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. And that my folks is the last airing of that
particular one. I want to thank my co-star. I'll try again. Good evening. I am Cindy Darling,
Mayor of the City of Walnut Creek and welcome to the Tuesday, November 18th, 2025 concurrent
meeting of the Walnut Creek City Council and the Walnut Creek Joint Powers Financing Authority.
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 is one nation under.
City Clerk Susie Martinez please call the roll.
Councilmember Davini.
Here.
Councilmember Francois.
Here.
Councilmember Silva.
Here.
Mayor Pro Tem will.
Here.
Mayor Darling.
Here.
All right and now we are excited to have a presentation from our community college district.
I invite Chancellor Mosta and I always blow your nest to step forward and
join us at the lectern and let us know what's happening besides a DVC
basketball game tonight. Well there is so much happening at Diablo Valley College
and the Contra Costa Community College District. Thank you so much mayor and
City Council members for providing an opportunity for the Contra Costa
Community College District to present the state of our district. Again my name
I have the pleasure of serving as Chancellor to the Contra Costa Community College District
and I am here with the amazing Diablo Valley College President who will introduce herself.
Good evening.
Thank you for this opportunity.
I'm Monica Shahal, President at DVC.
We're going to have more introductions of people that you may know as we go through
this presentation.
So, a little bit of a background and facts about the Contra Costa Community College District.
Well, you'll note that we were actually voted into existence, I'll call it, back in December
of 1948.
At that time, there were about 250,000 residents in Contra Costa County.
We were the first countywide junior college that came into existence in the state of California.
Last year, we had the honor of celebrating our 75th anniversary here.
at a time where we are considerably higher
in terms of our county population, close to 1.2 million.
Today we serve approximately 50,000 students
across our three colleges and two centers.
So you are familiar with Diablo Valley College
in Pleasant Hill.
We also have a center, actually I'll say a campus
in San Ramon.
Los Madonos College in the East County
supports residents in the city of Pittsburgh
with their campus and presence there,
as well as our newest location in the city of Brentwood.
And then in West County is Contra Costa College
and actually our very first community college.
Just in terms of our numbers,
we employ today approximately 3,400 individuals
across our three colleges and centers.
So when we think about our colleges,
three colleges. That is really kind of reflective of where we stand within the system of community
colleges in the state of California. There are 116 community colleges in the state of
California. Approximately 2.1 million students in California are being served in the community
college system. We are the largest system of higher education in the entire nation and
quite proud of that. And you can see that we are governed by five amazing elected
officials, one of whom is here with us today. Miss Diana Honig is the vice
president of our governing board and Trustee Honig actually serves the
Walnut Creek area, so a representative that very specifically serves Walnut
Creek and what we call Ward 2. We also have a student trustee that is on our
governing board that serves on the governing board is elected by students
and rotates on an annual basis across our three colleges. And a little bit of
kind of who we serve from a demographic profile. So what we've done with a blue
bar is provided information on the county population as of the 2020 census
and then our student population, and you can see we are an incredibly, we serve an incredibly
diverse group of students across our three colleges.
These are the district-wide numbers, I'm going to turn it over to President Schahal who will
share a little bit more in terms of specifics about Diablo Valley College, and I'm so sorry
we don't have the scores for the basketball game, but it seems like we might have some
folks that can bring us up to speed on that a little bit later as well.
all right so we are quite reflective at Diablo Valley College of our larger
community population and so you'll see that the two and three perhaps largest
populations of students on our campus reflect the larger community membership
as well and then what we offer across the district our range of transfer as
as well as work directly to work certificates.
We offer more than 220 associate degrees
and more than 330 certificates.
And so we serve students who are transferring to four years.
We also, of course, serve the students
who are going directly to work.
And so there are a variety of options
available to all of our students.
We have 81 transfer pathways across the districts
that provide guaranteed admission into CSUs.
We're working on growing that number to even more.
We have career training and industry-recognized credentials,
and we like to meet our students where they are
and anticipate their needs,
and so we have lots of flexible options.
We have in-person, we have online,
we have some weekend, we have night courses,
so we try and recognize that our students
are coming to us from all walks of life,
that we are the path to higher ed,
and so their needs are very different,
and we're trying to meet them where they are.
among the services, the range of services that we offer
because we want to provide for the whole student
and they come to the school for classes
but we certainly provide in lots of other ways.
And so we offer free tuition.
And so a little more than 22,000 students
received free tuition last year.
We also have multiple classes with free
or low cost textbooks.
And if you recall when you were in college
and the cost of those textbooks,
So our faculty are doing what they can to reduce the cost.
And so that's been wonderful.
We have wellness centers to meet the basic needs
of all of our students.
And so food pantries, which have been used extensively
this year or this semester, mental health services,
and also technology loans.
So for students who need access to Wi-Fi or to laptops,
we provide all of that.
We have three foundations that serve all three colleges
across the district and have raised more than $3.2 million
since 2020.
We offer scholarships, emergency funds,
and any kind of program support that our students can
need so that we can help provide for them
so they can obtain the certification or transfer
that they need to then come back to the community
and provide and serve the community.
We are an open access institution,
and students come to us at various points in their lives.
They come to us while they're in high school,
taking classes through dual enrollment programs,
or simply walk over to our campus
from across the street if they can.
But they're part of early college programs,
they're part of dual enrollment programs.
We have adult learners who come to us
who may leave to join the workforce
and then come back to us for advanced degrees.
And we have community members coming to our campus
to take a range of courses.
And again, we meet students where they are
and provide for their needs.
We have students who are transferring to four years,
whether it's public or private.
We have a range of options there.
And then, of course, we provide for the workforce
and are constantly looking for new ways
to serve those who are going directly into the workforce.
Diablo Valley has, as you may already know,
a tremendous reputation for transfer.
And so we are looking for ways to expand the workforce
programs as well.
We do all of this work in conjunction
with workforce boards as well as with community partners.
Uh-oh, did I do that?
No. Okay.
Do you need me to wait or can I continue?
Okay.
So we work with workforce boards and community partners
to ensure that we are understanding the needs
of the community and that we are providing
for the community through the programs that we offer
both in and out of the classroom.
In fact, this afternoon I spent with the Diablo Valley-
I'm supporting in progress.
Diablo Valley Tech Initiative, which
is a group of wonderful individuals
working to expand jobs in technology.
And so looking at ways in which we can partner with them
to support the efforts that are underway there.
So we're checking to see which.
Oh, still working on.
So we're looking for ways to partner with the community
so that we can provide services that are going
to help the community.
Thank you, wonderful.
So those partnerships with community and workforce boards
are essential to what we do.
A look at some of the areas that we serve
and a look at some of the schools
and how many of the graduating students
from each of those schools is coming
to each of the three colleges of the district.
and you'll see Los Lomas, Northgate, and Ignacio Valley
specific to this area and the number of graduating students
that are coming to Diablo Valley College.
We have lots of local students coming.
