council member, parking ride.
Yeah.
And then we've got a meeting bright and early tomorrow
morning for the Economic Development Working Group.
But I'll report on that at our next meeting.
Thank you.
Mayor Pro Tem.
All right, a few things.
I was at the Cal Cities City Manager Conference last,
was it last week?
I can turn two weeks ago in Palm Springs,
discussing hate in the chamber.
I led a panel there talking about what to do
when hate speech actually comes into the chamber.
So it was probably 80 to 90 people,
city managers and assistant city managers
that were in that particular session,
including our own city manager and assistant city manager.
When I asked the beginning,
how many have experienced hate in their chambers?
I would say 75% of the hands went up.
This is an annual state conference.
So I hope that the information is valuable
in helping to provide an outline and a worksheet
of what happens, should that happen in council chambers
or governing bodies throughout the state in the future.
Unfortunately, we have had experience in that.
Hopefully we don't have any more.
I am the liaison to the DRAA board
and just wanted to mention that Froggy
currently Center Rep's latest that's playing at the Lesher Center and it is
it's on right now and then the Bedford Gallery still has stitched on exhibition
through March 30th where artists work demonstrate the evolution of embroidery.
And I am now the appointed liaison to Transpac and we had a CCTA presentation
just this last week on day lighting which is the new California State Law
that you can't park within 20 feet of any crosswalk, whether it's marked or
unmarked in any area of the city in the state. So that's of course going to
impact all of our residential streets. It also impacts our downtown parking
meters and a lot of the appointed officials on that board suggested that
CCTA work with our transportation staffs to have a presentation to council in the
near future to least let our residents know what's going on and and how
enforcement will work down the line and why there may be parking meters that
have bags over them saying no parking in a parking space. And then lastly the
mayor and I are on the finance committee we had a meeting this morning we
recommended that the budget come to City Council for review we'll get that in a
few weeks. Thank you. I had a couple fun things, Youth Leadership Commission, I
got to go talk to them and they're so much fun, they're so optimistic, and they
really wanted to know about sharks, so I got to explain sharks, which was really
useful. We didn't talk about breakfast this time, it's all about sharks. Study up.
The Chamber of Commerce hosted a reception for the new St. Mary's
College president and he and his staff were there. They're very interested in
and finding ways to get better integrated
into the community.
One of his fellows was from San Jose State
and had done a lot of work on better integrating
San Jose State into downtown.
So I think there's lots of opportunities there
and I really appreciated Bob Luncheid's leadership
in setting that up.
We did go to the mayor's conference
and appointed Laura Nakamura from Concord to the LAFCO.
Priorities, we had a great meeting on priorities
just to, I think everybody in this room
probably knows what they are.
But the people out there in TV land might not know.
We go through this every two years
and we try to hone it down to the things
that we as council need to spend our time
thinking about and working on.
Lots of other things are happening in the city,
but these are the things that we wanted to spend our time on.
Economic development and public safety
are always two of our top priorities.
economic development, we're gonna be looking at
permit streamlining, downtown enhancement,
flexible land use, kind of looking
for those high paying jobs.
Public safety, we are continuing to focus
on our police force, helping them get the tools,
the education and the training that they need.
We're also looking at innovative programs
to tackle homelessness and mental health challenges.
and the two other public safety challenges,
traffic safety is obviously based on public comment tonight,
a continuing issue that we need to keep our eye on
in the city and the LA fires have demonstrated
that climate resiliency and the ability to respond
to those is something that we need to keep our eye on.
Environmental sustainability,
that is something we've done quite a bit of work on.
So we're gonna keep our eye on that.
Park and recreation facilities,
We are going to build the swimming pool
and the community center,
and we're gonna keep our eye on that
along with turf and lights.
And then we're going to kick off as resources permit
the next phase of planning,
because we'll have a big hole
where Clark Swim Center used to be.
And we have to figure out what to do with that.
But the new thing is going to be the general plan update.
And you have to be kind of a planning nerd
to think it's fun.
But it really is the vision
of how our city wants to change and grow.
and our last general plan was done
before the great recession, before the pandemic,
before Amazon started delivering deodorant to your house
in 24 hours or less,
before artificial intelligence,
before my husband started asking chat GPT
these weird questions and it was before we all had these.
And so the world has changed a lot
and we wanna make sure that our vision for the city
reflects that.
