I'm Kevin Wilk, Mayor of the City of Walnut Creek, and welcome to the regular meeting
of the Walnut Creek City Council.
The City Council was conducting this meeting from the City Council Chamber.
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this evening.
with section 9.5 of the City Council Handbook, 30 minutes will be initially
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All right, that was the first time I saw that too.
All right, I'm ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille.
Good evening, I'm Kevin Wilt,
Mayor of the City of Walnut Creek
and welcome to the Tuesday, December 16th,
regular meeting of the Walnut Creek City Council.
And if you would all please join me
in the Pledge of Allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the flag
and to the republic for which it stands.
And City Clerk Susie Martinez,
would you please call roll?
Council Member Darling.
I'm here.
Council Member Davini.
Here.
Council Member Silva.
Here.
Mayor Pro Tem Francois.
Here.
Mayor Welk.
Here.
All right, the first item on the agenda
is a presentation by John Muir Health,
and unfortunately, Kaiser Permanente
is unable to join us this evening,
but if Sharon Jenkins and Paul Derringer
with John Muir Health, please join us at the lectern.
Great, thank you Mayor Welk
and other council members for having us.
Yes, I'm not with Kaiser.
So, I am Paul Derringer, Chief Strategy Officer
with John Muir.
We're gonna talk a little bit about some of the challenges
that the health system is facing,
but also grounding that a little bit
in what's going on with us, who we serve and who we are.
And a little bit about current events.
So really important to ground John Muir
is who we are is not-for-profit,
locally, government, and community-based.
All of that is really important
when we talk about the kinds of challenges we're facing
and why we're responding to them the way we are.
Provider of exceptional care close to home.
This is particularly important.
I know many of you live in Walnut Creek.
I live around the corner from the Walnut Creek Medical Center.
My kids were born there,
and I live in the flight path of the trauma copter.
So we can see it every day,
and it's a very personal mission both for us
and our families.
Essential service provider to everybody, including Medi-Cal,
and we'll talk a little bit about why that's important
when it comes to some of the HR1 cuts that are pending.
An economic and community anchor,
particularly as we think about the role
as not just a provider of care,
but also an employer
and a provider of community benefit.
And the challenges we're talking about
are not just about John Muir,
this is really about the entire community.
And so we'll talk more about how that plays out
across not just the hospital and the health system,
but also our community partners
and private businesses and employers.
So this is a busy slide, but basically we've been
in Walnut Creek specifically about 60 years.
At 65, the Walnut Creek Hospital opened
and you can see from the 65 photo to the 2025 photo,
how it's changed over the years.
We continue to invest in expansion of facilities and services.
Most recently, if you've driven past the Walnut Creek Hospital, you'll see the UCSF, John Muir
Health, Gene and Ken Hoffman Cancer Center.
This is important for a few reasons, one of which is it allows us to bring really cutting
edge cancer care into the community.
It also is about a $280 million construction project.
Half of that was financed through philanthropy.
And so it's a really great for us testament to community faith and support in the system.
So as a 25, we are the only independent not-for-profit community-based and locally-governed health
system in Contra Costa County.
The award slide, the reason this matters, when we talk about higher levels of care close
to home, you don't have to go over the bridge or down the peninsula to get really excellent
care.
We have centers of excellence and a number of really wonderful programs spanning from
maternity, orthopedics, gastroenterology and we have magnet recognition and
nursing excellence at both of our hospitals most recently for the fourth
time at our Concord Medical Center. This is important because when you have
families and patients who are able to get care where they live it really
reduces travel time, it reduces expense and for us it's how we continue to
invest in the community and in programs we make available to our patients. I
I mentioned earlier the Behring Pavilion. It is a beautiful space. It is also a
landmark investment in comprehensive cancer care. It's allowing us to bring
infusion, imaging, lab, other services in much better quantities for our patients,
and again people can get basically everything except transplants we do in
the cancer center and adjacent. So we talk about a central service provider.
what does this really mean? We serve everybody, no matter what your ability is
to pay or what kind of insurance you have. One in four Contra Costa residents are
served by the health system. So again this is very personal for us in terms of
who we serve and how we do it. About 340,000 lives served in 2025 including
55,000 Medi-Cal patients, over 1,200 physicians affiliated with the health
system, and we are about to celebrate the 40th anniversary of serving as the
County's only trauma center, so level two trauma center here in Walnut Creek.
About 20% of our business is Medi-Cal, and we are the largest provider of
medical hospital services in the county, including the county. And about 90% of
our community benefit is attributable to unpaid costs of Medi-Cal, so it's going
to be about $200 million this year, so we lose about $600 million a year on
government payers, Medicare and Medi-Cal, and about a third of that is Medi-Cal.
And 10 percent of the state's child acute psych beds are located at the health system.
So there are a number of very unique assets within the health system and this is one the
need always outstrips the available supply, but it's something that we're proud of and
we're continuing to commit to providing the community.
So we are keeping on keeping on, even though we do continue to see chronic underfunding
of Medicare and Medi-Cal.
All of this is happening before we even get to talking about HR1, and that's part of why
this is important because the current state is really important to understand how the
health system works and what we do and how we do it to understand how big of an impact
we're talking about.
We talk about an economic and community anchor.
We're a people business, so we are by and for our people, and there are a number of
ways that we invest in our people both inside and outside the organization.
We're the second largest private employer in the county.
So again, we talk about things that impact business in the county that is also us.
We are our patients.
We are also a huge source of economic support.
We are now as of this year in the top quartile for employee engagement and our average employee
stays over 10 years, which is a great testament in our view about their commitment to a connection
with the organization.
We trained over 1400 health professionals in 24.
So this is not just about the caregivers of today, but also how are we training the caregivers
of tomorrow.
and that starts to tie into our community benefit.
And really looking at, we have over 200 million
in community benefit spent last year,
and about 35 community, not for profit,
community benefit partners.
This is, and there's another slide we'll show
kind of who some of those people are.
But for us, there are a number of services
that are critical to have in the community.
We are not necessarily best positioned to do it ourselves.
So we try to select really high quality partners
who can help us ensure that those services
are available to our patients and families.
about 20,000 people last year who were reached
through our community benefit.
So some of the partners, this is not a complete list,
but when we talk about those community partners,
there are so many things beyond the direct provision
of medical care that affect health.
And one of our commitments as a health system
is ensuring whether it's, you know, housing insecurity,
food insecurity, you know, job training and others,
that we're addressing those holistically in the community.
All right, so let's talk a little bit
about some of these challenges.
That's just kind of level setting
on where we are as a health system.
There are a number of things that are converging right now.
This is not unique to John Muir,
although there are some unique local impacts.
Seismic safety mandates, it's about a $2 billion
with the B cost of coming up to compliance
with the 2030 seismic requirements.
That is on top of over a billion
that we've already invested in our campuses.
This is relevant because as we look at
where is that money going to come from,
we are already seeing chronic underfunding
for Medicare and Medi-Cal.
This is before any further cuts to the safety net.
HR1, if all of those cuts stick,
we'll talk more specifics in a minute,
would put a very significant pressure on our revenue
and our ability to continue to provide community benefit.
And also we talk about affordability.
It's something that is on everybody's mind.
It matters to everybody, ourselves included.
And so we've continued and will continue to take steps
to do what we can to make healthcare
as affordable as possible.
HR1 is making that increasingly difficult.
All right, so when we talk about HR1,
this is the question we get.
How bad is it really?
Well, the answer is it's really bad for everyone,
including healthcare.
But it isn't really about healthcare.
The economic consequences are really gutting the safety net
both on food and healthcare.
That ends up having some consequences
both inside healthcare and beyond.
We'll have reduced medical enrollment.
If the county's estimates hold,
it's up to a third of our current medical enrollees
could be off the rolls.
That means that when they seek care,
they will defer that care,
and when they come in,
they will probably come in through the emergency room,
and then we will see rising levels of uninsured
and bad debt accruing to hospitals.
Direct and indirect revenue constraints,
this comes in the form of both rate cuts,
but also, when we look at our ability to access
other forms of funding through federal programs,
those get increasingly strained.
We will see rising number of uninsured patients,
longer wait times in the ER, higher volumes.
We're already on track to see about 140,000 visits
at our two emergency rooms
across Walnut Creek and Concord.
They are highly efficient and they are packed.
And then because people are gonna be deferring care,
when they come in, they will be sicker,
they will stay longer.
As that happens, that strains bed capacity
because you can only bring a patient in
if you can get a patient out.
And so when we think about what is the impact on us,
if everything sticks, we'll lose about 300 million
in revenue and working families here in Contra Costa
to see their premiums go up 15% or more.
This is on top of five years of 30% increases in labor.
We talked about the $2 billion in seismic.
So in terms of what is the impact,
if HR1 really goes through all the way,
is gonna force some very difficult choices
for John Muir, Kaiser, Sutter, everybody in the community
about services, facilities, jobs,
community benefit support, and access, ultimately.
So I was told I had to bring some optimism
this particular conversation. There is good news. The good news is we're
coming from a position of real strength. We do have Money in the Bank. We are
continuing to improve our operating cash flow as a business and that has gone up
year over year and we're approaching sustainability which is where our goal
in the next two to three years. We have really excellent people both on the
employee and our physician side who are super committed to making sure the
community has the care that it deserves, and while there are a whole host of
things that we cannot control. And I just wanted a clarity on that. In terms of in
Lou Park fees, I just want to talk about trees of course. I assume that the trees
are buried somewhere in Lou Park fee, and shout outs to our group who has
redone the Ignacio Valley nicely on the landscaping but I was curious about that.
And I just wanted to highlight for the record since there's so much in here
tonight the and we're always some some folks are like to complain about
parking. This is just a reminder of the traffic impact fees and how much one
parking place costs. And let me see if I can get my writing here. $53,683 in 2024. So,
walk, bike, whatever. Appreciate all the maneuvering on the, I had problems talking
to my meter tonight. It didn't want either of my cards. I had to put it in a lot, but I
did manage to do that. So I just want to wish y'all all a wonderful new year and
appreciate all the work y'all have done all year long. Thank you. Thank you, thank
you, Jen. Do we have any more public comments on items on the consent
calendar? Okay seeing no more speakers I'll ask the council if anyone would
like to make a motion with regard to the consent calendar for items 2A through D
B, F, and G, I, J through M.
Did that make this easy?
And I think that's it.
So moved.
Second.
We have a motion to second.
Susie, could you call the roll please?
Mayor Pro Tem Francois?
Aye.
Council member Darling?
Aye.
Council member Davini?
Aye.
Council member Silva?
Aye.
And Mayor Whelk?
Aye.
I'm just curious.
All right, let's start with item two, E.
Thank you very much, Mayor.
And before I start, just a quick question.
The member of the public asked us some questions.
Perhaps we can get those addressed during,
at the end of this, before.
At the end of the consent calendar comments.
That would be great, thank you.
Item 2E is the approval of the curb management plan,
which I think is very thorough, but I had three comments.
Is there a member of, okay, I'll just make one.
So we saw this as a study session item on September 2nd,
and we didn't have an opportunity
to see the full plan.
We saw summaries of the plan,
and there were three items
that I would like to make a recommendation on.
One of the goals is to promote the availability
of the garages in lieu of parking on the street.
And one of the comments that we had that night
was also that we could market the availability
of the garages better,
I think that should be integrated into the narrative.
The second is recommendations 9 and 10.
This was about e-bikes, e-bike availability, micromobility.
And if it's possible, we had mentioned that night when we were talking about it that the
desire to improve the availability of micromobility devices also is juxtaposed against the usage
concerns that we have.
And maybe we can put a footnote in the plan so we don't sound tone deaf, that we don't
recognize that.
And I know this is just a point in time, but somehow say that we are, you know, at the
point the plan was adopted, we are working hard to address the issues of usage and, you
know, ensure the safety of writers and users, et cetera.
And my last comment is about the recommendation 15, which is about events and encouraging
more events as we move forward, downtown events, and I think it's important to recognize that
those events are done in partnership with organizations like Walnut Creek downtown and
the farmer's market. Otherwise, if we don't acknowledge that in the narrative, even if
with a few words, there will be an assumption by those who read the plan that the city is
assuming that they would be doing, sponsoring and organizing those events. There's just
a few suggestions. I also had a question about item E. No, during those discussions we were
looking at utilization of the purple spaces and the sort of most perimeter areas. I know that
for example on the side street by like Dorito Brothers and where the Saab place used to be,
the IC meters there that are now purple. I think they're recently installed and they are rarely
and we talked about offloading a little bit of the demand inside of the parking
lots by opening up perhaps more monthly parking passes to be used in some of
these underutilized areas of parking meters. Where did we end in that?
Yeah so good evening my name is Brianna Byrne. I'm with the city's traffic
engineering group. So the recommendation to essentially open up those spaces, it's
It's held within re-imagining employee parking.
I'd have to look up the exact recommendation number,
but we, because this is a planning document,
we didn't wanna say do this, do this, do this.
So it would be housed within there.
There's a couple other practices
that neighboring agencies do
that we would also look into.