No, all right, and I think I'm turning it back over to you.
Or did I skip one?
We just skipped one.
Oh, we won, sorry.
Very important.
51% of CSU graduates and 29% of UC graduates
began at community colleges.
Both Chancellor Medizada and I also began
at the community college.
I took classes at my local community college
when I was in high school.
Went on to spend a year full time at that college
before I transferred to UC Davis.
And so we know that wonderful pathways and doors
are opened up to students who come to us
and then move on, whether it's to work or to transfer.
These are some of the most popular institutions
that we transfer to, and I know for Diablo Valley,
specifically, Cal is a top destination,
and that is one of the places
that most of our students end up at, so thank you.
I am a proud alum of Diablo Valley College,
so I like to say that I started at DVC and never left,
and that is the truth.
So we wanted to share with you
a little bit about our fiscal health,
So you'll see that we have an annual budget
of approximately $267 million
and are required to maintain really two months
of operating expenses as our reserve.
You can see those dollar amounts.
Really what we wanna share with you is
we do a lot for frankly very little
and ensure that we are fiscally stable
and provide the best resources and operations
as we possibly can.
And this particular slide provides information
on our economic impact.
So just two years ago, we enlisted in the services
of an organization that does economic impact analysis
across the nation and beyond.
And in so doing, these are some of the findings
that they came up with so that you can see
our impact is about $2.3 billion annually
of added income to Contra Costa County,
which is equivalent to approximately 23,752 jobs.
And we're a great investment.
So for every dollar that students invest
in their education, they get about $8.40 back.
You can see what the taxpayers receive.
They double their money and society really receives gains
about $14.40 based on their investment.
and you'll see why that investment pays off because we are very frugal so you
can you know this particular chart provides information on how the dollar
amount for which we are funded per full-time equivalent student and it
provides a comparison between the community college system this the UC
CSU's and our K through 12 colleagues certainly we recognize that public
education is not necessarily well funded in general, but you can see we are
trailing behind fairly considerably in comparison to other institutions. And we
still do so by serving 100% of students who apply and choose to come to us. I
I also want to mention these dollars specifically are directed towards
in-classroom instruction and wraparound support services. They do not, we are not provided
resources for other things like our facilities which you'll hear more about in just a moment.
And here we are. You, our amazing taxpayers, have actually funded the major facilities
improvements that you have seen across our three colleges.
So the most recent bond measure, Measure E, was passed in 2014.
That particular bond measure is approximately 90% spent at this moment.
And given that it is approximately 90% spent, we wanted to share with you the particular
photo that was here, is our beautiful art facility.
So if you have not had an opportunity
to come and visit our campus and the beautiful new spaces
that you have provided for our students to be educated in,
this particular photo is of one of the most recent facilities
that we opened up and did the ribbon cutting on.
And the next one actually shows one of our facilities
that's probably in a little bit of,
needs a little bit of help.
So this is in our liberal arts building.
This particular building is well over 50 years old
and certainly has continued opportunities for improvement.
And just to share with you,
our goal is to ensure that we provide flexible spaces
for our students as education evolves.
And we certainly know how much our universe has evolved
and continues to evolve most recently
and why it is imperative that we continue
to invest in education and our facilities that educate.
And to that, I'm going to keep going.
We wanted to share with you that our governing board is
currently reviewing facilities plans for each of our colleges,
which were completed in 2024, actually June of 2024,
our governing board reviewed and approved
our most recent facilities plans
with prioritized projects.
And we are at this very moment seeking community input.
So there are, there's actually surveys
that are being conducted at this moment
to assess kind of how our community feels
about a potential future bond
and should one be coming our way,
we certainly hope that the city of Walnut Creek
is aware of that.
So with that, we're gonna end and see
if you have any questions or comments, including scores.
Any update on the basketball?
Recording in progress.
No, no update on the basketball.
I did wanna say thank you for coming to talk tonight.
My husband is a proud graduate
of Contra Costa Community College
and my daughter used DVC to great effect
when she was entering her graduate school program
to become a nurse.
She had a few classes she was missing
and rather than have to go back to school,
she could do it while she was working
and get ready to go into her nursing program.
So we really appreciate that.
Other questions that anybody has?
Not questions, but on top of that,
so my son who had gone to UNR for his first year
wasn't crazy about that,
didn't know where he wanted to transfer to,
went to DVC, COVID hit,
but he ended up graduating from DVC
and then they did a transfer to Cal State Long Beach.
So, I mean, the system works.
I've seen time and time again on so many students
that I talked to, I've just had great experiences there.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Anyone else?
Councilor Artifici?
Well, since it's been alluded to,
DVC is playing San Jose Community College tonight
in men's basketball.
My son is a sophomore there and he's playing on the team
and they're not winning right now,
but I will give you the score.
We'll get them in the second half.
But thank you for being here.
Thank you. Appreciate it.
Council Member Francois.
Yes, thank you for being here.
My personal connection is my wife is an instructor at DVC,
so we have a close connection.
And I've attended some of the scholarship ceremonies
and been really moved
by the work your foundation is doing there.
And then we also had the opportunity
to see Daniel James Brown speak
and I think Percival Everett was just,
so kudos to you for hosting really high-name,
well-known authors in our local community.
On the facilities planning piece,
I'm just curious about,
and I know that you're just going through the process
and considering the bond and that all makes sense,
are there, would there be any thought
to kind of alternatives, you know,
obviously remote learning is a thing,
but also is higher ed looking at kind of moving towards
more of a corporate office environment for classroom space
or is it still more traditional campus environment?
Combination thereof, I would say,
and certainly Dr. Chahal can add to that.
Today, we offer a considerable number of our courses,
obviously via remote instruction.
What we find is that for some particular subjects,
frankly, you know, a lot of our social sciences
and what have you, students are feeling connected
when taking those classes in a remote fashion.
However, our math, science, engineering,
the technology classes, as well as a lot
of our career technical education classes,
require a lot more of that hands-on opportunity
and the direct interaction with faculty.
And so, less often do we see students
choose to enroll in those classes remotely.
We certainly offer nearly every kind of class
in a remote fashion, and students obviously,
they enroll and we ensure that we provide
the kind of class that they are most interested in.
much more nowadays back to being
in a face-to-face sort of fashion.
And learning happens in a different way
when they are with others in a learning environment.
Yeah, of course.
Thank you for being here this evening
and for the presentation, but more importantly,
thank you for the work that you're doing for our youth.
And the transition that you offer,
the ability for those who aren't ready
for higher education yet can get there
and also the way you're working to provide
for the technical skills, so kudos.
And the last thank you of course is that
I know our Chamber of Commerce and others
in the business community here have reached out
and talked about customer service and the need for that,
and you guys have stepped up mightily
in helping them fit that need, and it's great.
Thank you.
Bob Linshied is our best friend as well
and works very closely with us.
You have our strategic plan,
the district-wide strategic plan before you
as well, and thank you.
