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 is conducting this meeting from the City Council Chamber.
This meeting is being video streamed and can be viewed live or later on the City's website.
As some attendees may be participating in their first Walnut Creek City Council meeting,
I wanted to welcome everyone and talk briefly about the public comment process.
For each agenda item, there will be an opportunity for public comment on the item.
Thus, if you desire to speak to an item on the agenda this evening, please hold your
comments until the City Council considers that item.
Additionally, we have a section on the agenda titled Public Communications, which is for
public comments for items not on the agenda.
Any comments during public communication should not relate to an item that is on the agenda
this evening.
with section 9.5 of the City Council Handbook, 30 minutes will be initially
allocated for public communications for items not on the agenda. Additional time
for public communications for items not on the agenda will be provided at the
end of the open session portion of the meeting if necessary. If you desire to
provide a public comment please complete a speaker identification card and line
up behind the lectern at the appropriate time. Wait your turn and then when you
approach the lectern please state your name and city of residence for the
record. You will have two minutes to address the City Council. Please keep in
mind that this is a city business meeting. The City Council has adopted
rules of decorum to ensure that meetings are conducted efficiently and effectively
and that all members of the public have a full, fair, and equal opportunity to be
heard. The City Council handbook outlines decorum expected in the council chamber
and can be found on our website.
All remarks should be addressed to the City Council.
Please do not use threatening, profane, or abusive language
which disrupts, disturbs, or otherwise impedes
the orderly conduct of the Council meeting.
Again, each speaker will have two minutes
to make your remarks.
Written comments submitted and received
up to two hours before the meeting
have been posted to the City's website for public review
and are included in the meeting record
but will not be separately read into the record.
I'm so happy we have that video and I don't have to speak for 10 minutes in a row.
All right, well, good evening. I'm Kevin Wilk, Mayor of the City of Walnut Creek,
and welcome to the Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 regular meeting of the Walnut Creek City Council.
And if you'd please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God.
And City Clerk Suzy Martinez, would you please call the roll?
Council Member Darling.
I'm here.
Council Member Davini.
Here.
Council Member Silva.
Here.
Mayor Pro Tem Francois.
Here.
Mayor Welt.
Here.
All right.
First item of business is a proclamation for American Heart Month.
And I invite Narissa Itchon with the American Heart Association to come forward and
up the proclamation, if you can just come to the desk.
Hi there, perfect, all right.
And so this is a, as I mentioned,
proclamation for American Heart Month.
And we know that whereas there's more
than 350,000 people experience cardiac arrest outside
of a hospital each year and about 70% happen at home.
Only about 1 in 10 survive and more than 23,000 children
under the age of 18 experience cardiac arrest outside
of a hospital each year in the United States
and almost 40% of these are sports-related.
And without going into all of the different details here,
but like Kevin Wilk,
mayor of the city of Walnut Creek
on behalf of the Walnut Creek City Council
to hereby proclaim the month of February,
American Heart Month.
And I'm gonna bring this up there,
and then if you'd like to say a few words.
Hi everyone, I'm stepping in for my colleague, Nerisa.
My name is Marielle.
I'm from the American Heart Association Bay Areas team.
We're just really proud to accept this proclamation,
especially in recognition of February
as American Heart Month.
We're really proud to have supported the city
of Walnut Creek's 2021 Tobacco Retail License Ordinance
and to have hosted our annual East Bay Heart Walk
just across the street at Civet Park for multiple years.
In this second century of impact,
we're continuing to expand our nation of lifesavers
and spreading the powerful message
that until first responders arrive,
you are the first responder.
So as a Walnut Creek resident,
We are really encouraging other fellow Walnut Creek residents to learn CPR and know to call
911 when in the event of a cardiac emergency.
So thank you again.
We gratefully accept this proclamation and thanks to the City of Walnut Creek for its
continued support of our work.
Thank you.
Next, we have the oath of office for two new commissioners, one on Board of Appeals
alternate Trent Newhousle and Transportation Commissioner Eduardo Guerrero and I invite
City Clerk Susie Martinez to administer the oath of office to our newest commissioners.
Okay, if you could please raise your right hand and repeat after me, I do solemnly swear
that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution
of the state of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true
faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of
the state of California, that I take this obligation freely
without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion,
and that I will well and faithfully discharge
the duties upon which I'm about to enter.
Congratulations.
Now, before you head back to your seats,
if either of you would like to say a few words about who
you are and why you're excited about the role. And you are excited. We're excited to have you.
I'm very excited. Thank you for having me. My name is Trent Newhousle. And I live and work in
Walnut Creek for 20 years. And I think I look forward to serving and providing whatever I can
do to support Walnut Creek and the council. So thanks for having me. Thank you and welcome aboard.
Good evening honorable mayor council members city staff and members of the community
I'm grateful the opportunity to serve as a transportation commissioner for our city
Uh my background I spent my career in public service
30 years in the united states marine corps and i'm in my 23rd year serving in the fire service
I've worked in complex high risk environments. We're planning coordination accountability matter
And so I see transportation the same way
Streets, transit, and mobility aren't abstract concepts.
They affect safety, access, equity, economic opportunity,
and quality of life for our residents each and every day.
So I don't think I have all the answers,
but I do bring a commitment to preparation,
integrity, and service.
I look forward to learning from this body,
engaging with the public,
and doing my part to help our city move forward,
literally and figuratively.
Thank you.
Thank you, Edward.