It's just what best fits Molnick Creek
and those situations.
still working on those specifics, but the document covers that area. Yeah, it
would be, yes, it would be something we looked at when we dive deeper into that
recommendation. Okay, thank you. I think it says reevaluate the city's monthly
parking program. It's a pretty broad statement. Well, no, the narrative is a
little longer. And was your question answered as well? I guess I'm
turning to my colleagues and saying if I make a motion to approve the plan with
the recommendations to the net the minor recommendations to the narrative
would I get a second I think you will so I make I move that we adopt the our
resident traffic engine our resident traffic engine engineering expert so for
those that don't understand what this really is can you explain under what
state how we set speed limits on streets and what this is really what we're really
doing here and would it does it enables speed limits to be reduced or increased
what generally happens? Good evening Matt Redmond city traffic engineer and this
item here is allowing our speed limit signs to be enforceable by radar with
these extension of the engineering traffic surveys from five years to seven
years, so we're just extending it by two years,
keeping the speed limits the same.
And so if we go back in two years,
and what would trigger a change in the speed?
Generally, the engineering traffic surveys
do expire after five or seven years
if conditions haven't changed.
And then they basically just need
to be re-evaluated every five to seven years.
And what are you evaluating for?
So you are collecting radar speeds of vehicles
as they go by, you collect about 100 and you determine how many are going, or about 85%
of them, what's their speed is, and that's generally what the posted speed limit would
be.
So if 85% of the traffic that you survey on the South Broadway extension is going, I'll
be extreme, 60 miles an hour, sometimes it feels like that, what then do we have to do?
So if that's the case, generally we have some rules, some additional tools, we can bring
that down, maybe to 55 or 50 if it is 60 on Broadway.
But we can't put it at 25.
It would not be enforceable by radar from our engineering traffic.
So this is state law?
Yeah, it's under the California Vehicle Code.
I always have heard that this is really to prevent communities from creating speed traps
by having lower speeds that are really not what's happening on the street.
Yeah, we definitely want enforceable speed limits so that, you know, our teams can actually enforce a ticket. Yeah
Give a ticket that's that's held up in court
Okay. Thank you
Okay. Oh, it's another question. Thank you mayor. Thank you Matt. I
didn't pour through the entire report, but I did search for kind of my street or some other local streets and notice that they weren't
Referenced what's the general rule of thumb in terms of local neighborhood streets and the speed limit? Yeah
Yeah, so for certain segments of streets like those residential streets, they can be classified
as prima facie, which essentially allows them to be posted at 25, and they don't need an
engineering traffic survey to be posted at that, and they're still enforceable.
Okay, thank you.
All right, you have a motion?
Move to adopt the resolution extending the 2019 engineering and traffic survey and retaining
existing speed limits on various streets within the city for an additional two years.
We have a motion and a second.
Susie, could you call the roll please?
Councilmember Silva?
Aye.
Councilmember Darling?
Aye.
Councilmember Davenny?
Aye.
Mayor Pro Tem Francois?
Aye.
Mayor Wolk?
Aye.
All right, next we have item 2N.
Thank you.
This is an item in which we're entering
into a consulting services agreement
with an engineering design firm
for a property at Homestead and Walker Avenue
for a storm water detention vault project.
and I have a few questions about that project.
Okay.
So we've been working on this for a while,
I think even before I was on council,
which is 20 years now, so I...
So could you explain what the problem is
that's been happening at Walker, Homestead, and Walnut,
and what the solution is that we are moving forward with?
Okay, yes, my name's Alex Wong.
I'm the senior engineer with the Capital Improvement Program.
So yes, right now the stormwater runoff that originates from the Okno Loop area is not
fully captured by the existing storm drain system.
This results in the uncontrolled flow that just comes down Okno Loop onto Walker Avenue
and it pulls onto the adjacent properties near the Walker Homestead area.
So with these years, we've done preliminary engineering and we've completed these hydraulic
models and developed to evaluate the different alternatives for correcting this filling problem.
Due to utility conflicts, stormwater retention and the controlled release of the strong water
was identified as the most cost-effective solution. This proposed design includes a
stormwater retention basin that's going to be placed at 900 Homestead Avenue to store runoff
from the 10-year storm event that's in excess of the existing stone water system.
So we bought the house at 900 walk homestead, walker homestead at that corner and we're going
to put a retention a water retention system underneath the house or are we going to remove
the house and put it just underground? Yes it's a remove the house and it's a big underground
a system so it's a big tank underground yes and then what happens to the water
over time let's say we have a massive storm and it rains a lot for 12 hours
there's a lot of water it goes into the retention basin how does it get out there's
a pump system that's gonna be installed inside the vault and they'll meter the
water out so there'll be enough capacity to put a water to be evacuated from the
And what will it look like on the ground where the house was? What is it likely to
what is the neighborhood likely to see? Yeah so on top of the vault we're
looking at making just a passive area where the maintenance vehicles can go in
and service this vault in the pump and then also with that we're looking into
landscaping this area into like green infrastructure to treat runoff water and
and then also looking at putting in sidewalk along the frontage of Walker
and Homestead so it creates a better pedestrian area. And what we're funding
now is the design phase two so the detailed design of the system and the
land around it and how it would run off. Yes that's what this this final design
would put together the construction documents. And then what is it going to
take to do how long will it take once this design is ready as 2028 yeah we're
looking at 2028 there's still need to be a lot of survey that needs to be done
there's a lot of utility coordination there's like a lot of power poles out
there something might need to be moved just some geotechnical studies that
need to be done for the vault and still a lot more modeling and hydraulic
balling that needs to be done just to verify the design everything's supposed
to go the way it was to go and we built something like this up at the top at the
top of Tice Creek in Rossmore did we not some years back yes yes something
similar okay thank you thank you Alex any other questions on this item right
like to make a motion move to authorize the city manager to enter into a master
consulting services agreement for engineering design services for the
Homestead Avenue and Walker Avenue stormwater detention bulk project in the amount of 1.1 million and authorize the transfer of remaining budget from
One account to another account in the amount of just nearly
$500,000 second
We have a motion to second Susie
Councilmember Silva. Aye, Councilmember Davini. Aye, Councilmember Darlene. Aye, Mayor Pro Tem Francois. Aye, Mayor Wilk. Aye
All right. Next we have
2-0
Yes, okay, so I pulled item Oh which is our
Liaison and City Council
committee appointments and
Reason I pulled it is because I haven't received I did not receive this year a an appointment as a liaison
Actually last year I didn't receive any fun a functional
Appointment as a liaison. I was I was appointed to sister cities
But councilmember Silva was already a board member of that organization. So I served no functional purpose on that
as that liaison and therefore
Saw no value in that position last year
so
You know last year. I also expressed interest in in attending some of these liaison appointments in the form of even a
just a member of the community
to observe and
learn and perhaps participate with public comments and what's going on in these different liaisons like our
Chamber of Commerce or Downtown Association or Osmore
Diablo Regional Arts Association
Yeah, I was told that at the time by the council that
my
attendance at those events would be sort of infringing on the
appointed liaisons position and therefore
You know would not be welcomed. I was asked to be patient and you know wait for the new year
And so I have I've been I've been patient
Worked I think in a collaborative manner with the council this past year worked diligently worked in good faith
And now in my second year
I've again received no liaison appointments. So so my
request
The name of fairness, you know good faith and collaboration amongst the council. I like to put forward the motion
that I replace councilmember Silva as the liaison to the Dablow Regional Arts Association
As she already she has two assignments
Everyone else has one and I have zero
okay, so
As council member Davini mentioned,
we do have five liaison appointments.
And council member Silva, you are listed as currently
as the DRAA representative for this next year.
I actually had it for this past year.
And sister cities, you are a board member for sister cities.
Is that correct?
OK, so which is you're listed as ex officio then for this year.
And I understand the issue on here.
If somebody was a board member on any of these different committees, it becomes a little
bit awkward to then have a liaison as well.
But Council Member Davini proposed a change since it was specifically for DRAA, I guess
we'll ask, is this something that you would support or not?
Okay.
Well, before we-
No, I think not.
You would not.
Okay.
All right.
We have a current draft listening on here.
Council Member Davini made a motion.
or a second on the motion. So I would like to expand just to touch then especially
when it comes to you know my request to participate last year even as a member
of the community as just an observer and I was told that would infringe on their
their position whoever was assigned there and yet I was given an assignment
with someone who was already on the board of that committee. So clearly it
was sort of a double standard and so I just don't understand how the council
in good faith could for a second year assign the liaison appointments to
everyone but me. Can someone from the council please speak to that? Can I make
a point of reference? I believe there are more assignments than just five.
are the liaisons to our bodies within the city. So right so there are a number
of different groupings of appointments and of course as we've talked about in
the past you've got a couple of other appointments as well but we're talking
specifically about the liaison appointments that are within the city
itself. While it doesn't sound like we have a second for this particular
particular motion. I would actually take it under advisement for the following year since
this is now already part of what we have within the agenda, that if any council member wants
wishes to be on a board, whatever the board is, that that becomes by default their liaison
appointment because I can see the challenge that we would have here in conflicts moving
forward if we had multiple board members on different boards and then we have different
liaison appointments for those different boards. So I can see the challenge there. While it
doesn't sound like we have a second to make the change for this year, unless somebody
has changed their mind, this is something that will have to go under advisement for
the following year.
So the four of you are on the record as being okay with me having no assignments, you all
having one and and council members still having two. I want I want to speak to it
because I think it's a it's a fair point that council member Davini raises that
there should you know likely be five liaison appointments I know we call
sister cities one but it really isn't one so and I'm not quite sure how to
solve that at this particular moment at times past we had talked about breaking
the Chamber assignment between the Chamber and the Visitors Bureau so that
there would be kind of five actual working liaison assignments that would
impinge on Councilmember Darling's assignment but if you know that might be
a way to... I would be happy to have you as represent us at Visit Walnut Creek.
you make those it is an interesting meeting with a lot going on with human
trafficking and other things that we're working with that community on if you I
would be happy to make a motion to appoint you as the liaison to visit
Walnut Creek. And what if we also made councilmember Devinee the alternate for
Chamber of Commerce in case you were not able to be there for any of those
meetings. I'm always there. You can be my alternative for that. Okay. I will be on
vacation every now and then now that I'm not mayor. I appreciate very much that
accommodation and so I'll make the second. Okay. We have a motion to second.
Councilmember Darling. Aye. Councilmember Davini. Aye. Councilmember Silva. Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Francois. Aye. Mayor Welk. Aye. Motion carries. Okay. And you'll get to do lots with MCE, don't worry.
All right, that brings us to the end of the consent calendar, although I do want to mention
on item F, I didn't pull this, but I did want to make a point of it, it's extending the
downtown permitted outdoor dining structures, or PODS, incentive program.
So we have had that go through the end of December, December 31st, and it provides a
grant for any of the restaurants that would like to be able to build these outdoor structures.
We see several of them happening around town.
I just saw one actually at, is it La Cucina?
at the Mexican restaurant next to Havana was just building one. They get a $10,000
grant and we have approved through the consent calendar for that to be extended
through March 31st. So that's approved and I see Kathy Hemingway at the back
for Walnut Creek downtown. If you could let the downtown district know they
have another three months still and as liaison to Walnut Creek downtown I'll
mention that at the next meeting as well. And that brings us to the end of the
consent calendar. Which means we have public communications but all of you
have been sitting anxiously waiting for for 50 minutes. So next on the agenda is
public communications. This portion of the meetings reserved for comment on the
items not on the agenda. Under the Brown Act the council cannot act on items
raised during public communications but may respond briefly to statements made
or questions posed. Request clarification or refer the item to staff.
Consistent with section 9.5 of the City Council Handbook 30 minutes will be
allocated at this time for public communications for items not on the agenda.
Additional time for public communications for items not on the agenda
will be provided at the end of the meeting if necessary. Written comments
submitted 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'll note that time is 6.50 and we'll take public comments and
items not on the agenda until about 720 and then the remainder of any
such comments at the end of the open session portion of the meeting. Before we
get to this I'd like to refer to our city attorney for a closed session
because I think that may actually relate to what some of the people will be
talking about. Thank you mayor and council you use this opportunity to make
the report out of closed session which would be coming up. There were two items
on closed session at the special meeting that the council held before this
regular meeting. There was no reportable action from closed session. One of the
two matters in closed session related to the lawsuit filed related to the
pickleball courts at Rudgier Park. We wanted to advise the public that the
city has filed what's referred to as a demur in that action. There was a hearing
on that recently. That matter is under submission with the court right now so
we're all awaiting a final ruling on that and we will report that out to the
counsel once we receive that. Thank you, Mayor. Mr. City Attorney, I followed you
on the demurba. Can you explain to the layperson what a demurr is? Sure, a demurr
is a motion that a party can file in response to a lawsuit that asks the
court, assuming all of the assertions in the complaint, the court has to assume
them all to be true. The court is then asked whether or not it can make a
decision on the status of the case and potentially either dismiss the case or
allow it to go further on to trial. Okay so now is the time to talk so if you
could if you haven't filled out a speaker card please do so if you intend
to talk you'll have two minutes please line up to the left here against the
window provide the speaker card to the city clerk and I know there's a lot of
people here and anybody that can do math has just figured out that if you have
two minutes we can only get the 15 speakers within the first half hour. So
you don't have to take your full two minutes. You can get your point across
within 15-30 seconds or a minute and we can get more speakers in there. Otherwise
you'll have to wait till the end of the meeting. Let's start. Please step up.
