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.
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
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.
All right, good evening.
I'm Kevin Wilk, mayor of the city of Walnut Creek,
and welcome to the Tuesday, February,
well, not, excuse me, the Tuesday, March 3rd,
regular meeting of the Walnut Creek City Council.
And if everybody could 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,
nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
And City Clerk Susie Martinez, could you please call the roll? Councilmember
Darling? I am here. Councilmember Davini? Here. Councilmember Silva? Here. Mayor Pro Tem
Francois? Here. Mayor Wilk? Here. Good evening everyone. Before we move on to
tonight's agenda, I'd like to address the police related death that occurred last
week and ask Police Chief Hibbs to give an update on the incident. Last Thursday,
our city experienced a profound tragedy when a life was lost during an officer
involved shooting in one of our residential neighborhoods. Just after
midnight on Thursday police responded to a report of a person looking into homes
and parked vehicles. Officers encountered an individual holding what they
reasonably believed to be a handgun and issued multiple commands to drop the
weapon. Those commands were not followed. The weapon was later determined to be a
appellate gun. Our officers acting under their the duties entrusted to them to
protect our community shot the suspect resulting in his death. This was a
tragedy for the family of the man Tony Pereira who died and for the entire
community. Our thoughts are with everyone affected including the family and our
first responders. We'll continue to support the independent investigations
by the Walnut Creek Police Department and the Contra Costa County District
attorney's office. We ask for continued respect for the investigative process
and for compassion towards one another as we mourn and reflect on their loss.
Now Chief Hibbs. Good evening Mayor Wilk, members of the City Council. Ryan Hibbs
Chief of Police and first I'd like to start by extending our deepest
condolences to the Pereira family and their loved ones. Events like this
not affect not only those closest to the individual but also neighbors first
responders in our entire community. This incident is now under independent and
thorough review. In accordance with department policy, the officers involved
have been placed on administrative leave. The Contra Costa County District
Attorney's office is conducting a parallel investigation under the law
enforcement involved fatal incident protocol and our department is also
completing a separate administrative investigation. Both officers were wearing
body-worn cameras and both were activated during this incident. We will
We will release the video 911 calls as required by California law and investigative timelines.
Our policy and state law allow for up to 45 days, but I want to assure you and
the community that we will release these items as soon as possible.
We remain committed to transparency, to due process, and to maintaining community trust.
Any loss of life impacts public confidence, and we take that responsibility seriously.
Independent review ensures accountability and clarity, and we will continue to share information as legally permitted.
Officer wellness and community well-being are also top priorities as we move forward.
We also encourage respectful dialogue and constructive engagement as additional information
becomes available.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chief Hibbs.
We are going to have an opportunity for public comment after the beginning of our meeting,
which will include the oath of office for our new commissioners, as well as a certificate
for American Red Cross, and then there will be an opportunity for anybody who wishes to
during public communications for items not on the agenda, including if you wish to, regarding
the shooting.
So with that, I will begin the agenda, which the first item is the Proclamation for American
Red Cross Month.
And I invite Red Cross volunteer Stan Massey forward to accept the proclamation.
Hello.
I'm Stan Stan, and I'm Matt Smith.
Good evening, everybody.
Good evening.
first want to mention I'll actually come up there with you. Okay so we've got a
proclamation for the American Red Cross and March is American Red Cross month
and I'm not going to read every everything on here however I we do want
to recognize the compassion of people in Contra Costa County and renew our
commitment to lend a helping hand to our neighbors in need. American Red Cross
volunteers have stepped up to deliver relief and care across our country and
around the world, bringing out the best of humanity
in times of crisis, as Clara Barton,
founder of the American Red Cross, did over 40 years ago.
And just to give people an idea of what we've seen here,
Contra Costa County residents donated 18,299 units
of life-saving blood and hosted 530 blood drives
and trained 12,164 citizens in first aid, CPR, AED,
and aquatics and provided 463 case services to military members and their families and
provided humanitarian aid internationally.
And therefore, I, Kevin Wilk, mayor of the city of Walnut Creek, on behalf of the Walnut
Creek City Council, do hereby proclaim March 2026 as American Red Cross Month.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I much appreciate it.
You've delivered it.
Let's see a few groups.
Yeah, I'd love to.
And I had a photo op, too, if that's not asking too much.
my boss told me, don't leave there without a picture or you're in big trouble.
They'll cut my pay.
So, good evening, everybody.
Again, my name is Matt Smith, and I just want to start off by kind of reflecting on the
fact that we really, we live in troubled times.
And every morning we wake up to a tsunami of human suffering.
And even here in our lovely Walnut Creek, and I've been in Walnut Creek resident my
entire life, we are not immune from that.
But it's great to know that you, as an organization, are willing to stand up for an organization
that has just one mission, which is to alleviate human suffering.
Full stop.
That's what the Red Cross does.
And we do not discriminate against race, gender, sexual orientation, immigration status, height,
anything.
We have a philosophy that all means all.
whether we're responding as we did here in Walnut Creek to a house fire where
people were down sitting on the curb despondent and you know they were a
marginalized family but we are able to give them support we were able to give
them medicine replace their hearing aids and also very importantly give them some
money not a lot I think that particular family received $650 so they didn't have
to sleep in their car that night and that was enough to get them then we also
follow up with health with follow-up mental health and other services and we
don't care who it is we just want people to know that there is an organization
out there that just wants to help and we don't have any kind of political
affiliation whatsoever we appreciate your support by you know by necessity
you do have to take political stands on a variety of issues we do not in fact
We've gone so far in our shelters recently in our disaster shelters when clients come in to receive services including
Potentially spending a week a month or in some cases months with us
We don't even write their name down on paper anymore because we're afraid
Somebody might come in and demand that paper and then use that to try to figure out
Somebody's status whatever that status is that they don't like it
So what we do now is we just put it into a database and and God help them trying to get out of the database
It's so complicated. I can't even figure it out, but we take this mission very seriously
And we appreciate organizations such as yourselves that will stand up for us and say yes
We honor the fact that your mission is to alleviate human suffering, and we support that so on behalf of American Red Cross
I want to thank you for your support and say we'll be there for you if you ever need it
And by the way on that note, I'm gonna leave my car with Mary
Mayor Wilk, we just had a
Shelter drill for the whole county right here in Walnut Creek over at Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church on the Cassie
So we pretended there was a drill
We have to get our shelters open within two hours and then they have to be completely functional and running
Everything set up and going in eight hours so people can eat sleep get information that sort of thing
So we appreciate our Walnut Creek connection
We are looking for another shelter in Walnut Creek, and we're kind of eyeballing
that Tice Valley
Recreation Center, that would be very nice
I actually ran a shelter down in Georgia after Helene that looked a lot like that and
If there were a big disaster we would need that resource
So I'm gonna leave my card with you if anybody thinks of a good location
And we don't like schools because we don't want our clients mixing with students.
But we'll take churches, rec centers, other kind of buildings.
We just certified Danville Community Center.
So how is that a little bit of motivation for you?
As a shelter and if you can think of anything in Walnut Creek we could use, we'd love to
talk to you.
Okay?
Thank you.
Now, can we do that picture?
All right.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
All right.
All right, next we have the oath of office to newly appointed commissioners and I'm going
to ask one at a time as you hear your name where you'd like them to be right in front
here great so coming up we'll be right in front of us we have Sherry Curlin from the
Arts Commission, Cathy Coleman from the Board of Appeals, Jeffrey Prose the
Design Review Commission, Matthew Brockhouse Park Recreation and Open
Space Commission, and Ryan McMahon Transportation Commission. And I invite
City Clerk Susie Martinez to administer the oath of office to our newest
commissioners. You can have you rotate a little bit this way. You can please raise
your right hand and repeat after me. I state your name, 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 all head
back to your seats, if you would each like to just say a few words about
yourself, introduce yourself to the community, you can probably just line up
maybe along the, along the curtain there. And yep, Ryan, take it off. Alright, I'm Ryan. I'm on
the transportation committee and I live in downtown Walnut Creek with my wife over here, Kristen,
it'll be married 10 years this year. And yeah, I just love Walnut Creek. I feel very fortunate
to live here. Just wanted to join this to give back to the community a little bit. And I'm
passionate about transportation when I walk around a lot. And I see a lot of great things
Walnut Creek does, but I also see a lot of things that we can kind of help with and make better.
So I'm just here to serve the citizens of Walnut Creek and I'm just excited to get started,
get to work and contribute where I can. So thank you. Hi, I'm Kathy Coleman. I've lived in Walnut
Creek since 1990. I love the city. I love city council members. I love the organization of
the city and I wanted to take this opportunity to give back. I've got lots of years of construction
and construction defect litigation experience and I wanted to be able to share that with
the community and I wanted to be able to make the appeals process an open and collaborative
process of anybody that might take issues with things that we need to review so thank you for
accepting me. Good evening I'm Sheri Curlin and I'm just been elected to the Arts Commission and
I thank you very much for that and I look forward to serving. I've been in Walnut Creek since 1989,
1990. I own a home around the corner and love the city, love the community, love
the people. I'm really very happy to serve and be part of this. Thanks.
Good evening. I'm Jeff Prose and I'm recently appointed to the desire you
Commission while a lifelong California resident. I am a new resident on the
creek and I'm excited to be able to contribute to my community in ways to
help shape the beautiful town we have and the community we all love. Thank you.
