All right, good morning, everyone.
For those of you I have not met, my name is Katie Burrows
and I'm the new president and CEO
of the Walnut Creek Chamber and Visitors Bureau.
And it's my honor to welcome you here today
to our Civic Affairs Candidate Forum.
Before we get started, I just wanna thank the library,
the city, our elected officials, and Sharon Jenkins,
Chamber board member and chair of our advocacy
and civic affairs committee.
This partnership allows the chamber to bring
multiple civic affairs forum to the community
and we focus on important topics and people
critical to our community.
So we hope that you'll be a regular if you are not already.
These forums are just part of the Chamber's overall mission
to foster the conditions for business success
and community prosperity.
And we do this through connecting stakeholders,
advancing policies, driving economic opportunities
in the Walnut Creek region.
And we work closely with our businesses, the city,
Downtown Walnut Creek, Broadway Plaza, and many others.
We bring patrons to the community
with events like the Art and Wine Festival,
East Bay Women's Conference, and Startup Walnut Creek.
And we provide wonderful networking
and awareness-building opportunities
access to resources, and a strong voice
for the business community.
So if you are not a member, which we hope you are,
please join us, talk to any of the staff today,
or visit walnut-creek.com.
But it is my pleasure to introduce Angela Ashley,
who is the chair of the Walnut Creek Chamber Board,
and CEO and founder of DLHA Law Group.
She is a dedicated community leader
with a collaborative spirit and a deep commitment
to Walnut Creek success.
So I'm gonna turn it over to Angela.
Thank you, Katie, thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
Well, welcome everyone, good morning, bright and early.
I wanna welcome you to the candidates forum
put on by the Walnut Creek Chamber of Commerce
and Visitors Bureau.
As she said, I'm Angela Ashley, chair of the board
of the Chamber of Commerce,
and I'm happy to facilitate this forum.
I wanna also thank Sharon Cassata Jenkins
who is chair of our civic affairs committee
and has stepped in this year with gusto and dedication
and she's putting on a lot of really interesting,
vibrant, compelling different seminars and series of events.
So I welcome you to join us for those.
I'm sure there'll be more information later.
I'd also like to thank the staff who gets here so early
to set this up, put out the coffee and the muffins
and the chairs and make sure everything is just right.
You wouldn't believe how early they arrive.
So a big thank you to Lynn Pauline and Jackie Porter
for all your work.
And I wanna thank the rest of the chamber staff
who make sure the marketing pieces get out on time
and also to Navid Metapur for handling
all the audio visual, so adeptly.
A couple of housekeeping items.
This will run to about 9.45.
We'll have some time for Q&A.
If you could fill out the little index cards
that will be passed out and we'll collect those
and I'll ask as many questions as time permits.
Also, I wanna ask the candidates to please keep your answers
to two minutes or less if you could.
I have Anthony Thompson keeping time back there
so you don't wanna go over two minutes
or Anthony will come pull you off.
A little bit about Walnut Creek.
Walnut Creek is a vibrant community
of approximately 70,000 people.
It has an active arts, culinary,
shopping and downtown scene.
This year we have two candidates,
Charise Cone and Brandon Moran running for two seats.
Those seats will be filled by former council members
who are stepping off next year.
Matt Francois, who served seven years,
and Cindy Silva, who has served decades
of service to our city.
Thank you.
Though we don't have a lot of drama,
or a big competition in this particular race,
that tends to lead to more open discussion, I think.
And a little bit more candid nature about the issues.
Most important to both of you.
And that's where I thought we could start today
on the more pertinent core issues to you both.
So let me start by asking you, Brendan,
if you could give us a couple of minutes
to describe your platform and what you stand for.
Sure.
Everybody can hear me?
Okay.
Thank you, Angela.
Thank you, Chamber of Commerce,
for having us here today.
It's an honor.
My name is Brendan Moran, and I can give you the bio,
but I'm worried about Anthony here in the background.
So I'm gonna tell you a couple things
just about what's important to me.
And those are protecting Walnut Creek
and what makes this city special and why we all love it
and planning intelligently for the future.
That also has to do with our quality of life here,
which has to do with how we get around and mobility.
It has to do with are we putting new housing
where it belongs in the downtown area
rather than our established neighborhoods.
It has to do with public safety
and making sure that our visitors, our residents,
our businesses feel safe.
