Good evening. I'm Cindy Darling, Mayor of the City of Walnut Creek, and welcome to the regular
meeting of the Walnut Creek City Council. The City Council is conducting this meeting from
the City Council Chamber. This meeting is being video streamed and can be viewed live or later
on the City's website. 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 public 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 section on the agenda titled Public Communications,
which is for public comments for items not on the agenda.
Any comments during public communication should not relate to an item that is on the agenda this
evening. Consistent with section 9.5 of the City Council Handbook, 30 minutes will be
initially allocated for public communication 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 a 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, 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 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 the City Council. Please do
not use 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 up to two hours before the meeting have been posted to the city
website for public review and are included in the meeting record but will
not be separately read into the record. Good evening, I am Cindy Darling, Mayor
of the City of Walnut Creek and welcome to the Tuesday, August 5, 2025 regular
meeting of the Walnut Creek City Council. If you could all rise and join me in the
Pledge of Allegiance.
I deliver 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.
City Clerk Susie Martinez, would you please call the roll?
Councilmember Davini?
Here.
Councilmember Francois?
Here.
Councilmember Silva?
Here.
Mayor Pro Tem Walik?
Here.
And Mayor Darling?
Here.
Martinez to administer the oath to our newly appointed
Prose Commissioner, Gloria Ann Sasser.
Come on up.
I, Gloria Ann Sasser, do solemnly swear that I
will support and defend the Constitution of the United
States and the Constitution of the state of California
against all enemies, foreign and domestic,
that I will bear true faith and allegiance
to the Constitution of the United States
and the Constitution of the State of California.
That I take this obligation freely,
without any mental reservations, or purpose of evasion,
and that I will well and faithfully discharge
the duties upon which I am about to enter.
All right.
You can, hi Gloria, why don't you introduce yourself
to the audience and just say a few words.
We want to just say hi and welcome you here, right? Yes. Good evening
I'm Gloria and sasser and I'm pleased to be appointed a pro's commissioner
I'm looking forward to working with everyone and hopefully I'm contributing to the continued success of the city. Thank you
Thank you so much. We so appreciate everybody that serves on the commissions
It's it can be a thankless job. Sometimes we really appreciate it. No, no
It is a huge part of making this city run
So tonight, we also have the pleasure of welcoming Dwayne Dahlman, board member of CALEDD,
which stands for the California Association of Local Economic Development,
known as California's premier economic development association with more than 900 members,
and is one of the largest economic development associations in the country.
Dwayne is here to support the Merit Award in the Programs and Promotions category.
This award recognizes business leaders for arts program and innovative initiative that is deep in the connection between our business and arts communities.
Caledon's recognition echoes the program's meaningful role in promoting arts, downtown, and advancing both cultural and economic vibrancy in Walnut Creek. Welcome.
Well, thank you.
Actually, good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council. So again, my name is Dwayne Dahlman.
I'm the economic development manager for the city of Alameda, but tonight I'm here as a board member for CALEDD.
And as the mayor said, CALEDD is the statewide organization for economic development professionals.
Every year, they have applications that they take for statewide economic development awards.
Then those applications are reviewed by peers and then presented at the economic development conference.
This year, there were three categories,
collaborations in real estate and finance,
innovation in digital media in the category
that you won for the programs and promotions.
So I'm excited to be here tonight to present this
award of merit to both the city of Walnut Creek
as well as the Diablo Regional Arts Association
for the project business leaders for the arts program.
And to specifically recognize
the Diablo Regional Arts Association
for their work and contribution
that benefits the city's economic development program.
So I want to say congratulations,
and very excited for you guys.
Well, why don't you join us now, Fred, Peggy?
Well, thank you very much.
We are so honored to receive this award in partnership
with the city, because we have a fantastic partnership.
And Arts and Commerce, and to be part of a contribution
to the economic vitality, and also bring a lot of fun.
It was really great to see business leaders
gathered on stage to celebrate the center between Arts
and Commerce, and we're just getting started.
We have big plans for 2026 to do more of this.
So stay tuned.
So thank you very much.
Thank you both.
And I wanted to call Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Cahans
because they wanted to help recognize you
for being recognized because that's how we roll here.
And then we'll all do the picture out front.
Thank you so much.
I'm Charisse Kound, a field representative
for our state assembly member, Rebecca Bauer-Cahans.
And the assembly member just really wanted
to take this opportunity to congratulate
DRAA and the City of Walnut Creek for this award.
There were only two entities and cities
and organizations that received this award
in all of Assembly District 16.
And so this is a huge honor.
And it really is just representative of the excellent work
that is done in this city.