Actually, we got a considerable amount of community feedback
that resulted in the goals and strategies
that are identified here,
and I want to thank you for that also.
All right. Thank you guys so much.
We appreciate you.
All right. Moving along.
Next on the agenda is the consent calendar,
and I am going to pull two I, beat you all to it.
Does anybody else want to pull any other item for discussion?
I'd like to pull 2L.
And 2E.
Oops, I wrote the L and the E so they look exactly alike.
Anything else?
All right.
Is there anybody here that would like
to address the council on 2A, B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K,
elemental P?
All right.
We'll bring it back up here for a motion.
So remind me, pulled to I and to F?
To I, to L, and to E are pulled.
So it's A through D.
Got it.
I move to adopt the following items
from the consent calendar, to A through D,
H, J, K, M.
Mm.
I'll second that.
Roll call, please.
Councilmember Silva?
Aye.
Mayor Darlene?
Aye.
Councilmember Davini?
Aye.
and pro temmo all right all right um you want to start with 2e we'll go out that
way to make this easier oh it's correct okay I knew somebody pulled down yeah my
my question is in regards to the concealed carry weapons permits that
we're we're now issuing in Walnut Creek hello thank you so I guess this was
something that the the the the permits were being issued by the county now
they're being issued by the city and just reading it it makes me wonder you
know like how many concealed carry weapon permits are we issuing how many
folks in the community do we think might be carrying who generally I know pretty
much anyone I think can apply but who do we generally see ourselves like issuing
these two, is it more like retired law enforcement and like private detective
type, I don't know, or is it just more of the general population? And then I've
got a few other questions. Yeah. Of course, Councilman, happy to, Lieutenant
Olson with the Walnut Creek Police Department. So typically we've always
been an entity that is, that should be issuing concealed weapons permits, but
the sheriff's office has been kind enough to do it for many many years for us.
There's over the last 10 years or so there was some changes in law and
changes in case law that made the ability to get a concealed carry weapon
permit a little bit easier in California. So because of that entities have been
seeing more and more people applying and so with that the sheriff's office has
has kind of been passing on the responsibility
back to the cities and the chiefs of police.
So in my, when we were told
that we were gonna be taking this back over,
I reached out to the sheriff's office
and they said that around 100 applications
in about a 12 month period for residents
of the city of Walnut Creek
is kind of where we're at right now.
And that's for new applications,
renewal applications, or modifications.
So that doesn't mean that there's 100 individuals
applying for new permits every year that's that includes renewals and all
that kind of stuff so I think we could we would anticipate around a hundred
would be my guess for for every year and it makes me you know curious I don't
know if these types of statistics are available but do you have a sense of
like generally who's applying for these is it just the population at large or is
it heavily like certain groups or yeah it's kind of just the population at
large. I think there are some some people that have work in maybe more sensitive
I'll pause maybe more. Okay some people might be working in more sensitive types
of jobs that they they feel that they may need one more and some people just
may want one for their own personal protection. That's partially what we kind
to find out in a background process, an interview process,
there's extensive training that they have to go through
to be able to get a concealed carry weapon permit.
So those are all things that we would kind of figure out.
Thank you.
Does anybody else have any questions on this?
Thank you very much.
So a hundred per year.
Are those all in the city of Walnut Creek
and the county is still issuing permits
for those who live in unincorporated Walnut Creek?
Correct, yeah.
So those are the ones, the statistics they had
for people that live within city limits.
Right, thank you.
Council Member Francois.
Thank you, Lieutenant.
So just stepping back to and reminding I don't own a weapon,
but for those who do kind of what the rules are
in terms of open carry versus concealed carry
and the permitting process.
Yeah, so open carry is not allowed.
You're not allowed to just openly carry
a firearm in California.
but with a concealed carry permit,
you would be able to carry,
but you would have to keep it out of public view basically.
So under your clothing or in a purse or a bag
or something like that.
You would also need to have,
make sure that it's locked in your home
like the city of Walnut Creek
already has an ordinance for.
There's a lot of gun safety training
that would go along with getting a permit,
but the permitting process would include an application
through the California DOJ form that they would fill out.
We would need to approve that they are a legal resident
of the city of Walnut Creek.
There would be a background process, a reference check,
like I said, a training through an outside entity
that's approved by the city, by the police department.
So there's a lot of steps that go in fingerprinting process.
So there's a lot of steps that go
into getting the permit.
Is it all one permit?
Or before you purchase a weapon, you
have to get a separate license from the state and go through?
No.
So before purchasing a weapon is separate from concealed carry.
So concealed carry means that you can carry it out
in the public.
You can carry it concealed in your vehicle.
Just owning a firearm in your own home,
there is a whole separate process
for that, which would be like a 10 day waiting period
and all that kind of stuff.
And you mentioned our safe firearm storage,
maybe just for the benefit of the public.
Remind them about what that entails and requires
in terms of home storage.
Yeah, so when you're at home,
you're required to keep your personal firearms locked,
unloaded in either a safe or with a locking device
that can make it inoperable when in your home.
There are laws that,
There are state laws that would pertain
to leaving your gun in a car.
You could actually be held liable
if your gun was stolen from your car
without it being locked up properly.
And the city of Walnut Creek has our own municipal code
in somebody's home if it's not locked up properly.
Terrific, thank you very much.
Of course.
Thank you very much.
Any other questions on this issue?
Thank you so much, Lieutenant.
Does any member of the public wish to come forward
and ask anything about to, or say anything about to E.
Seeing no one, I will bring it back up here to the council
for consideration of potential motion.
Move to approve.
Second.
Roll call, please.
Mayor Pro Tem Wilk.
Aye.
Council member Francois.
Aye.
Council member Davini.
Aye.
Council member Silva.
Aye.
Mayor Darling.
Aye.
Okay, so the next one is to I,
and I just pulled this,
because we're spending $51 million
on something that we have been planning
for about forever and a half.
And I just wanted to say thanks to all the staff.
I know this was a tremendous effort,
getting through the contracting process,
making sure that we had contractors
who met our qualifications,
making sure the bids were responsive,
and making sure that we had a project.
And yay, so that was all I wanted to do.
Does anybody else have any comments on 2i?
I think this is really exciting.
It's probably once in a generation
that you get to make a reinvestment
in your community like this.
And I think it's going to pay dividends
for this community for years to come.
And I'm really excited to have been on the council
and to be able to see this through.
Yeah, it takes about 100 steps to get through the process.
And I think we're still probably somewhere
in the middle in there,
but this is a great step to be able to get behind us.
I would concur.
I've been on the council for 19 years
and it feels like I've been working
with the community on this for 22.
Okay, thank you to staff for all of your work
in putting the bidding process together
for the diligence that you had in it
and also for the diligence of the engineering staff,
the architectural staff,
because you estimate a big project like this
and then you keep your fingers crossed
while they're opening the bids.
And we had good results.
So thank you to everyone.