And that's a fundamental right that we have in the city.
It's our open space and what makes this city so magical
and people want to live here and stay here
and raise families.
So, that is the short of what I'm focused on
as the incoming city council member.
There's a lot that I have to learn, and it's a gift.
And I'm sure my fellow planning commissioner,
Calum, would agree with me that we now have a chance
to learn a little bit more rather than focus on running.
Now we can focus on leading.
And I'm very, very thankful for the opportunity.
And I'm happy to tell you a bit more about myself
as we go along here.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Sharice, can you tell us about your platform, what you stand for, please?
Sure.
Okay.
Whoa.
I guess we sit back here.
Okay.
Is that okay?
Is it echoey?
Okay.
All right.
So hi, everyone.
I'm Sharice Kound, and my priorities are to continue building a safe, healthy, and vibrant
community together.
And to me, what that means in terms of safety is a place where everyone feels welcome, and
we continue to have our low crime rates and our well-trained prepared diverse
police force. We need to be thinking about our emergency preparation for
things like wildfire and earthquakes and even power outages these days and I
think about pedestrian and bike safety. When it comes to health I think about
affordable housing for all income levels in our city and access to quality
affordable health care and child care. We are a health care hub and we have the
only trauma center in the county, I believe, and this is one of the really
important core businesses to our economy. When I think about Vibrant, it's a
thriving economy with high-quality local jobs so that we can work here where we
live and local small business owners who feel supported, as well as recreation
and arts opportunities for people of all ages.
So again, my focus is safe, healthy, vibrant communities
for all and really working on creating that
and building that with all of you together.
Wonderful, thank you so much.
Let's start general.
The general plan for Walnut Creek was written in 2006.
The city's undertaking an overhaul now
and the plan's supposed to last until 2050.
So given that you're both on the planning commission,
what would you like to see as a result
of the new revised general plan?
And let me start with you, Charisse.
Thank you, that is a great question
and that's one of the reasons why I'm excited
to serve on the city council is to be able to bring
as many voices to the table as we can
as we build out the general plan.
Because it is our vision and plan as a city
for the next 20 years.
So what should that look like?
and how can we make sure that we are hearing
from all the different neighborhoods in our community,
all the different races and ages,
demographics of our community?
How do we make sure that business leaders
and our local business owners,
that their priorities are there as part of the general plan?
And then how do we tie together our various plans, right?
We have our housing element that's required by the state,
and we have our sustainability plan,
which is so important to so many of us, right,
because we love being able to live
in such a beautiful, natural place
with access to open space,
and we wanna make sure that our community is healthy,
and we wanna also make sure
that we're dealing with climate change,
and the shifts in our economy
that are affected by the changes in AI
and the changes in how people work online.
So we need to think about all of those things
when it comes to the general plan.
And I think together, we're gonna be able to make a vision
that we'll be able to work and shift over the next 20 years.
Thank you.
Brendan, same question.
Thank you.
Well, I think the really important thing
we need to focus on is flying cars.
Because that's what we were worried about 20 years ago.
But I say that as a joke,
but that actually was a conversation I just had
about 10 minutes ago with somebody.
When we were talking about,
how do you think about where we're gonna be 20 years from now?
And that's not an easy thing to do, certainly.
I know that Commissioner, I'm sorry, Council Member Silva,
who's in attendance today,
was on the planning commission the last time we did this,
and I was asking her questions about,
how did you think about that?
And what did you envision for where we are today
that long ago, and it's not an easy way to do it.
So I think that what we need to do right now
in the next couple of years is listen to our community.
We have a lot of intelligent, thoughtful people
who live here that have good ideas,
and we need to take that into account,
and that's what the city's doing right now
with a lot of pop ups and listening
and getting the commissioners involved.
So I wanna see that continue,
but I think what we really need to do
is just have an idea of flexibility
for what we want to see,
because the answer is that we don't know
what is coming in the next 20 years.
There's now the dawn of self-driving cars,
probably gonna be here.
A lot of people are gonna be biking more.
Gas prices probably not coming down anymore.
Traffic isn't gonna get any easier.
So therefore we need to think about
how we get people around smartly.
And not only that,
be able to be open to the next thing
that we don't even know is coming
to make sure that we're prepared for it.