I was on the Transportation Commission for eight years prior to City Council, and what
I found out is that people in Walla Creek, they have an opinion about transportation.
You will find that out.
Thank you very much.
All right.
Next on the agenda is the consent calendar.
Does any council member wish to pull any item for discussion?
No.
No.
Does any member of staff wish to pull an item for discussion?
No.
Does any member of the public wish to comment on an item on the consent calendar?
And as a reminder, each speaker will have two minutes to make their remarks.
Written comments submitted have been posted to the city's website for public review and
are included in the meeting record but will not separately be read into the record.
And for the – Jan, you're up.
I can't believe no one from the podium there has joined me.
Jan Warren, I live in the woodlands the last 40 years.
I just want to highlight E, approval of appropriation and transfer of $1,250,000 of recycle smart
diversion incentive funds for the capital projects.
Is that the right one, having to do with redoing the park, the disability park?
Okay.
I'm thrilled that it's getting done.
I'd like us to highlight somewhere in our magazine or something.
This is good stuff that's coming, even though our rate's going up.
People need to know all the good things that are happening and why and where the money's
coming from.
And I'm just curious, do you all know if what we're going to pull up the little pieces that
are all crumbling and have the holes like potholes, is there another reuse for those
by chance?
Or where we could keep mixing it with something else and using it longer?
I'd be curious to know, of course.
Anyhow, I'm just thrilled and happy to look for it.
I don't know what the timeline is, but I've been looking forward for that getting redone
because the whole region loves it.
So, thanks.
Great.
Thank you, Jan.
All right.
Seeing no other speakers, I'll ask the council if any would like to make a motion with regard
to the consent calendar or regarding an item that was brought up.
I'll move to approve items 2, A, B, C, D, E.
Second.
You have a motion and a second.
Susan, can you call the roll, please.
Councilmember Darling?
Aye.
Mayor Pro Tem Francois?
Aye.
Councilmember Davini?
Aye.
Councilmember Silva?
Aye.
Mayor Wilk?
Aye.
Motion carries.
All right.
We're just rolling through this.
Next on the agenda is public communications.
This portion of the meeting is reserved for comments on items not on the agenda.
Under the Brown Act, the council cannot act on items raised during public communication,
but may respond briefly to statements made or questions posed, 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 meeting at the end of the meeting if
necessary. Written comments submitted have been posted 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 the time is 6.13 and
And we'll take public comments on items not on the agenda until approximately 643.
And then the remainder of any such comments at the end of the open session portion of the meeting.
So at this time, time to come forward.
And if people just want to line up along the side window there, and you'll have up to two minutes.
Good evening, Mayor Wilk, City Council and staff.
My name is Ellen Osmundson, I'm the founder of Mount Diablo Village, which is a non-profit
organization for seniors, and I'm passing along this brochure to you so that you have
a little bit better understanding about our organization.
A year ago, I came here to speak before you to introduce our organization to you, and
at that time, City Council member Francois
asked if we had a website, and now we do.
And we have a website, we have a brochure,
we have a regular newsletter,
and we've been doing some great activities
with our senior members.
As the term senior, no, a silver tsunami
is on the news, meaning the aging population
is growing very fast, and I believe
that our organization is very timely
to provide vibrancy to the aging community
when they still can enjoy their time,
enjoy making friends,
and we provide a safe environment for them
to do some lightweight activities like walking
and getting to know or reconnecting
with the downtown Walnut Creek.
We have a lot of different events and programs.
We have the Good Morning Walnut Creek Walk.
we have the Smell the Roses Walk,
and we have Monday, Muffin Mondays,
so we just gather together and eat muffins
on Monday mornings.
And so our senior members or potential members
seem to like that, and I'm very happy to announce
that we are accepting members and volunteers,
and we are having our membership and volunteer drive
on February 25th, it's a Wednesday evening, 4 to 6.
If you have time, just come stop by and check us out.
And this is our QR code, we even have that.
Okay, thank you.
Ellen, quick, thank you.
Thanks for the website link too.
And just quick question, you mentioned the event.
Where will it be located?
Oh, it's gonna be at the
Montebolo Unitarian Universalist Church
55 Eglie Lane in Walnut Creek. Okay and the date again? It's on February 25th as a
Wednesday four to six. Four to six. And we'll have vendors and service providers
on site to answer questions and we'll also serve like refreshments.
Excellent. Keep up the good work. Thank you. Thank you. I just wanted to say on
behalf of a couple family friends who have joined your village at a time where
they were struggling because one of them can no longer drive her car. She
really appreciates all the work you guys have done to help her rebuild community.
Well thank you, that's what we do. Thank you. And Ellen having been to a few
events myself that you've invited me to, it's just terrific. I see the level of
people that are participating and the enthusiasm and it really is something
that helps to bring the community together, especially as people. We have an
aging community and it's great for them to have an opportunity to get
together, where they may not be something that is organized otherwise. Yes, yes, and I also would
like to say that we are a big connector, because we are reconnecting the seniors
to where they belong, and you know, downtown walk is very well appreciated by
people who walk around, and we actually we stop at places that was picked by the
Walnut Creek Downtown Business Association, and so we'll visit some
local businesses that do business in the morning. So we sample the coffees, we
sample the snacks, and so we have we start the morning when you're with
positive energy and just built endorphin. Muffins and snacks and muffs. I'm a big
sampler. Thank you so much. Good evening. My name is Elizabeth Silva and I'm a
resident of Walnut Creek and a parent of a second grader
at Bancroft Elementary in the two-way dual immersion program.