Thank you. Appreciate the opportunity to speak. My name is Eric Eglund, born
Walnut Creek and have four kids here. Just asking the council as soon as
legally possible to restore the park hours to Pickleball to what it is for
normal park. We feel like the restrictions were implemented in a kind
of arbitrary way and that's caused thousands of students and working people
to be denied the ability to use the parks. That's funded by all of us and
controlled by you. I have four children educated at Walnut Creek Public Schools
and Pickleball is officially taught as a PE sport at middle school and high
school in Walnut Creek, yet we're denying the students the ability to play that
same sport after school during the week. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday you
cannot play after 1 p.m. So people with regular sort of day shift jobs and
students cannot play after school. So I think you know this has been happening
for years. It feels unfair to those people including myself and I just came
from the court that I drove 20 minutes to get to not because it would seem more
authentic but just because I love the sport. I grew up playing tennis on those
very same courts and in in rudd gear and I'm grateful for wall and Creek Park
so as a bigger message thank you to the council for how well you manage our
cities amazing resources including our parks so the ask is to you know rectify
this by restoring those pickleball hours as soon as possible thank you thank you
next speaker hi I'm Rohan Roy back home for the holidays I'm in college right
now same deal with mr. egglin really think the 8 to 1 four days a week is
pretty ridiculous. My parents work very hard and a big part of their lives now
that I'm out of the house is pickleball and I think it's really unfair for how
hard they work to have to drive so far to use the courts. Back home with some
friends we also like to play and have busy schedules and I think those limited
hours really hinder our ability to have a good time back home. So yeah. Thank you
Mr. Roy. Next speaker. Hello I'm Derek Haney, a Walnut Creek resident living
about 100 yards from the Rudgier Park pickleball courts.
I am here in support of restoring the court hours,
and I would like to thank the city for helping me.
I'm very fortunate, as this year I
was able to quit my job in tech and pursue a career coaching
and playing pickleball.
I was able to do this because of the Rudgier Park pickleball
courts.
That is not an exaggeration.
Without these courts being so close to my house,
I would not have discovered the game.
I would not have been able to play it so frequently
that I would get actually good at it.
And I would not have found the passion to go
and teach other people in playing this game.
I discovered this game while teaching my son,
who's in the back here, tennis.
We kept walking by the pickleball courts,
going to the empty tennis courts
on the other side of the park
and seeing all these people laughing,
having a good time and playing pickleball.
So we decided to get a few paddles and play pickleball.
So instead of coaching my son Tuesdays at about 4 p.m.
after school, in tennis I started coaching him
at Tuesdays after school at 4 p.m. in pickleball.
Unfortunately, now the park is closed on Tuesdays
at 4 p.m. and every weekday except for Fridays,
my son cannot play pickleball after school.
We've had to move the lessons to the weekend,
which works sometimes, but we have sports activities,
birthday parties, trips, and so forth.
And so his lessons have become few and far between.
Restoring the court hours would mean a lot to me and my family.
We love the park and we love seeing pickleball in the neighborhood.
Thank you.
Thank you.
You may be the envy of maybe most of the room here.
Hi, I'm Chris Hunter.
I'm a resident of Willamette Creek and I've
been affiliated with pickleball in this city since 2012.
From 2013 to today, pickleball has been at the Red Gear Park.
Back then, the club had portal nets
and we managed the courts for the city.
In 2015, we had a grand opening of four dedicated courts
with Mayor Simmons attending the ribbon cutting
of the first dedicated pickleball courts
in Northern California.
In 2016, I was the president of the club
and could see that we needed four more dedicated courts
because players preferred them to the portables.
So we saved our dollars.
In 2018, we had another grand opening
of our eight dedicated pickleball courts.
Cindy Silva, Kevin Wilk, Kevin Safine, and Mike Vickers
all attended the ribbon cutting,
and we're amazed to see that over 100 players
showed up that day.
In 2012, the club helped manage the protocols for COVID
with the city to keep players safe.
We had nine solid years at Red Gear
without a single complaint.
Then there was a lack of city oversight.
The club got lax with some of its rules.
The city cut the hours and days twice, and here we are.
those problems have been addressed.
We need to add hours for our afternoon senior couples
and after school, high school kids
and evenings for families to play.
All this has been hurt by these hour cuts.
Past and current Walnut Creek board members
know a lot about pickleball
and are more than willing to help the arts and rec,
the city council or the pros.
We want to keep pickleball in Walnut Creek.
We've been down at Red Year for every day since 2012.
We know a lot, and we can help help us.
The club needs to be part of the process going forward.
I want Walnut Creek to get serious about sports,
the proactive healthy adults,
and this sport should be at the top of this city's list
after being here for 13 years.
I still believe we can get it done.
And Merry Christmas, happy New Year.
Thank you, Chris.
Hi, I'm Kristen Lanham, Walnut Creek Big Walk Club,
And I just wanted to point out that I think it's the complaint.
I don't know where the defendant is.
Oh, sorry.
The main complaint, when he bought the house in 2018,
it was stated that there were pickleball courts
right across the street.
He, as a buyer, has a due diligence
to find out if the noise is going to bother him,
if there's any issues with the house, if it's not.
We had, as you just heard, that we had full courts
at that point when he bought the house in 2018.
So I've highlighted that maybe you can share it
with the attorneys that are helping with that.
And I would really like to see the city council maybe
help promote to move this along and get some sort of remedy,
whether it's sound balls or something that
may help that move along.
The club is willing to participate in some improvements
whatever may cost being a rise as long as we get more hours. So that's it.
Thank you. Hello my name is Luis Mora and I spoke a few times to the council in
the past. I want to say just a few more words about Pickleball. So as you know we
the club match with the city and neighbors in good faith and to try to
to resolve the issues and we lost almost half of our playing time and then the
neighbors turn around and sue the city to get rid of pickleball courts. That's
good faith on their side. And as was mentioned before that these current
times don't work for a lot of people, students, working adults like myself. My
prime time is eight to two and the weekends now we can start until ten in
the summer, that's hot by then.
Now we can only play in the morning, it's cold.
We want to play in the afternoon when it's warm.
So it's just, it's not working out.
Another thing is, you know, a few neighbors complain,
but for every few that complain,
there are tens, as was said before,
that live in the neighborhood and like the courts.
And there's hundreds of pick up all players
around here, right?
So this just gives you a sample.
But if you want to satisfy the most people, you know which side to satisfy.
The final point is that World Creek is a destination city, which means a lot of our sales tax that
funds a lot of programs come from people outside who come in and spend money.
There are many reasons to come to Walnut Creek.
It's great restaurants, entertainment, and pickleball.
So you want more people to come to play pickleball, not less, right?
So based on all of that, my request is that we go back to the old schedule, play every
day from 8am to sunset, and we need more courts.
That's basically my message.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Mora.
Next speaker.
Hi.
I'm Kevin Mora.
I'm a resident of Wanna Creek, and I'm a college student as well.
So I'm confused as to why the courts are closed in the afternoons during the week.
That's when my friends and I have time to play.
And because the courts are closed, that really limits our time to play pickleball.
People who live around the courts should expect to hear noise because, you know, activities
happen in a park and activities generate noise.
so there'll always be some noise around a park.
And please consider opening the courts,
yeah, keeping the courts open for the youth
who play pickleball, thank you.
Thank you.
Next speaker.
Hello, I'm Mark Nolsh,
20 plus year resident of Walnut Creek.
According to Lifetime's recent report to the city,
They trained over 900 pickleball students in 2024
and expect more growth in 2025.
Local coaches are also training hundreds more beginners
on how to play the game.
But when these newly minted players are ready
to hit the court, there's nowhere to go.
Walnut Creek has a household income of about $180,000.
Yet we only have eight public courts in the entire city,
serving a population of 70,000.
The pickleball community has been waiting for years
for the city to do something to relieve this pressure,
but the city has not proposed any solutions
after three years plus of studying the matter.
The pickleball community and neighbors alike
are frustrated and confused as to why nothing has been done.
The tennis courts at Rudgier Park were recently resurfaced,
even though they are mainly vacant.
In the meantime, the pickleball courts there are falling apart due to lack of maintenance.
Walnut Creek has recently boasted of a AAA bond credit rating.
Measure O and other sales taxes generate over $42 million annually to the city for services
and facilities.
Many residents here are not interested in competitive swimming.
Can some of these funds be redirected towards pickleball facilities?
And again, to quote from Life Time's report to the city, interest in pickleball from a
programming and recreational play perspective continues to be in high demand.
The current pickleball resources limit the amount of recreational play, class instruction,
and other opportunities to grow the sport in the area.
The lack of pickleball resources will not solve itself.
I implore you, as leaders of the city, to take action.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Hello, Mayor and City Council members.
My name is April and I'm 10 years old.
I live in Warner Creek with my parents, sister and grandparents.
I love playing pickleball because it helps me exercise, makes friends and have fun outside
instead of being on a screen.
I like playing with my family and we have competitions.
My mom plays the best out of the family and she teaches me.
Now I am better than my dad at pickleball.
I love playing pickleball at Ruggier Park.
People are so nice to me,
and I really like to be able to play with adults.
I would love to play pickleball after school.
Thank you.
Thank you, April.
And April, you did a very good job.
Thank you for coming down.
I know this is what you wanted to do on a Tuesday night.
Yes, thank you.
Mayor and council members,
Thank you for the opportunity to speak.
My name is Sylvia and I've been a Walnut Creek resident
and homeowner for the last 11 years,
and I'm a regular player at Red Gear Park.
Red Gear Park is not a quiet meadow.
It's a community park with playgrounds, baseball fields,
basketball, tennis and trails, you know all this, right?
And for eight years, I mean, sorry, for years,
the eight dedicated courts have given many, many, many of us
over hundreds per week from very young kids like my daughter
to senior people a free and healthy way
to stay active and connected.
I've made so many friends on the court
that I wouldn't have otherwise met.
It really just brings a lot of people together
because you're playing with strangers most of the time.
And I recognize that a few neighbors are unhappy
with the sounds of pickleball.
But Walnut Creek already has a noise ordinance
and the city has already reduced the court's hours
and even closed one day a week.
The question isn't, can someone hear pickleball?
The weather managed daytime recreation
in a city park is unreasonable.
So I and many others here today believe the answer is no.
People who live next to a park can fairly expect
the normal sounds of community life.
Kids laughing, balls bouncing, music playing.
During a group of regulars playing volleyball,
they're there almost every weekend,
league games and pickleball.
So to take away or further restrict pickleball court hours
would give a very small group of neighbors veto power
over a public asset used and loved by many more residents
and visitors.
And also if basketball, baseball, playgrounds,
and other sports are acceptable during daytime use,
it is inconsistent and unfair to single out pickleball.
A park is meant to serve the broader community
and not function as a private, quiet zone
for the adjacent homes.
Please protect red gear pickleball courts
as a true community resource,
and don't let a small number of complaints
take away a healthy intergenerational activity
that aligns perfectly with Walnut Creek's values.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Hello, I'm Jill Schinkle,
board member of the Pickleball Club,
and I wanna emphasize that Pickleball today
is still surging, it is not waning,
It's definitely a sport that more and more citizens
are going to want to take up and play.
And as club members, we see this growth firsthand,
and we're out here advocating not for ourselves,
but for broader community access to the sport that we love.
We're thrilled that the city's rec department
now teaches pickleball in the schools.
And when you were first seeking instructors,
people from our club stepped up and they continue
to coach in your programs.
In March, some of my friends taught 50 middle school students
at Foothill and WCI, and just this month,
they finished up yet another eight-week school program.
Just like everyone else, these students learn the sport,
love it, want to keep playing,
and as many people have mentioned,
and it doesn't make sense, our courts are closed
and locked when most students can play.
Seems like this is something we can solve.
I also want to remind you of Walnut Creek's history
as an outstanding place for pickleball and commend you.
Our club recently celebrated our 10th anniversary
and honored our founders, including Dick Hildebrand,
former mayor of Walnut Creek,
and our club's very first president,
champions who some of you know are here tonight,
they're national champions, Melinda Shaver and Steve Martin.
We're very proud of them and hope you are too.
To close, we know it's been challenging with the lawsuit
and we really appreciate you fighting for us, thank you.
Thank you, we've got about 10 minutes left
so hopefully we can get everybody in line.
Hello Mayor Wilk and council members,
My name is Jeff Elfont, I'm a resident of Danville,
but a business owner here in Walnut Creek,
and as the other prior speakers,
I'm a pickleball player and love the sport,
and would encourage you to maintain the current hours
at Regier Park, or if not, possibly expand them,
or find additional facilities, perhaps at Heather Farms.
I'm going to make my comments very brief,
because you've had such eloquent presentations
prior to my coming to the mic.
but I'd also like to take this time to thank Chief Knox
for his service to our community as he leaves being chief.