My overall focus for the general plan
is making sure that the Wanna Creek 2025 years
from today is still a place where I wanna live,
my kids wanna live, people wanna move to,
and it retains that same magic
that the reason why we're all here.
Okay, thank you very much.
I'm still stuck on gas isn't coming down ever.
All right, let's talk about development.
Walnut Creek obviously has a lot of development, seems to be growing by the minute.
We have a lot of mixed use space here.
On the one hand, it's nice to see young families moving in, young professionals around our
business community growing.
On the other, it's a little daunting to see all of these buildings popping up and the
commercial space is going in.
So you know there's a little concern and are you concerned or how do you balance these
two competing interests?
Let me start with you Brendan.
Thank you.
Well it's a pertinent question since Commissioner Count and I were just Thursday at City Hall
approving a project watch out I'll get to in a second which kind of goes to what you're
speaking about.
My overall philosophy with development in Walnut Creek is that change is coming.
And it's up to us to be able to manage that change intelligently.
And by that I mean making sure that the buildings that are going to come to Walnut Creek, whether
they're state mandated or the fact that we need housing and all that other stuff, needs
to be put in a place where it makes sense.
And for me that is the downtown area close to existing jobs, public transportation,
and so forth.
And that will help protect the quality of our established neighborhoods.
And by way of example, we approved a 104-unit building that's going to be eight stories
tall.
It was on the East Bay Times yesterday, right in downtown Long Creek.
The point I made at the dais was that now this is going to be a big project and people
are going to say it's big and they're right about that.
But we can't let the perfect idea of development be the enemy of good when we say that we want
to build housing downtown in order to keep traffic low and did not get into our established
neighborhoods and we need to take advantage of that.
So I worry about it too because I think that I've been here for 16 years and it is not
the same place today as it was 16 years ago.
And I feel for the people who have been here for twice that long, 45 years, 50 years.
It's not the same Walnut Creek.
But it's not going to be the same Walnut Creek in 10 years and 20 years.
We just need to manage the change intelligently and make good decisions and protect the quality
of our neighborhoods.
Thank you.
Sharice?
Thank you.
Yes.
So, I, for the last couple years, have been a field rep for our state assembly member,
Rebecca Bauer-Cahan.
And my role there was to represent her here in the city of Walnut Creek and in La Merinda
and basically connect what things look like on the ground here in her district with the
decisions that she was making at the state level.
And so I saw a lot about what has been debated at the state and regional level on this.
And there is a huge housing shortage, right, for the last 50 years as a whole state.
we've not built nearly enough housing units.
And part of that is because at the local level,
every single city was able to say,
we want housing, but just not here, right?
And when you multiply that across the whole state,
you end up in the situation that we're in.
So I can understand why the state made the laws
that they made just in the last couple of years
that take away local control, but it is challenging
because it allows for development
like the eight story building that we just approved
that is infill, that is close to transit,
but it also removed some of the local control,
like there are some things with that development
that we were not able to change,
where how close is it, the setbacks,
we didn't have the local control to be able to require
the level of setbacks that we normally would in this city.
And so I think that's an ongoing debate,
not just within our city, but within our region and state.
So as these developments go in and the housing boom happens,
that's great, but I think there's gonna need
to be an ongoing debate about yes,
but there is a certain amount of local control
that we do need.
And as we go forward, there are some things
that we hopefully can gain back
in terms of our local control to make sure
that they're designed well and designed
for what's gonna work here in our community.
Okay, thank you, that dovetails nicely
into my next question and that is in Walnut Creek,
we have processes and procedures.
Developers go to the city,
there's the planning commission, staff reports,
goes to the city council and there've been ways
that developers can work around those processes,
whether it's ballot measures initiatives,
senior housing mandated by the state.
How do you feel generally about that process,
moving around the system that's already in place
and moving forward with development?
Let me ask you, Charisse.
Yes, I'm really concerned about that actually,
because I think it's important for us
to have our local processes that everybody follows
and that the city is able to make decisions
going forward about.
So if you go around that process and you have an initiative,
then the only way to make any adjustments to that,
if that initiative passes,
the only way to make any adjustments to that going forward
would be to go back to the people.
So for example, when we were filling out our paperwork
to file, to run for city council,
there was a form that was the ethics form, was it called,
that we would run a fair campaign,
a fair and open transparent campaign, right?