I moved to Walnut Creek two years ago specifically to be in boundary
for the Bancroft Elementary dual immersion program.
Last Wednesday on January 28th, Mountain Diablo Unified School District
announced that it would immediately phase out the dual immersion program at
Bancroft Elementary in Walnut Creek and move the program to
Woodside Elementary in Concord beginning in kindergarten starting this fall.
The announcement came just days before the kindergarten enrollment is set to open and
it was made without any advance notice or meaningful engagement with the school community
and the families most impacted.
As you may know, Bancroft Elementary's dual immersion program has been incredibly successful
and it's the only two-way dual immersion program
in the city of Walnut Creek.
Families are deeply, deeply concerned
that this decision was made in violation
of California's Local Control
and Accountability Plan requirements.
State law requires district to engage parents, educators,
and community members in a meaningful way
and to consult with families
on high-need student populations,
including English learners,
making major programmatic decisions, according to the education code.
To date, families have not been provided with any prior consultation or
opportunity for input before the decision was finalized, and
the decision was finalized effective immediately.
We haven't been provided with any data or rationale used to justify the relocation.
And as a result, families are now facing enrollment uncertainty, sibling separation,
because grades one through five will remain at bankruptcy
while kindergarten will be moved to Woodside.
And we respectfully ask you to,
we respectfully ask you to help us urge
Mount Diablo Unified School District
to pause the immediate phasing out of the program,
request the district engage families
in transparent and meaningful public process moving forward.
We have to-
Finish the last line on this.
Last line, the ramifications of this decision
are gonna affect countless Walnut Creek residents.
So we look to you to help us ensure
that this beloved program remains in Walnut Creek.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay.
And we have a few other people supporting us here.
We ask that there be no applause
during the business meeting.
We appreciate the sentiment behind it,
but you hope you understand.
Good evening Council members and members of the public.
My name's Jessica Lee,
and I'm a dedicated Walnut Creek resident
committed to our city's vibrant future.
I'm a mother of a second grade student at Bancroft Elementary
and an incoming kindergartner at Bancroft Elementary.
He's currently in TK at Bancroft.
I'm also a public health service officer
and I am a public health servant.
So I've been in the federal government for over 18 years.
Eight years ago, I relocated here
to care for my aging parents,
drawn to Bancroft's tight-knit community
and exceptional dual language program,
a beacon for families like mine.
On a single income household, we endured a grueling three years
on the wait list for after-school care,
planning every step with unwavering patience.
Just as acceptance arrived, our light
at the end of the tunnel, MDUSD yanked it away,
dismissing our efforts with a mere six months notice,
insisting it's enough time.
They overlooked our reality.
Families stretched thin financially, juggling rising
costs while prioritizing our children's stability, this abrupt change inflicts
undue stress, disrupts education, and erodes the trust we've built in Walnut Creek's promise.
Imagine the rippling effect, working parents sidelined, kids uprooted, opportunities lost.
Council members, as stewards of our community, I implore you, advocate fiercely for MDUSD for
an extended timeline and sustained program support. Protect the families who've chosen Walnut Creek
for its excellence. Thank you and I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you very much.
I don't think we have any questions but after we have public comment one of the council members may
have a comment to make or thank you so much. Thank you. Hi, Chan Warren. One of the reasons I come
down here is to find out things like this that I didn't know anything about even though I also
live in Walnut Creek and my kids are grown so it's hard to keep up with what's going on in schools
but this just hits me the wrong way. I feel for the parents, you know, you got to have timelines and
a way to participate for more transparency. I'm sure the school has their reasons, but it ought
to be an open process, and I would support anything you can do to engage with the school district to,
you know, have more conversation before they uproot people's lives.
Thank you, Jan.
Do we have any more public comment?
One more, OK?
Hi.
My name is Jessica Kelman.
I'm a Bancroft parent as well.
I'm also a journalist who's been covering education
for the past 15 years.
I've seen a lot of moves by schools and school districts,
and I'm concerned with what's going on here.
I believe that what is happening is that MDUSD has very much
struggling slash failing school in Oak Grove Middle.
And they have tried and failed to fix it with an IB program.
IB programs are great when done well, fantastic.
I would be sending my kid there too.
But they chose the wrong place to do it.
They didn't support the students adequately.
They threw struggling students performing below grade level
into advanced academic rigor, which
isn't setting kids up for success.
I think what they're trying to do now
is get more affluent families tracked from Woodside to Oak
Grove to try to gain the system.
Because more affluent families have higher test scores,
which will then fix on paper the problems,
but not really serve the students.
I'm concerned with this line of problem solving.
I have seen it.
I've traveled the country.
seen dozens, if not 100, different schools
in different states.
I've seen this kind of problem solving,
but I've also seen, when people buckle down
and they really put the work in, massive changes
can happen in education.
So I'm concerned with this problem solving,
because I think it just creates more problems.
And it sends more people who care about public education
into the private system, which really
isn't solving anything short-term or long-term.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Hi, everybody.
My name is Lucila Eshoo.
I'm a parent of two students at Bancroft,
dual immersion program.
They are in third grade and first grade.
I have an incoming kinder one.
Devastated to hear that my kinder can join Bancroft,
but in the monolingual program,
he's not gonna be able to take and apply
to the same program that my other kids
are going through right now, the options that I'm given
is enroll her at Woodside.
As a working parent, I cannot do that.