Thank you, Chief Knox, and thank you to the incoming chief
and the police officers of Walnut Creek.
Thank you, council members.
Thank you.
Hi, my name is Don Means.
I'm a member of the Walnut Creek Pickleball Club.
I understand there could be a potential settlement discussion
coming up that hopes to resolve this issue.
So I have a few observations I'd like to make.
One, if there is a formal settlement discussion,
I would suggest the city basically start from scratch,
which means restoring all of the hours of play
and negotiate from there.
Otherwise, there would simply be no recognition
of a concession that's already been made,
and basically we begin negotiating with ourselves,
and that doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Two, the petition references the Stewart Court study
as a sort of, I guess, surrogate
for the potential impacts at the current site.
This study suggests and recommends
at acoustic sound barriers would have provided effective mitigation
for potential noise from the pickleball play at that location.
Again, I don't speak formally for the club, but I certainly would not see a problem
with that as a potential solution.
And finally, there are a number of claims the neighbors made in their petition
that I would say, well, exaggeration, speculation,
conjecture, whatever you want to call it.
But what I did not see in the petition were any site-specific analysis or studies
to substantiate their claims.
As an example, it's too loud to work
or watch TV inside their homes.
They can't back their cars out of the driveway
because it's unsafe.
People urinating on their lawns.
I mean, I could go on, but I think you get the point.
But nowhere did they provide any evidence of these occurrences.
No noise studies in and around their residences.
No traffic studies.
I mean, not even a chemical analysis of the urine
to prove it was human.
Just unsubstained assertions.
And just because they say so doesn't make it so.
I couldn't end here without commenting on one of the claims.
The petition claims there's a minimum
of 50 hours of pickleball per week.
Well, a little bit of algebra,
I was able to back into their assumptions.
To get to that number, you have to assume pickleball play
would go to nine o'clock every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday,
basically every weekend of the entire year.
As far as I know, no one was playing pickleball
last weekend until nine o'clock at night.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Good evening.
My name is Brad Falk.
And I'm here tonight to talk about pickleball
as it's more than a game to me.
For me, pickleball is an antidote
for a very serious medical condition that I have.
And while this fight is often challenging for me,
I have found it to be the greatest weapon
that I have to slow down the progression of this disease
is playing pickleball.
My doctor has been absolutely clear
that the healthiest, healthy, consistent exercise
get from playing pickleball is the single best thing I can do to slow the advancement
of my disease.
So this sport is not just a recreational hobby for me, it's literally a life-changing medicine
that transforms my life.
So I am here tonight to speak on behalf of not just myself, but for other people like
me with medical conditions, and for every family, child, and senior who has found their
own joy and health on these courts.
The truth is at Rugger, we are bursting at the seams.
We have only eight courts and the demand is overwhelming.
We see people waiting far too long
just to get a chance to play a game that is so simple,
so social, and so healthy.
So my ask tonight is twofold.
One, please consider restoring the original hours at Rugger,
like everybody else has said.
Was through the arts and rec classes.
just I'm quite surprised by the sense of community
I have found there, more so than any of the extensive
school volunteering, board position on a swim team,
CASA volunteering, the number of people,
and just the experience of community,
there has been really a surprise and I think a treasure.
So I appreciate the club and it is a very well run club.
Again, I've had a lot of experience in volunteer committees
and they're right up there.
So I thank them, I thank the city
for the eight courts we have, more courts.
We do need more time on the courts as well.
But I just wanted to share that little sliver of experience.
Thank you.
Thank you.
My name is David Johnson.
Recently, I moved to Walnut Creek with my partner.
I've been here about a year or so
where we live in Rudger Estates, Cardigan HOA,
make it a seven iron to the middle of the courts.
And I think from my perspective, since it's
been a lot of anecdotal things, that we
don't experience a ton of noise.
I walk to the courts every day, and yes, it can be annoying.
But at the same time, everybody's
brought up the point of fairness,
and there's a ton of people here talking about it.
They love the game.
They love the camaraderie.
They love just the sense of community, basically.
I mean, she talked about earlier.
But I mean, that's the big thing to everybody.
And it's sad that a small group of people
can come in and tell all these people when and what
they can do.
I sold a home, excuse me, across from John Muir
when the guy came in and I was thinking about this.
And that place is so noisy, it's unreal,
right across the street from John Muir.
Those people knew what they were getting
when they bought that condo at John Muir,
the one that I sold.
These people who live across from these pickleball courts
that don't make half the noise as that,
knew what they were getting into or a lot of them did.
So I think in the point of, the whole thing to me
is about fairness.
If you represent us, you will help
and do what is fair for the community.
That's it.
All right, let's get our final speaker.
I think you just made it under the gun.
Yay!
My name is Steve Martin.
National champion, yep, at 75.
Wow, I love your comedy too.
That joke, yeah.
Yep, thanks.
By now, you're aware of the tremendous growth of pickleball and the huge demand for court
time.
The lawsuit is dragging on without a real solution on the horizon for both sides.
My proposal is to solve this dilemma by moving the courts to a new location where there is
not a problem with local residents.
One side on the list for new courts is the southwest corner of Tice Valley Road and Rossmore
Parkway.
This is adjacent to the Tice Creek Sports Building that the city runs.
No homes are nearby.
Kevin Safine rejected this site
because lights were going to be added
to the current large grass area
that is used for both soccer and baseball.
There would be no room for pickleball courts, he said.
Recently, I went by this area
and noticed that there are four new light poles
added to the four corners of the grass area.
These lights would not interfere
with soccer, baseball, and pickleball.
I measured the grass area and it is quite large,
about 500 feet by 400 feet.
I did some preliminary sketches
And that showed that all three sports
could coexist together.
In the last week, an architect has been retained
by the Pickleball Club here to prepare professional drawings
for the city to review,
showing how all three sports could coexist.
The only request from the adjacent church minister
was to put the courts on the opposite side from his church,
which would be on the north side,
closest to the Tice Valley Road.
This should be no problem to put the courts there.
The next hurdle is how to pay for the courts.
Ten courts are being proposed to handle the huge demand that we have for court time.
From measure O, the city has set aside $77 million for the complete overhaul of the Heather
Farms Aquatic Facility.
If just 1% of this amount is directed toward building ten courts, this would pay for the
entire project.
1% is $770,000.
Sounds like a lot of money, but in comparison to what's going on with the Aquatic Center,
not. There would be no cause for restrooms or for other facilities. Thank
you very much. I appreciate your time. Thank you very much and thank all of you
for coming and speaking and being respectful and there are other cities
that would have 15-20 speakers and it wouldn't be as civil as this. I really
appreciate that. So I'll bring public communications to a close. I want to ask
the city manager first of all if there's any clarification that you would like to
make regarding Tice Valley. I know that was an issue a location that we did look
at one time, I don't know if anything has changed,
but that may be something just to address.
If we don't feel that's appropriate at this time,
we can double that too.
Yeah, as noted, a couple of things.
One, this item's not on the agenda,
so we shouldn't have too much of a discussion.
Secondly, as noted, the city is in active litigation defending
a lawsuit, so I'm mindful of how much discussion occurs
on the public record at this point in time,
and just emphasizing that what the city attorney stated
in that the city has made a motion
to have the lawsuit dismissed,
We are waiting to hear from the judge on that finding whether the lawsuit will be dismissed
immediately or whether it would be allowed to go to trial.
We'll hopefully find that out soon.
So reluctant to have too much discussion.
We have evaluated numerous locations at Tice in the past, certainly open to any suggestions
if there might be something there to look at that might be viable that was thought previously
would not be.
So that's something that we can take a look at.
Great.
Thank you very much.
that Walnut Creek is physically active.
That's a good thing.
Councilmember Silva.
Thank you.
A couple of members of the public were citing the facts
as presented by the plaintiffs.
Can you explain again what the law says under a demurrer
or whatever you explained.
Correct.
So that we understand that we're not in a situation
of fighting the facts.
That's a law.
That is correct.
When a court considers a motion called a demurr,
the court, in considering that,
assumes that the facts that are set forth
in the lawsuit, the complaint, are factual.
So there's no disputing the facts at this stage.
It doesn't mean that the city accepts
that those facts are accurate,
or that even the court ultimately accepts
those facts are accurate.
It just means that when they're ruling on this motion,
because they're ruling on a matter of law,
they accept the facts as they are set forth in the complaint.
So if this were to go to trial,
if our request to dismiss the complaint is denied
and this were to go to trial,
then there'd be a debate of the facts.
That's correct.
Thank you.
All right, our next item on the agenda
is council member and staff announcements,
reports on activities or requests.
Last the city attorney,
do we have any closed session announcements
beyond what you said?
No additional ones, thank you, Mayor.
Okay, city manager reports?
Yes, I do have two items this evening,
and I'll maybe wait for just a moment here
while the audience is clearing out for a bit.
I'm just glad they didn't bring any balls to hit at us.
Ha ha ha.
So I would like to introduce and invite
our new arts and recreation director, Chris Farrow,
to come on up.
Extremely pleased that she is joining our Walnut Creek team.
Her first day was just yesterday,
so she is very fresh on the job.
And Chris, if you'd like to say a few words.
Sure, good evening.
Nice to meet everyone.
Chris Farrow, brand new director of arts and recreation.
And I'd just like to share a little bit about myself.
30 years in recreation started in 1995
at Livermore Area Recreation and Park District.
since that time, been with a few municipalities,
also have done some nonprofit work, YMCA of the East Bay.
And then also in my history is a theater special event
and box office work.
So it's the perfect marriage of all of my experience
and I'm really thrilled and excited to be here.
So thank you to city manager for the opportunity
and I look forward to working with each of you.
Well, welcome.
We look forward to working with you as well.
And as you can see, we have a very active community
that is very involved in half of your job.
It wouldn't be Parks and Rec
if there weren't pickleball conversations, so.
Thank you, Chris.
Thank you.
Any other comments?
Great.
Just welcome.
Thank you.
I think we're all probably gonna be eating with you
one on one over the course of the next several weeks.
We look forward to that.
Great, thank you.
Thanks, Chris.
Yes, and then the other item is,
I would like to invite our current police chief,
Jamie Knox, up to the podium
and recognize and acknowledge Chief Knox
on his outstanding career
as his last day before retirement is this Friday,
and he will be active on the job.
Just a little bit here as your counsel recall,
Chief Knox started in July of 2021,
so about four and a half years ago,
which I'm sure all of us will recall
was a very, very difficult time,
especially in the police profession.
And Chief Knox inherited,
which was a very depleted department at that point in time.
He's made a tremendous effort over the years
to bring our police department forward
to where we are today.
We are in tremendous shape, and that is in large part
due to the leadership provided by Chief Knox.
So thank you for all that you have done.
Thank you, and I understand there's someone here to speak.
Oh, one of our Chief's Advisory Board members,
if that's OK, let's bring Mary Taylor up.
Good evening, everyone.
My name is Mary Taylor.
I'm a resident, and you'll be thrilled to know
I don't play pickleball.
wanted to acknowledge Chief Knox as he goes off to play pickle ball or
whatever he's gonna do. As you said when he came to Walnut Creek it was a very
difficult time. There was a huge lack of trust with the community. He made his
intentions known to have an effective law enforcement or law enforcement
officers in a department that keeps us safe but that also focused on fairness
in our diverse community.
He's led, created, and led a department that is respected
and extremely professional and inclusive.
The department reflects the makeup
of our amazing community.
As he said, I was asked to,
invited to serve on the chief advisory board,
and that is about listening and discussions
that might not occur.
So, that was a wonderful experience.
There's always more work to do,
but he and his department has moved the city
closer to the end zone,
and we wanna thank him for his service to our community.
I know.
Thank you very much, Mary,
and thanks for your service on the board,
and thank you, City Manager Buckshye,
just for the opportunity,
and for your leadership and your mentorship,
and be here without them today.
So, thank you.
Thank you.
Do not go very far, I'm not.
So, I fall, I'm not.
So, I think a few of us wanna say something,
I'll lead it off.
So, I was mayor in 21 when you were brought on and hired,
when we had a chance to meet,
we talked about what you were looking for.
Of course, as the city manager said,
it was a challenging time here.
We were still in the middle of the pandemic.
We had had, Walnut Creek had become sort of ground zero
for a lot of different protests and rallies
and a lot of challenges.
And we knew there were challenges
when it came to balancing the needs of enforcement
along with the community.
I remember talking about we wanted to have somebody
that was a community officer and somebody
that really understood and was able to have
those community discussions.
And it was like walking on the edge of glass.
And Chief Knox, I have to say that you exceeded
the greatest expectations that I had for you.
I was thrilled when we brought you on
and I absolutely thought that you were gonna be able
to do the job terrifically and you exceeded that.
Thank you so much for your tenure here
and you go out while I'm mayor again.
So full circle on that.
And if my other council members would like
to share a few words.
I'll jump in.
Just because I'm fast on the button.
And this was gonna be a contest between Mary
if one of us could make you cry.
I don't know if we'll be able to get there.
I had just started on the council in 2020
when things were pretty dark.
And I really appreciate that you came in
and said you wanted to rebuild the healthy police culture.