Businesses coming together to support the arts.
is essential now more than ever and arts are such an incredible part of the economic development
of this city and so we have on behalf of the state of California congratulations from assembly
member Rebecca Bauer-Cahan. All right now let's give Peggy the big round she deserves
and now let's all pop out for the picture. Thank you it's always nice to have some recognition
for the hard work that DRA puts into the City. Next on the agenda is the consent calendar. Does
any council member wish to pull any items for discussion? Do any members of the staff wish to
pull an item for discussion? I have two items I'd like to pull. Okay. It would be item 2D which is
the memorandum of understanding with the Community Arts Foundation and the City and then 2F which is
about fiber optics. Okay any others? All right we will now open for public
comment on consent calendar items to A, B, C, E, G, H, and it ends at H. Any public
comment on those items? I see somebody approaching. Oh it's for regular. Okay all
right in that case do we have a motion? Move to approve consent calendar items
to A through C E G and H. Second. Roll call please. Councilmember Silva. Aye. Councilmember
Francois. Aye. Councilmember Davini. Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Will. Aye. And Mayor Darling. Aye.
Motion carries. Alright. Item 2D. Did you have a question or? Well I pulled it in
order to thank the city and the Center for the Community Arts Foundation for
their work over the last 10 plus years
on behalf of our community and the city
and fundraising efforts to provide scholarships
for participants in the community arts programs.
And thank everyone for renewing and updating
and refreshing the memorandum of understanding
and look forward to many years
of working together in the future.
Thank you.
Any comments on item 2D?
All right, I'll look for a motion
to include the revised MOU per the addendum.
Move to authorize the city manager
to enter into the five-year memorandum
of understanding with the Community Arts Foundation
for fundraising and support with the changes
that were presented at the dais.
Second.
Rule call, please.
Councilmember Silva?
Aye.
Mayor Pro Tem Wolk?
Aye.
Councilmember Davini?
Aye.
Councilmember Francois?
Aye.
And Mayor Darling?
Aye.
Motion carries.
All right, 2F.
Thank you very much.
2F is an item to execute a consultant service agreement
for the engineering design services related
to the Ignatia Valley Road Fiber Optic Communication Network
and Infrastructure Improvements.
And I have some questions and hopefully some clarification
or elaboration on what this really involves.
This is a multimillion-dollar multi-year project.
And I'm hoping, Matt, that you can describe what we mean
by how we're currently in the past how we were doing it
and what were the challenges.
And then what are we moving toward
in this multi-year program?
Yeah, thank you.
Good evening, mayor, council members.
Matt Redman, traffic engineer.
And this project essentially upgrades our communication lines
that communicate to traffic signals
along Ignacio Valley, but really citywide.
But this particular project will upgrade
that communication from telephone communication
like DSL to fiber optics.
So what we had previously wasn't just a Tin Canada string,
it was more improved than that.
A little bit better than that.
OK.
But we are going to more digital.
So they both communicate over the same standard, which
is ethernet, which is essentially
like a standard protocol that computers communicate
with today.
But you can have faster speeds, higher bandwidth on the fiber
optic rather than the copper communication telephone wires
we essentially use today.
So what are some of the challenges
if we left it the way it was,
and what are the advantages and benefits of improving this?
I'll say that this project is funded from earmarks,
earmark money that we received a few years ago.
And the advantages of upgrading this
would allow us to have improved video quality
transmitted to City Hall for live feeds,
as well as communication to our traffic signals.
And this project will allow for some communication
to our city facilities, including the Heather Farm
Park and other facilities that IT can essentially
cut the cord on those contract services
and use our city fiber optic network.
So essentially saving money there in the contract services
for those buildings.
Thank you.
Any other questions?
Any member of the public wish to comment on item 2F?
Seeing no comment, I'm open to a motion.
So I move that we authorize the city manager
to execute a consulting services agreement
between the city and Kimley-Hornett Associates
for the engineering design services
for the Ignatia Valley Road
fiber optic communication network
and infrastructure improvements project.
And that would be just from I-680 to Oak Grove Road.
Second.
Roll call, please.
Council Member Silva.
Aye.
Council Member Davini.
Aye.
Council Member Francois.
Aye.
Mayor Pro Tem Wall.
Aye.
And Mayor Darling.
Aye.
Motion carried.
All right, next on the agenda is public communication.
This portion of the meeting is reserved for comments
on items not on the agenda.
Since there is no more agenda after this,
that's all the comments.
Under the Brown Act, the council cannot act
on items raised during public communications,
but may respond briefly to statements made
or questions posed.
We can request clarification
or refer to the item to staff.
And we are going to allocate 30 minutes right now to this.
And...
30 minutes, all right.
Well, not for you.
Oh, wow.
You get your two minutes now.
Okay, okay.
Anyway, and with that, I will turn to our speaker.
Jan Warren, 40-year resident of Wanna Creek.
Happy to see y'all this August evening.
I forgot about the film and all
when I drove into the wrong place tonight.
I'm here for a couple of comments.
The Measure X funds that were given to the library
for tech exchange and Mauna Creek
is one of the three libraries with Pittsburgh and San Pablo
who are going to be having on Tuesday and Thursday
from 10 to five in our library downtown.
Wonderful opportunities for people to come
and get extra help with technology
that we know that many of us are challenged with.
They don't need a library card or an appointment.