And I said, so this is an optional form?
Why is this an optional form?
I would think it should be required.
It's optional.
And then I said, so is it reported somewhere
where the public can see who has signed it
and who hasn't?
Not necessarily, right?
So if I could make suggestions to the city,
I would say, let's shift that.
Let's either make it a requirement
or have a very clear place where it shows
who signed the form and who didn't, right?
And I might even make some edits to that piece of paper
to update it from when it was done years ago.
But the answer was none of that can be changed,
not even one word on that piece of paper
because that came out of an initiative.
And the only way to change any piece of it
is to go back to the people.
So trying to figure out development by initiative,
I do have concerns about that.
And my hope is that we actually can continue
to go through the processes,
because there's a reason why those exist.
They allow community input
and they allow flexibility going forward.
Rondin.
Thank you, great question.
I'm pretty sure I signed the ethics thing myself too,
I have to go back a minute.
In relation to what Angelo was speaking about,
I believe the senior center that is on the ballot initiative
to be built on North California Boulevard.
And I take a two kind of attacked mind
to how I'm looking at this issue.
One is that I believe that senior housing is needed.
And I fundamentally, I think that that's a good spot for it.
We're talking about just on the other side
of the BART station in North California, north of Maine.
And that is a bit of a desert right now.
There's a lot of office space there.
There's not much to, there's much retail,
there's a few restaurants, but there's not that much.
And so I do think that this project
will improve that area.
That said, the process to which we've gotten to this point,
I think is, it has a couple pros and cons,
and pros is that, I'm fine with the voters
being able to decide what they want in Walnut Creek.
We live in a democracy, we wanna be able to put,
do you want senior housing?
Don't you want senior housing?
That's fine.
They're electing us as well.
They have a voice, they're our citizens, they're our voters.
But the idea that we, or somebody,
is able to change the zoning that was thought out
in the general plan 20 years ago
and is going to be thought out again,
because they maybe just want it,
or they have people's pockets in somebody else,
is a bit of a slippery slope.
And I worry about that being an end around
for the thoughtful decisions that the community
comes together, city council, city staff,
to figure out, we're gonna put this building here,
we're gonna put that building there.
This is gonna be mixed use, this is gonna be office,
this is gonna be housing.
And then to be able to say,
I actually think that that's different
and I'm gonna be able to get the votes to do
what I feel that I wanna do as a private citizen,
I think we need to be careful of that.
Anthony, I see you.
Thank you.
And just for disclosure and disclaimer,
I wasn't speaking actually to any one developer
because it's been a few, you know,
not just one particular,
but there've been a few developments
that have been able to bypass the process.
So another question, what are some key concepts
that you feel could drive business to Walnut Creek?
And what type of business would you focus on and why?
Brendan?
Thank you.
I think that what's cool about this city
is we have a couple different areas for business development.
We have the downtown area, which is obviously retail, small businesses, restaurants.
We have the Golden Triangle, which is more of the office and commercial.
And then we have Shadelands, which has quite a bit of now health sciences.
So the short answer is I would like to see all those boats continue to rise, and we continue
to focus on what each area does well and promote that.
But I think our real opportunity over the next few years
is both Golden Triangle and the Shadelands.
The types of businesses that I think that we could be well
served are about mid-size corporate.
There's a lot of young tech companies in the mix.
I know of a few that are right downtown, Walnut Creek
and industrious right now and growing.
So we need to be able to court them and say,
hey, maybe you should think about staying in Walnut Creek,
especially at the Golden Triangle.
We've got restaurants, we've got a great workforce,
we've got public transportation.
So the types of businesses that we need to attract,
I think are ones that are a good size
that can bring jobs, fill some office space,
but also we need to go out
and proactively sell those businesses
to make sure that they understand the benefits
of being in Walnut Creek with the workforce
and public transportation and the climate
and everything else that goes along with it.
Thank you, Sharice.
Yes, I think we do have strengths here already,
like healthcare being a huge piece of our economy.
And we need to figure out how to support that
because we're affected by things
beyond our control right now,
when the federal government makes cuts to health care
and health insurance, that's a concern to us locally.
And we can work together with our fellow cities
and with our region and with our state
to advocate for health care for all.
And so that's crucial not just because we care
about health care for people,
but also because it does affect our local economy.