So we're starting on about a four year program
to update the general plan.
We recognize it will be a lift
and we recognize it will be a conversation
with the city residents and the city businesses.
So we're looking forward to that.
And speaking of conversation,
I would be remiss if I didn't remind you all
to be at the state of the city on Thursday
where Caitlin Sly and I will have a nice little chat
in front of all of you.
And our police chief will give an update on public safety.
And so that is it for our reports.
And now we're onto the meat of the agenda.
So the next, the first agenda item,
the only agenda item is the proposed 2025 legislative agenda.
And we'll have Carla Hanson for her swan song
in front of the city council.
Come kick it off.
Good evening, mayor, council members,
members of the public.
For the final time in front of you this evening,
I'm Carla Hanson.
I'm the deputy city manager.
The item before you is the proposed 2025 legislative agenda.
And the recommended action is to discuss and approved
the proposed agenda before you this evening.
This is an annual action that the council takes,
the council reviews and adopts a legislative agenda
to be the framework for advocacy at the state level
for the upcoming legislative cycle.
So this, as the process goes,
your mayor and mayor pro tem
that make up the legislative committee review
legislative agenda make edits make changes and then refer it to the full
City Council which is why we're here this evening. The city contracts with
towns and public affairs who acts as our lobbyist on behalf of Walnut Creek and
acts as our voice in Sacramento. So Casey Elliott the vice president of
towns and public affairs is here to give you a state update and then to walk
through the proposed agenda for your consideration this evening. With that I
will hand it to Casey. Good evening Casey Elliott, Vice President with Towns and
Public Affairs. As Carla noted, wanted to provide a brief update just to give you
a context as to which this version of the legislative agenda will be
considered and be utilized this year. So real briefly the legislature began the
first year of a two-year session on January 6th this year. This year is is a
little bit different in past in that we have a large kind of the cadence of
of term limits, we have a large turnover,
approximately 25% a quarter of the legislature's
new freshmen this year.
Combine that with the cycle from two years ago,
we have nearly 50% of members have been in Sacramento
for just about two years.
So again, there's a lot of changes as it relates
to committee membership, committee leadership,
all kinds of new fresh ideas,
some new people looking at some old ideas.
So just a lot of new faces that everyone's getting used to.
One of the big items that I did wanna talk about,
which kind of is gonna permeate
through the entire two-year session,
is this year we do have a overall reduction
in the number of bills
that members are allowed to introduce.
Kind of sounds like a technical issue,
but for example, in the assembly members
over the two-year period this year and next year
are allowed to introduce 35 bills total.
In previous sessions, that's been 50.
So they have had approximately a significant cut
in the Senate, again, 35 over the two years down from 40.
So in theory, we should have fewer bills,
more focus on the big issues of the day.
We'll see how that goes.
But it may result in more focused bills
and fewer small technical issues.
But again, we'll kind of have to see how that plays out
over the two year session.
A couple of topics that are gonna be very prevalent
in this year's session
that I just wanted to discuss briefly,
always start with the state budget.
The governor introduced his January budget,
the first January 10th.
At that time, the budget was roughly balanced.
The governor's budget that he presented
had approximately a $350 million budget surplus
off a $229 billion budget.
Some dynamics have occurred obviously since then,
which is going to make the May revise
a very interesting time,
namely the fires within Southern California,
and that's gonna impact the state budget on both sides.
We've obviously already seen
the state's first initial response.
They provided $2.5 billion in immediate cleanup response.
Hopefully the majority of that funding will come back
through FEMA pass-through payments to be determined.
And then additionally, on the revenue side, as is often the case with these types
of disasters, the IRS and then FTB have made the decision to postpone the deadline
by which those living in impacted areas have to file their taxes
until October given the demographics of many of those filers that state,
particularly the state's heavily reliant on high-income earners, that could have a significant
impact.
So immediately we will not know how much revenue the state has when the budget's approved
on January—or, excuse me, June 15th, because those taxes are going to be delayed till October.
You'll recall when we had the last significant budget shortfall, that was also compounded
by a similar issue in San Diego and Ventura in response to some natural disasters there.
So all of that, the governor's office and his January budget has taken a very conservative
approach.
Not a lot of new fiscal, not a lot of new ongoing programs or fiscal commitments really
kind of sticking within the framework of last year's two-year budget proposal.
A couple of items of note, the state is, the January budget is proposing to restructure
the way in which the state agencies oversee housing.