I cannot take two kids to one school and a third one
to a different one.
I juggle.
I try to do my best.
That's impossible.
The other option is to enroll my youngest
in the dual immersion program at Woodside
and transfer the two eldest ones to the monolingual program
Woodside. So none of the options we are given is gonna provide me an answer. We
don't know the reasons. We ask MS, Mount Diablo Unified School District just to
explain us, to work with us. Maybe they have like value reasons but we need to
plan accordingly. Maybe the plan is great. I honestly don't know but the
implementation is important. They cannot affect the families as they are
affecting us so I really ask you to please advocate for this no matter the
outcome I think that we as a Bankrupt community deserve the right to have a
voice and to participate in this decision-making thank you thank you very
much you have anybody else for public comment yeah my name is Donald Paul
I lived up on Oakland Boulevard back in 2012.
I lived there for six years, but back in 2012 I fell at work and crushed my upper body.
My chest was fractured, collar bones, shoulder, shoulder blades, massive, soft tissue damage,
and it almost ruptured my heart.
What happened was, when I filed the work comp claim, I went in, got CT scans, MRIs, went
in my first work comp appointment.
They confiscated all my imaging, and then all my injuries were covered up.
They ran me for a year, and then I threatened legal action.
Dr. Paula Nottingham was a spine surgeon.
He's the one that committed the fraud.
He brought the state and the Fed helping Professor David Jay Chatsudy of Traveler's Insurance Corporation.
He's the one that came down.
He's the ex-VP of two global corporations, took over my work comp case.
My injury was so bad.
So what happened was, instead of fixing me, they threatened me into a neck surgery saying
nothing will get fixed until I go in and let them operate on my neck.
So out of duress, I said, okay, you know, fix me.
I just wanted to get fixed and go back to work.
I'm raising my son, I'm a single parent.
And you know, even though I'm an ex-felon or whatever,
you know, it doesn't mean I'm a human being, right?
I wouldn't even jaywalk, I'm a single dad raising my son.
Okay, so I got pictures of my family back then,
I worked out in the gym.
Well, Daniel Dokek, I worked out in the gym,
he was in there all the time with us, I knew him.
I tried to report this, but here's what happened.
They threatened me into a surgery.
A surgery was supposed to take an hour, hour and a half.
Finish up in 10 seconds.
Pardon?
Finish up in 10 seconds.
Surgeon, well, anyway,
I got a dozen implants in my head.
Here, here, here, wires run down here.
I got magnets sticking to my chest,
and they ran me through the MK Ultra program.
I'm trying to get it, I tried to get in here,
the file police reports, boom, get out.
They surround me with SWAT.
Okay, thank you.
It sounds like you need to meet with the police department.
I'm gonna ask that if you go in the back room right now,
they'll be-
They told me don't come down here.
Okay, well, you'll be able to meet with our captain Slater
who can get any kind of discussion with you.
He's right in the back right now.
Yeah, okay.
Thank you very much.
Any other public comment right now?
Okay, then I'll close the public comment
if we have any council members that would like
to ask any questions or public comment
on any of the topics that were brought up?
Oh yeah, I was just definitely concerned
about the issue you've raised at Bancroft,
and I assume that you've met or reached out
to your school board representatives,
and they've weighed in on this to some extent?
If you wanna come up to the dais.
Thank you for the question.
We have a petition that basically says
what I said earlier, and requests for an immediate pause
and community engagement.
And we have 117 signatures.
So far it's only been four days
from the Bancroft community.
We have sent that to the superintendent
and also to every board member.
And we have gotten a response from the superintendent
that just appreciates us for our comments,
but doesn't invite us to a meeting
or say that any changes will happen.
That's where things stand.
So I have a question to our city manager,
are we aware that this has been occurring?
Are we aware of the topic itself?
This is the first I've heard of it.
Okay, first I've heard of it as well.
And I appreciate you coming.
Obviously, you're familiar
that the Mount Diablo School District operates
as its own special district and their own jurisdiction.
But obviously, assuming you live in Walnut Creek,
you're all Walnut Creek residents.
So appreciate you speaking and making your concerns held.
We do have one of our staff members
that has public education as staff for that, right?
Could we at least do some background work
and find out from our staff member
to connect with the superintendents office
just to get an understanding of what's going on
and then report out to city council?
Yes, we can take a look into it.
Right, appreciate you coming down here
and at least bringing this up.
I'm not sure how much we can do
with the Mount Diablo School District,
at least we can understand what's going on. Thank you. And I love the sign. That
was a good sign and you did a great job holding it up. All right so that ends
public communications. You are more than happy to stay for the rest of the
meeting but I understand also if you have to go and go to bed I get that as
well. So next we have council member and staff announcements reports and
activities or requests. Ask a city attorney if you have any closed session
There are no reportable actions from closed session this evening.
Thank you.
City Manager, if you have any reports?
Yeah, good evening.
Dan Bookshey, City Manager.
I do have a couple updates.
One related to the League of California City's Policy Committee.
I attended the Governance, Transparency, Labor Relations Committee meeting, I'm a member
of that policy committee.
And there were updates on artificial intelligence and potential impacts to cities or other organizations.
There's a presentation by the City of San Jose.
The good news is, is we've been tracking very closely what San Jose is reviewing and
putting out for policy consideration, and we're generally in alignment with some of the best practices at this point in time.