And those are really important jobs and they're needed jobs.
And they're the kind of jobs that are not gonna
be able to just go away with AI, right?
Everyone is gonna want still in-person healthcare, right?
And so I think we need to think about
how AI is shifting things
and what are those most important jobs
that are not gonna go away.
Another area is things like the building trades,
like plumbers, right?
You're not gonna outsource your plumbing
to another country overseas
or to AI to just do your plumbing for you, right?
Those are good, quality jobs,
and we have some really incredible union building trades
and apprenticeships that are available right here.
So we need to look at what our strengths are,
what are the local and regional organizations
that we can partner with to make sure
that we have high quality, high paying jobs
right here in our city.
Thank you.
Plumbing's not gonna go to AI,
it's gonna go to the plumbing robot
that shows up at your door.
So, a lot of times when builders are looking at coming here or companies are looking at
moving their headquarters here, some of the deterrence might be the travel from BART to
shade lanes, but a lot of times they mention height restrictions, which prohibits them
from building up, right?
More stories can equal, you know, it pencils out better for them.
And so that turns me to measure A and the height restriction we have in Walnut Creek
and there's been a lot of discussion about repealing Measure A. And then the next question
is where and how. And so let me ask you this, if Measure A was repealed, where would you
like to see it? Would it be citywide? So it's a consistent regulation, zoning regulation,
and it leads to more consistency. And also it's more predictable. Or would you focus
on one particular area? And if so, why? And I'll start with you, Shereece.
That's a great question.
And it really will come down to the voters get to decide.
But I think that what I'm hearing
is that in the residential areas,
people don't want 10-story buildings right
next to their house.
And that's already something that
can happen if it's housing that's being built.
But when we talk about commercial development,
I think what people wanna see is some easing
of the height restriction when you're in the center
of a commercial area.
So if it's in the center of downtown,
potentially in the center of the shade lens,
depending how you would do it,
there might be a spot where that could be done as well.
But it needs to be a place that's away from the housing.
But it is something that I think we do need to consider
and keep discussing and talking about,
because if we, you know, we can't have it all.
If we want to protect our open space,
we have to build somewhere, right?
And eventually that is going to be building up.
So I think it is something
that is an important discussion to have
and something that we need to make sure
that all of the different voices
and perspectives are at the table.
Okay, thank you.
Brendan.
That's a great question.
And it's one that actually I'm excited about the fact
that we get to be on the city council
when that may or may not come to the voters.
My philosophy is that Measure A is a policy
from a time when people were rightly concerned
about the rapid pace of growth in Long Creek.
So Measure A was passed more than 40 years ago now,
or roughly.
And so the thought process that got the voters
to passing Measure A belongs 40 years ago.
So we're dealing with the issues today
of not the mid 80s.
So in that regard, I think it is worth revisiting
what Measure A does and doesn't do.
And the second part of the question is,
okay, if we are gonna repeal it, do we do it city-wide?
Do we keep it to a specific zone or plural zones?
And my philosophy would be, yes.
We look at it as a case by case basis.
I think that blanketing a repeal of Measure A citywide
will open the door to what we here
at the Planning Commission and the City Council
is the fears of the residents who have been here
and who wanna live here is that they really like
the quality of their neighborhoods.
And that's, we live in the suburbs still,
but we have a vibrant downtown that is growing.
And if I'm asked, Hey, would you rather grow out or grow up?
I think that's an easy one, especially if we keep the growth, where it makes
sense in the downtown area and to commissioner counts point that it's going
to be up to the voters.
So I'm, I'm comfortable with you.
Tell us what you want to do, but I would have a little bit of a guiding hand to
maybe explain, in my opinion, as a new city council member, that I believe that
we should protect our neighborhood characters and also be able to be a
a little bit more flexible towards where we build
and how high we build it downtown.
Thank you.
I'm gonna draw out a little bit
and talk about larger scale economic development
and attracting new businesses to the city.
We have an amazing economic development director
with the city business development, a great city manager.
The chamber does its part in helping
to guide different businesses here.
But looking at attracting new business given the growth of AI
and focusing on specific jobs and industries,
you mentioned a little bit about health care,
but we know that things are moving over to AI.
So as a city council member, do you
have any ideas of enticing larger companies here?
And how would you support the economic development?
So I'm looking for what specific industries would you focus on
and how would you do that?