So currently, right now, housing is within the business services and business consumer
services agencies, so all of the consumer protection issues also fall under that agency,
and the governor's proposing to split that into two.
So there would be a separate agency for, specifically for, housing and homelessness.
That's going to go through the little Hoover Commission, which is generally an 18-month
process.
So we may see some changes that would likely just consolidate HCD housing, or excuse me,
the Homeless Coordinating Council and some of the other various state housing entities
that are spread around.
So we'll see some of that there.
And then also of note, the Governor's January budget proposal does post a program out some
of the new funding that was approved by voters in November, both through the education bond
as well as the climate bond.
So we should start seeing some additional funding opportunities for local governments
and school districts popping up in the latter half of this year.
As it relates to housing and land use, as we all know, as was discussed earlier, Sacramento
is always quite busy in this area.
I anticipate we will still see a significant number of bills in the housing and land use
area. Particularly with an eye ahead as portions of the state start entering
into their next general plan and housing element planning purposes. So we may
start seeing more bills impacting the arena process and other processes on a
look forward basis. Speaking of funding, there will be efforts to consider
placing a statewide housing bond on the 2026 ballot. We've seen a couple of bills
that I think we're going to look at.
But I think we're going to look at it.
I think we're going to see if the bill is introduced already
on that topic, probably spend the majority of this portion
of this year really kind of figuring out what's
the appropriate funding level, what programs those should go
into, and most likely have a bill approved early next year
to be placed on the ballot.
But that will be an ongoing conversation,
as at this point I think there's at least three housing bond
reduction deadline period. So we'll have to see what that what those conversations lead to.
Additionally, we will see some continued focus on increasing home ownership opportunities,
whether that's through funding for existing down payment assistance programs or whatnot,
or increasing the amount of affordable housing through, you know, various legislative efforts.
Obviously, the Housing Accountability Act, Density Bonus Law, all of these things
are have an element of increasing homeownership so we'll have to see
what proposals are there but that will again continue to be a
focus within the housing space.
Wildfire and recovery and preparedness obviously given the the response of the
the instances we saw in Southern California in January
very heightened focus on this and it's really gonna
bills so far that we've seen introduced are really going to fall into two camps
those which are the recovery from the specific disasters that we've seen in LA
Ventura counties and in various executive actions bills legislative
policy proposals on rebuilding those communities and many of those are going
to impact the local jurisdictions in which those disasters occurred including
zoning, siting, permitting so that will be those bills will be interesting to
watch not necessarily because they'll have a direct impact on on the city but
those will definitely lay a groundwork for future incidences that may occur
throughout the state. What does housing permitting look like in a streamlined
fashion? There was an article this morning about allowing developers to permit
their own projects in some of those recovery areas so I mean we're gonna see
ideas kind of across the board so there'll be a number of bills in that
area. Additionally, there's going to be a large focus on preparedness statewide. So obviously,
number of lessons learned. We're already seeing proposals come out from Senate leadership on,
such as creating, excuse me, moving CAL FIRE's resources from seasonal employees to full-time
employees on, on talking about CEQA exemptions and JR species act exemptions for fuel modification
projects, additional funding for evacuation planning, route design, those types of things.
Also, this is where we're going to have some of the conversation related to
insurance coverage for those homes impacted by wildfires or having the potential.
Obviously, last year was really focused on the Department of Insurance and the
the insurance commissioner's regulations. I think there's a there's a much larger
desire for the legislature on their own part to get involved this year from
legislative standpoint. So whether that be working groups or that being
requirements for the regulations so we are going to see a number of bills
within the space hopefully balancing out the ability for homeowners renters
businesses to to find and achieve coverage creating stability within the
the Fair Plan for those that are required to be on the Fair Plan and then trying to
do both of those things while maintaining a level of affordability for those products.
So that's going to be an ongoing conversation.
And then public safety, a couple of different issues here.
From November the implementation of Proposition 36, making sure that funding becomes available
through the state budget process to provide services to those that are convicted of the
treatment-related felonies, make sure that those individuals can get the
services that that are promised within Prop 36, but also that the local law
enforcement, local DAs, have the ability to be implementing those those laws not
just within Prop 36, but the recently approved legislative package of rules
really aimed at addressing retail theft, fentanyl addiction, and some of the
crimes that are associated with that or some of the offshoots that are associated
that. And then we'll see a host of local public safety issues in response to
local public issues such as reckless driving, sideshows that was mentioned
earlier, e-bikes, vehicle break-ins, mail thefts, kind of any of these
number of issues. I think we'll see some additional legislation this year. And
then state and federal dynamics. I won't belabor the point obviously having the
Congressman here helps a lot.