And there's lots of ways that they can be helped
with their phone or other technical devices.
So I'm thrilled with that
and hope we can get that well out there into the public.
Also want to thank the work that's being done
on our parking management.
than I listen to, I think, on transportation.
And it's always a work in progress,
but I think we do a really good job
so that we can answer people's questions
when they wanna complain about parking.
When we really have a good plan,
they just need to learn what it is.
I noticed in some of the comments that were sent in,
there was one about the senior trips with the senior group,
and I don't know what happened
because I wasn't here that night,
But I do have friends that participate in that.
So I was sad to see that.
I also wanted to ask who I should talk with about properties
that are being rented out by Airbnb in my neighborhood
to make sure that the city's getting the revenue.
I don't know how they're supposed to be registered,
but they went from long term, you know, one, three year,
and now it's, you know, every weekend or whatever,
and that they're good, but I just wanna make sure that,
I just wanna make sure they're paying to help our city.
All right, any other public comment?
Come on down.
Good evening, council members and residents of Walnut Creek.
I'm Harika Threnny, the content manager of Open Governance
or OPGov, and a senior at California High School
San Ramon. OPGov is a platform that summarizes city council and school board meetings, with
clear takeaways, public comments, speaker names,
meeting videos, and transcripts and links to official PDFs. We go beyond official meeting
minutes, which often lists who spoke. We include what was said, making information far more
accessible to the public. In Walnut Creek, your 158 million dollar budget is shared by
over 46,000 voters. That's over 3,400 per vote.
But many residents don't feel that impact, because it's hard to find or understand what's
happening in the government behind the scenes.
Our team of youth volunteers, mostly high schoolers, spend four to ten hours a week making
civic information, easy to access and understand for everyone. This isn't just a service, it's
a movement for transparency, civic engagement and youth leadership. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Can I ask you a quick question? Do you guys use AI when you're
doing the transcripts? Yeah, we do. Yeah. We use an AI to summarize the meetings on
on our website.
Good, thank you.
Councilman.
Yeah, I really appreciate you doing this.
We've seen that the local media coverage
when it comes to newspapers and places
that used to cover all city council meetings.
I remember my first transportation commission meeting year,
we had somebody from the Contra Costa time
sitting here for every meeting.
That ended after the first year.
And now I think there are two reporters
and all of Contra Costa covering all of the different
council meetings and committees.
They just can't get to everything.
And so this is really critical.
We're just seeing so much fragmentation on social media
and everywhere else where there isn't actual information.
So the more you can get your message out
and work with our communication managers,
not just Walnut Creek, but across the cities
to get your message out that your generation
is the future of all America.
counting on you. So anything that we can do to help also promote the fact that
this is open transparency governance and ultimately as you mentioned it's the
taxpayer dollars that our residents that they want to see what they're getting
for that and so I appreciate you putting in you're not paid for this right? This
is all volunteer work so we appreciate what you're doing and hopefully you see
big success from this. Thank you. I appreciate it. And one, I just wanted to
share a story with you. Years ago when I was on Planning Commission there was a
young woman in the audience and she was from she had a local government class
over at DVC and she approached me when we left the meeting she was from China
and she's like people can just walk into this meeting and ask questions and she
was just astonished and there was somebody in the audience that stepped up
to speak. It was somebody I knew and I asked her a question and she's like you
would never do that in China. So I appreciate you guys commitment to open
this and to making sure that the word is out there and that we are public. Thank
you. I appreciate that. Can I ask a quick question? Thank you for what you're doing. Are you
focused on just Contra Costa County or the whole Bay Area? So right now we're
focusing on expanding towards the Bay Area and eventually by the end of the
year we're trying to get throughout the entire U.S. So if we go to the website
you've got it broken down by the cities that you're currently covering now? Yeah
cities and also two school boards. Excellent. All right good job thank you.
all the meetings from January 2025 are already summarized.
I sent a copy of the summary for you guys to review.
Thank you very much.
Yes, Council Member.
Thank you so much for what you're doing.
I was wondering if you are focusing primarily
on those public agencies who do not have television
available to the public to basically watch
the whole meeting.
So for example, Council Member Francois and I
sit on the board of Recycle Smart,
and that's the garbage and recycling services,
Joint Powers Authority.
And we do not have televised meetings.
We record the audio, but then we do more than action minutes
because there is no way to go back and watch
the meeting itself.
And so are you understanding the difference that's?
Yes, if there is an audio, we do take audio as well.
Just audio.
We can transcribe that too.
We basically take the transcription.
No, actually, what I was asking is,
are you aware that in some cases,
that televised, replayed video will be more accurate
than written in minutes?
Yes.
And that's why many have shifted from,
because they have the television and the expense on the media,
They are using that in lieu of having two people sit here
and transcribe for days after each meeting
and potentially putting their own opinion
in an interpretation of what happened.
So yes, if there is an audio, just audio recording,
we have a tool which will automatically,
we use AI to transcribe it.
So do it much unbiased way.