So Brendan, can I start with you?
Thank you.
I think that that's going to be one of the biggest challenges
for the city and the city staff as we continue
to get competition from neighboring cities,
San Ramon being one of them, Tri-Valley.
They have great quality of life down there as well,
and they have space to build.
So what Walnut Creek needs to focus on
is selling businesses our benefits.
We are close to public transportation.
We are essentially in the middle of the county.
We've got a vibrant downtown, we've got a workforce.
And because of all that, the types of businesses
that I think that we can type through the tract
are the mid-sized tech businesses.
I believe that there is a world where we have
the building and trades and so forth,
law firms that can help fill out our office space.
But as technology changes rapidly,
We need to be ready for that.
And there's a lot of small to mid-sized tech companies
in the Bay Area, of which we are the epicenter of the world,
that may be looking around and saying,
is Silicon Valley really the best place for my workforce?
Maybe I should look in the East Bay,
specifically Walnut Creek, and it's up to our city and staff
to make sure that we can sell what we have here.
But I would like to see a push for a good company,
20, 25, 30, maybe employees, nothing big.
I'd love to see if Google wants to have a satellite,
you know, here, I won't stop them.
But I think that's what we need to attract
is growing businesses that can see themselves growing
right here in Wall Street.
Thank you, Sharice.
Thank you.
Yes, I would agree with a lot of what
Commissioner Moran was saying.
We are an excellent location for businesses
because of our highly educated population
and our convenient location accessible to BART
and to multiple freeways.
And so that's a really helpful thing to have
and to be able to sell to businesses.
I think one of our currently one of our highest income businesses
as well is our auto dealerships.
And I was in a conversation just recently
where I think that some of the higher tech auto businesses
were looking at this area.
And it was a question of location within our city
because we don't have that much space, really.
And I think part of that is actually limited by Measure A.
So some of the car dealerships, like you
look at the new Toyota plans, right, instead of building out
and having this giant parking lot,
they're building up and have a multi-level building
with the parking on top and throughout, right?
And so that is something I don't wanna lose.
I wanna make sure that we are able to keep that income
that our city already has
and thinking about how we can continue to attract,
especially the higher tech end of that
because we do have the highly educated population
that could be able to work there
and design the future of our auto industry.
Thank you.
Speaking of tech, looking out on the horizon
and just kind of looking forward,
there's been discussion about data centers
going into neighboring cities, not so far away.
Thinking, removing zoning restrictions for a moment,
just thinking bigger picture,
some sort of mandate or something.
If a data center was looking to relocate here
could bring enormous economic opportunity,
say over 250 jobs to Walnut Creek,
revenue, tax revenue, as well as an economic boost
in some other way, would you be in favor of it?
And if so, if not, why or why not?
Cerise?
That is a great question.
And data centers are quite the lightning rod right now.
So thank you for throwing that at us.
Well, you're welcome.
Yeah, so looking at the data center in Pittsburgh,
It's incredible, right?
I think when they started thinking about that
a couple of years ago, it was, oh,
jobs, economic development in our area,
and providing the power to the AI that's being built,
and it would be nearby, which is great.
What they didn't necessarily foresee
was the uprise against data centers
that seems to be happening nationwide right now
as people realize the impacts.
just the level of noise can be really, really incredible.
This super loud noise that imagine living near that
every day in and day out, right?
And then think about the water usage and the power.
When I worked for the state assembly member,
she actually had a bill at the state level
to require data centers to inform the state
and the local government of what their expected power
and water usage is because you wanna make sure
that they don't end up using all the electrical grid
and then our rates go up and we don't have access
to the power that we need day to day
in our local businesses and in our residents.
So there's really a lot to think about.
I don't think that I could say right now definitely yes
or definitely no.
Fortunately our area does not have enough land
to be able to have a data center coming here
Walnut Creek so I don't think that we will have that exact issue right here
but we will be affected by whether a data center goes into our region and so
I would have a lot of questions about the impacts and how those impacts would
be mitigated and and how we could really hold those companies accountable to
those mitigations. So following on Mr. Count's comments I do think it is a bit
of a blessing that Walnut Creek doesn't have the real estate
necessarily, you know, for all our data centers. So it's not
something that we necessarily will have to worry about. That
said, if we're talking about theoretically, my thoughts on
data centers, I believe that data centers bring jobs when
they're being built. And I am for that. However, once it's
built, you know, it's not exactly a jobs engine, just
because there it's a giant building with servers, right? And
You need, I'm not an expert, but my understanding is
those jobs essentially go away once it's built.