My thing has always been we want officers
that are well educated, well trained, well supported
and fully accountable.
And I think you've always bought into that
are looking for the same thing and I really appreciate that. The other thing I
really appreciate is you are a data nerd you are a data nerd extraordinaire and
and that actually goes really well with the idea that we treat everybody with
respect and then we don't look at who looks like a criminal but we go by what
the data shows and that leads us into a culture where people feel like they're
treated fairly. They're not guilty because they look guilty. They're guilty
because they are guilty. Not that you guys decide that. You just decide that
they need to go for a ride. But I also appreciate how much you've been
supportive of all our officers. I know it was a very tough time back in 2020 and
2021 and the support that you've offered to the individual officers and the help
you've given them to kind of reform a cohesive unit. It's been great to watch
everybody come together and we really appreciate all that you've done for the
city and I'm not gonna make you cry am I? And also thank you for all. He gives
everybody a cell phone number and so you can just call the man at really random
hours and find out things and I really appreciated that. Yeah yeah yeah. One of
my neighbors had a call for service and I was like why is there a car in front of
my house like calm down it's not you it's not you somebody else don't worry
there are a lot of things that I could say that my colleagues have already said
but what I'd like to do is read into the record tonight a message from Fran
Gibson of Rossmore and I assume you have seen it so this won't surprise you I read
it a couple times so I wouldn't cry she says I come before you she was unable to
be here tonight due to a mobility issue she says I come before you tonight to
express my deep and abiding appreciation for the leadership and vision of our soon-to-retire
Walnut Creek Police Chief Jamie Knox.
In my 50 years of public health community work, both professional and voluntary, Fran
says she has never met a more gifted and talented public servant than Jamie Knox.
She has had the abiding privilege and honor of working with two former governors and one
president, and she says that you, Chief Jamie, is the best of the best, the top of the top,
and has served our beloved city with a collaborative, bright, and compassionate stewardship that
always stays the course.
She says you are emblematic of boosted community trust and public safety tempered by what Buddhists
call our one true nature.
So she says on behalf of Rossmore EP, which is the Emergency Preparedness Organization,
she wishes him the very best in your retirement years.
And thank you for your service to Walnut Creek for the last five years.
Thank you.
It's been a pleasure.
you for reading that into the record because I was moved by her comments and
I'm glad you had the opportunity to read them and Chief I just you were the
right man at the right time for the right job and we were so fortunate that
you came to our community and talking to the recruiter for the new police chief
we talked about what a contrast in environment and culture it was in just
for short years, and you are largely responsible for that.
It's not just what you've done in our city, but what you've done in many other cities
in San Leandro, in Marin County, where you started your career up in Placer County.
Years of dedicated service to public safety.
You are in complete alignment with our priority of having zero tolerance for crime, but also
implementing policing for the 21st century.
And I often think of my father who I have a ton of respect for and was a reserve police
officer in the city of Campbell and now does jail detention ministry work.
So here's a guy who gets it, who sees full circle and understands that people make me
mistakes, but they're not mistakes.
And I think I really applaud you
for bringing that sense of commitment
and community service to our community
and the outreach that you've done
with the Chief's Advisory Board.
And we're gonna miss you, but we wish you,
job very well done.
You left this place much better than you found it.
So thank you, you've earned your retirement.
Thank you, I appreciate that.
Yeah, thank you.
We only overlapped this last year,
and we met while I was campaigning.
So I'd never sat down for a coffee with a police chief
before, I don't know any other police chiefs personally,
so I was unsure what to expect when we sat down.
I was sort of intimidated by the process.
But I understand how you were able to change culture,
because after talking to you
for just a very short period of time,
I was impressed with your communication,
your analysis, your approachability.
I left that conversation feeling like I'd made a friend.
It was just such a nice experience talking to you.
So I can see and I've witnessed over the past year
how that quality that you have
has really been transformative.
So we were lucky to have you here
and wish you a very happy retirement.
Thank you very much.
It's been a pleasure to serve.
Thank you.
All right.
Now don't quite, hold on, hold on, hold on.
One more thing.
Well, two, because we'll have a photo as well.
I'm gonna come up here.
So this is from Senator Tim Grayson,
also signed by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer Cahan,
who now, in the California legislature,
there is now a resolution for police chief Jamie Knox
by the, whereas, and I'm not gonna read all of this,
there's a lot, but you'll have,
you can now frame it right on your wall.
Police chief Jamie Knox has announced his retirement
after providing stellar leadership
to the Waller Creek Police Department
for more than four years of his 30 year
law enforcement career and an acknowledgement.
Thereof, he merits public recognition
for his many fine achievements.
and at the bottom, resolved by Senator Timothy Grayson
and Assembly Member Rebecca Bauer-Cahan
that they take immense pleasure in recognizing
and thanking Police Chief Jamie Knox
of the Walnut Creek Police Department
for providing the highest level of service
and protection to the Walnut Creek community
and extend to him sincere best wishes
for rewarding and gratifying retirement.
Joint Members Resolution number 352,
dated this 15th day of December, 2025.
All right, I think what we'll do is we will finish our councilmember activity reports
and we'll take a break after that.
So let's start.
Councilmember Silva.
Thank you very much.
Happy December, happy nearly at the end of the year.
I'll start by mentioning that about a month ago, the week before Thanksgiving, I had the
privilege of attending the annual city summit of the National League of Cities.
There were about 3,000 in attendance from all across the country.
And I think there were two things of note.
One was that there was a lot of discussion, including in the exhibition hall, on how to
use artificial intelligence technology to improve and augment, streamline the permitting
processes.
And they focused on how that could be helpful in streamlining the housing process.
was focusing on permitting and cross checking
of permitting and applications.
So I've referred some of the information
that I received to community development director, Erica
Vandenbrandt.
And one of the vendors is the grandson
of one of our former mayors from the 1960s.
So that was very interesting.
The second topic really focused on the nationwide housing
crisis, and a couple of factoids that were mentioned.
This is not just a California problem.
The median age of first-time home buyers in this country
is 40 years of age, which is very different.
We're getting older and older before we
can afford to buy a first home.
The other is that a recent study shows
that the cost to build four units of multifamily housing,
not a big apartment building, four units versus the cost
to build two units per square foot, it is 10% more expensive.
the more units you're building.
And this has to do with what parts of the permitting code,
this building code that you're using.
So the presentation was from representatives
from Memphis, Tennessee, Salt Lake City, and Dallas, Texas.
And they talked about how you can
look at the building code for ways
to better accommodate housing and lower
the cost of housing and what they're
doing around the country so I thought that was very interesting. Last week the
League of California Cities had its annual meeting in Southern California to
actually establish our advocacy priorities for the 25-26 year. These are
the priorities that we will focus on in our legislative work and so one is to
protect and enhance local revenues and expand economic development tools. There's
more narrative to support these, but two is to strengthen partnerships with the
state to improve public safety. Particularly a concern was the lack of
funding that the state has put in toward Prop 36. Number three is to secure
investments to prevent and reduce homelessness and increase the supply of
affordable housing and the fourth is to strengthen climate change resiliency and
disaster preparedness and that included issues related to wildfires and both how
to harden the homes and the properties but also the insurance costs and
negotiating those. So there's more detail on that but thank you very much and more
to follow and I will not give a report on Recycle Smart. I'm going to let my
colleague do that. All right next councilmember Darney. Just a quick recap
on where we are with MCE. As I've talked to in the past, energy prices last year
were considerably higher than they had been.
We are luckily seeing those prices decline now,
and the hedging strategies being used by MCE
have brought us back to a point where we are, again,
net positive, even though we closed last year
with the net position at the end of the period was higher,
we did take some losses over those higher prices.
So we're looking at that, turning around and doing well.
The other challenge that we have right now is the rates that you all are charged
by PG&E include the generation rate for MCE and the power charge and difference adjustment,
which is what we pay PG&E for stranded resources when we all left and joined MCE.
PG&E has been pushing through the CPUC to readjust that
and use a new methodology
that has not been used in the past.
That's because the old methodology
doesn't favor them anymore.
So they want to change the methodology.
We are pursuing as part of
the Community Choice Aggregation Association
protesting those policies
and seeing if we can get the CPUC to recognize
what a burden that is going to place
on all the MCE customers,
if they offset some of the rates of PG&E.
We also are working to make our board
a little more functional.
We've had some challenges
because of the funding challenges
and we're doing better.
So that's good.
Couple of other things that went on.
We did meet as the finance committee for my last one
and you guys already approved all that stuff
off here across the board.
We saved money, we're getting the project done,
and we're moving forward to meet our commitments,
and we will have money to do some other fun things.
Now that all the pickleball people are gone,
I can say that.
Mayor Pro Tem Francois.
Okay, thanks Mayor.
We didn't get to report on the things
that we had done kind of around Thanksgiving time,
and I think all of us were, at all these events,
all just tick them off.
The tree lighting event over at Civic Park was great event,
hot cocoa, carolers, fun event.
We were at the ribbon cutting for the turf fields
at Heather Farm Park, which felt like a great accomplishment
and super appreciative of the Walnut Creek Soccer Club
and the public private partnership we had with them
to get those fields built.
and there were a ton of kids all around us
playing on the fields already,
which is exactly what we were envisioning.
So that felt good.
In terms of active activities,
I wanna give a shout out to form a gym for,
I think it's 30th, something like that.
Anniversary Turkey Trot that happened on Thanksgiving Day.
There were 5,000 plus people in attendance,
lot of families, a lot of young people
running walking community like we heard about earlier today,
attended the Library Foundation's,
Walnut Creek Library Foundation's holiday party
a week or two ago,
and that was fun to catch up with folks
and hear about all the good work
that the Library Foundation is doing.
And then, let's see, on the Recycle Smart,
we had our board meeting last week,
and I'm pleased to report that our independent auditor
looked at our financial statements for fiscal year 24, 25,
and gave us a clean bill of health,
so we got a clean report, no issues reported there.
Walnut Creek also requested each of the member agencies
and there are six of them, including Walnut Creek,
has a reserve account and we can withdraw funds
from that reserve account for certain projects,
including ones that rely on recycled material.
So we were able to make a request to withdraw funds
from our reserve account to go towards resurfacing
of the all abilities playground, which needs it.
I think this is the first time the green area
will be resurfaced since it was installed
about 10 years ago.
The mound areas where the kids slide down
gets resurfaced more frequently
because it wears out quite frequently.
So good use of, and we'll be using recycled materials
that so great to see that go forward. I know Councilmember Silva reported on the
waste characterization study. I missed that report but we had a follow-up the
last meeting and I'll just note that we're doing a great job in terms of
Walnut Creek is. They looked in our trash and figured out if you're putting the
things in the right bin. So very little should go in the black bin you know
paper, plastic, metal, glass should go in the blue bin, and then anything organic,
including food scraps, needs to go into the green bin. So where we could do better,
where there's room for improvement, well maybe I'll start with what we're doing
really good. We're doing really well at paper and glass. We could use some
improvement on metal and plastics, and also room for improvement on food
scraps, so that those are materials instead of going into the garbage those
can go into a compostable pail or bin and go into the green can. We're doing a
great job getting our yard clippings in there we need to get our food scraps in
there as well. And then finally we did have funds in excess of reserves and so
will be allocated, each member agency gets allocated by tonnage, we tend to have the
most tonnage here because of our commercial operators and most of the
residents and so we'll be adding to our reserves and have healthy reserves about
seven million dollars that can be used for for rate adjusting and balancing
over the years because we're likely looking at increases in rates in the
years ahead so we'll be drawing on those that reserve account to help smooth that
out. That's my report. Thank you. Next council member Davinney. Yes, so it's been a busy holiday
stretch. There's been a number of city and regional functions that many of us have attended,
including the mayor's holiday meeting and party in Pinal. There was the League of City's holiday
Party in San Pablo, attended the NorCal Carpenters Union, they had a huge event in San Francisco,
their Moose Feed, which I understand actually did begin with eating moose, but this time
it was just a stew, so I don't think it was a moose thing, it was a moose stew, yeah beef
I believe.
I attended Senator Grayson's holiday greeting, met him for the first time, our state senator,
And also met with the community over in Larky for a neighborhood meeting about some of the
concerns they're having there with East Bay Mudd and traffic concerns on St. Louis Road.
We also are on that Thanksgiving time, where just prior to the turf ribbon cutting, we're
at the Trinity Center, many of us for meeting their new director, and I'm probably going
to mispronounce her name, but it's Peda Demira. It's a pleasure to meet her. Let's see. And
finally, I want to extend congratulations to Lieutenant Holly Connors of our Wanna Creek
Police Department for her promotion to, upcoming to captain, and to Sergeant Michael Watson,
Sergeant Andrew Haw for their upcoming promotion to lieutenant.
Thank you and not a few things.
I about, gosh, probably was five weeks ago or so now,
but there was a building in trades parents nights open house
that was at Concord High School and this was really a chance for parents and students to see
what a different track would look like beyond an academic track, but a trade track.
And so there was all sorts of different booths
and demonstrations and really giving students
an opportunity to see, hey, there is a valuable track
in the trades, you don't have to necessarily look
at going to a college for an academic degree,
but there are different degrees
that are in the trade aspect.