And the idea behind it was because when we go
into each and every public comment,
There's only one line, this person spoke, nothing else.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for your comment.
Are you guys anybody else want to say anything?
Yeah.
OK, go ahead.
So I'm from the same organization,
and I just want to speak a little bit more about it.
And your name is?
I'm Mihika.
I'm a student at Doherty Valley High School,
and I've had the opportunity to volunteer with Open Governance
Initiative.
And through this experience, I've
learned a great deal about how accessible and transparent
our local government actually is.
And Opgov AI is an organization committed
to making local government more accessible and transparent.
We break down complex City Council meetings
into simple, clear summaries,
so that every resident, no matter their background,
can stay informed, understand the issues that affect them,
and take part in shaping their own community.
The work is vital because informed citizens
are empowered citizens.
With a growing team of over 50 volunteers,
12,000 views and 520 active users,
We are building a movement to bridge the gap between government and the people it serves.
To continue this, we request the entire city council and all the residents of Walnut Creek
to create a free OpGov account.
You can do this through our website, opgov.ai, where you can also provide feedback about
our platform, which will greatly help us improve what we're doing.
This will allow us to share your updates and decisions in a way that truly connects with
the community.
Thank you for your time, and we look forward to partnering with you to build a stronger,
transparent local government. I would also like to add on that it would be
great if you guys could you know add this tool to your website kind of as
implemented as an action item so more residents could you know use this tool.
Thank you. Thank you very much. I really appreciate you guys coming down here
tonight and we appreciate the work that you guys are doing so thank you. So I
wanted to follow up there was some question about how to find whether or not
something an Airbnb do we have quick yeah we can have some folks in our
administrative services department as warm would like to reach out to them we
okay make a connection yeah great all right Jan they're gonna call you about
the Airbnb actually I'd like to get a little update on what was really the
comments around arts and recreation and the senior services it seemed a bit
confusing the letter I was reading yeah I could provide a quick summary provide
more information you may recall we trimmed some programs and services as
part of this recent budget adoption was having to close the six million dollar
gap and one of the programs was effectively we would coordinate vacations
or trips with the seniors, and we discontinued that program.
And many of those programs were, we were not funding the programs, we were funding the
coordination and they weren't-
That's right, we weren't paying for the trips themselves, but helping fund the coordination.
Thank you.
That's right.
Anything else?
All right, so that is the end of this.
And flipping over, we are moving on to council members' staff announcements, reports on activities,
and city attorney anything to report out on closed session nothing to report okay thank you city
manager do you have a report yeah damn bucks I see a manager just one very brief update is our
um state legislature is currently on break they will reconvene I believe it's august 18th
and they will have a little over three weeks in which to consider the roughly thousand bills that
before them a little over a thousand bills when the legislature convenes in
September 13th. So I anticipate we may receive some information or updates from
some of our local legislators asking for input on various bills and certainly
we'll be tracking that closely for any that may have a significant impact on
Walnut Creek or other cities. So stay tuned and then just playing that out in
terms of timeline. The governor after September 13th has roughly three weeks
or a month in which to review all the bills, decide which to authorize and
to veto. Thank you for that update. Now we'll move on to City Council member
reports on AB 1234 activities. I will turn Councilmember Francois. Okay thank
you Mayor. I serve as the Council's liaison to Walnut Creek downtown, our
business improvement district here in Walnut Creek which does such a great job
and met with the chair and some of the board members basically they wanted to
extend an offer to help with permit process improvements some of the updates
we're making to our sign code I was able to tell them about some of the reforms
that are already underway some that date back a ways in terms of the Board of
appeals, a process where a property owner can appeal a
technical determination of building code compliance to a
neutral body of outside specialists, structural
engineers, civil engineers, contractors, to rule on those.
So that sort of possibility exists.
Of course, it has to get to a pretty extreme level, and
we're not wanting to overload them with work.
And so what can we do at the front end in terms of the
permit process improvements and I know that staff is going to have an update
for us in September because economic development was one of our priorities
and streamlining the permit process certainly was high up there and so I
encourage them to attend that meeting and also I think they're looking at ways
that Walnut Creek downtown and the chamber can assemble their own kind of
panel of experts in retail and office and restaurants to advise new
proprietors of the process and things that can help streamline the process. So
they'll be both a public and a private component to this and I think it'll be a
good combination to try to speed things up in terms of the permit
process. On July 24th we had the long-awaited Recycle Smart Board
meeting where if you've been tuning in to my updates you'll have remembered
that we were in a two-year process of going out to bid for new post
collection and collection contract services for solid waste recycling and
organic waste and not necessarily in that order but those are the services
that we provide so we awarded the post collection contracts to a variety of
different operators last fall.
And now we were going through the process of awarding the actual collection contract.
We went out to bid for that contract.
We received two bids, both from companies that provide services to us now, including
Republic Services, which provides collection services.
And I served on the ad hoc of the board that made a recommendation to the full board, and
We did recommend that we select Republic services and award them a 10-year contract starting
in 2027 to continue to provide collection services for all those items.