So it's not sustaining necessarily.
And what you're left with is a essentially
a possibly hazardous building to the quality of life
that people that live nearby.
I also have reservations just about the AI industry
in general, whether this is self-sustaining
and we build a data center today,
Is this gonna be something that is even in use
in five years just because of the changing technology
to that?
So I don't think Walnut Creek should be the guinea pig
necessarily for this AI boom.
Then again, I don't pretend to be an expert on,
but I have serious doubts about whether or not
the Pittsburgh or any of the other cities
around the United States are gonna feel like
That was a worthwhile investment five, 10 years from now
when property values have declined,
when there are health and safety issues
for the people that live nearby.
And if we're worried about bringing 250 jobs in
to help build the data center or equipment,
I would rather look at other areas,
maybe even in the AI space,
that have nothing to do with the building
of specific data centers and all the hazards
that may or may not come with them.
Thank you very much.
That was informative.
Let's turn to safety. There was a time now Walnut Creek is very safe. We had Chief Hibbs
here do a presentation and it was very comforting. He showed the statistics. Crime was dropping
in Walnut Creek. But there was a time maybe post COVID during COVID when it felt like
crime was on the rise, retail theft, robberies, and it was a grave concern about public safety.
And I think we're always on the lookout and the community is aware of crime at large,
whether it's declining or not.
So specifically with regard to let's look at retail robbery or theft, do you feel that
enough is being done to keep Walnut Creek residences and businesses safe?
What would you do differently?
And is there anything more that can be done?
Charisse?
Thank you.
That's a great question.
is definitely one of the top priorities
that I always hear about with our city.
I started holding listening sessions back in January
when it started this campaign to run for city council.
And I would ask people, what do you
think the priorities of our city council should be?
And safety was always right up there at the top.
But I think about safety, not just the police force
by itself.
So one of the things, thank you to the chamber
for hosting Chief Hibbs.
One of the things he talked about
was a holistic view of safety.
Because when you think about what
it is that causes an area to be more likely to have crime,
it's an area that doesn't have opportunities.
If you have less recreation, and arts, and libraries,
and education, that can lead to more crime.
So it's not just more police, more police, more police.
how are we providing opportunities to people throughout our city. So we need
to continue to make those investments in recreation and the arts and education
and our libraries. I also appreciate that our that our police force really
thinks about the relationships that it is building so and the diversity of the
police force in terms of gender and race so people who can really relate to our
our residents.
So when I was on Mount Diablo school board,
we had a great relationship with the police
where they were not necessarily standing at the entrance
with a car and a badge in an imposing sort of way,
but they were available and they had certain officers
that were trained in working with youth
that were available to help those schools
with their safety plans and were available to come out
to the school when requested.
And that I think is a great option.
And then in terms of the retail theft,
I'll just wrap it up, thank you, Anthony.
That's again, a partnership.
And I know that our DA works regionally
with our police forces because the organized crime rings
are not just one person who's just stealing a bag, right?
It's an organized thing where they hit one city
after the next.
And so that regional cooperation is really, really key.
Thank you, Brendan.
I'll second Mr. Count's comments,
in that I believe that the police force in Walnut Creek
has done a great job lowering our numbers.
And a lot of that is maybe attributable
to we're now post COVID
and society has settled a little bit.
And that's a much broader question.
But I think a lot of that has to do with the fact
that the Walnut Creek police force is out
and engaging with our community.
And I see that.
And I think that's been an effort and it has paid off.
But public safety, like she said,
is much more than just men and women
with badges and cars driving around, right?
It's what we can do as our own community.
It's good lighting, right?
It's being able to walk downtown and feel safe at night,
which has to do with the fact
that there's enough people downtown
where there's a little bit of a safety in numbers,
we've grown our downtown and our businesses
where we were downtown on Sunday night and it was amazing.
And not for a minute did you feel unsafe
when we were walking around at night.
And that would not have been the case,
maybe even two, three years ago.
So I think that while we are benefiting
from the kind of moment in time that we're in,
that things can change also, right?
something else could happen society level-wise
where now we have increased risks.