And we look forward to hearing more about this project
in the coming months.
With that, does anybody wish to address the council
on two I?
And with that, I will move to approve two I.
Yay.
Roll call, please.
Mayor Darlene.
Yay.
Council Member Silva.
Yes.
Council Member Davini.
Aye.
Council Member Francois.
Yes.
Mayor Pro Temo.
Aye.
second yay. The second yay, which is still a yay, is the Lesher and Hoffman stage
replacements. I don't think I need staff to come up here. I just want to
acknowledge that this project replacing stages at two of the larger theaters in
in the Lesher Center came in on time and under budget and was being done while
several different productions were going on in the Lesher Center, which is quite
remarkable. So what is this saying? You're trying to learn how to fly an
airplane while you're actually flying it. I think that you guys pulled it off and
I want to thank staff for that and acknowledge it and just in time for a
lot of fun and exciting productions this holiday season at the Lesher Center. So
thank you. Anyone else? Does any member of the public wish to applaud us for 2L?
I'll bring it back up here for a motion. I will move to approve item 2L. Roll call
please. Councilmember Francois? Aye. Councilmember Silva? Aye. Councilmember Davini? Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Wilk? Aye. Mayor Darling? Aye. Motion carries.
All right thank you. Thank you guys staff for all of this. Next on the agenda is
public communication. This portion of the meeting is reserved for comment on
items not on the agenda. Under the Brown Act the council cannot act on items
raised during public communications but may respond briefly to statements made or questions
posed.
We may request clarification or refer the item to staff.
Consistent with section 9.5 of the City Council Handbook, 30 minutes will be allocated at
this time for public communication for items not on the agenda.
Additional time for public communication for items not on the agenda will be provided at
the end of the meeting as necessary.
we have had several written comments already submitted
that have been posted to the city's website
for public review and are included in the meeting record
but will not be separately read into the record.
At this time, I note the time is 6.39
and so we will go till 7.09 with public comment
and take the rest at the end of the meeting.
If anybody would like to address the council
for public comment, please step forward
and you'll each have your two minutes.
Hello, my name is Sushi Nandolike.
I'm a student at Northgate High School.
I'm a sophomore.
And for my sophomore, if I could change the whole project,
I chose student transportation because it's
a problem I face every day.
And I know a lot of other students
who also face that problem.
So to understand this problem, I surveyed over 200
of Northgate students about how they get to school.
And my results were pretty clear, I think.
Nine out of 10 students come to Northgate by car,
and among those who are driven by their parents,
more than half of them are like the only student in the car,
which means every day we have hundreds
of single occupancy cars coming in,
and the road to Northgate is a single lane road,
so it creates a lot of backup and a lot of congestion
around the whole Northgate area,
and extends that further into Walnut Creek.
Commute times were also pretty significant,
with 63% of students taking more than 10 minutes
to get to school, and nearly a third taking more than 20,
And a lot of students do live close,
but due to all this traffic, the commute times
are greatly increasing.
My most striking finding was that over 90% of students
said that traffic is their biggest challenge, which
is basically every student who comes by car essentially
has the same traffic problem every day.
And so I asked these students if they would consider
a bus or a shuttle system.
And more than 60% showed interest.
And the most important factors for them
were cost, reliable schedule, convenient pickup times,
and stops close to their neighborhood.
So that shows if this was designed well,
there would be a lot of demand
and it would really help support families
and decrease this problem.
So my ask is, I would greatly appreciate
if the city would work with me, the school district,
and then also any relevant transportation providers
to explore the feasibility of having this system
along the routes to Northgate High School.
It would like lower emissions, reduce all the congestion,
decrease stress for a lot of families,
and then also possibly help students
get on time to school easier.
All of my data, sorry.
Thank you.
Yeah, thank you.
Thank you.
Do you guys have any comments about like next steps
or suggestions?
As I said, we take public comment in.
If you want to talk to somebody,
Smidar Boardman, our city engineer is here,
And she does a lot of work around safe routes to school
and she can provide you some update
on what we're already doing.
And we've heard your comments
and we'll look into the issue that you raised.
Okay?
Thank you so much.
Oh, did you want to say something?
I just wanted to commend you.
You're a very good public speaker.
I didn't see you look at your notes once
and you made a very compelling case,
maybe a future lawyer at the podium there.
But thank you for coming and sending,
not only sending the comment,
but coming here and speaking to it very well.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And that's Smidar back there.
She would love to talk to you.
Thank you so much.
Is there anybody else for public comment?
No, you're good.
Good job.
Anyone else?
All right.
With that, we will close the public comment period
and bring it back up here.
Is there any,
Ooh, I looked down for Steve Madison, I forgot.
City attorney, is there anything to report
out of the closed sessions?
There is no report out of closed session.
All right, city manager, any report?
I do not have an update this evening, Mayor.
All right, that brings us back up here
to the council ourselves for our updates
on things that we are doing.
Who wants to go first?
Just a couple of quick updates.
I did attend the Northern California Conference
for the Sister Cities International.
I attended with the president of the club.
There were probably 15 cities represented there,
all of whom had some form of Sister City organization.
And we heard updates on youth programs
and on also how to increase the attractiveness
of adult-related programming.
The, thank you, Mayor, for what you did for Veterans Day.
It was a lovely program.
And the recent ABAG administrative committee meeting
discussed the, we've received a lot of input
on the environmental documents related
to plan Bay Area 2050 plus.
It seems that there's a lot of misunderstanding
on some of the information in the reports,
but the hearings will continue in December.
We saw the women in black this last weekend.
You have until the 23rd to see it.
It is an incredible production
and really reflects just the improvements
in what's going on at the Lesher Center.
So I encourage everybody,
you can get tickets at leisurearts.org.
And I finally mentioned that we did have discussion
about the upcoming rates that we'll be presenting
for Recycle Smart, which will go into effect
in March 1st of 2026 through February 28th of 2027s.
But Councilmember Francois may have something else
to add on that.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
We'll turn it to Councilmember Francois
and see if he wants to talk recycling.
I actually don't.
Not tonight.
So it was a very moving Veterans Day ceremony.
Thank you for leading us all in that
and enjoy seeing a lot of familiar faces there.
And thank you to the Walnut Creek Concert Band
for doing such a great job, always,
and very nicely commemorating our veterans.
As your liaison to Walnut Creek Downtown,
I can report back that Oktoberfest was a success,
got some revenues higher than previous years,
and high attendance, a lot of people coming to Downtown
for that event in late September.
The board of Walnut Creek Downtown
is working on their vision plan
and it's still a little bit of a work in progress,
but certainly centers around pillars
of financial stability, marketing and elevating
the downtown brand, increasing and strengthening
partnerships along with beautification and public art.
So I think there's a lot of opportunities
for us to partner with Walnut Creek downtown
on all of those items.
And then we'll note that the holiday tree lighting
is this Friday, is that the 21st?
That is.