And one of the key reasons why we had the two bids, Republic's bid was about 14 percent
less than MDRR's bid.
And to put that in dollar figures, it was $10 million a year less and over the 10-year
life of the contract, $100 million in savings by going with Republic.
They also offered many different and new exciting services that we don't currently get, including
on-demand second recycling bin for no extra charge.
You just call and say, I want a second blue bin or a second
organics bin, which can be really helpful in the fall,
when you've got a lot of leaves in your yard.
So those are going to be provided free of charge.
We'll now add in battery recycling
at multifamily residential.
That service currently is not extended to multifamily.
So any multifamily development with 16 or more units
and a manager on site will now be able
to recycle their batteries,
just like people who live in a single family home do.
We're going to add in used cooking oil recycling
for those who are interested in that topic.
I would say too, stepping back from the extra services
that Republic is providing seven additional trucks
and many more employees than currently provided
and all the trucks will be new trucks
as they typically are at the beginning of a contract.
So that adds in to the cost of bidding this contract.
And let's see.
All the carts will be relabeled with new labels
so everyone will know what's recycling and what's not,
what's compostable and what's not.
And we'll have a handy QR code on the bin
because those items continue to evolve and change.
And so we want to make sure the information is
the most current.
Matt, can I ask a question?
So are these actual new bins that are being swapped out
and not just a sticker on them?
No, the cost of doing the new bins would be quite high.
I don't have the actual figure on that.
So instead of that, if your bin is not operational,
call Republic, they'll get you a new bin.
But otherwise, they will not be replaced.
We're just going to have them relabel each of the bins
and it'll take some time, six to 12 months.
I should point out, too, that there will be extra recycling and composting bins.
It's actually required that they provide those bins in each trash enclosure in a multifamily
unit.
So you can't just have a centralized one for each kind of trash enclosure.
It has to have now recycling and compostable bins there.
So that was exciting.
And that was the effort I know Councilmember Silva served on the design at we had a lot
of ad hoc committees for this and a lot of meetings and she served on the first committee.
I served on the second committee ad hoc committee and then we got a great board and asked a
lot of good questions and came to I think a good result and good resolution for continued
Services and I applaud our Republic Recycle Smart staff for having the
foresight to start this process two years before the contract is up. I mean
he's they started it really four years before the process was up and to
separate out post collection and collection and to go through a
competitive process. We did not so much in Walnut Creek but in some other harder
to serve communities in Contra Costa County, think Arinda,
Moraga, they did experience some service issues, especially
during the pandemic, Republic really turned that around and
and improve their performance. I get one other I think you're
gonna bring in the one other item I forgot to mention, which
is if they miss service, if Republic misses service of any
one of your cans, you automatically now under the new
contracts starting in 2027, not right this minute, we'll get a $10 credit on
your bill for each can for each day that they're late. So built-in incentive for
them to get it right, get it done, get it done on time. Okay, anything that I'm
I'll let you add any more Councilmember Silva when we get to you. Is that okay?
Walnut... I attended along with the Mayor Pro Tem, the Walnut Creek Library
Foundation summer appreciation reception, and we heard from the new board president
who happens to be a relation of mine that it's there was no nepotism involved and just
a desire to serve the community.
And so really, they've got a great board, great stories.
Some of the testimonies that the other board members told about, you know, a library is
is really one of the very, and we have,
we're fortunate to have two libraries
in Walnut Creek, Ignacio and the Downtown Library,
but a library is really a place
where nothing's expected of you,
you don't have to buy anything,
you can stay as long as you want, the services are free,
and it's a rare commodity kind of in our world these days,
and another board member told of a really moving story
about how she had not gone to college,
She was a single mother at age 22.
And through the library, she discovered
the options and opportunities that were open to her.
Ended up graduating from Stanford,
and then the Kennedy Government School,
and going on to a career in city management.
So really inspiring stories and good stuff
that the libraries are doing on a day-to-day basis.
Let's see.
I think wrapping things up tonight,
along with everyone here.
I attended National Night Out.
Good to see our law enforcement in full force
in addition to our fire brethren and sisters
and got to see a demonstration by Timber, the canine dog,
and quite a fierce dog when you put on that sleeve
going after doing your demonstration.
Got to talk to some of our sweeping staff
and thank them for what they do on a day-to-day basis,
see some of the bomb detection devices
and interact with some of the members of the chief's advisory
board.
So it was a great night.
And thank you for the opportunity to provide an update.
Thank you.
We'll go next to Council Member Silva.
Thank you very much.
And I'm going to start by going back to the Recycle Smart topic.
I really lobbied for requiring to test people
so they can't throw their garbage away unless they sort it properly.
But I didn't win on that one.
So I want you to know you're all safe.
But I want to personally thank my colleague for his work
on the ad hoc franchise decision committee.
It was easier to write the contract proposal
than it was to review the proposals
and help make that decision.
So thank you for all that work.