I will just say that we're going to be in this constant back
and forth between the Trump administration and the Newsome
administration.
Obviously, both like to legislate
in a very open and social media-driven space.
So I think we'll see some of those back and forths going on.
The Attorney General's office has already
begun being active within litigation on issues
where California believes that the federal government is
overstepping.
that will continue to be the case under Attorney General Bonta.
So we're just going to kind of have this dynamic back and forth and then obviously
issues such as funding availability, grant funding availability, community projects,
all of those are going to be wrapped into this larger conversation.
As Carla noted, the proposed legislative agenda in front of you today has gone through the
process with input from city departments, the legislative committee, city manager's
office, and it was just with a look to what has happened in the past year since it was
brought before council, any shifting state priorities, local priorities.
So I've tried to incorporate those within the document itself.
Once the agenda is approved by council, that document, the document will serve as kind
that policy framework for the upcoming session, as Carla noted, also for letters or positions
that may be considered by the legislative committee, by the city manager's office,
by the mayor. This document will help provide guidance and direction. Obviously, if issues
arise during the year that warrant coming back to council, we'll be happy to do that,
but this will hopefully streamline some of that process so you don't necessarily have to see me
every couple of weeks with different bills in front of you, and then also this is a document
that me and my team will be sharing with your legislative delegation in Sacramento so that
they can be proactively thinking of Walnut Creek when they're looking at introducing
bills when committees are, you know, thinking of bills and how they might impact different
communities. We want them to kind of have that proactive information.
As it relates to the specific, some of the specific edits within the document this year,
should note, we did start with last year's approved agenda as the basis, so the document
was previously approved, and that kind of served as the foundation.
A couple of the key items that have been added in, support for the full implementation and
funding of Proposition 36, as well as the recently approved package of legislation
aimed at, again, reducing some of those prevalence of organized retail theft and allowing local
jurisdictions to coordinate and really kind of have some more tools in their
tool belt with when dealing with some of these crimes and some of these elements.
There were some modifications to the environmental sustainability section to
include references to CCAs supporting funding. Streamlined again want to make
sure that as much as possible we're having affordable energy and rates and
and things for community members through all modes,
not just through IOUs,
but obviously the city's involvement within MCE,
that's something that we wanna be supportive of.
Additionally, supporting efforts to assist
with the tracking of GHG emissions
and providing some of the timely information
to public agencies so that can be used
within local planning processes,
such as general plan element updates.
And then again, the consolidation improvements
or general plan requirements.
So just some of the items that have been added in.
Once we move forward, after the adoption,
just as a reminder,
my team will continue to have regular check-ins
and updates with city staff.
And then we will be looking to reach out
not only to your delegation,
but to some of those new committee members
and leaders, areas that we care about,
just to kind of again, brief them on the city,
the issues that are important,
those that may not necessarily be as familiar,
that may not be geographically based here,
but still gonna have a significant impact
on your priorities.
And then we are currently going through
and reviewing all of the bills that have been introduced.
As of Friday, there were about a thousand bills introduced
and that should probably double this week,
leading up to Friday's bill introduction deadline.
So we'll have a, yeah, maybe more, maybe more than double.
But we'll have a first kind of culling of the bills
that we'll be able to provide and work to staff
based on the agenda and can really focus in on the items
that we want to weigh in on.
And then continuing to plan for both the state
and federal budget advocacy and opportunities
for direct funding.
As Congressman Desongye indicated,
he's been really great in working with the city
and supporting the projects that you've put forward.
His office is hosting a workshop at the end of the month
to look forward on that.
So definitely something that want to continue to work
the city's swing did good projects in front of him. We're trying to do our best
out in DC to kind of take in all the various tidbits of information to help
you know help help you guys consider the right projects that have the best
chance of success of moving through the project or process of being supported
at the end. Should also note currently you have an earmark project pending for
for Tice Park that will be coming to a head here in March 14th which is when
the existing federal continuing resolution expires.
If Congress is able to reach a consensus on appropriations
bills, they should be approving those earmarks by reference,
which would include the city's project.