This is something that I've been talking about for 20 years.
I love to see this, because as we all know,
there are some students that just don't want
to go to college because they're not looking
for an English or history degree or engineering,
but they want to work with their hands
and a trade degree I think is great.
I'm really glad, I was really glad to see this.
It was very well attended.
I did want to mention a Christmas carol is playing now.
It's through this Sunday.
Many seats are sold out.
If you want to go, you better hurry up
because there's not going to be a lot of seats left.
Council member Darling mentioned
our finance committee meeting.
We'll be talking about some of that
later in the agenda as well.
And I do wanna mention that after I took over the gavel
as mayor on December 2nd, we had a reception
and I took a red-eye to what I felt was a very important
summit that was happening in New Orleans the next day,
the mayor's summit, the U.S. mayor's summit
combating antisemitism.
Now we've known there's been antisemitism unfortunately
rising over the last decade and we've seen it even here
in this chambers.
And we all talked about the fact that, well, thankfully,
there hasn't been an incident recently.
And lo and behold, we have this.
There's 200 mayors together.
Not everybody was Jewish.
There were mayors from all over the country,
including still Mayor Eric Adams from New York.
We had the mayor of New Orleans and Denver
and many larger cities in Walnut Creek,
all together united to fight hate,
whether it's anti-Semitism, racism, anti-LGBTQ,
anti-ethnicity, whatever it is,
all standing up against hate.
It was great to see, we shared information and came back.
And here on the eve of Hanukkah,
we all woke up to the horrific news on Sunday
about the anti-Semitic killing that happened in Bondi Beach
where 15 people were killed,
Jews that were celebrating the beginning of Hanukkah
around the world, that was the very,
one of the very first Hanukkah celebrations.
So anti-Semitism is there.
Immediately there was talk amongst the people,
the mayors that were at the summit.
A letter was put together, signed by now,
what must be well over 1,000 mayors and elected officials
across the country, including many of us on this dais,
that are going to the Sydney mayor
with our deepest condolences
and standing united together against hate.
We had our menorah lighting in Walnut Creek
at Broadway Plaza on Sunday night.
A couple hundred people showed up there.
We did have some extra security
and thank you very much to Chief Knox
and Captain Hibbs for ensuring
that we had extra police protection there as well.
There were no incidents whatsoever.
It was a great festivity and it's a reminder
that even in darkness,
lightness will continue to proliferate
and people will celebrate whatever it is
that their religion, their ethnicity,
and what their traditions are.
And I really appreciate that.
We're still in Hanukkah.
Happy Hanukkah to those that celebrate out there.
We still have several more nights,
the night's the third night.
And with that, just know that your city council is here
to protect everybody and stand united against hate
from here and wherever it exists.
So with that, why don't we take a 10-minute break
and we'll come back to our agenda.
All right.
Welcome back.
Next on the agenda is a consideration of acceptance
of the fiscal year ended June 30th, 2025,
annual comprehensive financial report, or ACTVRA.
I invite administrative services director,
Kristin Lacasse forward to provide the staff presentation.
Good evening, Mayor Will,
Mayor Pro Tem Francois, and members of the council,
Kristin Lacasse, administrative services director.
Tonight, I'm gonna be presenting
fiscal year 25 annual comprehensive financial report and we'll refer to it
as the ACFAR throughout the presentation. So tonight we'll go over the key
sections and highlights of the ACFAR as well as a piece of the process and how
it works. We're going to talk about the fiscal year 25 ACFAR results and that
will be on a government-wide basis and then we'll be talking about the general
funds category which includes the general fund measure O and pension trust
and then we will also cover some budgetary results in our governmental
funds and our enterprise funds so what we are asking of you this evening is to
accept the fiscal year 25 annual comprehensive financial reports so I'd
like to take a moment just to discuss the differences between the fourth
quarter revenue and expenditure update and the ACFAR and the Q4 update was on
the agenda earlier this evening and so in the Q4 update the focus is on the
current year operating revenues and expenditures. Therefore multi-year
projects the expenditures are not included that's typically with one time
funding so we don't include that in our Q4 update and they're funded with one
time resources. The analysis provides results for how the city did compared to
budget it also provides the comparison of actual revenues to actual expenditures
which becomes a contribution to fund balance. Alternatively the act for focus
This is on the long-term financial position, so it includes the city's capital assets as
well as long-term obligations like the pension liability.
It includes multi-year operating project costs for the fiscal year.
It also includes unrealized gains or losses in market value of investments.
Although this is a paper gain or loss, accounting standards require that we disclose the impact
to revenue in the financial statements.
There are other adjustments made that are specific to accounting requirements as well,
and one example is the long-term liability reserve balances, so we need to recalculate
and adjust those annually.
Even though they are long-term obligations, we are required to set aside funds to cover
the full amount.
We have required reserves that we fund, like the fiscal and catastrophic emergency reserves,
as well as setting aside reserves for purchase obligations that will carry into the next
fiscal year.
Once all of the necessary adjustments are made, we are left with the unassigned fund
balance.
The item on the allocation of unassigned fund balance was on the agenda earlier this evening
as well.
And to help illustrate these differences, I will provide the calculation in the General
Fund further in the presentation.
So the City's Annual Comprehensive Financial Report is a set of audited financial statements
and is an indication of the organization's financial health.
The audit must be performed by an independent auditor who is required to follow generally
accepted government accounting standards. The act provides a standardised financial
report document that the public can use to compare multiple government entities
on the same basis. This is, as you saw with the attachments, this is a very
lengthy report with a lot of financial information so in lieu of reading the
entire document there are some areas that we recommend focusing on. The
independent auditor's report is where you'll find the auditor's opinion and
whether the auditor has concerns regarding our internal controls. The
transmittal letter provides you with a general overview of the city over the
past fiscal year, fiscal year 25 initiatives and projects accomplished as
well as an overall economic outlook. The management's discussion and analysis is
where you'll see an overall summary of the city's financial results compared to
the prior fiscal year. It provides financial highlights and variance analysis
and you can see this in an abbreviated form, as well as the explanations for
those changes year over year. More numbers can be found in the statement of
net position and the notes to the basic financial statements which provide a lot
of background information. The statistical section provides a 10-year
history showing the financial position of the city as well as demographic and
operating information. So next I just want to talk a little bit about the
process so the audit process actually runs from May through December and so
what happens is the auditors prepare a list for us a PVC list or prepared by
client list which contains about 75 to 80 items staff in the city prepare that
though some of those items include the trial balance financial policies bank
statements and year-end closing entries the auditors then perform random
sampling of our financial system transactions, which includes AP, payroll, as well as testing
our internal controls, and a review of our adherence to our own policies.
Staff closes the year in July and August, and then the auditor's return for final field
work, followed by analysis and preparation of the ACFR, and the issuance is typically
in November or December, and all of those factors, with all of those factors combined,
the auditors come up with their opinion.
So for fiscal year 25, the auditors did opine that our statements are fairly stated in conformity
with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, and this is considered
a clean opinion.
So I want to touch briefly on the statements in the financial section and the different
components.
So we have several different financial statements.
We're going to be talking a little bit about the government-wide statements, which is what
it sounds like.
It is the statements for the entire city, and they're divided into governmental activities
and business type activities. Government activities include the general funds,
special revenue funds like grants, and internal service funds. Business type
activities are funds that charge customers directly for services and
they're referred to as enterprise funds and we have two, the parking fund and the
boundary oak golf course fund. And you can see our governmental activities make
up 93% of our funds. So during the year the city's net position increased by 5.1
million to 336.3 million, and it has increased 11 percent since fiscal year 2022, which is a great
position to be in. The pension liability decreased due to the higher-than-anticipated investment
returns, which occurred in fiscal year 2024. It's a 9.3 percent return, but there is a one-year delay
on our CalPERS actuarial reports, so we're seeing that effect in fiscal year 2025.
capital assets increased over fiscal year 24 by 7.2 million. And this is attributed to capital assets
that were placed into service during the year. One of the larger ones was the driving range.
So this slide shows the total fund balance in the general funds. And again, that's the general fund
Measure O and pension trust. And that fund balance is 123.7 million. And these are the different
categories of fund balance. They are listed in the most constrained to the least. The non-spendable
fund balance of $4.6 million includes those items that actually cannot be spent, and one
of those items is the inter-fund loan to the Boundary Oak Golf Course.
The restricted category is made up of our Section 115 pension trust.
That increase of $3 million over the prior fiscal year is from interest earned.
Our committed fund balance of $26 million is made up primarily of the City's reserves.
It increased by almost a million dollars as a result of funding the catastrophic reserve
for both fiscal year 26 and 27 which was adopted in our budget.
The assigned category classification has 56 million and it's made up primarily of the
general fund portion of capital projects, the general fund facilities reserve and Measure
O reserves and the increase of 8.3 million over last year's primarily the Measure O reserve.
Unassigned fund balance is the least restricted.
The 6.4 million consists of items
that are set aside for specific purposes,
like the general fund contingency, council contingency.
We have carryovers, which we'll talk a little bit more
about that when we're talking
about budgetary information later,
but these are items that carry over
from one fiscal year to the next.
The 1.75 amount was received from the speaker development
for transportation improvements,
and that leaves us with 310,000 unassigned fund balance.
Additional detail related to these classifications
can be found on page 97 in the ACFRA.
So next I'm going to cover some budgetary results
for our governmental funds,
and that would be for the general fund
and Measure O specifically.
So overall, our general revenues in the general fund
came in over budget by 1.37 million.
Property taxes came in lower than budget by about 430,000,
And that's a result of successful appeals of assessed values
based on commercial vacancies.
Our sales and use tax came in lower by just over 1.6 million,
which was primarily a result of a change in reporting
in the auto and transportation industry group
related to the point of sale location.
This was a 2.3% decline over fiscal year 24.
These losses were offset primarily by interest earnings
and one-time revenue that shows in the other revenue category.
And so what you see in that category is $1.75 million
that I just mentioned that was received from the speaker
development, as well as $150,000 additional
that was related to the Walnut Creek Soccer Club MOU.
If we exclude the one-time money that we received,
we actually came in under budget in our revenues by about $600,000.
Our department revenues came in under budget
by approximately 1.3 million.
It's important to note here
that community development department programmed
one million of revenue related to development,
which has a corresponding expenditure appropriation.
So in this case, if the revenue is not received,
then the costs are not incurred.
So you'll also see a corresponding million dollar savings
on the expenditure side in community development.
Arts and recreation revenues are below budget
to lower registrations for classes and camps as well as lower preschool class enrollment
due to the implementation of the universal transitional kindergarten, which began in
fiscal year 24 and is continuing in 25 or continued in 25.
Some of these revenue reductions were offset by increased rentals.
Police revenue was lower based on lower receipts of reimbursable overtime and again there's
also a corresponding savings on this expenditure side as a result.
So our department expenditures overall were under budget by 3.63 million.
65% of those savings is related to vacant positions.
The overage in arts and recreation is all attributed to an increase in utility costs.
Our utility costs have increased 27% since 2023, and this increase affected expenditures
citywide, but it impacted arts and rec and public works the most.
The majority of the transfers out were to capital of $3.4 million.
This included our annual allocation of $1.9 million, $1.5 million from the facilities
reserve for the Heather Farms Synthetic Turf Project.
The slight savings of $80,000 is due to less support needed in the open space fund.
So in summary, revenue exceeded expenditures by about $1.59 million, which is the contribution
to fund balance.
When we exclude one-time revenue, operating revenues increased by approximately 2 percent
over fiscal year 24, conversely expenditures increased by 6.4 percent.
And so going back to our fourth quarter revenue expenditure report and how that relates to
our ACFR, so what you can see here on this slide is that the contribution that we just
mentioned to fund balance is 1.59 million.
We talked about setting aside funds for purchase obligations that carry into the next fiscal
year. So while those that carry from a prior year are now reflected in our expenditures so from
fiscal year 24, the funding came from the prior year fund balance. So the use of that fund balance
from fiscal year 24 was 1.8 million. Then we subtract the fiscal year 26 and 27 Catastrophic
Emergency Reserve funding of 830,000. The one-time revenue we received for both speaker and the
contribution from the Walnut Creek Soccer Club are being used for specific
purposes so they need to be set aside. The required accounting adjustments made
were the mark to market which is the unrealized gain or loss in this case a
loss on our investments of 490,000 and then the long-term liability
designations that we need to adjust for. An example of that is our long-term
liability for a crude leave for employees and so we recalculate that balance every year
and so that affects the fund balance when it either goes up or down.
And so once all of those adjustments are made to our contribution to fund balance that brings
us to our unassigned fund balance of 310,000.
So next I'm going to talk about Measure O and how we did on a budgetary basis.
So the Measure O transaction use tax revenues came in higher than budget at over 12.5 million
along with 480,000 in interest earnings, so our total revenue was just over 13 million.