Good evening. I'm Matt Brockhouse. I've lived in Walnut Creek for five years,
almost six, and I love the parks and I love the open space. I have two little
kids and they love the park as well and I want to kind of help put my stamp on
the city and make it a better place for them to continue to grow up in. So thank
you. Alright, and thank all of you again. We look forward to many years of your
tenure and look forward to hearing more about what has happening on your
commissions. There will be a lot to go over and you'll all find out that you
are going to be experts not just in your commission but to all of your friends
and family that live near or in Walnut Creek. As far as they're concerned
you're the expert in everything in Walnut Creek so have fun.
Alright next on the agenda is the consent calendar. Does any council member wish to
pull any item for discussion? All right, does any member of the staff wish to-
I have a question about item C. Then, do you want to pull it? Yes, I would like to
pull item C, please. All right, does any member of staff wish to pull an item for
discussion? Okay, does any member of the public wish to comment on an item on the
consent calendar? 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 be
separately read into the record. So regarding any of the items. Okay seeing
none we'll close public comment on this and I'll move approval of items to A, B,
D, E and F. Second. We have a motion and a second. Susie could you go the roll please?
Councilmember Darlene? Aye. Councilmember Davini? Aye. Councilmember Silva? Aye. Mayor Pro Tem
Francois. Mayor Wilk. Aye. Motion carries. All right, regarding item 2c, Council Member
Silva, the floor is yours. Thank you very much Mayor and if there's a member of the
public works or engineering group here I just have a simple question. It may
require a more complex answer. Sure. This is we're awarding a contract for the
Shadelands and Wigot green infrastructure improvement project. Can
you explain what a green infrastructure improvement project is and where exact
Sheadlands and Whiggett is at Ignacio Valley Road. Oh no, Sheadlands and
Whiggett is where the master gardener. Yeah, that's correct. Okay, good evening
council members. My name is Andrew McDade. I'm an engineer with the CIP
division of Public Works, and basically green infrastructure is we're
implementing drainage facilities like this to prevent sedimentation and other
pollutants from getting into the storm drain. So essentially, in this case, and what we've
done all over the city, what we require developers to do to mitigate, essentially, increased
flow from hardscapes, et cetera, is these bioretention basins, which have drain rock
under drain with a pipe that flows into our existing system. And on top of that, there's
a special mixture of bioretention soil and then we plant generally native and definitely
drought resistant plants in this facility and generally in its size to treat a certain
drainage area and that's kind of all determined by the water board and a lot of higher up
stuff but that's basically what the facility is.
So what's the drainage area for this project,
if you can do it off the top of your head?
This will treat, I think it's like 0.48 acres,
just under half an acre is what it will be treating.
And the facility itself, the square footage
will be about 900 square feet, I think.
And it'll be right at the corner of Shadelands and Wigot,
which is the UC Master Gardener Center
in the middle of the Shadelands business park.
So these are really important projects
so that we reduce the amount of bad stuff that comes from hardscaped areas.
Yeah, it treats a lot of road runoff, a lot of trapped sedimentation, and these are also
habitat species of plants, so it kind of increases biodiversity and stuff like that too.
Alright, thank you very much for the explanation.
Thank you, Mayor, and I move the item.
You're welcome.
We have a motion.
second and a second Susie could tell the role please council member Silva aye
council member darling I'll summer diviny mayor pro tem Francois hi
motion carried thank you thank you all right next on the agenda is public
communications this portion of the meeting is reserved for comment on
items not on the agenda under the Brown Act the council cannot act on items
raised during public communications but may respond briefly the 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. And at this time I'll note the
time is 6.25 and we'll take public comments and items not on the agenda
until approximately 6.55 and then the remainder of any such comments at the
end of the open session portion of the meeting. And so if you would like to
speak during public communications this is the time to come forward. The first
speaker can speak right at the podium and any other speakers can line up on
on the side of the wall going up.
And just please state your name and city.
Should I say this?
I'm from Pleasant Hill.
Uh-oh.
But I love Walnut Creek.
And we love Pleasant Hill.
Oh, thank you.
And we play soccer in Walnut Creek.
So I think that allows us.
My name is Barbara Scott Crispy.
And someone forgot their glasses.
I'm sorry it's the educator in me and I'm here today on a very sad note. The tragedy
that happened I knew the family and I'm here today to speak about preventing
another tragedy. I'm here for my friend Linda and her son who I've known for
years, and now he's very ill, he's in her condo, and he's decompensating. He has both autism and
serious mental illness. This is a picture of him as a young man when he was well, and when he was
As well, he worked for the city of Walnut Creek and now he's non-functioning, but no
one will take him to the hospital.
She's called the police, she's called A3, and unlike if someone has a heart attack and
they have symptoms, they don't ask them, are you having a heart attack?
They take him to the hospital.
with mental illness has, is not aware of their illness. And my friend can't get into her
condo. She can't get help. This has been going on for four months. The police came once and
they said to him, do you want to go to jail or the hospital? And he said, jail. And then
He said, I changed my mind, I want to go to the hospital.
But unfortunately, they said we've already begun the process.
And now he has suicidal thoughts.
And there's no one to help.
And I contacted Ken Carlson's office.
And he said that you folks could help.
Is this in Walnut Creek or Pleasant Hill?
It's in Walnut Creek.
OK, and are you going to be speaking on the same as well?
This is his mom.
OK, first of all, very sorry to hear this.
And my heart goes out to you, my brother experienced
mental illness, and I feel for everything.
Would you like to speak as well?
Yes.
Yeah, and then after you speak, I
encourage you to go to the back of the room.
We are all of our top police department leadership here
and you can speak with one of our police department leaders
and they can help to give some direction.
Please go ahead.
My name is Linda Ruiz, and I'm also a teacher.
Oh, you can just bend it down.
Bend it down, yeah.
My name's Linda Ruiz, and I'm also an educator
in the school and an educational therapist.
My son grew up in Walnut Creek,
and he happened to have been a receptionist
and the Lesher Center Art Gallery, and then COVID came, and that sort of ended everything.
But he has a severe mental illness, and he is also on the autism spectrum.
He's highly articulate, and he knows how to cover. So if anybody, aside from the family,
sees him, he can pretend and act like nothing's happening, nothing's different. You know,
it's really amazing, but it doesn't last for long. He did exceptionally well in the AOT program,
that I remember, he used to come to meetings about that but then he was there for I think
about six years and they had him exit exit because he did so well. In 2021,
his father died and he, oh, his life he'd lived with either me or his dad and he had just got on
his own and then in a roommate, three roommate situation and they got COVID and my son didn't
so he left right away, went to his dad's.
But then his dad died three months later.
It was really a shock to him because they were very close.
And that's what triggered this now.
And it's gone on for so long now.
And I keep trying to get help, but it
feels like there's no help.
The only help that I've been able to get
is you get a restraining order, gets out of my condo,
wanders off.
One time he got arrested for being in my condo,
And he really decompensated.
Then over in, where was it, Richmond?
And then Martinez.
And he's just decompensating more and more every day.
I don't know.
This has gone on for so long.
I don't know what else to do.
I have talked with everybody.
I've done everything that I could imagine.
And I just keep being told that he doesn't set the criteria.
Well, my job, I work with people with autism and mental illness.
And so he really does fit the criteria.
He's so articulate.
People think, oh, he's OK.
No way, easy.
So I would like some help to get him to the hospital.
Well, Ms. Ruiz, thank you for coming here this evening.
I can't imagine the frustration and the feeling of helplessness
that you must have.
And I would encourage anybody that may be listening to please
do call our Waller Creek Police Department non-emergency line
if it's not an emergency to at least get conversation going.
There's also 988 for mental health issues,
which I know that you're familiar with
as well as the Miles Hall Crisis Call Center.
Those work for many,
but obviously there are certain exceptional situations.
And by coming here tonight,
I'm gonna make sure that at least you have a conversation
with our police department
and to help to give some direction.
So again, thank you both very much for coming.
And I think all of us here at the dais feel the angst and the anxiety you're feeling
through this.
So we will have Captain Connors in the back is going to meet both of you, along with Captain
Slater perhaps, and they will have a conversation with you right now.
All right.
Thanks so much.
Sure.
Thank you.
Is there anybody else that would like to speak during public communications or items not
on the agenda.
Okay, seeing none,
I'm going to close the public communications
and bring it back to council.
If any council members would like to have any questions,
but I'm going to start this off
by asking our city manager, Dan Buxley,
especially in light of the two public comments
that we just heard to, again,
perhaps give just an overview of the A3 program,
our involvement with mental illness
and what we recommend residents to do
if they or a loved one is experiencing an outbreak.
Yeah, Dan Buckshi, City Manager,
and it reiterates some of what was said earlier.
Certainly, if somebody's in a mental health crisis,
the A3 program, the 988 number
that you referenced earlier would be the number to call.
It is a crisis response program.
A3 stands for treating anyone anywhere at any time.
It's a 24-7 mobile response program.
There are 34 response team and the goal is to have somebody
on site as warranted within 20 minutes.
And there are different levels of response
from a very low level,
which is effectively a peer support worker,
maybe an EMT or paramedic.
to as high of a level as joining mental health clinicians
with law enforcement if the situation is deemed
to be more dangerous, or the other option is just a mental
health clinician if it appears to be solely a mental health
issue.
You know, it sounds like these folks have contacted
that program, but in addition to RPD, we'll follow up
with behavioral health to find out what other options may be
out there.