Okay, this Friday, the 21st at 5.30
just across the street in Civic Park.
And at the same time, after you see the tree being lit,
you can don your ice skates and Walnut Creek on ice
will be starting its 20th year that night as well
run through the holidays until January. And that's my report. Thank you. I'll go
ahead and go next. Speaking of sister cities, the kids from Kita City are here
this week and they were at City Hall today and we got to have a great
discussion. A couple of the kids, their English skills are just amazing.
There was a couple of the girls got up and did a presentation to me about what
they hope to learn by their work here, by their visit here in the city. It's that
That was really a lot of fun.
I got to help lead a public art walking tour.
If you have not been on one of these, they are fabulous.
And you can see, you know, all kinds of different art
and hear the story behind it.
And you get a chance to see some of the art
in a new and different way.
So thank you very much for the docent, Jill Dresser
to for leading that one.
If you guys have not caught it, the mayor's video
where I work with Officer Adamson talking about e-bikes
is out on social media and hopefully that message
is getting out there.
My daughter said she saw it up in Sacramento.
She's like, mom, you're a star.
Cool, not really, but I did wanna give a congratulations.
We had the Best of Walnut Creek Awards last night
with the Chamber and there was a lot of great competition
and a lot of great winners and it was a fun event.
I'm hoping we'll see that one come back again.
I also, let's see, what else?
The last thing I wanna talk about is,
as you're represented up on MCE,
we have been talking about electricity supply
and demand in California.
And one of the things we got to do on Monday
is go see the independent system operator.
And so you can just imagine,
this is a building out in the outskirts of Sacramento
and up on the wall, they have an operating center
where there are huge screens all the way around
and it's the entire electric grid for California.
and they show it minute by minute balancing
in all the different ways it needs to balance.
And the chart right dead center in the room
is how many watts or kilowatts they're off
from balancing supply and demand.
And it was amazing what those people can do
because you can't store electricity in the lines.
Open House by the Building and Trades Union,
really being able to show what it's like
to take a trade path rather than an academic path.
It was interesting actually, here we had the presentation
from the Contra Costa School District
or the community college district here.
And of course when kids are in high school,
not all of them wanna go in an academic path.
And so this was a great way to be able to show parents
and students, here's a number of different trades
and there is a viable trade path that students can do.
And this was in conjunction with Mount Diablo School District
and hosted at Concord High School.
And so we had a lot of dignitaries there.
State Superintendent Tony Thurmond was there.
Our Mount Diablo School District Superintendent,
oh my gosh, Dr. Clark, thank you.
Thank you, Charise Count in the audience.
Was there as well and a lot of elected officials
from the Contra Costa County area.
So just great to see that kind of involvement and outreach
and just letting parents know what's possible out there.
That's my report.
Thank you, Council Member Defini.
Yes, good evening.
Well, going last, I have a few duplicates.
Also attended the Best of Walnut Creek
that was hosted at the Lesher Center,
and that was a very nice event,
and I do look forward to going that again next year.
Also think it's great, it just really highlights
so many businesses in Walnut Creek,
and people were really enthusiastic about winning,
and so it was a lot of fun to see.
also attended the Veteran's Day ceremony at the Lesher,
and I wanna echo Council Member Francois' sentiments
that kudos to Mayor Darling
for your sharing of your grandfather, right?
Yeah, story, that was very moving, so thank you for that.
Also attended Founders and Funders,
which is an event that was put on out in the Shadelands
to host potential founders of businesses
and then potential funders of those businesses
in Walnut Creek.
And it was sort of tech-oriented, focused
on tech and health care.
And it was, I think, the second year doing it.
And it was really well attended.
So that's exciting to see.
I think that's exciting to see for our business future
and for shade lens as well.
That wraps up.
All right, thank you very much.
Next on the agenda is a public hearing
for the consideration of the resolutions
of the City Council of the City of Walnut Creek
and the Walnut Creek Joint Powers Financing Authority,
authorizing the issuance of lease revenue bonds
to fund a portion of the aquatic and community center
at Heather Farm Park Project, yay.
And I invite staff forward to provide the presentation.
Good evening, Mayor Darling, Mayor Pro Tem Wilk,
and members of council.
I'm Kirsten LeCaff, Administrative Services Director.
And tonight I am joined by Craig Hill from NHA Advisors,
who's joining us remotely,
as well as Chris Lynch from Jones Hall, our Bond Council.
And tonight we're going to be presenting to you
the Least Revenue Bond Financing Approval
for the Heather Farm Aquatic and Community Center Project.
So first we're going to talk a little bit about,
touch on where we were and how we've gotten here so far
with the previous actions.
We're then gonna talk about the project bid results
as well as the funding sources.
Then we'll talk about the credit rating and that process
and what the city's credit rating is
that we were just recently issued by S&P.
Then we'll be looking at the financing documents,
next steps, and then the recommended actions.
So back on September 16th,
we essentially presented a bond financing 101
and we covered the funding strategies
as well as the lease revenue bond obligations.
Then we were here in October,
and the city council and the parking authority
formed the Walnut Creek Joint Powers Financing Authority
or the JPA, and this council also adopted a resolution
for the intent for reimbursement.
And then we're here this evening to talk about the approval
of the lease revenue bonds by city council
and also by the JPA board of directors.
So you as you heard earlier on the item this evening the
Contract was awarded for construction to lay through up the construction at the they had the lowest bid at fifty one point six million
And we had eight pre-qualified bidders. We only received responses from four
So next I want to touch on the project costs and the funding sources
So for our project cost the total is seventy five point eight million and this includes in phase two the construction contract
that was just awarded, as well as the contract contingency.
We've previously identified funding sources
for this project, and the general fund was $1.9 million.
In the facilities reserve, it was $7 million.
In Measure O reserve, $11.9 million,
and then we're here tonight to talk about the financing
of $55 million, which gets us to our $75.8 million.
The column to the right indicates
what has been obligated to date so that has been either spent
or committed under contract.
So both the general fund and facilities reserve
have been fully obligated,
and then two million of our measure O reserve
has been obligated to date for a total of 10.9 million.
And so as you can see in the table,
the term for this bond financing
would be approximately seven and a half years,
and that is intentional in order to align
with the expiration of measure O in 2033.
We are estimating a rate right now about 2.59%
for net proceeds to the project of 55 million.
That would put our estimated annual debt service
at about 7.7 million.
And as you recall, our measure O set aside
for debt service has been nine million.
Additionally, the initial least properties
for this financing would be the Lesher Center,
City Hall, and the Corporation Yard.
And next I will turn it over to Craig from NHA.
Oh yes, good evening.
Can everybody hear me?
Yes.
Great.
I want to start by commanding staff doing a great job representing the city through this
credit rating process we did with Standard & Poor's. As you can see, we met on the 5th. We
just found out earlier late last week that Standard & Poor's gave you effectively two ratings. The
rating on this particular transaction, because it is a general fund credit subject to your budget,
is a AA+. That puts you in the top category for the state of California cities. There's only,
I think, about 20 public agencies in California that maintain a rating that high, so you should
be very proud of the fact that you are one of the elite from a credit perspective.