The Community Service Day, it's that time of year
to talk about it.
And if you may have already heard,
We are moving from a one-time-a-year format
to a two-season, two-opportunity format.
Basically, we're moving the regular community service day,
which is a community cleanup day,
and it's been going on for about 15 years, to the spring.
It'll be in late April each year,
which works better for our schools
and others who are looking to get involved.
So stay tuned for that.
But more importantly, in the upcoming,
we're changing the fall to a fall community-wide food drive.
And this will be throughout the community,
collecting food in front of grocery stores,
in neighborhoods.
Also, Brosmore will be having a food drive on the same day.
Online donations are available.
And more information will come out in the fall newsletter,
The Nutshell.
And it's available.
Information is available online because we're
looking for volunteers.
And I think the important thing to know
is that the challenge with many people
is that hunger and food insecurity
is a common thing across all communities, including
Walnut Creek.
And so the food that is collected
for the food bank of Contra Costa and Solano
will be redistributed back into the community, as well
as other communities.
So the central date to remember is end of September.
September 27, and I hope everybody can volunteer.
And lastly, I will mention I was in Columbus, Ohio,
three weeks ago for the summer leadership meeting
of the National League of Cities.
I serve on the Housing and Community and Economic
Development Policy Committee for the National League of Cities.
In fact, I'm vice chair of that committee,
and it's an honor to be able to serve.
But one of the things that the summer meeting affords
is the opportunity to visit, take mobile tours.
And about 40 of us went on a mobile tour
of a company called Connect Block Housing.
It is one of the nation's largest modular manufacturer,
I mean, modular company, modular apartment manufacturing,
Right, 630,000 square feet, 27 acres,
it's an old department store.
It's a warehouse.
And everything other than the pouring and laying
of the foundation is actually done
in the manufacturing plant, including the training.
It's faster, they can work year round,
they can shorten the time to market
from an average of two years in Ohio to 18 months,
save money, they train labor in the field,
in the plant to within a day there can be doing skilled labor and getting the work done.
And it's a model that we probably need to think about across the country because they
have a housing crisis across the country.
It's not just in California.
The interesting thing, and I'm looking for our community development director, is that
the state approves the plans that are done in the manufacturing plant, and the local
agency is only responsible for what's built onsite in the field.
So and we went out then from the manufacturing plant.
We went to a local apartment building and I rolled out.
They parked in a parking lot.
We walked around the block and they stopped and I said so where's the building?
I was standing right in front of it.
You wouldn't know it from the exterior and the quality of the work inside was amazing
but it was modular.
So very interesting and I'm hoping we can talk about it at the state level here as an
alternative of way how to expedite what we're doing.
And that is my report.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Councilmember Definney?
Good evening.
I had the pleasure of attending the East Bay Leadership Council installation awards last
week and it was a very nice event. While I was there I made a connection with the
Executive Director for the Workforce Development Board for Contra Costa
County and I was thinking about our Trinity Center and how they've started
their workforce program and so we put the two of them together and I'm hoping
that creates a you know productive connection. It speaks to you know when we
look at homelessness and the approach to homelessness, I think it's sort of a two-prong approach.
One is to provide unhoused folks with an avenue to housing through supportive services.
And then there's the, you know, it's the enforcement side of things when there's a public disturbance
or, you know, we need to get the police involved.
And so it dovetailed onto what we got this week in our correspondence report, and I wanted
wanted to give a shout out to our homeless outreach program.
There was an encampment and there was a public intoxication going on.
And while the neighbors were in the midst of filing the complaint, our homeless outreach
program had already identified the problem.
And I just want to read an excerpt from that communication.
It says, as you may have noticed, our homeless outreach officers have been working to resolve
this matter this week.
On Sunday, one of our HOP officers contacted the subject of the encampment and arrested
him for public intoxication.
The HOP officer at that time initiated the encampment protocol by posting a 72-hour notice
at the site, and then the following couple days later, they returned to the location
and cited the subject for illegal lodging and facilitated an encampment cleanup.
So I just want to remind the community that that resource is
available and complements our police officers
for that program.
And then the last thing I wanted to bring up was,
and I know it's something we've been talking about,
but it really struck me the other day.
I was leaving work.
It was about 9 o'clock at night, and I'm
turning out of La Casa via.
And three bikes, three e-bikes, came up
the middle of Ignacio going about 30, 35 miles an hour.
They're all kids.
One of them had a headlamp, the other two didn't.
They're all wearing dark clothes.
It was dark out.
And we are working hard at the city
to try to resolve this issue or to try
to help to solve this problem.
It's going to be something that we need probably
the state or the county to step in and pass
a more broad ordinance.
But I want to make a plea to the parents in Walnut Creek
who have kids between the ages of, I'd say, 10 and 15.
These e-bikes are very popular, and they often use them.
Kids, I have three boys myself.
Kids will push the bubble.
So beware of the e-bikes that you're buying your kids
and how they may be being used, because they're really
just little motorcycles out there that many of the kids
are putting themselves in danger.