But also add, as was discussed, if a situation is deemed
to be dangerous, then I would certainly recommend calling
911 and the police. Dispatchers are trained to help triage a situation to determine the
appropriate type of response, whether it is a law enforcement response or whether it should
be a mental health response or obviously a combined response. There are many other programs
available but, you know, one of the challenges that's actually been in the news the last
couple days is how to require individuals to take medication who refuse to do so. There's
There's a lot of discussion about the statewide care court, in which the court gets involved
to help try to persuade individuals to take medication if they're not doing so, especially
if they're in a dangerous state.
So there are other programs as well, but locally in Contra Costa County and certainly in Walnut
Creek, the E3 program should be a point of entry.
If we don't have any questions from the dais, let's start with council member and staff
announcements, reports and activities or requests.
do we have any closed session announcements? Thank you mayor there are no closed session
announcements this evening. City manager report? I do not have an update this evening mayor.
All right city council member reports on AB 1234 activities and assignments. Let's start council
member Davini. All right thank you mayor. Good evening. So the last few weeks some of the
highlights have been we have the state of the city. I won't steal your thunder because
Mayor Wilk did a fantastic job emceeing that and being interviewed on stage and bringing
the city up to date and those intending up to date on what's been going on in the city.
So I'll let him talk more about it.
Just recently I was sworn in for the Board of MCE as an alternate for Councilmember Darling.
Learned more about that community choice aggregate and some of the politics around the state
surrounding how energy is procured and charges
that PG&E levies against these types of organizations.
So it will be an interesting year, I understand,
as far as balancing some of the budget issues being created
by those politics, so more to come, I'm sure.
This, I think, was just yesterday or the day before.
I'm losing track of my days here.
I was at Buena Vista Elementary School for Read Across America.
I had a chance to read to the second and third graders.
I was going to bring, maybe too much detail,
I was going to bring Rumpelstiltskin
because that was one of my favorite books,
but the librarian handed me this book
called The Watering Can by Julian Bear.
So if you have third and fourth graders,
that was a really entertaining book for them.
And it was followed up with some very interesting questions
that I think sort of only kids are so pure as to ask,
as what it's like to be a council member
and what it's like to be an ER doctor.
And so I had to share some fun stories with them.
I wanted to make an announcement
that is on the city website
and I think was in the recent newsletter
but just somewhat pertinent to what we've been talking about
on Saturday, March 7th from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
at the Community Arts Center.
The city is partnering with the Care Parent Network
to provide the intellectual and developmental disabilities
resource fair in celebration of developmental disabilities
awareness month.
So that's the Saturday at the community arts center
from at 10 a.m.
Thank you.
All right, thank you.
Mayor Pro Tem Francois.
Okay, thank you mayor.
And let's see starting off along with council member Silva.
I serve as your frog in your throat liaison
to the Recycle Smart Board,
and we had a, our last meeting,
we had an agenda item to consider a new contract
for the reuse and cleanup program.
We currently contract with MDRR for that program.
If you're in a single family home,
you get the notice of those pickups twice a year.
Starting next year, the big changes to the program,
starting next year, will be that that program
will be expanded to multifamily residents as well.
It will be done on an on-call basis,
except for in Rossmore, because we're special,
where it will be done as a neighborhood-type pickup
like we do for the single family.
So exciting to see that that successful program
for reuse and cleanup will be expanded
to multifamily starting next year.
Excuse me, and also for everybody,
it will be expanded to include bulky items
like furniture and TVs and refrigerators.
So it's exciting changes to that very successful program
that will start taking effect next year.
I also serve as your liaison to Rossmoor Walnut Creek.
I was at their meeting and gave them an update
on all our happenings.
I like attending those meetings
because they're so appreciative of what we all do,
including our staff and all of us as council members.
And they had a packed room there
because they were making changes to the Gateway Center
and the location of the library.
And that generated a lot of interest.
So I gave my update and wish them well.
I did attend the future of Walnut Creek
and I concur with council member Davini
that the mayor did an excellent job representing all of us
and giving everyone a positive update on the future
of our city, which looks very bright,
along with Council Member Davini.
I serve on the Finance Committee.
That item is on our agenda tonight,
so I won't belabor to that one.
I had the opportunity to attend the funeral service
for Gwen Regalia, who was a 20 year,
well, longer than that.
She's 21 years on the city council,
and then I think another eight or 12 years
on the Walnut Creek School District Board
and was very active along with her late husband,
Ed, in founding the Kennedy King Scholarship Program
for underprivileged young people.
And just what a wonderful legacy.
She left all of us in Walnut Creek
and very grateful for her time on earth
and for her service to the city.
And I was happy to welcome all the new commissioners
this evening and see them sworn in.
And thank you for being willing to serve
and stepping up to do so.
Thank you, let's go to council member Darling.
The conservation measures,
we have a program to help low income people
purchase electric vehicles.
It's a small stipend that they can use
to help them buy the vehicles.
Because budgets are tight this year
We wanted to give a big rate cut.
We looked at those programs.
We thought, you know,
those are some of the most important things
that are making the world more affordable
for the people at the lowest end.
It helps them with insulation.
It helps them with their heat pumps.
It helps them with EV chargers and multifamily.
And so we felt it was important.
We are recommending to the board
when they adopt the full budget in November
that we not cut those programs,
that we keep it as part of the value proposition
and we give to our community as MCE.
We have greener energy than PG&E.
We're locally controlled, and we have programs
so that people in our communities can benefit from that.
And that is my, and I'll let Craig do that next month,
and it'll be fun.
You'll get to, it's an interesting anthropological situation.
Thank you, Council Member Silva.
Did you say anthropological?
Yes, because humans interact in interesting ways.
I don't know, my husband is an anthropologist
and a Polynesian archeologist,
so I don't hear that word very often other than at home.
Thank you very much, Mayor.
And I will mention on the Recycle Smart front
that not only did we approve the bones of an agreement
with Mount Diablo Resource and Recovery
on the cleanup and reuse days,
but we also, the rates are going up as of March 1st,
every year rates go up with Recycle Smart,
and they've just gone up for the coming year.
And they went up about 6% to cover the costs of fuel
and labor costs, et cetera,
as well as some additional services.
So, but our rates in Walnut Creek are basically
the lowest of 19 cities around us.
So we're very fortunate that we have the joint powers
authority. There's joint agency and multiple participants in it to help
assuage the costs. The liaison to our Walnut Creek sister cities program in
March is the, they're very excited because at the end of March that the
youth from Sheo Focongri and Nochetto, Italy will be visiting Walnut Creek for
a week. There will be more than 25 with their chaperones and they're very
excited about it. They're also excited because next year's class of
participants have begun the application process with our local agency. The 68
families attended the introductory orientation meeting, 48 applications from
individual students were received and they will be looking to pick about 22
participants for next year's program. So that's very exciting and they will be
here in the visitors this month will be here from March 26th to a week later about April 6th and 7th.
The recent state meeting of the Board of the League of California Cities of which I'm a member
had a meeting two weeks ago and there were a couple items that I think are important for us
to take note of. We had a very in-depth presentation from a representative of one of the statewide
polling and public affairs agencies. Brandon Castillo is the head of that. And it looks like
the ballot in November is going to be very full with various pieces of proposed legislation that
require the votes of the people, including a number of those that we're going to have to keep
an eye on. Everything isn't settled yet, but it's going to be a full one. They think it
could be as large as 15 or 16 measures that are going to hit the ballot. Yes, exactly.
In addition, we, at the board level, spent about three and a half hours discussing this
revenue and sales tax allocation process in this state. And after much debate, we reached
a decision to bifurcate the issue such that we're recommending that we work with the California
Department of Tax and Fees, CDTFA, it's easier to remember the nomenclature that way, on
making sure that the allocation of out-of-state goods, those that we buy from Nevada and are
shipped here direct to our door, that the allocation of sales tax revenue doesn't go
into a county pool, which is the current way they do it, but would go directly to the city
for the destination of the receipt of the goods.
The issue of how to allocate the sales tax revenues for those that are fulfilled in state.
So let's say I ordered something yesterday from Amazon, and I had it at five o'clock.
That did not come from out of state.
That came somewhere.
It was sitting in Tracy, I think.
and that sales tax goes to the city of Tracy.
And it is a very significant issue.
We agreed that the proposal as it had come forward was not yet ready for us to be able
to get a two-thirds support on it.
But we need to continue to work on the issue at the state level because it's going to continue
to fester as people buy more online.
Can you elaborate on the Nevada portion of that?
You were saying that if you order something online.
Okay, I want to buy a sweater.
If I go into Macy's to buy that sweater,
the sales tax is allocated directly here,
and it's just the 1%, so the 1 cent on every dollar.
If I can't find the right color that I want
and I need to order it online,
if it's shipped from out of state,
then the sales tax comes to us,
but it comes through a county allocation process.
However, that same sweater is sitting in a warehouse
in one of about 50 cities across the state,
Richmond, Tracy, San Bernardino.
The sales tax, that one cent,
is not given to the city of my city.
It's allocated to the city
where the warehouse is located.
And so when the sales tax that you order the sweater from Nevada and that goes to the county
pool, you were saying you may-
The county pool reallocates it.
And so-
And your recommendations were to not do that or to do that?
The state has the ability to directly allocate it.
To the city.
To the city.
Which is the preference of the-
Right.
And there'll be some winners and there'll be some losers in that, but it seems to be
fairer for the majority.