One of the other matters that was discussed, you may recall there was legislation passed this last year,
SB 770, which effectively amends the Brown Act, will require, at least for
Walnut Creek and others, to allow for remote participation beginning July 1st amongst other things.
It appears there may be further amendments to that bill to possibly include additional translation requirements placed upon cities.
But that's somewhat speculative at this point, but that's being discussed in Sacramento.
So there may be more discussion about that bill or related bills going forward.
One of the other updates I wanted to provide is that on January 21st,
Contra Costa County Office of Emergency Services hosted a meeting and
training with all 19 cities, we had six representatives there from Walnut Creek.
Most of the other cities had a comparable number of folks.
You can imagine it was a rather large gathering, but it was very helpful training.
It's the first time in a number of years that all 19 cities in the county have gotten together to work through some coordination issues.
And there is additional training planned in the coming months through the county in coordination with the other cities.
And then lastly, I wanted to provide an update to your council and for members of the public.
They're not aware, on January 20th, the County Board of Supervisors voted to consider
placing a 0.625% sales tax with a five-year sunset on the June 3rd primary ballot.
They directed staff to bring back the appropriate documents for
the County Board of Supervisors to formally vote on that matter on February 17th.
It was a unanimous vote by the board to move forward.
I anticipate it would be unanimous on February 17th to place it on the ballot.
The intent is to back fill a significant portion of the roughly $200 to $300 million of reductions
that will occur over the next few years related to the federal bill HR1 which provides funding for
the expanded Medi-Cal and other social service programs that are funded by the federal government.
So likely more information to follow on that before too long.
Sounds good, thank you.
And next we have council member assignments
and various activities and upcoming events
on AB1234 activities.
Who would like to start?
Oh, I've all told you.
Thank you very much, former mayor for pointing at me.
A few things, thank you.
I'll start with Recycle Smart,
which is the Joint Powers Authority
or the partnership that we have
with five other local jurisdictions
for the garbage recycling and organic services.
And we are going into the next rate year.
We'll start March 1,
and we have recently approved the rate increase.
Walnut Creek's rates for the monthly service
will go up by 6%, primarily, as I mentioned previously,
to cover the increasing cost of the service,
as well as the increasing number of services
that were required to deliver under state law.
However, the good news is Walnut Creek's monthly rates are the lowest of the 19 cities in
Contra Costa and the cities in the Tri-Valley, so we are doing something right, and so thank
you on that.
I would also like to mention that a year from this coming March, we will go into a new contract
period for a franchise agreement, and some of the services will be changing, and it would
be good if we could schedule a presentation by Recycle Smart leadership team on what's
different and what's changed because otherwise, Francois and I would be sitting here with
the slide deck going through it ourselves, and so they're able to answer the questions,
so that might be good to have later in the year.
I too, and so does the mayor, serve on a policy committee for the League of California Cities,
and we had our meetings about 10 days ago.
And I'm serving this year
on the Revenue and Taxation Policy Committee,
and we had a robust discussion
about sales tax trends and allocations.
Evidently, it was rather heated arguments
in the hallways afterward.
But I think the first really important part of it
was really to talk about the trends in sales tax.
While sales tax is going up,
If it's a percentage of or compared to personal income,
it's actually trending downward
because so many of the things that we buy in California
or what we spend our incomes on are actually non-taxable.
Rent, mortgages, homeowners insurance, fire insurance,
all of that, as well as services and streaming services.
If we go home tonight and we decide to watch Netflix,
we're not paying sales tax on them.
So all of those things are the way we have trended
in our buying patterns as well as in down to economic times
with unemployment rates, there's less
and less discretionary spending.
So that's affecting our revenue streams across the board.
Then at the same time, the buying patterns,
the more people buying online has changed
the way the sales tax is actually allocated.
This issue is going to the board of directors in three weeks.
the meeting to decide what position we'll take from a policy perspective but
and it should be a very interesting and heated conversation at that and I will
report more in March. Is that the Cal Cities Board of Directors? Cal Cities
Board of Directors. Walnut Creek sister cities board meeting last night I will
report that planning is well underway for the visit of the delegations of
of youth from Italy and Hungary,
and they will be, the Italian team will be arriving
on Thursday, March 26th for a week,
and the Hungarian team, group of students,
will be arriving Friday, March 27th,
and they'll stay through the following week.
And the welcome reception will be Monday, March 30th,
and so mark your calendars for that.
There are also, plans are well underway
for the recruiting of the next year's class,
the 2027 class of students from Walnut Creek.
They will select probably a dozen to go to
Nocetto, Italy and a dozen for Shio-Folk,
Hungary and they will be selected.
They've expected about 85 people last night,
85 families at the orientation meeting,
and they will probably select everyone by
early May so that the plans can be well underway.
finally I will mention that Community Service Day registration for Community
Service Day will start on February 17th and it's slated for April 18th the
Saturday it's a morning and it involves 42 projects across the city and for the
first time ever all of our schools are all of our public schools in Walnut Creek
have a project or two so we're delighted with what's about to happen and mark your
calendars for the 18th. Thank you very much mayor.