They also did give you what we call an indicative credit rating of AAA, which again is as high as
as it gets, and that would be for any future debt
that the city might ask the voters to support
through a general obligation bond.
As was stated earlier with the community college,
they have bonds outstanding that were voter approved.
Should the city of Walnut Creek go out
and ask the voters to support
some kind of a general obligation bond,
we could expect that it would be in the AAA category.
So again, congratulations, all great news.
We couldn't have got anything higher than that.
And as you can see on the right, some of the highlights,
they really did like the diversified tax base
that the city maintains.
You have shown time and time again through council,
strong financial performance and approving budgets
and maintaining reserve levels.
And you've really managed your long-term liabilities
better than I think a lot of other public agencies.
So those are some of the highlights
that came out of the credit rating.
Next slide, I'll turn it over to Chris.
Madam Mayor, members of the council,
Chris Lynch from Jones Hall.
As we've talked about at previous meetings,
this will be structured as a lease financing.
So the documents involved will be a site lease
where the city will lease the three assets
that were described earlier
to the Joint Powers Financing Authority
that will lease pursuant to the lease agreement
back to the city.
The city's lease payments will be assigned
to the bond trustee pursuant to an assignment agreement.
The indenture of trust will be entered into
between the Joint Powers Authority and the bond trustee
and will provide for the terms of the bonds
and the payment of the bonds.
The marketing of the bonds will start with printing
or posting the preliminary official statement,
which is the disclosure document that describes
the material terms of the bonds
And I'll talk about that on the next slide.
Concurrently with the posting of the preliminary official
statement, a notice of intention to sell and a notice of sale
bonds will be posted.
The notice of attention will describe
the date and time at which potential owners of the bonds
can bid to purchase the bonds.
And the notice of sale will set forth
the terms of the bonds and the terms of the competitive sale.
The bonds will be awarded to the purchaser that
proposes the lowest true interest cost. The final document is a continuing
disclosure certificate and the city will undertake on an ongoing basis to provide
information of the type included in the preliminary official statement on an
annual basis and also to provide notice of certain events such as changes in
ratings, bond defaults and things like that. As I mentioned the preliminary
official statement will be distributed to potential investors. We've talked
before about the fact that this is a disclosure document where the city is obligated to provide
all material information about the bonds, which includes the terms of the bonds, and
then also the key things that affect the city's ability to pay debt service on the bonds.
So the section called 2025 Bonds describes the terms.
Security for the bonds in this case will consist of the city's lease payments, and it also
also will describe the fact that the city's lease payments are payable from any available
sources of funds, which in this case primarily consists of monies in the general fund and
also is intended to include the measure O revenues most specifically.
There's a section called City Financial Information in the preliminary official statement and
that describes the key financial metrics of the revenues available to pay the lease payments.
So it's the city's general fund revenues, primarily sales tax, including Measure O and
property taxes, the two largest revenue sources.
It describes expenses that the general fund pays.
It describes key liabilities such as pension, for example.
The city doesn't have outstanding bonds, so that's not an issue.
It also describes the budget process in the city and historical budgets, and then it also
attaches the audited financial statements for fiscal year 23-24.
The Bond Owners Risk section talks about key risks to the city's revenues and expenditures,
things that might cause revenues to go down, such as property tax reassessments or declines
in sales tax revenues, including as a result of changes in the way people purchase things
in the city of Walnut Creek, and also things such as natural disasters, seismic risk, climate
change, drought, things like that.
And finally, tax matters, as we've talked about, the city has done a good job of structuring
the sources of revenue for the project, including equity and taxes and bond proceeds, with
the fact that there will be certain amounts of private use, and we've determined that
the city will be able to comply with federal tax law based on those revenues and costs.
I'm actually going to skip this slide because Kirsten's going to cover it.
The next steps after this, should the city decide, after holding the public hearing,
to approve the issuance of the bonds and if the Joint Powers Authority similarly issues
the bonds, then the next step would be that the preliminary official statement would be
posted this week.
The city at that time will, you're authorizing members of staff to execute a certificate
confirming that the preliminary official statement includes all material information.
We'll also, as I mentioned, post the notice of intention and notice of sale on December
third, the competitive sale for the bonds will be held. At that time, interest rates,
principal amounts, costs of issuance will be locked in. And then there will be about
a two-week process at which our firm puts together closing certificates, opinions, finalizes
legal documents, and then the closing will be on December 17th, and that's the date on
which the $55 million of construction funds will be placed into the improvement fund held
by the bond trustee for future requisition.
So in summary, what we're asking of you this evening is for the City Council to adopt a
resolution approving issuance and sale of lease revenue bonds, approving related documents,
and directing related actions, and adopt a resolution creating the Heather Farm Aquatic
and Community Center Bond Fund and Appropriating Funds, and then asking of the JPA Board to
adopt a resolution authorizing the issuance of the sale of lease revenue bonds, adopting
a debt management policy and approving related documents and directing related actions.
And with that we are available to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you.
And thank you to all of you who have been walking us through this diligently over the
last three meetings.
I really appreciate the care that you've put into this.
Questions for Kirsten or the Bond Council?
Councilmember Silva.
Thank you very much.
And I will reiterate and echo the mayor's words of thank you for all of the work that
that you spent with all five of us trying
to help us understand what this all means,
which is really important and really exciting.
Quick question is, all right, so that the December 3rd
is when the sale of the bonds will occur,
and that's when they will lock in the amounts.
It seems like we've got a lot of open values
in these documents related to the value of the bonds.
Is that when they get inserted
and they become the final, final, final?
That's exactly right.
So on the 3rd of December, you'll receive these bids, you'll evaluate them, you'll pick
the lowest true interest cost, and at that point, the city will reward the bonds to that
winning investor, and at that point, we prepare legal documents that include the interest
rates, the maturity dates, the principal amounts, the net proceeds, and those will be signed
over a two-week period of us preparing them and circulating internally to get them signed.
And then on December 17th, that's when everything is final.
Okay.
Party on December 17th.
Exactly.
The, it's seven and a half years to align with the maturity of the receipts of, or the
proceeds of Measure O. Does that mean it's semiannual payments?
So does that mean 15 payments roughly of the equal amount?
Yes.
Okay.
wanted to make sure I was, because they're blank forms in these documents and so I just
wanted to make sure I was understanding it correctly. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Councilmember Francois.
So yes, thank you. Following up on one of Councilmember Silva's questions and on December
2nd or December 3rd, and I had asked a series of questions and thank you to Kirsten for
answering most of them. The one I'm still trying to get a better sense on is this, this
notion of a discount versus a premium investor and the difference in bond
financing as a result of that. That's right. So the key thing to understand is
there's certain things that are driving your financing. The first is you are
requesting 55 million dollars of net proceeds. The second is you are going to
award the sale to the bidder that provides the lowest true interest cost.