So it's complicated.
political and the change in the sales tax allocation for things that are
occurring in state would require a constitutional amendment where we'd have
to debate it with the voters as well. So more to follow but it may take a
continuing process. So can I toss you a softball that'll allow you to hit it out
of the park for our audience? Okay. When people ask us what they can do to
help Walnut Creek revenues and how they can help to make Walnut Creek is as good
as it possibly can be. How should they shop to help us best? Shop local. And in
person. And in person. In person. This is the secret nobody talks about but if
you shop online we don't get all the tax revenue as councilmember Silva just
said. Shop in person we get all the tax revenue. So Peru's online at midnight and
And then go into the store the next day and buy it or pick it up, so thank you.
The final thing I'll mention is I am liaison from the City Council to the Diablo Regional
Arts Association and there are a number of things that are happening at the Lesher Center
in the next few weeks.
And if you love dramas or comedies, Center Rep will be producing Neil Simon's Lost in
and Yonkers from March 29th to April 19th,
and tickets are on sale.
Also next weekend, the 13th and the 14th
will be the reprise of College Notes,
which is college acapella choruses
that come in and perform.
It is a fabulous presentation.
You may not think you like to listen to it,
but they are so talented and they just produced
by the same gentleman that produced the movie Pitch Perfect.
So tickets may still be available for that.
And I will mention that at the end of March,
the 31st, on Tuesday, Rick Steves will be speaking
at the Lesher Center.
So if you wanna travel and you wanna hear
about his adventures, get a ticket and join us.
And to get tickets, go to leisureartscenter.org.
And thank you very much.
Thank you, Council Member Silva.
All right, for my, well, first of all,
I am shocked that none of my fellow Council Member colleagues
mentioned the groundbreaking at Heather Farm.
Okay, but it was I had to check my notes to make sure it happened since the last meeting which it did
It was just the next day. So for those of course that live near Heather farmer to go and visit it it is
The swim and community center the groundbreaking happened in front of about a hundred people
commissioners and public alike
so it's fenced off now, it'll I believe we are looking at it being done by the end of next year and
This this is the largest project Walnut Creek's ever undertaken 77 million dollars from measure O funds
and thank you to the residents that passed measure O a couple of years ago and
this is
What we're doing with a lot of it. There's a lot of other pieces to measure O and it's going to police and other
Activities throughout the city including other park areas, but this is the lion's share
So it was a great groundbreaking. Thank you. My colleagues who were there as well
Now as we heard from some of my colleagues the state of the city, which I gave last week
It should be online within the next day. You can check at the city website the city YouTube page
I'm sure the Chamber of Commerce will probably have that link as well
You can see the vision of all the Creek a lot of questions that were asked of me of what's happened
And what the state of Wall Street currently is
Spoiler alert, it's good
But there's also a lot of great restaurants and businesses that are coming and so you will hear not just from me
But also from Tracy Deetland who is the chair of Walnut Creek downtown?
To some of the new businesses that are coming down and she has a fun presentation in there
So I encourage everybody to watch that
as liaison to County Connection
There I do want to mention that there is going to be a regional transit ballot measure. It's
And there have been several workshops that have happened within BART.
I'm not sure if any of my fellow colleagues have been to those, but I've heard they've
been very robust and very long sessions at BART.
It was mentioned this week in the media that there is an alternative service plan if the
BART measure doesn't pass.
And it's not good.
The service reductions by two-thirds of our yellow line through Walnut Creek that goes
all the way to Antioch, shortening service times that currently end at midnight to 9
p.m. Station closures could impact us like the North Concord Station, the Orinda Station,
and to bring more people into Pleasant Hill and Walnut Creek stations.
If that doesn't work, then further reductions could include the entire system closure of
BART.
Now, we're probably going to be talking about that a lot over the next several months because
this would be qualifying for the November ballot, and I have no doubt that we will see
BART or the Metropolitan Transportation Commission come in and present their case, and we can
discuss if this is something that we want to endorse or not, but without taking one
side or the other on that right now, if it doesn't pass, there are going to be some serious
changes within BART, and I encourage everybody to follow up on that, especially our Transportation
Commission and new transportation commissioners to understand what that all means and to help
amplify that to the city because this is big stuff.
Can I ask you, can I throw you a softball question?
Oh, of course.
Oh, I love softballs.
Well, let's back at you, how's that?
So if there is not as robust a service between here and Oakland and San Francisco, what happens
to our transportation network?
stay home? Yeah, so this this will be our part B of I'm sure what we're going to
hear about and thank you for the question. What it means, of course, is
that there will be more cars on the road. Every time you are on the freeway and
you see a BART train go by filled with people, imagine all those people are now
on the freeway. Your 10-minute commutes become 20-minute commutes. Your 45-minute
commutes become an hour and a half. So even if you don't take BART, even if you
don't take County Connection, even if you don't take any public transportation,
it's going to affect you. It's going to affect all of us. So these are things we
have to think about. On that happy note, I do want to give a quick electric bus
update. All chargers are powered up, that's the good news. New power boards
came in. Of course, we have the only two all-electric bus routes within the
County Connection bus system, but communication between the chargers and
boards is still being worked out. So these are still some of the challenges.
We hope to have that resolved soon, and it's frustrating for county connection.
And we know it's frustrating for our residents.
Of course the Route 4 and Route 5 buses are still active now.
They're just not the all-electric buses.
So I hope to have a new update for you.
In a month, outside two months, a lot of these parts have come from China.
There are tariff implications with that.
So these are some – we're dealing with some of the challenges that I think we're
across the country right now and truthfully around the world.
One of Cindy Councilmember Darling's favorite things to do, I did this last week, which
was meet with our Youth Leadership Commission and they had the chance to ask the mayor all
the questions that they wanted to and got a chance to meet these future leaders as well.
I did attend the Bancroft Elementary talk with Superintendent Clark and about 50 families
that are concerned about the Bancroft Dual Immersion Program, and we've heard them the
last couple of meetings during public comments. So I wanted to hear what was being said there,
and it was a listening session, so I was glad to see that communication moving forward.
Yet to be determined exactly what's going to happen, but I was there to see it for myself.
I also was at the Walnut Creek Business Watch that was sponsored by Walnut Creek Police
Department and Waller Creek downtown over at the right here actually and just
to see these businesses that are downtown making sure that they have the
Police Department has their back they're safe and different sharing of best
practices of how businesses can protect themselves and and with security as well.
You mentioned about Gwen Regalia's service. The Waller Creek Little League
opening day ceremonies were on Saturday that was 1,100 kids playing Waller Creek
Little League that were at Castle Rock Park. That was fun. You did that last year. That
was fun. And it was just great to see the enthusiasm. And oh my god, these kids are
so little. They like start at three years old and there they are. And I remember coaching
one of those teams and they were probably about four or five up to the AAA and the majors
that are playing there. So great to see, great to see those kind of sports and recreation
in Walnut Creek. Walnut Creek Downtown had their momentum event this last weekend, health
Health and Wellness, about 500 different people signed up for that, and so that was just great
to see that energy, no pun intended, but the energy of the people that were all there.
And I also want to give a shout out.
I got a call, I guess it was a text yesterday, asking or telling me that a school, a second
grade class from Livermore was going to be visiting the Lindsay Wildlife experience today,
And would the mayor have time to come and greet the kids?
Well, it just so happened I'd had a cancellation.
So I did have a little bit of time in there.
I went over there and the comments that I was getting, the kids were so excited.
They said they were going to meet a celebrity that they were so thrilled to come.
They came running from the playground when they met me.
They all asked questions.
They wanted to shake my hand, asked if that was okay.
So I just want to say that St. Michael School, second grade class from Livermore, visited.
And the Lindsay Wildlife Experience is such an asset to Walnut Creek that schools across
the Bay Area come to Walnut Creek to learn.
And the last thing, of course, we had our Commissioner reception just before our City
Council meeting to install our new Commissioners, to also say goodbye to our outgoing Commissioners
and congratulate our reappointed Commissioners and just celebrate our Commissioners who truly
help the City Council through all these different discussions and recommendations.
And we would be sitting here for 18 hours at a city council meeting listening to everything
if we did not have commissions.
So thank you that are our new commissioners.
And for those that are watching online, thank you for being commissioners.
And with that, we'll close this part of it and then move on to our public hearing.
So, all right, next on the agenda is, in fact, our public hearing for Portia Walnut Creek
dealership project to consider waiver of reading an introduction of an ordinance to implement
a service center plan development rezone and adopt resolutions approving design review
tree removal and drip line encroachment permits. Tree drip line and sign ordinance exception
for the project at 2717 North Main Street, 1532nd Avenue and 1510th Avenue. So I'm inviting
senior planner simmer gill who's already here
to provide the presentation thank you um uh mayor wilk and um good evening um
members of the uh the council um my name is simmer gill senior planner with the
city uh we are here tonight to uh consider
the porsche dealership and service center that will be located at the corner of
second avenue and north main street and i apologize in
advanced. I also have a frog in my throat. I'm going to try the best to speak well
into the mic but please let me know if you need me to repeat anything. And the
request before you tonight is a planned development rezone and a design review.