This is about 610,000 higher than budget. The transfer in budgeted at 2.6 million was related
to 2 million that was authorized by this council to appropriate from the Heather Farm Aquatic
and Community Center Reserve to cover phase one project costs through the end of the current
calendar year. Additionally council authorized use of approximately 600,000 of fund balance
accumulated through fiscal year 24 to fund additional costs for the synthetic turf project
as well as for Walnut Creek downtown request that was allocated in December of 2024. For fiscal year
25 the total budgeted expenditures were 5.35 million with actual expenditures at only 4.86
million resulting in approximately 480,000 in budgetary savings and these savings were
primarily related to multi-year initiatives with WCD and a vacancy for
portion of the year in Arts and Recreation. So I want to note that when
the expenditure budget for Measure O was developed for fiscal years 24 and
25, it was at the beginning of Measure O implementation and we created all of the
positions for the vacant, they were vacant when we developed the budget and
we have assumptions that we include when we're developing our budget and that's
for salary range, benefits, and we include a vacancy factor.
Once positions are filled, the budget is not adjusted for the actual salary and benefits
of that incumbent until a subsequent budget development cycle.
This practice typically works well, but with measure O, there are very few positions, and
so once they are completely full, we don't meet that vacancy rate assumption.
So what this resulted in is some overspending in public safety and sustainability, specifically
related to these factors. So to improve the budget projection going forward, the fiscal
year 26 and 27 adopted budget eliminates the vacancy factor and aligns to current incumbent
salary and benefits. So this will result in a more conservative estimate of costs and
help ensure sufficient budget now that all of the positions are filled.
So in summary, the net revenue and expenditures were 10.17 million. We set aside the 9 million
for the Aquatic and Community Center project reserve, and therefore the contribution to
fund balance is $1.17 million.
So in the ballot language for Measure O, there is a commitment to do an annual audit which
was performed by Mays and Associates.
The goal was to ensure that the transactions were allowable under Measure O based on the
ballot language and city council direction.
No exceptions were noted for fiscal year 25, and this is in addition to the financial audit
in the act for where Measure O is also audited.
On December 1st, the Measure O Citizens Oversight Committee met and unanimously stated they
are in agreement with the audit that the City is spending Measure O funds based on the
ballot language and City Council direction.
So next I'm going to cover our two enterprise funds, the Parking Fund and Boundary Oak Golf
Course Fund.
So the Parking Fund had higher revenues of just over $8 million, as well as higher expenditures
of 8.3 million which resulted in the use of fund balance of about 37,000. The
primary driver of the increased cost is related to parking meter and citation
processing fees. In June of 25 the city contracted with a new parking meter
processing service which is anticipated to result in savings in fiscal year 26
and forward. Additionally utility costs that affected the city affected the
the general fund also affected the parking fund
and exceeded the budget.
The Boundary Oka Golf Course fund revenues
came in higher than budget by approximately 770,000.
Expenditures were also higher than budget by about 510,000.
The reopening of the driving range in March of 2025
resulted in higher than anticipated revenues.
However, the increase in expenditures
were also attributed to the driving range.
There were higher concession and operating supplies
for the new snack bar operation at the range,
as well as the purchase of new driving range equipment.
Boundary Oak Golf Course also had higher
than anticipated costs related to a major pump repair,
wild pig abatement, and fairway restoration.
Because of the higher revenues,
even though expenditures were higher,
there was a contribution to fund balance of about 410,000.
So what we are asking of you this evening is
to accept the fiscal year 25 annual comprehensive
financial report, and we are available
to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you, Kirsten.
All right.
Start this way, do we have any questions?
Thank you for the report.
I'll take a couple questions.
It was interesting you said that the,
due to the changes in the definition of point of sale,
we've had collected less sales tax.
And yet, Measure O was above expectation.
How do we explain that difference?
The difference is related to the fact
that Measure O is a transaction and use tax.
And so if when a purchase is made online,
if it is shipped to Walnut Creek,
then we would get that full Measure O sales tax.
However, the 1% Bradley Burns would not all
come to Walnut Creek if the purchase is made online and so the impact had didn't
have very much effect on Measure O. I think that's it for me thanks. You had a
similar question about the difference between the sales tax and Measure O so
thank you for asking that. On what you mentioned increased energy costs what
other drivers do you see for increased expenditures or costs going forward? Sure
we had increased costs related to salary and benefits, those were two major
categories, as well as our insurance. Our insurance increased 45% over the prior
fiscal year, so that was a big increase. And our utilities increased 9% over
fiscal year 24. And was that in was that property insurance plus liability all
across the board? Actually all of our categories. Okay, that's a huge
increase, wow. You mentioned also the speaker funding that came in for
transportation. I recall there was also a component that was supposed to be for
the park, Heather Farm Park. Has that been triggered yet or do we already have
that? That has not been triggered yet. And that was about 2 million? I actually defer to the city
manager, I believe. Yes, the general fund contingency reserve and then measure O
as to general Measure O reserves. So you know we look at sales tax, the California
Finance Department allocating certain things differently now in sales tax. We
look at property tax and what's going on there. What are the takeaways as we look
forward in the coming year or two that this tells us about and that could be
the city manager or you or both of you. I mean my takeaway is got a mind the
pennies in the drawer but I mean I tend to be rather fiscally conservative and
look for pennies in the drawer. Yeah so we will we are in this current fiscal
year and and next fiscal year looking at a very tight budget especially with the
changes in the sales tax we're really going to need to monitor that to see how
it's going to impact us as well as department revenues so we are being very
mindful of our spending and we'll actually have more information with our
our second quarter update of where we are
when we come forward at the end of February or early March.
But it will be a tight budget year.
And Mayor, if you don't mind, I'll expound upon that.
If you don't mind hearing what I stated
at Finance Committee, I'll largely repeat it.
So, you know, it's obviously good news here overall
in terms of looking back in that the audit went very well.
We passed all the third party review,
not only for the general fund, but for all funds,
including Measure O and we did end slightly under budget.
Our goal is to always come in under budget
as opposed to exceeding budget.
But if you look at the longer term trend,
the amount that we came under budget
was fairly minimal in the scheme of things.
We have a little over 100 million
was a 102, $103 million general fund
and we had $800,000 left over,
which means that we spent over 99% of the budget,
which is much tighter.
You may recall going back several years,
we used to have multi-million dollar savings at year-end.
So the budget that we just completed tightened up.
I'm sure you'll all recall that when we adopted the budget
for the current fiscal year,
which we're about halfway through,
we had a $6 million gap that had to be closed
for an operating budget.
And we did that through a balanced approach
with a number of measures,
short, middle and longer term solutions to balance that.
So it's a tighter budget.
We did dial back some resources to deal with
when it was primarily escalating costs
associated with inflation.
And then we now have a tightening revenue situation
on sales tax due to this change in interpretation
as it relates to online sales.
So we have a couple million dollars
we need to make up out of the gate.
So we are proceeding cautiously,
having discussions on a regular basis.
We will likely be intentionally slowing hiring
in order to maintain a slightly higher vacancy rate
to help offset that two million
in order to avoid making other more difficult decisions,
but obviously that has an impact on capacity
and what can be carried out overall.
So the situation for now is manageable,
but it is tighter and it's not particularly rosy
and when you take the broader outlook.
And I will add that this is not unique
to Walnut Creek in any way.
Cities throughout, certainly the state
and frankly throughout the country
are dealing with this very same situation.
And one last point that I'll highlight,
I know we have a lot of discussion about Measure O
and funding, there's a lot of ideas for Measure O.
The dynamic that we are in
is that our operating budget is tight and is tightening.
We do have some funding for one-time things
and that's going to be really important
as we consider various requests for Measure O
or other types of requests of really differentiating
with this one-timer short-term
compared to what is ongoing in nature.
Thank you.
And because I can't help reiterating things
that we said in Finance Committee.
We have seen the last couple of years
and with the new contract and the bonds,
some of this we do expect additional money
to flow into Measure O.
And when we talked about this in the Finance Committee,
prudence, if she was here, would dictate
that we wait until we see how the pool is going
till we get substantially through construction there
and then really look to see
what that additional one-time money is
and do that in a very thoughtful way
and resist the urge to whatever.
Or fritter, I think would be what my mother would call it.
But that was one of the things
that we talked about in finance.
Okay, any other questions?
Okay.
One follow-up based on what we were just talking about.
Correct me if I interpreted this accurately.
You said our revenues were up 2%.
So would that be consistent
with what we consider our growth?
Actually, our typical growth is closer to 5%,
so we were low on growth.
And that was my follow-up question, yeah.
So 2% and 5% is more what historically we've seen.
Yes.
And so when we look at the budget,
do we look at it from the standpoint of,
and I imagine it's both,
But how do we solve the growth problem?
Or how do we solve our expenditure problem?
Or what's sort of more of the lens
that you look at that from?
We definitely approach it from both directions,
looking at revenue and seeing where revenue is going to go.
And then if there are other revenue opportunities that
could help offset some of the cost.
And then we also do the analysis on the cost as well.
Do we have any optimism in the growth department?
well. It looks like property tax will probably get better because the assessed values have
now, it's kind of starting to level out, so we may get back to being closer to our normal
growth, which is more to 3 to 5 percent range. It's a little bit uncertain about sales tax.
The other areas, with the exception of the one we talked about earlier with the reporting,
have been growing, so it was just this one category that wasn't doing well, and so that
should continue to grow. Unfortunately revenues typically come in or I should
say expenditures outpace revenues in growth which is pretty typical and so we
do have to keep that in mind as well. Insurance costs and inflation and all
these things, yeah. Yeah and I would just add to that briefly when it comes to the
revenue side the challenge is is a lot of it is out of the city's control in
terms of what we can impact. Property tax is set by Prop 13. Certainly we can
permit more building, which would increase the property tax base, but that is very, very
incremental and slight in a very long range in terms of impacting property tax decades
in some cases before you see a negligible difference due to actual building and construction.
Sales tax is set by state statute as well.
We have the 1% on the Bradley Burns, you know, sales tax does fluctuate.
Obviously, if we permit more businesses that sell taxable goods or services in the case
of restaurants, that sort of thing, that can help.
But again, it's fairly nominal and there's a longer term play on that.
The main lever that cities have is fees for services that cities can control to an extent
because you have to be largely tied with a nexus to the actual costs that are incurred.
We can't just charge more to generate a profit.
So there is a little more latitude there.
We are doing a comprehensive fee study that will be coming to your council this spring
or summer.
And the challenge though is people don't like to pay more for services.
And so it's that balance of what's the appropriate amount to charge in order to appropriately recoup costs and help balance the budget.
And yet ensure that our services are still affordable and reasonable for the public.
All right, with that, why don't we open it up to the public?
If there's anybody from the public that would like to come and speak, you'll have two minutes.
Please come up to the podium.
I would just appreciate it.
Jan Warren, if you would explain the change
in the sales tax again.
I know you did, but you were going through a lot of stuff.
I didn't quite get it.
Thank you.
So, and Jan, are you talking about changing the sales tax
like online versus?
So we've talked about this a couple of years ago
and of course it keeps coming up.
So the difference between sales tax in person
versus online and what does that specifically mean?
I can speak to that at a general level.
So if somebody makes a purchase,
what we call a brick and mortar store
within the city limits of Walnut Creek,
of the nine and a quarter percent sales tax,
Walnut Creek would receive one and a half percent of that.
One percent from the base amount
that is known as Bradley Burns
and a half cent from the Measureau.
Everything else is distributed elsewhere
with the lion's share going to the state.
So if that sale is made in person
in a brick and mortar store
that we think of very traditionally,
Walnut Creek receives that one and a half percent.
If that sale is made online and the point of sale
is determined to be elsewhere,
meaning the distribution center
from which that shipment is made,
that is considered the point of sale
and that 1% goes to that city
as opposed to where the person may have ordered it.
So if anybody hops online,
I won't name any online retailers.
I'm sure we could think of at least one big one
amongst others.
You order there, it's shipped here in Walnut Creek,
but it was distributed from a different distribution center
another city, that city receives that 1%.
The Measure O would come to,
the half percent would come to Walnut Creek
in that instance, but not the base 1%.
So I thought that there was a pool of money
that occurred from, so that while we don't get
the full 1%, there's a portion of it.
And there are some types of purchases
that go into what's called the county pool.
And county pool is somewhat of an antiquated approach
in that it was for administrative convenience
for the state when they couldn't easily categorize
what something was, where it was purchased,
they threw it in the pool
and then receive a proportional share.
So if something is bought online
and it goes through the county pool,
Walnut Creek receives about 15% on the dollar,
15 cents on the dollar of what it would have otherwise.
If it doesn't go through the pool, then we receive zero.
So when I speak to different groups
and they ask what they can do to help Walnut Creek
because they know there's potential challenge
with grant funding coming federal,
I would say shop in person.
It's the biggest difference that you can make
to Walnut Creek revenues, shop in person.
No, it's not always as convenient, shop in person.
With the one caveat that if you go down to Tesla or Rivian,
they're shipping this from somewhere else.
So even though you think you're shopping in person,
that tax is not coming to Walnut Creek.
Online purchases go to the point of distribution,
and that's a challenge.
We'll close the public comment,
bring it back to council
if there's any further questions of staff
or any council member comments.
I see council member Dardning is ready to go.
Hi, Jess.