And I feel like we're in a if-not-if-but-win scenario
for losing a young member of our community,
and I don't want to see that happen, so.
Thank you.
Mayor Pro Tem.
Well, certainly, Council Member Davini
brings up a good point on that.
And it's something that we're looking at more
in terms of education and working with the schools.
When you were Mayor Pro Tem last year,
you and I went out with a couple of transportation commissioners out in the
Valley Verde area and we saw the issue that was going on as kids were speeding
down on their e-bikes on the wrong way on the street and through stop signs. The
sun is in the eyes of people that are going east on Cedro at that time and
that was just one school multiplied that by all the schools that we have in our
area and we see the problem and our police are very much aware of this. I
spoke with our chief and captains earlier this evening. It's an issue we do
have to address this and we're not alone I mean this is every city in the state
and probably across the country are dealing with these same issues right now
so if parents are hearing this let this be the early message please educate your
your children primarily teenagers on the safety of riding e-bikes these are like
electric motorcycles and you need to take the same kind of precautions and
and follow the rules of the road.
And you'll be hearing a lot more of this
from your schools and from the city in the months to come.
Now I've finished your update.
And I really commend you for bringing this up
because the one difference between a car
and one of these is you can't take the car keys away.
There are no keys.
There's no way, you have to physically lock them up.
And a car provides you some kind of protection
with the frame, so you are on your own out there.
Anyway, all right, thank you for bringing that up
And I'm receiving more emails on this
than any other topic right now.
Rest assured we are discussing this
within the city management.
As the liaison to County Connection,
just a couple of quick updates on that.
The first is that the youth pass
that we sponsored for July and August,
to let you know how popular this is
when you allow free passes for youths to ride
without any kind of registration or signups.
In June of 2024, we had free passes on county connection
buses throughout the system,
and they just had to register ahead of time.
And there were 630 students that rode for free
in June of 2024.
This last June, they just walked on the bus.
And if they looked under 18, they got the ride.
And if the bus driver had a question, maybe asked for ID,
but they weren't pressing the issue.
11,889 youths rode the bus for free
in June on County Connection.
And so it was just this incredible increase of 1,700%.
We also saw this on Tri-Delta Transit in Westcat.
The idea behind this is get youths to ride public transit
now, and they become adults comfortable with riding public
transit as well.
So I'll get the updates for what the July numbers are too,
and then we'll be having, of course,
the different youth pass programs when school starts tomorrow.
But we'll get that for the fall as well.
But it really shows that these programs can work.
Mayor Pro Tem, were you going to mention the free trolley seems
to be back?
Has the electric infrastructure of BART been fixed?
Yes and no.
We do see the free trolley.
About half the buses are working right now.
The problem with the other half is
that they're not connecting to the charging device that's
at BART that you absolutely need to recharge these buses
on every route that they're making.
So if we can get them from the county connection
courtyard, which is in Martin is about as far,
I'm sorry, conquered, about as far
down as you can get in Concord.
And they use about half of their electricity
just to get here.
So they absolutely need the BART inductive conducting system.
And about half the buses aren't making that handshake right now.
And so we're still working on that.
We hope to have that resolved in a couple of months.
The good news is that we do have about half of us
is running right now.
The bad news is the other half are sitting as good bookends
in the courtyard.
I did want to let you know about a quick straw poll.
I mentioned this a couple of months ago.
County Connections will be taking a vote in the next month
to two months on when their monthly break will
be for County Connection.
It appears that right now the winds are going toward July
because with school starting in August, early August,
a lot of staff especially find that they have to be back now
by August 6th, and so having the month of August off
isn't as helpful as it was previously
when school was starting at the end of August or Labor Day.
So a lot of these cities are also moving toward that,
and it just may be something, again,
I brought this up before, but something we wanna think about
if we want to look at July as our recess rather than August
moving forward, just putting it out there.
I do want to make sure that our staff feel as comfortable
as possible in this, and I would want to make sure
that staff was consulted on the pros and cons
and what their wishes are.
Kevin, could I interrupt and ask the city manager a question?
Yeah.
Does this require contract negotiations
if we were to discuss a change in when our summer recess is?
No, I don't believe so.
It's the schedule for the city council meetings,
which is within the purview of the council.
So it doesn't necessarily mean everybody's off.
It's just those that might be involved with the city council
meeting, correct?
Also at the library celebration at the downtown library,
and of course, that's a great opportunity
to get the word out and thank you, council member
Francois, for bringing that up.
My closest library is the Ignacio Library,
I mean, that's just a great resource to have.
I was also at the Shadelands Historical Society annual event.
The Historical Society, I think, is one of those societies
that we don't hear enough about.
And it's just an amazing resource.
We hear about the car shows that are there every year
in some of the different events, like the tea
that was sponsored, the high tea in December.
But this really is a way to help to celebrate
those volunteers and the donors that come out to help support the Shadelands Historical
Society.