So we'll keep you updated on the existing FY25.
And with that, I am happy to answer any questions
on anything going on in Sacramento,
anything within the agenda,
and thank you guys for having me.
Thank you very much, Casey.
just want to know how does it end up at the end of the thing how does how does
the story end you don't have the story you don't have the answer I'll be back
in November okay questions you talked about funding for to encourage home
ownership I think a lot of the building that's occurring the cheapest model is
to build them for rent I assume that's not what you're referring to what what
types of ideas are being proposed to to build projects that are, you know, more
owner driven versus rental driven? Sure. The the state in previous years has
approved with through the state budget funding for direct homeowner assistance
for down payment assistance for different programs that can help
particularly first-time homebuyers buy down interest rates since we've had some
budget issues, some of the funding for those programs have been a little bit
inconsistent, so I think there's some more conversations that are going to be
going on on is there funding that can be provided to some of those existing
programs? Are there new ideas that the state's not necessarily thinking of that
can help individuals, particularly first-time homebuyers, which is really
where the state wants to try to focus, increase, you know, kind of transition
folks into kind of that that that missing middle of homeownership, moving
out of rentership into homeownership. So that's traditionally where the state has
focused is on trying to provide resources that housing bond may provide
an opportunity. There have been previous proposals of trying to marry those two
of giving making infrastructure or developer related funding for specific
projects available contingent on promoting and first-time homeownership or
providing some type of incentives for first-time homeowners so again I think
as we enter into a housing bond conversation we'll see some of those pop
up whether or not they have to be through bond they can be through budget
they can be stand-alone policy will kind of remain to be seen but that's
generally kind of how the state plays in that area. Yeah that seems like I mean
most people that's their goal eventually right is homeownership so I'm glad to
hear that they're focusing on on that or there's ideas being put forth. I was also
wondering about the the fare plan you know it seems to me that we could be
set in a cycle here where a disaster occurs a fire the fare plan doesn't have
the money to cover the expenses and then that gets passed back to the fire
insurance carriers that then pass that back through to the homeowners and
What's to interrupt that cycle of just rising rates to cover what will probably inevitably
more and more of these fires?
What's the thinking there?
Yeah.
So a couple of things, at the end of December, the state's catastrophic rate modeling regulations
went into effect, which will allow insurance carriers to use a forward-looking model for
setting rates.
At the time, there had been a commitment from some of the larger insurance carriers
that being allowed to use that type of rate modeling would entice them back
into the California market.
So again, you would hopefully just get some of those moving folks on.
In order, I should note, in order to utilize that port, that type of modeling,
insurers have to be either pulling people, existing fair plan customers off
and providing them private insurance or providing insurance
within specific targeted high fire areas throughout the state.
So again, in order to use that modeling,
the insurers will have to pull some folks off the Fair Plan.
Additionally, the state is, there
has been legislation already introduced
that would allow the state to issue catastrophe bonds.
So essentially, the state could use its bond rating
to float some of the liquidity issues
so that we wouldn't, so the Fair Plan wouldn't
have to be going back to, you know, all the entire rate base of all the, of all
the fire carriers. But it's a great question. Ultimately, it's in the state's
best interest to reduce the number of fair plan participants and get them
over to private insurers. So I think those are some of the things that we'll
have to see this year. I know we already have rate requests into the, to the
insurance commissioner's office that he's, I think as of today, he's asking
for more information on. So we're gonna have to kind of see exactly how that,
market dynamic plays at this point there are not bills that are contemplating
going back to the voters and having them look at prop 106 103 that they kind of
have so there's some constitutional parameters as well that the state is
not looking at at this point but if they needed to that could potentially be an
avenue as well and I and just one more on the fires you know I think people are
are feeling vulnerable because the process feels random.
You own a home, you're in a neighborhood, a drone comes by,
you lose your fire insurance.
And I would think that as homeowners,
you want to think there's something
you can do proactively.
So if I do X, Y, and Z, then you can assure me
that I will continue to have my insurance.
And I think we get greater buy-in from people
if they knew this is the prescription
to keep your insurance.
Do they talk about, is that being discussed
like a more prescriptive plan for homeowners
to assure they can keep their fire insurance?
Yeah, there's a number of conversations occurring right now
in both the regulatory and the legislative side
related to in particular zone zero requirements.