Thanks, your next informer. Okay I can't look at anybody now. A couple things. The
Chamber of Commerce board has not met since we last did but there are a couple
things coming up that are chamber activities. February 25th starring the
mayor Walnut Creek state of the city will be held and then on March 3rd the
women's conference will come back to the Lesher Center and that's always a great
chance so hurry up and sign up for those two things with the chamber. I did all of
us got a chance to meet Chris Farrow our new Arts and Recreation Director and
that was really fun because she comes from Stockton which is where I grew up
so you know go Vikings. And then the other things that I have done over this
time period really go back to MCE and electric rate setting. We are working
towards our budget for the year. Our fiscal year starts April 1st. We are looking at our rate
structure and trying to figure out, we are dropping rates for the year because we haven't
increased them for the last three years and we are seeing a decrease in energy supply costs,
which is a great thing to have. Last year was very challenging. We are looking at a couple different
levels of rate reduction, and that will be counterbalanced against some of the charges
from PG&E.
We're trying to balance those out because we recognize how much those utility costs
affect people's bottom lines.
We don't have consensus yet on what we're going to do, but I will be reporting out at
future meetings and stand by.
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you.
Let's go over to Councilmember Davini.
Well thank you Mayor but I have nothing to report this week.
No report.
All right.
Mayor Pro Tem.
We're going to have more time.
Okay.
Well thank you Mayor.
Let's see.
I attended the, as a liaison to Rossmore, I attended their board meeting last week.
The last time I was the liaison was during the pandemic.
So we were doing things differently then and it was nice to be there in person and see
everyone.
They had a good crowd.
I gave them an update on the council priorities, which, of course, are public safety, parks
and recreation facilities, environmental sustainability, economic development, and my personal favorite,
the general plan update.
And they were most interested in the feedback I received on the public safety priority,
wanting to know about our staffing levels, curious about where we are on those levels
and thanks to the chief, I was able to provide them
some current information.
They're also interested in traffic enforcement,
generally, and in and around the Rossmore area.
So good first meeting with them,
and gave them a, it was nice to make that connection.
Also serve on the Recycle Smart Board
with Council Member Silva.
She did a fantastic job of giving the update,
and I concur with her recommendation.
The franchise agreements, the executive director
of Recycle Smart and staff will be doing
three dimensional chess and multi sheets,
Excel spreadsheets in terms of,
there's five different contractors and different services
and I think it would be helpful to get that information out
at the appropriate time because the contracts
don't take place until next,
don't go into effect until next March.
We've already signed them and we have them lined up
but it's generally good news.
I think our community is getting more service,
more bang for the buck in terms of additional pickups
and especially in the multifamily sector,
which Walnut Creek has a very robust
multifamily development housing here
and that a lot of the services
that single family residents get
in terms of battery pickup or extra green service
and things like that or reuse and recycle days,
that's going to be extended to the multifamily as well.
So it's all good things.
And I think having kind of a comprehensive update on that
will be good.
Let's see, I am planning on attending,
I don't know if you are as well,
the Joy Bound event this Saturday from 10 to three,
it's Unleash the Love Festival.
It's an adopt-a-thon and fun run
that will be from 10 to three here in Walnut Creek
at Joy Bound out in Shadelands or at 2890 Mitchell Drive.
And hopefully I won't come back with a new pet,
but I might, so.
And then finally, I wanted to mention
that the Lesher Speaker Series is hosting
former Montana Senator John Tester
and former New Jersey Governor, Christine Todd Whitman,
at next Tuesday night the 10th at 730,
kickoff of the speaker series for 2026.
So if you don't have a ticket, try to get one.
I think it should be a really interesting,
interesting to hear from both of them
and see how bipartisanship works in action.
That's my report.
Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.
And actually those, they're not really debates,
but the back and forth between two different parties,
they're always very congenial.
I always get a lot out of them.
It's fascinating to hear where,
hey, people on two sides can come together
and there's common ground areas.
And I think we all hope that we can move forward
in that respect.
I will not, unfortunately, be at the Joey Bound event
on Saturday.
I'm sure you'll do a fantastic job representing the city.
Unfortunately, I have to be in LA for Memorial that day.
So, but I will be thinking of you at Joey Bound.
Most of my last couple of weeks were involved with conferences.
The one was Cal Cities and Sacramento, which also you heard Council Member Silva had gone to as well.
The conference was for mayors and city leaders.
It's always great to collaborate with fellow leaders in sharing best practices, especially when it comes to housing and transportation.
So we had probably 250 council member and mayors and city leaders from throughout the state that were there.
and then that backed right onto the policy committee that I am a member of,
which is the Environmental Quality Policy Committee. So I want to talk
about quickly about the top priorities. I know that there's a lot of people that
are very interested in sustainability in the city, so priorities are strengthen
climate change resilience and natural disaster preparedness, supporting local
efforts to prepare and prevent wildfire and other disasters, ensuring access to
to insurance. That's a big one of course. Energy and utilities and supporting
policies that encourage the use of solar and wind generation to produce hydrogen
and other renewable energy sources. Waste and wastewater solutions and that's a
key priority this year to talk about within the Environmental Quality
Committee. Sequel reform always a favorite and then bioplastics and
recyclables which is something that has in the last couple of years really
started to gain prominence. So those are going to be the things that we really discuss this year.
If we make recommendations they are then brought to the Cal City's board of directors to vote on,
see if we take sides on those to be able to lobby to the state legislators. And then last week I was
in frigid Washington DC where it was about eight degrees each day for the U.S. Conference of Mayors
and this is great we're able to share feedback from all over the country on
what's working what's not lots of discussion on housing needs and
concerns of federal overreach on immigration no surprise there
in fact even Jacob Fry the mayor of Minneapolis was the highlight and he had
support of every one of the 300 mayors that were there
he'd flown in gave about a 20 minute discussion of what was going on
how did by the press afterwards then he he flew on out but
We all face the same challenges in cities, mayors,
everything from aging infrastructure and rising costs
to affordable housing, mental health needs,
homelessness and public safety.