Since this is my last swan song
as the finance committee person,
I wanted to say I really appreciate the staff.
They work very hard to put together
a very comprehensive package
and really attend to all the details
and make sure that we understand
where all the bones are buried.
And I would like to move to accept the ACFAR
for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2025.
Second.
We have a motion to second.
Susie, could you read the roll, please?
Council Member Darling?
Aye.
Council Member Silva?
Aye.
Council Member Davini?
Aye.
Mayor Pro Tem Francois?
Aye.
Mayor Will?
Aye.
And I agree.
Thank you, Kirsten, and the finance department.
I really appreciate this.
lot of hard work goes into this. Thank you. All right, brings us to our last agenda item.
Presentation of the new 2025 to 2026 state housing law and I invite Assistant
City Attorney Claire Lai to provide the staff presentation.
Good evening Mayor Maria Pro Tem, City Council, I'm Claire Lai, Assistant City
Attorney and I will be providing you with this short or brief presentation of
the new housing laws that went into effect this year and those are will
become effective next year and for ease of understanding I have divided them
extracted the more relevant ones to Walnut Creek as a city and divided them
into these four categories I will be spending more time on the first
category that's because that's the broader land use sequel changes that
have more lasting effects and there are several slides I'm happy against the
questions during or at the end of the presentation, but again this is intended
to be a high-level overview and we're happy to provide additional information
should the council desire. So on to the first set of bills or this is actually
law now this is a part of the budget trailer bills that was signed into law
this June and went to effect immediately. So this is AB 130 and it's an incredibly
complex bill does a lot of things, but for our purposes there are three main
components of the bill. The first one is that it creates new urban infill
exemption under CEQA for housing projects. This is for housing
developments that are on urban sites. So think any residential commercial parks,
parking, that kind of thing that's under 20 acres or five acres for a build
assembly project. The project is consistent with either general plan or
zoning, either by proposal or by use of state density bonus law, incentives, concessions,
and waivers. The project can't be located on sensitive lands which is somewhat similar to the
SB 35 definitions, no open space, conservation easement, wildfire areas, that sort of thing.
There is a minimum density requirement that the project has to meet to qualify for this
exemption, that is 30 dole units per acre for Walnut Creek and there's also some historic
structure preservation requirements and the project can't include hotels or bed and breakfast
uses.
So if the project is eligible for this infill exemption, the city is obligated to conduct
a tribal consultation upon notice by the applicant.
There are specific timeframes for that to happen and on the project side, the developer
is responsible for conducting a phase one environmental assessment, and if the project
is within 500 feet of a freeway, there is some design amenities, requirements, and also
if it's fully affordable or over 85 feet in height, there is prevailing wage and labor
standards that can apply.
So this is a very straightforward exemption.
We're seeing some projects in other jurisdictions that are starting to want to use it, and so
That's kind of expected for the future.
The second component of AB 130 amends the Permised Tree Mining
Act, which is the law that requires cities and local
governments to approve projects and act on applications
expeditiously.
It makes a couple of primary changes.
It defines what is subject to the PSA.
And so it's anything that requires a planning entitlement
from the city, whether that's discretionary or ministerial.
It also adds some review timeframes.
So now we have ministerial projects
that must be acted upon within 60 days
of a complete formal application.
And for the AB 130 infill projects
that we were just talking about,
it's 30 days from the conclusion
of tribal consultation generally.
And then this law also makes a change
to the PSA that removes a public notice requirement
before a project can be deemed complete
by operation of law before,
because the city hasn't met the PSA timeline.
So this is sort of a big change
because before the developer had to vote the PSA timeframes,
the city gets some more time by fairly failing to act.
Pursuant to this public notice,
but now it removes it so the projects can become effective
or deemed approved by law
if the city doesn't meet the timelines.
And lastly, the AB 130 pauses the local building code
amendments for residential projects.
You saw this a little bit with the adoption of the code
update for the triennial code updates, the building code
updates a couple weeks, months ago.
But it's a six-year moratorium on local amendments
unless an exception applies for these residential projects.
So we move on to SB131.
This is also part of the budget trailer bill,
and it is currently in effect.
Two major things that it does, one
that creates a single condition or near miss streamlining process under CEQA.
This is not an exemption, but it's more like an expeditious approving process for projects
that would have qualified for an exemption, but for a single condition that's similar
to the kinds of project that's being described.
And if that's true, then CEQA review is limited to the effects that are caused by just that
one condition.
As you can imagine, this would greatly reduce the scope of environmental review, the cost
for preparing an environmental impact report, you know, the drafting, the public noticing
for a project, and it gets them through faster.
And the other categories of change that it does is that the law creates several new CEQA
exemptions.
I've listed a bunch of them here.
There are some more that's more unique to rural and industrial jurisdictions.
So we've seen now that there are some projects that are trying to evoke these exemptions.
Housing element rezonings is one.
That's cities that do have to do rezoning, have been utilizing them.
So these are statutory exemptions, they're very straightforward.
There's not a lot of eligibility criteria for meeting them.
So it's also expected that these exemptions can benefit these kinds of projects to move
them smoother along the way.
I do want to talk a little bit about SB 79.
I think the main takeaway is that it does not apply
here in Contra Costa County or to Walnut Creek
because the law applies to urban transit counties
with more than 15 passenger rail stations.
There are only 15 in Contra Costa County,
so it does not apply.
But otherwise, it's a bill that upzones
basically areas near transit, overrides local zoning,
allows the local government to adopt an ordinance
or adopt an alternative plan, subject to HCD approval,
but for the time being, it does not apply
here in Contra Costa County.
And then this Assembly Bill 507,
and I do wanna talk a little about this one,
it's that it creates a ministerial,
streamlined approval process
for what's called adaptive reuse projects.
And basically, this is repurposing office buildings,
commercial buildings into housing, including mixed-use projects. And this
kind of follows a bill a couple years ago that makes 100% affordable
conversion projects ministerial and by right, and so this allows those projects
to have lower affordability but still be approved ministerially. So
here are some criteria. For example, at least half of the square footage has to
be dedicated to residential. There are some affordability requirements. The
a project can have new structures on the parking lot
or vacant portions of the same lot,
but subject to certain requirements
such as the commercial portion
or the non-residential portion
has to meet the underlying zoning.
And, oops, sorry about that.
And because the projects are by right,
they're exempt from CEQA,
but they do have to comply with specific labor standards
or pay prevailing wages,
depending on what type and height location
and those sorts of things.
The city has obligations to approve them
within specific timeframes,
but it can make them go through objective design review,
which is basically checking up
if the project meets objective design standards.
And lastly, the city can establish an incentive program
to provide financial assistance for these projects.
And it's basically utilizing the tax increments
from the increase in property taxes
that are attributed to these projects.
so the city can provide assistance through that manner.
The other component of AB 507 that's different
from what we're just talking about,
is that it makes some changes to housing element law
and acquires HCD to provide more specific input
in its review.
As the council recalls, the city submits
a draft housing element to HCD for review,
and HCD provides comments.
The city is required to consider those comments
and make changes or adopt without the changes,
but explain why.
So this bill requires HDD to provide
the specific deficiency in the draft
to include the specific statutory citations
about the deficiency, provide the specific analysis
or the text that they would like to see
for the city to address the deficiency.
And then if the city makes changes,
it will need to include those specific references.
And so, you know, from our experience,
it's very, can be very challenging for HDD
to include those specific feedback for the city
in that process.
So hopefully this will make that process more smooth
and direct their attention
to what needs to be incorporated in their comments.
Okay, and then we shift over
to some building permit issues.
And here are two bills that require the city
to consider third-party plan check reviews
and also for the city to conduct inspections
building permit work expeditiously and for smaller projects that's under 10
units and you ask why is this significant I think it's to illustrate
that so far the state housing law changes they have been focused on kind
of planning entitlement stage and with these bills and also a couple years ago
there is a bill about establishing timelines for processing building
permits there are some shifts in the legislative trends about you know what
what do we do with post entitlement permits
and how building permits, you know,
might affect the housing construction process
in order to kind of achieve the goal
of stimulate housing production.
So further down the line,
and there are some bills about housing law enforcement,
there's additional provisions under AB 712
about permits fees.
If an applicant is able to challenge successfully
a city's violation of what's called housing reform laws
And it's very broadly defined, it's essentially
any housing laws that we've come to be familiar with
and working with, and so this adds another layer
of remedies for the applicant if they are able
to prevail on a challenge.
And similarly, SB 808 expedites the enforcement actions
that's brought by the AG's office for claims
that allege the city has improperly denied
the housing project.
And then finally, SB 786 authorizes HCD now
to review housing elements if the city fails
to meet a timeline to adopt programs
to remove housing constraints.
An example of this can include, you know,
the city said in housing element
that the program will remove certain development standards,
it will change them, make it more streamlined,
but if it does not meet the timeline of the program,
HCD can review housing elements
issue kind of compliance reviews for that. But on the good side it increases
the compliance time for cities from 60 to 120 days if the housing element was
challenged and the court said it was not compliant. Originally we have the city
has 60 days to bring that into compliance but now that timeline has
been extended to 120 days. And then finally there's a couple bills that
clean up the ADU statute, one for SB 543,
it clean up the law to kind of incorporate
some HDD interpretations, and most importantly,
the number of state-exempt by-right ADUs
that are allowed on a parcel.
Recall there are some disputes about how many units
you have to allow freestanding or to conversion detached,
so now it's fully incorporated into the law
that you have to allow all types of those units.
And then there's a SB9 which would require the city
to submit ordinances and it validates now
if you don't submit that to HCD within 60 days of adoption.
And then finally AB 1154 eliminates the JADU
on occupancy requirement if the JADU has separate bathroom
from the main house.
And also clarifies that rentals for these units
have to be longer than 30 days, so no short term rentals.
And then the takeaway from this sort of law
is that Walnut Creek has adopted already ordinance amendments
to be in line with the first and the last bill,
and that it's always been timely
in submitting these ordinance updates to HCD.
And with that concludes my presentation.
I'm happy to answer questions.
A lot of state laws.
Okay, do we have any questions on that?
Council Member Silva?
Thank you very much, Claire.
That's a lot to go through.
Let's just start with the ADU cleanup bills.
Have we identified what, if anything,
we need to do to now our local ordinances
to become compliant with those?
So based on my review so far,
we have done what the bills asked for.
That's always a continuous effort.
We always monitor and work with the staff to do that.
But that's good.
And can you go back to SB 786?
HCD is authorized to review housing elements
for non-compliance for removing housing constraints,
which we have deadlines in the eight years,
multiple times, like we were just finishing up some things.
This increases the, okay, so they look for non-compliance.
They tell us, and now rather than having only 60 days,
we have 120 days to come within compliance.
So those are kind of two separate provisions.
The first one deals with currently HCD,
it generally provides the HCD can review housing element
for compliance and if it determines that it's not,
they can take further action.
And this change specifies that if the timeline is not met,
then that's grounds for HCD to initiate that review.
And then if, you know, HCD refers the housing element
to the Attorney General's office,
they, you know, it brings suit,
or if the housing element is challenged by the public,
and the court finds that it's not compliant,
then before we had 60 days to bring that into compliance,
but now there's 120 days to do that.
Kinda good news.
Right, so it's, yes, somewhat good news.
So this reinforces the importance
of us staying on our timeline,
so that we don't fall out of compliance
because if we fall out of compliance and we're fine,
basically they, effectively they could decertify
our certification which puts this exposed
to builder's remedy.
Yeah, that is a, that is a, you know,
end of the consequence, I think it's like.
And I'm taking it out, but, you know.
Yeah, and I'm, the city does, you know,
it's very, we're very, the staff is very diligent about.
Right, which?
Checks and updates and tracking guidelines.
Okay, and then there was AB 507.
Frank Kong isn't here.
We, it's building permit.
Basically it's the adaptive reuse projects.
We've had some discussion about these adaptive reuse projects
at the Seismic Safety Commission,
where things are not, I mean,
if you go to do adaptive reuse on a building built in 1970,
there is no seismic unless they've done retrofitting.
To what extent are we allowed to bring them
into requirement to meet the current building code,
particularly a seismic or fire code, et cetera?
Yeah, the building code requirements,
they're still applicable.
This is more on the planning entitlement stage.
And also the law has provisions
about if you're trying to convert a building
That's more than 50 years old.
There's some additional things that you have to do,
like file reports.
So this doesn't ignore the bill?
So it doesn't?
Correct, yes.
It's not ministerial, but yet you do have to meet them.
Okay, thank you.
Correct, that's right.
Any other questions?
Just a few, I'll keep it high.
Very nice job.
I think you handled 15 very common.
All right, looks like no more questions.
Claire, thank you very much.
A lot of information here.
I'm sure that as the year goes ahead,
we'll be coming up against a few of these.
So, thanks so much.
With that, that comes to the end of our agenda.
Public comment, Mayor.
Oh, I'm sorry.
I guess we should have.
Public comment.
All right, no more public comment.
No more comments from the dais.
Therefore, we'll close the meeting.
We'll adjourn to our next City Council meeting
on Tuesday, January 20th, 2026.
Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy New Year, Happy Holidays, and we'll
see you next year.