So requiring home hardening within that,
kind of that zero to five foot buffer legislation
that would amend the regulations so insurers would have to provide would
have to consider that in the rate making process on a on a case by case basis
not not in a broad basis but on what individual homeowners have done the
state is going to be years in the process of reissuing the fire severity
hazard virus hazard severity maps I believe the Bay Area one should be
coming out in the next couple of weeks within the next month.
And those will also, there's talk about
tying home hardening requirements to those maps as well.
So that's legislation that's being considered,
which again, the whole idea being that if homeowners,
again, are making those investments to fire,
to increase the likelihood
that their home might better survive a fire,
that ensures, again, provide them acknowledgement
and that's reflected in their rates.
Right, something to empower the homeowners.
Yeah, and I think that may be something
that we start talking about in the budget is,
is there state funding to,
maybe it's a local pilot programs or things
to educate homeowners, help provide them resources,
maybe provide tax rebates or things
within the state's purview.
Again, I think there's an acknowledgement
that these are not necessarily the cheapest things
and the first things that homeowners want to be doing,
but providing those incentives,
so for those that decide to undertake that.
And what about having a state agency
or some type of attorney assigned
to handle the complaints of being canceled
where they could actually have some type of review process
that, so it's not just, oh, they canceled me
because they wanted to and there's nothing I can do.
Yeah, that one's a little more difficult.
We haven't quite seen those policies.
you mentioned drones, there have been bills,
there's a bill introduced already
that would make it so a carrier couldn't cancel
or not offer insurance based solely on drone footage
that you'd actually have to get some type of boots
on the ground or some other type of analysis.
So again, I think there's conversations
of how they can work around,
but with some of the constitutional constraints
that the state still can't mandate
that people be provided insurance.
So it's a bit of a dance.
Thank you, do you wanna, oh you have comments.
Okay we will go ahead and thank you for your presentation
and we will open it up for public comments.
Anybody that wants to comment on this, go ahead.
Good evening council members, my name is Tanya Love,
I'm a principal government community relations
representative for BART and I send my
Director Rensons's regrets that he was unable
to attend this evening.
I wanna speak on item five to doctor legislative platforms.
BART is encouraged that section three I, page five,
of the city's legislative platform advocates
for improving public transit
and reducing vehicle miles traveled
and active transportation.
We hope that within those goals
that you support additional funding for BART
and a regional transportation measure
to support transit operations.
Every day, BART is an essential lifeline,
carrying thousands of Walnut Creek residents to jobs
and connecting them to school, family, and their community.
BART has focused on improving security
and rider experience.
And so we've doubled police patrols, and in 2024,
and crime on BART has declined by 17%.
So BART is one of the most cost-efficient transit systems
in the country. Our costs have grown slower than inflation, and our cost growth is the
lowest in any peer transit agency. Unfortunately, work from home and relying on fares to pay
for our operations has left us in a significant deficit. Other communities support the regional
rail with more operating funding than BART actually receives. If stable funding isn't
BART might have to cut service, closed stations, and end service at 9 p.m., which would be
bad because I would need to be home right now.
So BART reduces commute times and highway congestion and improves our quality of life
with access to jobs, education, and supports the regional economy.
So if BART riders switched to driving, it would actually increase traffic by 22% in
the Caldecott Tunnel.
So these are benefits that everyone enjoy, even people who don't use transit.
So BART looks forward to partnering with the city on shared priorities at the state and
federal levels to ensure stable long-term transit and funding is prioritized.
So thank you very much.
Thank you, Tanya.
I have a comment I'd like to make, or it looks like.
Mayor Pro Tem, if you have a question for Tanya?
Sure, Tanya, thank you for being here, appreciate this.
I think that last point that you made
is not one that I typically hear BART make
when they talk about any kind of a potential tax measure
to save BART or prevent it from going off the fiscal cliff.
So I think that in your own marketing and PR efforts,
letting people know, you may not be taking BART now,
and you may be driving to wherever,
So your commute is going to be 50% worse,
take X amount longer because it's gonna be,
I think a challenge to get people to vote
when they're not taking BART right now
to increase tax dollars for that.
So I like the fact that you hit on that point,
continue to do so.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councilmember Francois.
Thank you for being here.
It's a little bit off topic,
but do you have, since you're here,
you happen to know when the new fare gates
will be installed at the Walnut Creek BART station?