So lots of discussions on that and on how AI can be a tool
for more efficient solutions while improving residents' lives.
So a terrific conference.
First time I had a chance to go to it five years ago
when I was mayor, of course it was COVID
and they did not have the conference of mayors
and I certainly wasn't there.
so I encourage that we participate in this every year when given the opportunity.
That's my update. So I guess that's that. We'll move on now to our consideration item,
which is the selection of applicants to be interviewed for consideration for
2026 Commission appointments. And I'm going to invite Susie Martinez to explain the selection
process and then I'll make a couple of recommendations as we move forward after
we hear public comment. Okay good evening. So this scheduled recruitment process we
had nine openings. One opening each on the Arts Commission, Iron Horse Corridor
Advisory Committee, and Board of Appeals, and two openings each on the Design
Review Commission, Park Recreation and Open Space Commission, and Transportation
Commission. Included in the agenda packet is a listing of all 47 qualified
candidates and additionally the City Council has received the full
applications for review. At this point in time its Council standard practice to
ballot and select who you would like to interview at your next meeting on
February 17th. In the past Council has a standard of interviewing three candidates
per opening. So I have prepared ballots so if you would like to ballot at this
time or provide other direction to me the choices are to interview all,
interview a select few, or direct the city clerk to open to go back and reopen
recruitment, or a hybrid alternative alternative. Additionally, we'll proceed
with scheduling group interviews on February 17th unless other direction is
provided. Great, thank you Susie. So first let me ask the my colleagues do you have
any questions of Susie at this time? You can ask questions later but do at this
time do we have any? No? Okay, so I don't have any questions. I'll make a comment a
minute, but I'm first going to open this up to public communications and ask if
anybody from the public would like to step forward and speak regarding this
particular issue. All right, so I'll close public comment, and as we as we look at
these openings, and we can see that a couple of them we have two openings,
since we have so many applicants and and certainly more than a handful for three
of them arts transportation and pros I'd recommend that for the interview
process that we interview all five Iron Horse corridor advisory committee
applicants during our interview process interview all four Board of Appeal
applicants again these are just for one opening for each of these and then
interview the one design review applicant who's an architect and look at discussing
options for maybe bringing on additional recruitment for a landscape architect or even reaching
out to our current commissioner who's a landscape architect to extend her term.
And then for the arts, transportation and park recreation open space, applicants move
to ballot for those.
Any questions, comments, other thoughts?
How many ballots or how many would you like from each group or what were you thinking
from transportation and pros?
So from those, what we'd like to do is when the ballots come out, I think we're saying
select our, is it select our, do we stack rank them, or do we just like select our,
You would say select top five.
Top five, so, right, so selecting the top five.
And then what we would do is ideally interview at least three people for each opening.
In other words, there would be six interviewees for the two openings for Transportation and
Pros, and three interviewees for the one opening for Art.
So those would be two separate panels of interviews that we would do for Transportation and Pros.
May I suggest then we pick six off of our list if we're going for six?
I mean ultimately, usually if we end up having five, we're going to end up with, there will
be a stack rank that's there.
And the challenge if we end up picking six or even seven, is you could end up having
so many that are in the top seven or eight that it's difficult to then whittle them down.
Usually with five, we've ended up with a good amount that we've had.
There seems to be a separation at that point between the six that we're interviewing and
the others.
There are just so many good candidates.
I know there are a lot of them.
And I will say, we do have a wealth of good candidates.
We're very fortunate for that.
Going through the applications, I think I probably am not alone when I said that, oh
my gosh, how are we just going to choose one or two of these?
There are some that there were half a dozen or more of really good candidates.
So thank you all for applying.
And great job on City Clerk in getting the outreach on this.
I don't think we've ever seen 47 applicants before for it.
It's terrific.
I have a question for Susie.
There's an applicant on there that has served two terms and is applying for a third.
What was our...did we have a discussion about that?
So in some cases, there are a couple of instances where people have been asked to apply again
for a third term, the reason being that if there has been a lot of turnover in one of
the commissions, and we're looking at a very, very new commission, the consistency of having
somebody that's got some endemic history and knowledge there of what's been going on can
sometimes be oftentimes be very helpful to the consistency of a commission from time
the time, you don't end up with five people that have served less than a year.
And we have that, I guess, precedent going back. We've done that before.
Actually, we never even used to have term limits going back. And so it's
fairly recent that we're doing this, but more if we see that there is challenges
in being able to get either one good recruits, or again just wanting to
maintain the consistency that we have. Like a great example is in park
recreation open space. We've got the biggest project being undertaken with
the Heather Farm Swimming Community Center that the Walnut Creek is ever
undertaken and to have all brand-new park recreation and open space
commissioners or maybe all within the last year would be a challenge in being
able to have that consistency from where it was voted to approve through to
completion. And then there's someone applying for transportation that I
I thought was just going for re-election, are these?
Re-appointment, isn't Jared already on the?
Oh, he's turned out as well.
Okay, I didn't see that on the written transcript,
so he's turned out as well and he's going for a-
Same exact, yeah, so mentioned it before.
Can I check, Mayor?
Because I was assuming when I was looking at this
for the two candidates that it would be a re-appointment
beyond the normal term limits.
we have the option of putting them down
as one of the people that we would interview
or are you recommending we just automatically
include them in the interview list?