You are also going to have a fixed maturity date of seven and a half years.
Those are the things you care about.
Are you going to pay the lowest true interest cost, are you going to get the amount of net
proceeds you want, and are you going to have the bonds mature concurrently with the availability
of measure of revenues?
Other than that, you don't care how a particular bidder chooses to structure their bid.
There are two types of ways a bidder could structure their bid.
would be a premium bond, and Craig would do a much better job if he was still online to
describe this, but a premium bond means that they will pay more than the principal amount
of the bonds to receive those bonds. If it's a discount bond, they will pay a purchase
price that is lower than the principal amount of the bonds. The yield on the bonds is impacted
by whether they're paying more or less, but the bottom line is, you're still only going
to award the bidder that pays the lowest true interest cost.
So you're indifferent whether they choose to pay a premium or a discount.
And whether they choose a premium or discount is reflective of the market for the bonds
on that day as they perceive it as to whom they're planning to sell those bonds after
they purchase them.
But it results in a potential a different borrowing amount for us depending on whether
it's discount or premium.
That's right.
If they offer a premium, you can have a lower principal amount to still generate $55 million
net proceeds if they propose a discount in other words they pay less than the
principal out then you have to have a higher principal amount in order to
generate the 55 million dollars of net proceeds but again you're indifferent as
long as we're selecting the lowest true interest cost okay thank you sure that's
got to be one heck of a spreadsheet yeah just a general one and this may be more
for the city manager but there's been residents who have written in stating
that we shouldn't go into debt by issuing a bond.
So what is the downside if we don't issue a bond?
Yeah, presumably the other option would be assuming that those folks want to see the project move forward and start with that.
But if that's the case, the other option would be what's called a pay go approach where we would continue to save the measure of money that comes in year over year.
And then save enough money to eventually pay for the project in a hole and not have to issue any bonds.
Now, given that we have upwards of about nine million a year,
we would need at least six years of savings,
assuming no inflation in order to build the project.
Question would be, is what does inflation do?
What happens in the construction market?
Would we ever save enough to catch up
to the cost of the project?
Another way to think about this is,
it's very comparable to folks buying a home.
Vast majority of folks don't have entire amount of cash
on hand to purchase a home outright,
they take a loan and pay it over time
after putting down a down payment.
That's virtually what we're doing here,
but instead of taking a 30 or 15 year mortgage,
we're taking a seven and a half year mortgage.
Right, so people are paying their taxes into measure O,
we're gonna see the benefit of that much sooner
than we would be if we tried to save
for the next seven, 10, whatever years.
Yeah, there's a potential it actually costs less,
given where inflation is headed to do the project sooner.
We actually had very favorable bid climate.
The project came in a little lower
than was estimated for the bids.
That might not be the case six, seven years from now
if you're able to save that money
and the upside to the community
as this project will be done much sooner
than if we're waiting six, seven or eight years
to begin construction.
Thank you.
Council Member Dufany.
Okay.
I have beaten myself up
and have no more questions to you guys on this one.
So I will go ahead and open this up for public comment.
Anybody wish to oh and open the public hearing
Open the public hearing and open the public hearing for our public comment
Anyone anyone?
Seeing no it one it's okay to close the public hearing
Okay, we'll go ahead and close the public hearing and bring it back up here to the council for any additional questions or considerations
or comments
Who wants to start? I?
I will thank you, staff and our consultants and the community for supporting Measure O.
This is, I think, you know, and certainly our predecessors and current council members
that helped us achieve the double A plus and triple A rating.
So I think we're I do think for all the reasons the city manager mentioned that the inflation
in the increased construction costs and not having the facility for six or seven years
or maybe ever if we were to forego.
That to me doesn't seem like it's consistent with what we told the voters when we went
out with Measure O and I think we were in a favorable big climate and I think this is
the right approach in terms of financing and I'm looking forward to seeing this move forward
quickly as possible. Thank you. Councilmember Silva. Thank you very much and thank you again to staff
all of your work on this and to the community who came together three years ago and helped us
approve Measure O which is giving us the funds to be able to do this and so many other special
projects for the city. I agree this is the way to finance it. First and foremost, besides the fact
that it's fiscally actually very prudent because at an estimated two and a half percent interest
that is much lower than what could likely occur in the future and the bid climate was
excellent as well but also because the Clark Swim Center is over 50 years old and it's
wearing out and so if we were to wait and just save and save and save we could actually
not only we might have nothing to show for it halfway through that wait period and so
we're also avoiding the risk of loss of the use of services so thank you I look forward
to supporting this agree with my colleagues and as I mentioned during our consent calendar
many small steps to get the completion this isn't another one of those small steps actually
is a big step but it's an important step and I look forward to supporting it as well Councilman
And Daphne?
Yeah, to echo previous statements.
And I think this is the smartest, the most responsible way
to go about financing the project.
And it was interesting to go through the process
and see how municipal bonds are issued.
And it seems like the right way to go.
So I'll definitely approve of this.
And I want to echo the same thanks that everybody here
on council has for our past councils, our treasurer,
our staff who have helped us get to this credit rating.
I'm gonna thank the Measure O Committee,
all the people that walked and knocked,
all the people that supported that campaign,
and the three co-chairs who will be joining us next week
to celebrate the soccer fields.
But I also wanna thank the Aquatics Foundation.
We have always asked our partners to chip in on projects,
and the Aquatics Foundation has signed an MOU with us
that commits to fundraising as part of this project.
I reached out to them to let them know
that we were considering the bonds tonight
and they gave me a quick update.
They have made significant progress.
They're ready to make their first payment under the MOU
and they're very excited
that we're able to move forward with this.
And this is another reason why it's important for us
to move forward with the bonds
rather than do a pay as you go approach
because that MOU basically gives us a certain timeframe
that they felt they needed to break ground.
And we are going to be able to live up to that commitment
to the Aquatics Foundation here.
I also want to thank all the staff
and everybody that has worked on this.
This is a first time that I think many of us
have been through this and you have helped us as council
understand what we are doing and get through it.
And I really appreciate that.
And I'm really looking forward to,
My kids grew up swimming at Clark Swim Center.
They grew up doing the little workshop classes
over at the community center.
And it was such an important part
of growing up in Walnut Creek.
And I am really proud of our community
because we said, we don't wanna just be a place
where you live.
We wanna be a place where you can live well.
You can learn things, you can do things.
You can swim in the summer.
We could send kids to the Olympics
with our Aquatics Aquanauts Program
other programs and I just really appreciate the support of the entire
city and I am prepared to support this and so now can you put back up what
we're doing? I will move that do we need to do these one at a time or all
together? Do the City Council first? Okay. My recommendation would be adopt
each resolution separately. Okay. It's a two separate motion. We will do that so my
first motion is as the mayor of the City Council a resolution approving the
issuance and sale of lease revenue bonds in the aggregate principal amount not to
exceed 60,000 by the Walnut Creek Joint Powers financing authority to provide
financing for public improvements to be owned and operated by the city and
approving related documents and directing related action. I'll second.