I will, I would assume sometime in the summer.
We're actually doing a lot of fare rates
in this Contra Costa area.
So as you may know, what Orenda is doing there is right now,
we're gonna have Lafayette next week,
we're gonna have Conker the first week of March.
So I'm pretty sure that Walnut Creek will be done
probably sometime in the summer.
It's kind of like a weekend installation or a weekend.
It takes a couple of weeks,
depending on how many fairways there are.
Yeah.
Yeah, and I think when we met with
our new representative, Rin,
he was saying that new fair gates
throughout the system by the end of the year.
All of them by the end of the year.
It was a great, a great opportunity.
Yeah.
Thank you very much for coming, this evening,
and I'm glad you will be able to make the.
I wanted to commend Barton.
Please pass this on the trains arc.
I wrote it back from the city, from the MTC meeting
Friday, and they were cleaner, the fare gates
are working well, and I really appreciate it.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you.
All right, thank you so much.
Thank you for coming.
Any other public comment?
All right, we'll bring it back up here,
close the public comment.
Any comments on the legislative agenda?
I'll start with you.
All right.
First of all, I'm gonna say thank you to staff
and with the help of Townsend and also our colleagues
for working on this.
And I know this takes a lot of time to bring forward.
There's a couple of things that I would like to suggest.
And I did discuss these with the city manager
and with Casey, or at least one item with Casey today.
First of all, I really appreciate that this says
it's a state legislative agenda,
but I find that there are also elements in this
that we could use at the federal level.
And so maybe just a couple of removals of the word state
so that we don't think that we,
if we go to D.C. or we have an opportunity
to talk to the congressman's office in district,
we remember that there are federal dollars involved in this
and particularly in transportation arenas,
in public safety, the COPS funding, et cetera,
comes from the feds.
So if, I also think that when we mentioned CalCities
in the first page that we could,
we are members of the National League of Cities
and they're aligning.
And if our caveat is as long as they are consistent
with our platform, we will, you know,
can reflect what they say.
That gives us the freedom to do that
when we're in D.C. as well advocating.
Just to, sorry, clear on that.
Because we do say in here that we'll support positions taken by the League.
Is that what you're looking for?
Unless they're in...
The League of California Cities and or the National League of Cities because there are
some issues that the National League of Cities will address.
And I know we don't use Townsend for federal legislation, but we use our own feet and our
own voices with our Congress members.
The one I'm most concerned about is that,
and I know that we do mention supporting local funding,
et cetera, et cetera, but I am very concerned on two fronts
that we, that we, by not measure mentioning specifically
the risk of the tax exempt municipal bonds
and also the risk that in 2026,
the California Business Roundtable may again bring forward
and is very likely to try to bring forward
the anti-tax measure that we're not ignoring it
but if we could bring it front and center
so that we remember to say it.
There's three places that I found
but the basic language is that we are opposed to measures
that would constrain the city's ability
to take advantage of traditional municipal funding mechanisms
such as tax exempt municipal bonds
or locally authorized tax measures.
and there's probably a word there that needs to be fixed,
but we could find a place for that.
I think it will help us as we talk to our Congress members.
And I'll leave it there.
There were a couple of grammar issues, but they can't.
No grammar issues at the dais.
Sorry.
Councilmember Francois.
Like to thank my colleagues and like to thank staff
for the great work on the legislative agenda
and also to Casey for doing a great job representing us.
Just focused on the disaster preparedness issue.
I had the opportunity to kind of look into this issue
recently for a client.
And it's interesting that there aren't as many clearly
stated exemptions from CEQA, Coastal Act,
other state laws for complying with the defensible space
requirements.
And I imagine, or hopefully that'll
be a subject of conversation among the state legislators
this year in response to what happened in LA.
But to me, it seemed like a no-brainer,
and it was a little bit surprising
that you couldn't clearly see it listed
in a lot of different places.
So that, I think, is one area.
And then any additional state funding
there would be for kind of secondary access
or shaded fuel breaks like we did get state funding
or the fire district, I guess, got state funding
for the shaded fuel break around Rossmore,
I think would be very helpful for us to pursue.
And those are my comments.
Thank you, Council Member Definney.
I got my comments out during my question.
All right.
And my only comments were thank you again
for all the help on this, Casey.
There is obviously a lot to go through
a lot more work to be done throughout the year and these discussions and I
think a lot of us are looking at the federal and just kind of holding on and
holding on. So appreciate all the help on this end and there'll be more to come.