Well, I would recommend that we automatically interview them,
but that's up to the council.
If you agree with that, then that's what we would do.
If you would prefer to vote on that, then we can do that too.
So what we would do is though,
because in each case we have one potential returning
from pros and one for transportation,
we would just consider those two as interviewees.
Right.
And then vote for five additional.
Yeah, yes.
Okay.
Sure.
I like that because it gives us more votes.
Okay, terrific.
And does everybody agree with the first three
in just interviewing all the applicants
for design review, board of appeals, and Iron Horse?
We just need a bigger vote.
Yeah, there you go.
All right, well, we'll set up an extra chair at the desk.
Okay, well then let's take this one step at a time.
We'll first do just the motion that interviewing
the five Iron Horse Corridor Advisory Committee applicants,
the four Board of Appeal applicants,
and the one Design Review applicant,
and then we will reach out to a current commissioner
or continue to extend recruitment
for a Design Review applicant.
Second.
We have a motion and a second.
Mayor Wolk? Aye. Councilmember Silva? Aye. Councilmember Darling? Aye. Councilmember Davenne? Aye.
Mayor Pro Tem Francois? Yes. All right so now we'll move on to the
balloting for arts transportation and pros. So at the top of each ballot is the
commission name so that you don't get them mixed up and then passing out three
balance. And Mayor Wilk, just again to clarify, arts has one opening and
transportation and pros both have two. Correct. Are we are we intending to interview
the same number of people for arts as we are for transportation and pros? No,
because since those have two openings we'd be interviewing six people. We'll
still vote for five for arts. Okay. But we're only going to interview three.
Unless that's our goal to interview three correct we're voting for all or
just arts if we do if we do arts first though they can be tabulating while
we're doing the rest may I make a suggestion there you go so we'll vote
for arts first so they can be tabulating while we're working on the rest
And which one do you want us to do second?
Let's do pro's.
Pro's second.
What's that?
Translation?
Five plus one.
Five plus one.
Well, one is already joined.
Yeah.
So we...
Mark it or it doesn't.
Yeah, mark it.
You can mark it.
Transportation.
Transportation.
Are you going to be able to see any other things?
So before they announce the results, should we set up a threshold for minimum number of
votes to be considered in the in the queue or is it just rank choice voting
why don't we see where we land right I wanted to ask that question before we
heard it because otherwise that bias is the answer perhaps is the discussion
that we might wind up with a bunch of say ones or a bunch of twos and how do
we break that tie well I'm not you vote again it's how we break that tie okay
Right, but so we're saying that you have to have at least like, for example, three
votes to be able to, then we go on. Then we go back. So that, okay, well let's
look at the motion. That's as Councilmember Silva said that suggests that you have to
have at least three votes to be able to move on to interview process and if we
And if we have a situation where we don't have enough interviewees, then we do another
vote on that particular category.
If we introduce that, you have to have at least three, and we had to then re-vote.
Would we only be re-voting on the ones that God votes, or what would we do with that information?
And that is a good question.
You know, I think let's do this.
read off the votes and then we'll determine where we go from there and if
it becomes something where there's too many people that would be in buying for
a fifth or a six-spot we can talk about that then right we ready to read any
we're gonna project them on this oh all right I take the crowd is nervous in
anticipation
Okay, this is the Arts Commission.
So, for the Arts Commission, we're looking at three, I'm sorry, we're looking at one
opening, right?
That's correct.
One opening.
And we've got one with five, and three with four, and one with three.
So, move to interview number one, two, three, and four.
Second.
Okay
Take a roll
Council member Silva. Aye. Mayor Wilk. Aye. Council Member Darling. Aye. Council Member Diveny. Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Francois. Aye.
One down, all right
Okay
Okay, so this is the pros commission on listed on the right hand side
Are those candidates with the most votes and those four candidates received three or higher?
We have nine additional candidates who received one or two votes
and
Who had the who had the two vote? How many had the two votes?
We have two to interview our two candidates, right?
Five had two votes. Can I suggest we vote on those five? Yes, we know the herd. Yes, that's what I was
you don't want to interview nine. No, no I would suggest two so let's if and who are those five?
Okay so the five receiving two votes and CR Tanya don't we need our ballots back anyway? Yep. So we
have to mark it on our ballots. So if we get our ballots back first. Yes. Sorry. And maybe on the
screen if you're able to do that, Ellen, if you could maybe highlight those five
name or be able to see them right there. So highlight the five names that we're
voting on and then why don't we vote for three of those or two of them that's
over two of the five. There are six that received two votes. Okay, okay so we'll vote for two out of
those six. We're only trying to get two more people. We already have four set
we're looking for two more. We'll vote for two out of the six that had that have
received two votes. And who are those six? Okay so vote for two of these people.
Okay yes so all right so we so are so we have seven. Move to interview numbers one
two three four five six seven. Second. Council Member Silva. Aye. Mayor Wilk. Aye.
Council Member Darlene. Aye. Council Member Dimonie. Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Francois. Aye. Lastly we have the transportation
Commission. Okay so these are for two positions and that's the six. Moved to
interview the six. The second. Mayor Pro Tem Francois? Aye. Mayor Welk? Aye. Council member
Darling? Aye. Council member Davini? Aye. Council member Silva? Aye. Motion carries.
Okay, well, we now have our set commission interviews.
That brings us to the end of the meeting.
And we are now adjourned until the meeting of February 17th.