The applicant Stephen Scanlon and his team are here tonight as it might answer
any questions you may have after this presentation. And just to quickly orient
to you with the site. It is zoned auto sales, which does permit auto dealerships. Sorry,
service commercial is a zoning and it permits auto dealerships. And the site is at the corner
of Second Avenue and North Main, along the North Main corridor. And it does consist of
three parcels that will be merged. And the existing area consists of a mix of commercial
uses and there are residential uses directly behind the project site on
Barton Court and further up Second Avenue. Okay and here just a closer look
at the site conditions. Here is the Massé's restaurant and bar that I
believe is still currently operating. There are other buildings on site which
are underutilized and vacant and all of these buildings will be demolished for
project construction. So tonight the applicant is requesting construction of
a new three-level auto dealership that will offer vehicle sales and service. And
the project also includes frontage improvements, right-of-way dedication
along both Second Avenue and North Main Street, and new sidewalk along Second
Avenue, and a replacement of the existing sidewalk on North Main. Project also
request tree removals, the installation of 21 new trees as part of the
landscaping plan, on-site lighting, as well as new signage. So before I go into
the project details, I just wanted to quickly touch on that this project did
go before the Design Review Commission as well as the Planning Commission and
both commissions did support the overall project and the design. However, they did
have some operational and design comments and the on February 12th the
Planning Commission did make a recommendation to move the project
forward to City Council with a condition clearly prohibiting all vehicles from
making a right turn on Second Ave when exiting the project site and also to
incorporate clear directional signage along that exit. And I also wanted to
touch on public comments as there were several that were received and the
common theme was that there should be no right turn exiting this project site and that is
something the commissioners did take into consideration.
Comments were also received regarding signage and illumination and rooftop lighting levels
as well as regarding the roll-up service doors and requesting that they remain closed during
operations of this business to avoid any noise and to also consider a higher sound wall
along the west elevation and to consider a raised curb to deter right turns on
Second Avenue as well as details on fire suppression and all of these comments
have been addressed in the business operating plan as well as the revised
plans with the exception of the raised curb near sec on the exit near second
app I'll let the applicants team go over that because they also have a
presentation tonight. So tonight the City Council based on Planning Commission's
recommendation will be considering the Class 32 infill CEQA exemption, the plan
development rezone, and because Council is the highest approving body for the
plan development rezone it will also consider the design review as well as
all other entitlements associated with this project. And just to quickly go over
the existing site conditions. As you can see access provided into the site
currently is off of Second Avenue and several drive aisles on North
Main. And here is the proposed layout. There will be access from North Main and
Second Avenue leading into the site and there will be surface parking spaces
directly in front of the showroom entrance. I also wanted to point out that
that in the service commercial zone there are no set back building set back
requirements however the applicant did design this building keeping in mind the
sensitivity of just being close to a residential neighborhood the building
will be set back set for 30 feet from that property line and just to really go
over the two main functions of this building is the main entry into the
showroom and the service commercial arrival area for repair of auto vehicles.
And here what I have highlighted in orange are really just areas that are
accessed for employee or staff only. Public will not have access to these
areas. The first one being, I could use this I think, yeah. It's the first one will be the
ramp that goes up the roof for the roof inventory parking area. Again for
employee use only. There's a service shop access where the roll-up doors are located again just to
be used by employees and then the parts delivery area up north and if you're coming from north
main street there is a lower level garage entry that goes into the again for inventory or staff
parking only, no access for the public.
So tonight, the request before you is a planned development
and a PD, which essentially is a tool
that the code does allow to set tailored development standards
when unique conditions do occur on site.
And in this case, we are addressing the grading
or the site topography, as well as the functional design
elements of the project.
But the PD does allow flexibility,
but it does also require that the overall project meets
the intent of the service, in this case,
the service commercial zone.
So all of the other development standards
are being carried over as part of this PD,
and auto sales and service is a permitted use in this zone.
So now moving into the first request,
which is redefining the floor area for this project.
0.3 FAR is what is allowed in the service commercial zone.
And our current city code,
really the definition has very limited things.
It doesn't explicitly exclude out a lot of these
or capture the specialized operational areas
or other non-occupiable spaces.
And I pulled this directly out of our city code,
which is the definition of floor area.
As you can see, it does list things
that are being excluded out,
but it's broadly written where it doesn't have everything
that you, in this case, the PD is gonna provide
that flexibility to exclude those additional
accessory areas.
And what you see listed here is what this project
is requesting.
And here I've just dropped all of the floor plans
to really show you that the areas that are being excluded
as part of this PD is the pink areas,
and all of those are the inventory parking,
the mechanical rooms or storage-like areas.
And here's just a closer look at that.
Again, the, I don't know, is that yellow or light,
the light peach color is the area that is being calculated
to stay within that 0.3 FAR allowance,
and everything in the pink is being excluded.
So why are we here tonight?
Basically, what is the purpose of this PD?
Modern dealership layout has evolved over time.
It's become multi-level and integrates all of the operations
into one single building.
So a large portion of that building is now storage area
or non-customer occupied space.
And the city's code is a bit dated
as it was built for single story traditional
one dimensional dealerships.
It doesn't really align with today's
modern integrated building layouts that we're seeing
coming forward to the city.
And what I've provided below is really just a photograph
of the existing dealership on North Main Street.
As you can see, the showroom,
the inventory vehicle storage,
as well as the service repair area,
is all in separate buildings
or spread out across the site.
And that typically when you're calculating
based on the current floor area,
you're counting the showroom only
everything else is accessory but in this case everything is being integrated
into the building. So this PD is essentially giving us that flexibility
to exclude those areas and really to distinguish between function versus
customer space area. So with that the approach still does meet the point three
FAR intent it also acknowledges that modern dealership designs have become
integrated. Now moving into the second request under the PD rezone, the site
allows a 30 foot height limit and the exhibit that you see here it's roughly
showing a 10 to 11 foot grade change across the site with the lowest
elevation being near ... that was strange, sorry, with the lowest elevation being here
at 124 and as you go up the site from the north to the south, it starts going up in
138 where I have identified where the star is the highest point on the site and I've
also incorporated this photo for reference to show this is where the Massays Restaurant
and bar is located. And as again here this is the topography map pulled straight out
of the plans really to show you how the grades vary and change as you go up to the southern
end of the site. So in the solid black line that you see here really represents that grade
and the existing high point on the parcel is 138 feet. The current code basically measures
height from the existing or finished grade whichever is lower to the highest
point of the building. So the PD tonight will essentially define the base
elevation so height can be measured from the highest existing grade and ensure a
consistent measurement across the slope site. And the red dashed line here is
that marks really that new base elevation that we're establishing with
this PD 138 which is the highest point and then as you go up it at 168 is it's
within that 30 feet so that shows the maximum allowable building height
which is a 30 feet and this approach does really address how height is
measured across the site and given the slope and the dealership's new
operational design it doesn't really increase the project's intensity but I
I also wanted to point out that the city's code currently does allow the community development
director to make certain height adjustments when there are unusual deviations that occur
in the existing grade.
So this isn't something that we're doing specific for this project or the first time that we're
seeing this.
So these type of situations do occur and that's why the code already contemplates this.
I believe the most recent example we've had that have used the same approach the PD was the Hilton garden in
Here are some building renderings really just to show you that this project
provides a mix of materials provides articulation
really meeting these cities design review standards and guidelines and
it's providing that architectural interest as well as the
the architectural elements such as that curved glass corner that will be seen from the corner of Second Avenue and North Main Street and
The other request before you tonight is the tree removals
There are a total of 19 trees on site that are being removed
15 of these were approved by the city's consulting arborist due to the size
size health and species of those trees and
before remaining trees that I have bubbled here in yellow are the trees that the city council is considering tonight as part of this project
for the removal to allow this project to
move forward and
the valuation of those trees is
17,470 and that is included as a condition of approval that the applicant will be required to pay and
There's also a condition to protect all off-site neighboring trees, which are about 13 trees along
the north end of the site and several along the west end which are being protected in place.
So moving into the landscaping, the applicant is proposing a total of 21 new trees at 12.
12 of these will be installed along the project frontage on both North Main as well as oops my
flying all over
North Main and Second Avenue and the remaining nine trees will be planted on site wherever there's feasible space.
to install trees. And I wanted to also point out the proposed metal or steel
fencing that will be installed along the north end shown here with that dash
line and from that point there will be a eight foot tall split-face CMU sound
wall that will be installed along that west elevation. And the other request
before you tonight is the sign ordinance exception. The applicant is proposing two
identical wall signs both totaling 91 square feet. Here I just wanted to point
out that the wall sign that is along the North Main Street facade this will be a
little bigger only because our sign ordinance does require the backer panel
to be incorporated in the total sign area so that's going to be 145 square
feet but the letters and the size of the overall sign is 91 square feet and I
believe we have a sample board here that really shows you that it's a met that
that facade is like a ribbed metal system so the real purpose of that
backer panel is just to have a mounting method a flat surface to install signage
and the total sign area with the two monument signs included will be 275
square feet so the sign exception is required because the city's code does
limit a ground floor, single tenant, commercial building
to 200 square feet of maximum sign area,
even given that this project has two frontages.
So the city, sorry, the staff and the commission
did support this request because it's really in scale
with the building.
The proposed signage isn't acting as advertisement
or excessive signage.
It really meets the intent of the signage
as well as it's in scale in the building.
And here's the proposed 24 square foot freestanding sign
that located along that North Main Street frontage.
Here is the proposed service freestanding sign.
This line is 14 square feet and it's located right there
by the, when vehicles are pulling up
into that service center.
I'm not good with this clicker,
but it's basically pulling up.
So really the intent behind that is more wayfinding or directional, so vehicles as they approach
that area can find the location.