Thank you. So I think what we've heard here is an interest in adding something
under finance that talks about opposing measures that blah blah blah.
I second, am I seconding that? No, we're trying to get it. There's two things I would suggest.
One is in the finance, which is toward the end, but the other would be on page
two where one of our goals is to ensure the city remains fiscally and
financially stable into the future. I think if we put it in both places we're
going to get some, we won't forget. I mean my preference is to leave the
upfront goals as goals and put it under finance.
Well, I know it's, but we know that we all read everything all the way to the end.
It's adding to the list of what we oppose are your measures.
There's a whole sentence in the goal.
That's not a goal to oppose measures under the, so it was just an augmentation.
So you're thinking just oppose measures and that.
What was your language? Opposed measures?
I inserted another. What else are we opposing?
The city opposes measures that shift local funds to the county state or federal government.
Measures that constrain da da da da da da da da da as well as unfunded mandates or mandated
costs with no guarantee of local reimbursement. So I inserted and they have it.
They have it. Mayor, if I could make a suggestion if you'd
like if amenable to the council.
I do have the language that Councilmember Silved suggested.
If you would like, we can work on updating the references and bring
that to the ledge committee that we have for final review and approval
if the council is comfortable with that.
What I heard were three things.
One is effectively remove reference to state legislative platform,
just call it the city's legislative platform.
If the council is comfortable adding positions from the National League
of cities to the same section in which we reference the California League of
Cities and then obviously this discussion that was just noted about
financing related to muni bonds and other potential types of financing
mechanisms. And then the other two things I've heard is supporting evaluation of
appropriate regulatory exemptions for disaster preparedness. You said it
Perfectly, yeah.
I think the funding part's already there in four minutes.
It's a regulatory exemption,
and I'd want to make sure that we say
appropriate regulatory exemptions.
Sure.
Because I have seen people mow over things.
Yeah, no, you can't do that for wetlands or ESHA.
Yeah, yeah.
And then, so we have funding for resiliency already,
and I did hear from Bart interested in making sure
that we are supportive if we find the perfect solution
to the BART fiscal cliff.
Is that something that we think is in here?
So can I, I agree with the issue,
but that would be the only one in here
and there's housing bonds, both at the regional level.
And so I think we would be isolating the issue
as opposed to finding a way to say that we,
after consideration, we are open to.
And I think what I was considering was under 3E,
where we say among its priorities,
the city supports state and federal efforts
to provide funding to rehabilitate roots
of regional significance and major arterials, comma,
regional mass transit, comma, create new cap and trade,
and just put the regional transit in there.
And that way it's subject to among our priorities,
but it's something that we can support.
So the only other question I would have is,
are we inadvertently leaving the housing bonds?
We have, I believe we have in here a lot of language
about supporting state and federal programs
provide funding for affordable housing.
We have a lot of other things, but after.
we send this to the Ledge Committee.
Can you check?
We will double check that, but.
Yeah, C.
Two C, I think.
Yeah, I think we've got a lot of other things in there,
but I couldn't find something in the 20 minutes here
that's mass transit funding.
So we as the legislative committee will look at that.
Right, and I don't think we're looking
to have anything specific in there.
It's general overall, right?
And we're not committing ourselves to voting
to endorse one thing or another?
No, it just gives us the flexibility
and makes sure that we capture it.
So, given that and the desire to have it go back
to the legislative committee,
if needed to clarify any of those, do I have a motion?
Then does it come back on consent for?
It's up to your counsel.
It's not needed if, unless you would like to do so.
Can you trust us?
I can trust you, but it's also an opportunity to read it.
We can't do that, obviously, we would post it, we have this available on our website
as well once it's complete, but whatever your Council's preference is, if you want
us to bring it back or not.
Trust us.
I make the motion to adopt the amendments that you just proposed.
Yes.
I guess I'll second it.
Yes.
Okay.
Now we'll go for a roll call.
Councilmember Davini.
Aye.
Aye, Mayor Pro Tem Wilk, Aye, Councilmember Francois, Aye, Councilmember Silva, Aye, Mayor Darling, Aye.
With that, I believe we are ready to adjourn and we will once again tell Carla thanks and good luck with your new jobs.
And thank you Casey for coming in and we will see you all next time. Thank you very much.
So long.