Just any of the pictures that are around the City Council chambers or throughout City Hall,
these come from the Historical Society.
If you haven't been out there, it's terrific.
Nice turnout.
And former Mayor Luella Haski was there as well.
It's always good to see her.
And then lastly, last week, Congressman Mark DeSaulnier held a town hall at Rossmoor on
on Social Security and Medicare.
I think he hit the right audience
in going there for that particular topic.
There were probably 400, 500 people that showed up for that.
Obviously very important to them.
His town halls are always terrific.
And then I also was able to accompany him
to the Trinity Center for a tour later in the week.
And he was so impressed with what he saw
at the Trinity Center.
And those tours are just terrific.
And I wanna really have a big shout out
to one of our planning commissioners, Molly Klop,
who helped to organize all of this.
And what he said, and I quote,
that this helps him restore his faith in humanity.
When we see so much that's going out there
that seems to be taking advantage of people
that are underprivileged,
or that we are sacrificing the wrong aspects of society,
this, we see what we're able to do,
the good that the Trinity Center is able to do
to help our homeless and indigent and people that need it.
And it's so much more than people may think.
And I've had several tours of there over my tenure here.
And I think I first went in there thinking,
oh, they're providing some food
and it's a place for them to be.
They do so much more from showers to,
and something I hadn't even thought about
until I first saw it, is they provide an address
for people that don't have housing
because when you need a job, you have to provide an address
and they're not accepting post office boxes anymore.
So how does somebody homeless provide an address?
Well, the Trinity Center provides that.
They have a whole mail department there.
People are able to get that.
They have computers.
People can get online and apply for jobs.
This is a full service.
And while right now it's only five days a week,
nine to six, something like that,
they would certainly like to be able to extend their hours
because homelessness is not a nine to five job.
And we are so thankful to have them here.
And it's like the rising tide lifts all ships.
And we're seeing this across with different cities as well.
But they're truly a big resource.
And I think our HOP team certainly
is not just appreciated by the Trinity Center,
but the HOP team appreciates the Trinity Center as well.
So thank you for all of that and for being a shining light
and helping the less fortunate among us.
Thank you.
And I'll start off mine with the big thank you
because I took the last two weeks off.
And the Mayor Pro Tem was,
because there are seven Kevin Wilks,
there's not just one, there's seven.
He covered a bunch of things for me
and I really appreciate that.
Before I left town, I do represent the city on MCE,
which is our electricity supplier.
And we had set rates for the year a while back,
but we had left open the issue of whether or not
we would increase the amount that gets charged
to customers in the deep green,
which is the 100 percent renewable resource category.
We have been seeing an uptick in the cost of those.
We did end up with a very small additional increment that
will be charged to
deep green customers that will affect the city
because we are a deep green customer.
And we were reassured by staff that
the deep green customers tend to be the most loyal and it was
important to me, to increase the cost so that they are not
burdening other users, that they're paying the full cost of
what they're getting.
National Night Out was a heck of a lot of fun.
It's always great to go see everybody, go play with
everything.
And I did not put on the bite suit for the dog, because that
was just not going there, not going there.
Couple things coming up.
The last Wednesday on locust will be this week.
We are looking forward to original Joe's opening
on August 14th, and that will be quite the event.
They have a soft opening a little bit before then,
and then should be open for business after that.
Staff and I are working to help Senator Grayson
go on a walkabout in Walnut Creek,
and we're gonna go show him so he understands better
now that he represents us.
And lastly, back to the topic of traffic and safety
and everything else, CBS reached out,
one of their reporters, and I talked to her today.
She started from the perspective,
there's a change.org petition that talks about traffic
in Walnut Creek and the need for that.
And I got updates from both PD and from Public Works,
all the different things that we're doing.
And I shared those with her and shared with her
the message about helping people remember
to drive safely, helping people to understand e-bikes,
and watching out now that school starts.
So we're looking, hopefully that message got through,
and we'll see that report sometime later this week.
And that is my report for the last two weeks,
because the rest of it was vacation for me.
And that brings us to the end of our meeting.
So this evening, we are pausing
to honor the life of Jake Larson,
He's known to millions as Papa Jake on TikTok,
and he uses to his fellow veterans
as a proud member of the greatest generation.
A World War II hero, Jake used his voice
in his stories to inspire hope, resilience,
and patriotism in people of all ages.
I talked to his kids about this
and they said he'd never talked to them at all
about that until very recently,
and they said it was his greatest joy
was to share these stories with people.
And I think it helped him process a lot that he had seen.
His warmth, humor, and humility bridged generations
and brought history to life in a way that only he could.
We are very honored to have Papa Jake join us
at the City of Walnut Creek's Memorial Day event this year.
And we are grateful for his service to our nation,
for the joy he brought to so many of us.
And may his legacy continue to remind us
of the courage it takes to stand
for something greater than ourselves.
So rest in peace Papa Jake, you will not be forgotten.
Thank you.
And with that, we are adjourned
and I did not make the seven o'clock cut off, so I.