Roll call. Mayor Darling. Real briefly if I may just clarify for the record it's 60 million, not 60,000.
Oh 60 million, sorry. I was doing so good.
Mayor Darling? Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Wilk? Aye. Councilmember Davini? Aye. Councilmember Francois? Aye. Councilmember Silva? Aye.
I could tell I'd said something wrong because there was whispering coming from down there.
Does somebody else want to take the honors on the second one? Sure I'll take the second.
I'd like to make the motion of resolution creating the new Heather Farm Aquatic
and Community Center Bond Fund appropriating 55 million dollars in the
the Heather Farm Aquatic and Community Center bond fund
and $9,877,000 from the Measure O Aquatic
and Community Center Reserve,
to transfer to the Heather Farm Aquatic
and Community Center Reserve,
and appropriating funds in the Measure O Fund
for the lease payments,
estimated at $7,700,000 per year.
Second.
Roll call please.
Mayor Pro Tem Wilk?
Aye.
Council member Davini?
Aye.
Council member Francois?
Aye.
Council member Silva?
Aye.
Mayor Darling?
Aye.
You guys wanna be the Joint Powers Authority?
Moved that we adopt the resolution authorizing the issuance and sale of lease revenue bonds to provide financing for public improvements to be owned and
Operated by the City of Walnut Creek
Adopting a debt management policy and approving related documents and directing related actions
second
roll call, please
Councilmember Silva. I don't some reference. Wha I don't remember divinity mayor pro tem will hi, darling. Yay
Does anybody need a break or we must learn through
How much more do we have?
What's that?
I know, there's one item left.
Okay.
Next on the agenda is a public hearing
for the consideration of adoption
of the ordinance amending title nine
of the Walnut Creek Municipal Code
for the adoption of the 2025 Building,
California Building Standards Code with amendment.
And I invite staff forward to make a presentation.
All right.
Take it away.
Okay.
Good evening, mayor and the council member.
I'm Frank Kong, chief of beauty on fish for the city.
During the November 4th Council meeting, an ordinance was introduced to adopt the 2025
California Building Standard Code, specifically the following 11 codes.
Today is a public hearing for its adoption.
The amendment – the ordinance includes three structural amendments and six flat-plan amendments.
All these amendments are substantially the same as those currently in effect.
therefore we are in compliance with the AB 130 requirement.
There is, the ordinance also contains one administrative change, which is to repeal
the Chapter 11 of Title IX.
This Chapter 11 was adopted in 1983, aiming to prevent, I mean, improve or promote, sorry,
the energy efficiency by requiring the homeowner to voluntarily disclose the status of their
home's energy efficiency measures during the time of sale to the potential buyers.
However, the modern real estate practices, particularly the routine use of the home inspection,
has made this voluntary disclosure ordinance necessary.
So Fire Protection District in our county introduced the two ordinance, ordinance 2514
and 2515 to adopt 2025 California Fire Code and 2025 WUI Code.
And these both ordinance were adopted today this morning.
And per the Health and Safety Code as a member city, we must ratify this both ordinance in
In order to make sure the fire code amendment and the we code amendment can become effective in our city
Action so staff recommended council to ratify country cause the font County Fire Protection District
ordinance of 25 14 and 25 15 and the same time adopt this ordinance
Amending the title 9 of our wanna Creek municipal code to adopt the 2025
California building standard codes with the proposed amendments
so this concluded my presentation and
I want forgot to introduce our farm Marshall
You know chief Chris Beckman here attending our meeting here. So
Chief Beckman and then myself will be happy to answer questions you might have
Thank you very much questions on the building code. I think since this is the second time we're yeah, you know
Everybody good. All right, we'll bring it back to we'll go ahead and open up the public hearing and
Look to see if anybody wants to provide public comment on this
Item Wow, this is fast
We're all good
We'll go ahead and close the public hearing and bring it back up here for comments or motion. I move to
ratify the
CCC fire protection district ordinances
14 and 2025 15 and adopt the ordinance amending title 9 of the Walnut Creek municipal code to adopt
the 2025 California building standards code with amendments
Will call please
Councilmember Francois. Aye
Councilmember Silva. Aye
Councilmember Davini. Aye
Mayor Pro Tem Wilk. Aye
Mayor Darling. Aye
All right
And that brings us to the end of our business meeting and tonight
Before we adjourn tonight's meeting we are adjourning in the memory of Gwen regalia who just recently passed away
And I'd like to take a moment to honor the extraordinary legacy of Gwen regalia
She served our community for 30 years with terms on both the Walnut Creek School District Board and the Walnut Creek City Council
including five terms as mayor
Tonight we adjourn this meeting in her honor and with deep gratitude for her vision her service
and her unwavering commitment to the people of Walnut Creek.
When we have our ceremonial meeting in December
where we change the mayor, we will do much more.
We will invite the family and former mayors
to come celebrate her life and her legacy.
But tonight, we just wanted to adjourn in her honor
and in her memory for all that she did for all of us
for all those years.
Anybody else like to?
I'll have comments in a couple of weeks,
But we all knew Gwen, and of course,
that just some of us that were on commissions
knew her when she was on city council,
going back 20 years, and she'll be missed.
She, Walnut Creek today is due in large part
to the service that Gwen Regalia had,
and that shouldn't be forgotten.
Yes.
Yeah, I agree.
I didn't have the honor of serving with Gwen,
but I certainly considered her a mentor.
And she's just such a graceful, lovely,
intelligent, dynamic person.
And her whole family has given so much
to making this community what it is.
And not only Walnut Creek,
but the larger Contra Costa community
with her and Ed's service
on the Kennedy King Scholarship Board.
And so she was a neat lady, and she was fun to talk to and learn from, and she will be
missed.
When I saw the email last night, I cried.
Gwen was on the council for the first two years that I was on council, and she was instrumental
in encouraging me to run for city council.
She mentored in a way that was amazing in her last year on council.
She said to me, well we need to go, I need to go to the mayor's conference and I need
to go to the Cal Cities meetings, but I don't want to drive and I need you to drive for
me.
And it was her way of getting me there and getting me engaged and getting me introduced.
And so I credit her with so much, but she was active in other things as well, Sister
Cities, the Kennedy King College Scholarship Fund.
She was president of ABEG, she was on the CalCog Board, and we'll hear more about her,
but her legacy will live on forever, and so will her husband, Edmunds, and so it's with
deep sadness, but I know she's making that difference in heaven.
Yes.
She is, I'm sure, organizing them, and she has a way of looking at you and letting you
know what she wants you to do, and so we will look forward to celebrating with her family
and everybody else in December but we just wanted to take a moment tonight to remember her.
And with that we adjourn in Gwen's honour. Thank you.