And here is a layout of the proposed parking.
This project is exempt from parking under AB 2097, as a portion of the site does fall
within that half mile of the Pleasant Hill barge station.
However, the applicant is providing sufficient parking on site, 48 surface parking stalls.
What you see blue, shaded blue are the customer parking stalls.
And then the orange is just for display vehicles.
And there's several parking spaces further to the north side of this project site for
employee parking or customer parking if needed.
And then there are 123 spaces internally in the building for vehicle storage in the basement
as well as the rooftop.
So this project does meet the, or qualify for the Class 32 CEQA infill exemption as
it does meet that criteria that is listed on this slide.
And I'm happy to go over any of this if needed, but it really meets the intent of the code
as well as the size threshold and there were technical studies provided really to confirming
to the city that there would be less than significant impacts from this project.
And with that, staff does recommend that the City Council adopt the Class 32 CEQA exemption
as well as introduce the planned development ordinance
and approve the project entitlements
that are included in attachment 2 of your packet tonight.
And those consist of design reviews, sign ordinance exception,
tree removal permit, and a tree drip line encroachment permit.
And that is all I have for my presentation,
but I'm happy to answer any questions.
Thank you, Samara.
And you mentioned that the applicant also has a
presentation that they'd like to.
And they do have a presentation, correct.
Okay, so if, right now, if there's any questions
just for staff, or would you prefer to hear
the presentation from the applicant
and then ask questions, yeah?
Okay, so let's do that.
And then we'll determine who gets what question.
Hi, good evening.
Good evening.
Glad to be here, finally.
I wanted to start out by first telling counsel,
and we had a really great time with staff.
They've been fantastic, Erica, Simar, Ryan, Matt,
have all been really supportive
and helped us through a fairly complicated site plan
and planning process, so I wanted to put
the first shout out to them,
because they were really great.
And for the audience at home and for us up here,
would you mind introducing yourselves to you?
Oh, sorry, see, I've been here so often,
I think you're, I feel like I'm over here.
Not in front of us, though.
Yeah, Steven Scanlon, I'm with the applicant,
I'm the developer.
Great.
I wanted to start out with a quick overview
of why we're here.
First and foremost, this retention of the dealership.
Fletcher Jones wants to stay in Walnut Creek.
The second is they really need to modernize.
And that means the consolidation of all of the facilities
and operational footprint.
And I think Simmer touched on it.
It's a completely different dealership today
than it was 25 years ago.
The third thing is we're moving from lease property
to own property.
It was an opportunity to buy the site.
And that allows for the retention of the dealership
and security going forward.
And then the last was Porsche obsolescence.
If you can't meet their next generation,
and James will go into this in much more detail,
but if you can't meet their next generation,
you sort of get kicked out of the family.
And so a part of the other driving force
was being able to come up to operational 2025.
Good evening council members.
My name is James Spence.
I am the project architect with Ginsler.
I am presenting with Stephen Scanlon
on behalf of Fletcher Jones.
So as Stephen mentioned,
our generation five Porsche dealership,
that's what you see here.
That's what's going to be driving
that really dynamic frontage that you see there
on the corner with the rounded metal panel,
accent white metal panel and then kind of the ribbed black metal panel that surrounds the shop.
I'll get to those finishes later in the presentation, but just wanted to touch on
kind of the newest version, the state-of-the-art design that Portia is driving with this new model.
That's what we're presenting to you tonight. It is really, they're looking to elevate their
dealership, their luxury dealership even further. So that's what the Generation 5 is for. This
This program's attention to detail does ensure a seamless design, both for the aesthetics
and for the operations around the site, as well as the customer journey, too.
It's meant to evoke the precision of a Porsche automobile, which is why they're very proud
of this design, and with this approach, especially with the significant grade across the site
that Simmer touched on earlier, we are striving to build this elevated aesthetic while matching
the site's requirements and really hoping to match that aesthetic that defines the city
of Walnut Creek.
And because we're doing this Generation 5 dealership, there is some economic growth
that occurs.
There will be, in addition to the job retention, the Porsche family allocates another 25 to
30 percent new vehicles as a part of meeting the Generation 5 upgrade.
That represents a significant increase in revenue, 95 to up to $118 million in sales
annually.
The increase in service tax revenue, they recognize about a 30 to 40 percent increase
in service tax, and that's another $1.2 million in revenue.
And then there's the increase in property tax.
The current dealership land is worth about $14 million.
That's what's on the tax roll.
projected tax will be projected base construction is around 40 million so
it's a significant increase and then Simmer touched on it but I just wanted
to throw some numbers at you there were four study areas in the CEQA infill
exemption the traffic the traffic reduction was around 320 trips in the
air quality categories construction didn't exceed the thresholds
operations does not exceed thresholds and health risk assessment is below the
allowed limits. Noise construction was less than significant. Ground
vibration does not exceed the annoyance level and operationally everything we
have that creates noise is shielded enclosed and attenuated. And then final
is water and we meet all the storm water runoff for the project and we meet the
requirements of both state and Peds and the city. Thanks, Steven. So we wanted to
spend a few slides talking about neighborhood mitigations from our time
here at the DRC meeting, the PCH meeting. We were listening to the neighbors on
Vartan Court as well as you know west of west of that voice their concerns with
the dealership and we wanted to make sure that we are being respectful
neighbors because we are, you know, right up against their back property line.
So spinning just a couple of slides, touching on the design elements that we
are using to address that relationship.
So the first is the eight foot split face CMU sound wall that Simmer touched on
earlier. We have two elevations here. One showing the, here we go, one showing
the elevation itself and then the one below showing what that elevation is
to look like with the sound wall in front of it. You will also notice that our west elevation face
has no fenestration there's no windows into the second floor into the first floor there are no
opportunities for sight lines visibility over to the west property line. Another concern that was
brought up was our overhead door we do have one overhead door leading to our shop space that's
going to be there in the center area. So that's going to be a high-speed roll-up
door that will remain closed for a majority of the business day. That will
only be open for a few seconds when service cars come in and out. So it will
be closed most of the time. This building is going to be, or the shop at least, is
going to be 12-inch thick precast concrete walls. It's a pretty high STC
rating. There will be little to no sound coming out of that shop, but that sound
wall that we're providing will eliminate any additional sound that may escape that shop.
It's going to help with sight lines as well. I'll get to that in the next slide, but we have
provided a rendering. You can see the sound wall there on the left side. And then the other thing
I wanted to mention is the existing trees west of our property line. We wanted to try and maintain
tree retention for any and all existing valley oaks there. There's a 20 inch and a 12 to 18 inch
valley oak that we have jogged our sound wall around in order to avoid the root ball to try and
retain those trees. Still touching on that sound wall, these are a couple of exhibits just showing
sight lines from an individual standing on Barton Court looking over to our our property,
also showing that 30-foot setback building setback that Simmer touched on earlier.
Next up is our lighting. So one of the concerns is of course light spill. We want to make sure
that we are eliminating any light spill not only to the west but to the north property lines.
This is our photometric plan showing the foot candles. We have a zero foot candle
at our west property line and our north. We will also be shading all of our site fixtures
so that there is no direct light that will bleed into any neighboring property. And the other thing
thing to mention is that our lights are also going to be on a timer so that at
sunset that will reduce the lighting levels so that the Fletcher Jones team
can still keep lighting on for security purposes of their inventory but it is
going to bring the lighting level down in respect for the neighbors that we
have next door. So another thing we wanted to address is the noise. We have
absorbed a lot of our program elements within the footprint of our building
most of it's interior, but we will have a few operations that do take place outside of the
building. So that's going to be things like vehicle delivery, parts delivery, trash, and oil pickup.
So all of that is going to be occurring in that planned northeast corner that you see highlighted
there. We're trying to take it away from that west property line. We will keep it all on site. None of
this will be happening on North Main. None of it will be happening on Second Avenue. It'll be
will be happening on site and in that northeast corner.
And just to mention that this area was particularly
studied in the noise study, and it had no significant impact.
I think the biggest concern from the neighbors
is that of traffic and the right turn onto Second Avenue.
So what we are going to provide is additional wayfinding
signage.
We have kind of a mock-up sample shown here,
but it is going to encourage no right turns onto Second Avenue.
the Fletcher Jones team is also going to make sure
that their employees, when they do take test drives out,
they will head to North Main Street.
They will not turn right onto Second.
They will not be directed in that direction.
We do have to note that there was a call
for maybe modifying the curb at that entrance
off of Second Avenue because of the fire lane
that we need, the fire lane width that we need to keep there.
there's no ability to to compress that that curb cut on Second Avenue. And
speaking of fire, so we do have our 26 ft wide fire apparatus lane there
that wraps the south and east side of the buildings. In addition to that, we
are, we will be following all city and fire department code regulations as
far as fire suppression is concerned, especially taking into consideration
that we will have EV vehicles being serviced in the shop.
We will have a battery storage that's going to be attached
to our dumpster storage there in the northeast corner.
We'll be meeting all city and fire department regulations.
We will also be storing EV fire blankets
in our Porsche tool room.
That is the larger one that's circled
within the main building there.
So those will be on hand if there are any incidents
within the actual shop as they're being worked on.
And then just to run through the floor plan real quick, our basement level, this is going
to be mostly inventory or staging.
That'll also be the cars that the customers have dropped off for maintenance.
And then we have four car wash bays down in the, sorry, the southwest corner.
We're going to bring that inside again, the building footprint so it's not exposed to
the exterior.
Level one, we have our showroom, our main showroom there at the corner.
we have an internal service drive,
and then to the plan north, we have our shop.
So the shop in relation to the site
is actually going to be stepping down two additional feet.
So there's going to be a ramp between our service drive
and that shop to take those cars down
the additional two feet.
That's just in reaction to the grading we have
heading plan north.
And then our top level, level two,
we do have additional showroom on the second level,
additional certified pre-owned display and then the rest of the parking on that roof will be
employee access only. It's going to be inventory so that's where they'll take customers out if
they want to look in additional cars. And then lastly we this is the art exterior elevations you
kind of get a feeling of how that grade is going to slope from the south side of the site to the
north and how we're reacting to it but also touching on the generation five finishes that
that we have applied to this design.
So we have our Porsche silver gray metal panel
that's wrapping the showroom.
We have the accent white metal panel
that's going to be signifying the customer entry point
there at the corner.
And then wrapping the rest of the building
is going to be the black ribbed metal panel
that will wrap the shop
and the shop amenities to the plan north.
We're also going to have screens
for all of our mechanical units,
as well as the dumpster enclosure.
The, okay, you can just keep it there.
So, and then just a few more money shots
for the dealership.
So, you know, this is truly, you know,
a great opportunity for the Fletcher Jones team.
We're very excited for this project.
We appreciate the city's consideration.
Our commitment is simple,
to build a project that the city can be proud of,
that the residents feel comfortable living beside
and that contributes positively
to the city of Walnut Creek for decades to come.
So we respectfully request your consideration
and look forward to working together.
Thank you very much.
So we're gonna bring it back to council now for questions,
but I wanna be respectful if we have anybody here
from all the comments,
because sometimes we can get into a little deeper
into this than usually at the council level we would see.
So let's let's start out by a couple of questions that are burning questions from the council side and then we'll
We'll go to public comment and if there's further questions afterwards, we'll bring it back council at that point
So let's start with councilmember Davini
Are these my burning questions or just my regular questions just your burning questions now before we go to public comment
I'm good. You're good. Okay, Mayor Pro Tem
burning question
Thank you for the presentation. Thank you for the level of effort that's gone into these plans. Thank you for listening to the neighbors and making changes
I'm
Particularly interested in hearing about the perspective from Barton court and you you touched on it a bit in terms of the the neighbor
Mitigations, but maybe if you can just elaborate if there's some sort of visual that shows a landscape screening
Plus the sound wall, and there's a pretty hefty setback. I think as well from the property line
Maybe if you can just reiterate kind of what what design changes went into that thought process sure are we allowed to pull that okay?
So I'm going to bring it down to this so
the exhibits right here
one thing to mention is that the
the site grades
Change from the north side of the site to the south so as you go from north to south
That grade change between our neighbor to the west and our site is going to increase
So that's what's shown here section B is taken further to the north where there's less of a difference
Section a to the south your point about sorry the height the highest point is that Noel on the site basically toward the west, right?
That's correct. Yes
To your point about the kind of the foliage the trees in between we don't have a section showing that but there are existing trees
that we are wanting to preserve the ones I mentioned earlier that were jogging the wall in order to preserve those.
There's not a precise way to show the exact amount of screening and coverage that those existing trees are going to provide,
but we were hoping that in order to kind of give that visual, that's kind of what these sightline exhibits are providing.
And the trees and the landscaping are
focused more on the southern portion.
Those are existing right? That's correct. There's a I think a
smattering of trees on the west
Outside of our property line that will remain that stretch from the north to the south of the site
but you know they will be
They will be you know they'll exist and we we're not planning on planting anything on our site because we just don't have the space
Between our sound wall our proposed sound wall and the property line
There's just not going to be the the ability to include anything there
Sorry the microphone so the people we would have had to push so it I was in the middle of the whole tree thing and
what I went out walking it walked in the backyards met the neighbors and
We came up with we came to the conclusion that we would jog the sound wall help preserve the trees in the existing foliage
But that narrows what we have to work with on our side of the wall
so we can't really put a lot of trees on our side of the wall. So it was a question of keep the existing and stay
away from the neighbors and provide a buffer or put more trees on our side, but potentially lose some of that buffer.
Okay, the other one, a question, burning question, if you know,
what is, what are the plans for the current dealership site?
There's still about five years left on the lease,
so that the immediate is to use it during construction and then retain it during the lifespan of the lease,
And my understanding is that they might not release it but no definite plan yet. Okay. Thank you
Can't remember darling. I just wanted to double check on a couple things
I saw in some of the letters from the neighbors concern about construction impacts and
Whether or not pest control is going to happen prior to demolition and there actually made that call today
So pest control is going out there. It's imminent. Okay, and then during construction the typical measures to
Control dust and can keep impact. Yeah, we all have to be 88
So it's a couple things now in California. Everything is tier 4. So the the
Health risk assessment came back well below and then we have noise attenuation requirements
Also, no idling of equipment any of that and then the idea is to get the sound wall up as soon as possible
Okay, so phasing wise sound wall will go in before early as we can. Okay. All right. Thank you so much
Councilmember Silva burning questions burning question is can you help elaborate on what we're actually looking at in this diagram because I see a little
person yes, I can help that you know, I'm James you've got
Changed it's a bigger person. No
There's a lot of lines on here. What are we looking at and what is that person?
Where is that person standing and are they standing in the backyard of?
Vartan court because it looks like they're standing on a wall.
So yeah, they would be standing in the backyard, their backyard, and the, so I'll point out a few
things. So this, that is the property line right here, it's showing our 30-foot building setback.
And then this is, this is a site plan, not an elevation. Yes, I could read the words, but
I'm looking at the drawing trying to translate. This is a site plan. So yeah, yeah, so this is,
yeah this is a section here. Okay. This is a section here. So this is showing kind of a section
through our building the elevation of the building in relation to the six foot individual that's
standing in the backyard on Barton Court. Okay and where is the wall? The wall is this piece right
here. This is the eight foot wall. Okay so what looks like this is ground that the wall is on?
that is correct okay so you can tell that the grade difference in section b on the top section
is less than the grade difference in section a because that grows as you had planned south
if that makes sense and is this person standing at the back wall of their house close to
approximately okay thank you i mean you can't tell i know you happy to clarify
So when we look at what is the distance between the person and the sound wall and the person
and the back wall of the west wall of the dealership.
So the distance between the property line and the face of our building is 30 feet.
So we're looking at it's roughly 25 to 30 feet that the off of the west property line
that the individual is standing at and then this section, section A right here, is taken
where the wall jogs.
So it's roughly seven and a half feet from the property line.
So that's the 25 plus seven and a half feet that the person is away from that wall.
And then up here in section B, you've got about two and a half feet from the wall to
the property line.
So it's about five feet closer to that individual.
Thank you.
My other question, and this will require a little bit of math off to the side, if all
of the operations that are being proposed for this modernization of the Porsche dealership,
the Gen 5, were to be done in a flat single-story exterior parking lot, et cetera, for inventory,
how many acres would it take?
This is 2.38 acres.
would it take to and you don't have you can answer and round two I mean we I
mean you can correct my my rough math here but we'd be looking at almost
double the size of a site in order to he said 2.3 acres 2.3 2.2 point yeah so so
five acres almost five so twice the size in order to potential sales tax revenue
that will come from the dealership so I'm I'm very pleased to see and thank
you for your reinvestment in our city for doubling down and making this new
dealership the dealership for the 21st century cementing your presence in
Walnut Creek and so I'd be happy to make a motion to less appropriate to adopt a
resolution determining that the Porsche dealership projects exempt from CEQA
but pursuant to the class 32 infill exemption,
waive the reading and introduce an ordinance rezoning
the two acre parcel at 2717 North Main Street,
1532nd Avenue, and 1510 Second Avenue,
thereby creating the Porsche dealership plan
development district, but wait, there's more,
and adopt the resolution approving the design review,
tree removal and drip line encroachment permits,
and tree drip line and sign ordinance exception
for the Porsche dealership project,
effective upon the effective date of the enabling ordinance
creating the Porsche dealership
play on development district.
And I would echo the Mayor Pro Tem statement
and I also really appreciate the amount of time
and energy staff and the applicant
have put into meeting with the neighbors
and working things out with them.
I think this will be a great addition
and so I'd be happy to second what he said.
We have a motion and a second before we take a roll call with any other comments than anybody
would like to make you go. You can also make them during your vote.
Ditto. I agree. It's an exciting project. I'm looking forward to it.
And I'd like the fact that people can actually purchase directly at the store and not have
to do it online. That always helps our tax revenue too, as we talked about earlier. Great.
City Clerk, could you please call the roll? Mayor Pro Tem Francois?
Aye. Councilmember Darling?
Aye. Councilmember Davini?
Councilmember Silva.
Hi. Mayor Wolk.
Hi.
Motion carries.
All right.
So yes, we'll let, why don't we take,
we've got one item left.
Why don't we take, is five minutes or if you want to have
five minutes, let's take a five minute break.
And then we're back for our last item.
And we're back.
Next on the item is, on the agenda is the consideration
of the fiscal year 2027 budget balancing recommendations.
And I invite Administrative Services Director,
Kirsten LaCaste, forward to provide the presentation.
Thank you, good evening, Mayor Wilk,
Mayor Pro Tem Francois, and members of council,
Kirsten LaCaste, administrative services director.
Tonight I'm gonna be walking you through
the fiscal year 27 budget balancing recommendations.
So tonight we're first gonna touch on
the fiscal year 26 and 27 general fund adopted budget,
and then what has changed since this council
adopted the budget.
Some proposed balancing options,
and then finally staff's recommendation
for rebalancing fiscal year 2027.
What we're asking of you this evening
is to provide input and feedback on the proposed recommendation
for rebalancing the fiscal year 27 adopted budget.
The fiscal year 2026 and 2027 adopted budget
included 6.33 million of reductions
in order to balance.
These reductions included measures
that were ongoing, short term, and one time.
The ongoing reductions included eliminating
one and a quarter FTE, reducing hourly staff and reducing overtime on the personnel side.
And when M reductions included a reduction in plan maintenance and repairs, which led
to a more reactionary response, contracted services were brought in-house, impacting
staff capacity, and we reduced marketing and advertising for leisure center events.
These reductions totaled 3.31 million.
Short term and one-time reductions totaling just over 3 million included using the pension
trust and reserve to offset rising pension costs, increasing the budgeted vacancy rate,
and reducing the amount the general fund contributed to capital projects by about $300,000 each
year.
In order to meet the reserve requirements, both fiscal year 26 and 27 required reserve
contributions were funded from fiscal year 25 year-end savings.
So in general, just to—I know we've talked about this a little bit.
members have talked about sales tax this evening and so beginning in fiscal year
25 the city experienced a reduction in sales tax revenue for what was thought
to be a reporting error in the city's largest industry group which is the
autos and transportation. In fiscal year 25 the group saw a decline of 11% as a
result. After the budget adoption in June the city's sales tax consultant
identified the reduction as a reporting change in that group implemented by the
California Department of Tax and Fee Administration or CDTFA. So the city's updated projection for
fiscal year 27 has resulted in a 2.3 million deficit in the general fund. So this reporting
change is currently under audit, however, it is impacting revenue in fiscal year 26,
which will very likely continue in fiscal year 27. Fiscal year 26 will largely stay balanced as a
result of our savings from our projected 10 to 11% vacancy rate, but we will need to rebalance
fiscal year 27. So staff has identified three strategies for consideration to close the
estimated fiscal year 27 deficit in the general fund. The first is to maintain the existing 10%
10 to 11% vacancy rate we currently have in the city or identify ongoing reductions of about 2%
of the general fund expenditures and lastly the use of reserves and so I'm going to walk through
each of these in more detail on the following slides.
Excuse me.
When you're sitting there, you have to really hone in on the microphone.
Your voice is not carrying all the way over here for me.
Okay.
Thank you.
I will do that.
Thank you.
And so the budget was adopted with a vacancy rate of 6%, whereas the actual rate of vacant
positions is about 11% currently, which if we've continued this vacancy rate in fiscal
year 27 it would result in a budget reduction sufficient to cover the sales
tax revenue shortfall. While this is a short-term solution there are some
unknowns that once resolved would help the city determine what the real impact
will be and allow the flexibility to adapt prior to reducing service levels
to the community. So these include the final outcome of CDTFA's decision on the
sales tax reporting. Staff is working with a consultant on a city-wide fee
study that may impact fiscal year 27 and the results of that study and
recommendations for consideration will be they are on track to be brought
forward to Finance Committee and City Council late spring and the update of
the city's 10 year financial forecast for the general fund in the fall of 2026
in anticipation of the fiscal year 28 and 29 budget development process using
this approach to rebalance would mean that service levels to the community
would largely stay unchanged. However, internal staff would need to sustain these levels with
fewer resources. Another option is to identify 2% of general fund expenditures for ongoing
reductions to achieve the savings needed to close the deficit. This is a long-term approach,
however, it would have immediate service impacts. As we mentioned earlier, the fiscal year 26
and 27 adopted budget already incorporated over 3 million in ongoing reductions. So additional
ongoing reductions in fiscal year 27 would further impact the community and staff.
This approach is consistent with council policy, keeping in mind there are still some uncertainties
regarding the ongoing nature and amount of the deficit as discussed previously.
And lastly, reserves could be used to offset the deficit on a one-time basis.
The city maintains several reserves, however, the magnitude of the revenue loss does not
trigger the use requirements for the emergency reserves but the general fund contingency
reserve could be used which has a current balance of 2.6 million.
So based on all of the analysis staff is recommending to maintain the existing 10 to 11% vacancy
rate in fiscal year 27 to close the deficit on a short term basis.
Again it preserves service levels to the community, allows time for key financial uncertainties
to be resolved. It provides flexibility and minimizes disruptions. There is an impact
to internal operations as it would require sustaining current service levels with fewer
staff. On February 18, these options and staff recommendation were presented to the Finance
Committee for feedback. Committee members supported staff's recommendation. The option
that staff is recommending would mitigate the projected sales tax revenue loss. However,
would not address projected impacts to other revenue sources or unforeseen
increases to expenditures. Department revenue projections for fiscal year 26
based on the second quarter results in the second quarter revenue and
expenditure update earlier this evening are trending lower than anticipated. Once
we have more data from the third quarter we'll be able to refine those projections
and we'll have more information on any impacts to fiscal year 27. If department
revenue trends continue into fiscal year 27,
staff will bring recommendations forward
for consideration in late spring
to address revenue impacts and any resulting deficit,
which may include ongoing expenditure reductions.
So again, what we are asking of you this evening
is to provide input and feedback
on the proposed recommendation
for rebalancing the fiscal year 27 adopted budget.
And with that, staff is available
to answer any questions you may have.
you Kirsten and let me first ask the finance committee if you have any
further questions based on what you asked earlier yeah forgive me if you
mentioned did you mention the the fee impact the the fee study that's coming
up you did yeah that's one of the things that would essentially correct the
department revenues correct yeah okay questions here thank you Kirsten I
I appreciate the thought you guys have put into this.
Do we have any kind of a prognosis on whether or not
that we're gonna be able to see a reversal
of the tax decision that was impacting the auto sales
or do we have any idea?
At this time we don't.
We haven't heard a lot of information from CDTFA.
However, they haven't made a final determination
and so once we have that additional information
we will know more and then we would have an opportunity
to appeal that decision as well.
Okay so we can appeal it and then I know the distribution of sales tax revenue is an ongoing
struggle on so many levels.
I did actually send, I think we sent a letter just today that we sent it to Senator Tim
Grayson as well as Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan about exactly this and the auto
sales tax specifically.
They've been looking for it and Senator Grayson was, sounded very, how should I put this,
he was happy to receive it to give him some ability to be able to keep this conversation
going.
So it's been received very well right now by our state representatives.
Okay, that was going to be my next question.
Somebody gone and told on mom and dad, mom and dad about the other kids.
Anyway, thank you very much.
If I could for a moment, I want to add to that.
The other thing that we're trying to work through with CDTFA, in conjunction with our
state representatives potentially, is something caused this to change.
We were receiving this as were a couple dozen other cities who have some more arrangements
as Walnut Creek with certain types of auto dealerships, and something caused this to
change.
And what we're really wanting to understand is what was the driver for that?
what was the thinking and the rationale for doing so.
And then, you know, to vent for a moment is extremely frustrating
that CDTFA makes this change without any communication whatsoever.
It took us months and months to decipher the reports to understand
if this would error what was occurring,
and that's why we're nearly a year later reporting this issue.
We started reporting it a few months ago, but it really took
that long to unwind what was going on to try to get answers.
So it's been extremely frustrating working
with the state bureaucracy with this.
And I'm really hopeful that our legislators can help
untangle that bureaucracy for us.
Have you had a conversation as to whether this might require
an actual legislative fix of the regulatory authority?
Because clearly, the CDTFA thinks
they have the regulatory authority to do it
any old way they want to.
You know, that's part of the discussion,
to see if there could be a legislative fix.
But as it stands now, our understanding as it is
within the regulatory purview of CDTFA,
but it doesn't mean that it needs
to remain that way in the future.
So I had a couple questions.
Could you remind me again of what the shortfall is
that you're projecting?
That was when I couldn't hear you.
Oh, I'm sorry, that's 2.3 million.
2.3 million, and that's for what period of time?
For fiscal year 27?
Fiscal year 27?
So that would start July one of this year,
and end in June 30th of 27.
Correct, all right, thank you.
And the vacancy rate, while it's a short-term solution,
it's not a one-time solution
because as long as we keep the vacancy rate at that level,
we continue to reap the benefit of the under expenses.
Correct, okay, thank you.
And I think that, thank you for explaining the way you did
and the look between the two different options.
I think it really elucidated that for me
and appreciate that.
And thank you for the work that you've done
to get us to this point on this.
So open up for public comment.
I do not see any public right now.
So I will close public comment,
bring it back to the council and for a motion.
Do you guys want to do it?
Council member Davini,
would you like to make the motion on this one?
did that elegant one earlier. The Finance Committee was so sure that this is all
going to go that you're not. Recommend. Oh I move to adopt the recommendations of
staff. Oh just the rebalancing the rebalancing of the fiscal year 27
adopted budget. Second. Oh, all right. We have a motion to second. All right. Mayor Pro Tem
Francois gets the second by acclimation. Thank you. We have a roll call please.
Councilmember Davini? Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Francois? Aye. Councilmember Darling? Aye. Councilmember Silva? Aye. All right. So we are adjourned of the regular
City Council meeting, we will be back on March 17th.