So we need to solidify and make sure
that we build up our reserves today
by making sure that the police force feels
that they have the resources that they need.
But more than that, we feel as a community
that we're taking care of our own
and keeping our streets safe for the next couple years,
and we can maintain this level of safety
I think that we're enjoying right now.
Thank you. I know from the Chamber's perspective, business owners have mentioned quite a bit
that they love that the police are out on the streets meeting the business owners, talking
to them, and asking about, you know, do they feel safe? Do they feel supported? One other
way, and you mentioned this, Cherise, that police can track down crime is by putting
together these crime rings, tracking them down, figuring it out, and one way to do that
is, you know, figuring out where to find them. And part of that has been the license plate
readers in the city. And so that has helped enormously in figuring out where
they're coming from. Are they in the city? Are they coming from outside the city?
But it also lends to concerns about privacy, invasion of privacy. I was at a
City Council meeting recently and one of the biggest topics for a public comment
was the flock cameras. So weighing those interests and figuring that out is
is really tricky, where do you stand on that?
And how do you feel about the public's concern
about privacy and camera detection?
And let me start with you, Brandon.
All these topical questions.
I know, sorry.
Thank you.
No, it's great.
So I've been following the flock camera debate.
My own personal little history with surveillance
is my wife and I spent some time in China about two years ago,
about the better part of six to seven months.
And I saw firsthand what a mass surveillance state looks like
and feels like.
You cannot go anywhere and not see a dozen cameras everywhere
all around you.
And eventually, that just becomes noise
and it washes over you.
But in the back of your mind, you always
know that somebody's watching you at all times.
And I didn't like that.
I will say that I don't want to live in a society
where somebody knows where I am at all times.
That said, I do appreciate the improvements in technology
that can make us safer,
whether it's finding the rings of criminal enterprises
that are going around and using license plate readers
to do that.
I've followed it in so far as that I believe
that there is an ability to hold police departments
accountable as to the information
that is being collected by these cameras.
So that's kind of where I begin and end the conversation is
I'm okay with the fact that we're using technology
to make our streets safer.
What I'm not okay with is the idea that someone
who just on a whim can decide to crack the code
and find out where their ex-wife is at any point
in order to use that for nefarious reasons.
And we've seen a lot of that.
And I think that's been the backlash to the flock hammers
and rightly so.
So if there isn't a,
Warner Creek can't be, just can't know
without being on the shadow of a doubt
that what the information that our police force is gathering
isn't being used for something besides just catching
criminals, then I think we need to take a long hard look
at what we're actually doing.
Because as in my example of China,
it's a slippery slope into a camera here, a camera there,
to a camera on every single intersection
and that's not something I support.
Thank you.
Sharice?
Yes, definitely a timely topic.
I did see the public comment at our own City Council meeting and we are also seeing the
reports on the news and across the nation.
And it's a huge concern, too, I think, for women's public safety in terms of stalkers
or an ex-husband or various things that can happen where they can be tracked, you know,
not just within a city but as they're crossing city and state lines and that's crazy, right?
We should not have people have the opportunity to do that.
And I'm also concerned about the federal government being able to tap into this technology for
supposedly immigration issues, but that could be misused in so many different ways.
But I do think that there are controls that our city police force is looking at and monitoring.
One of the things that happened with one of the local cities that ended up removing Flock
was they when they talked about the federal government and other outside entities tapping
into their data, they were not doing audits.
So they didn't have anyone tracking who is looking at this information.
And so audits was one of those things that was recommended and shouldn't be happening.
And our police force, our police chief said, they actually audit ours weekly.
So they know exactly who is looking at our database.
And it has been shut off to the federal government, for example.
So that gives me hope that we do have the right protections in place.
But I think we need to continue to monitor the situation and make sure that we have all
of the controls in place and that we will act immediately if we see that there's any
misuse.
And you know, if it comes down to it and it cannot be controlled, then we should remove
them.
Okay.
Thank you.
Turning to traffic and infrastructure, you know, one of the main things people talk about
when they're coming to Walnut Creek or they're in Walnut Creek now is the traffic and with
all the growth there's probably going to be more traffic and I always say the only good
thing about hearing people complain about traffic is that they're not complaining about
parking anymore. It just seems to be constant concern about it. With the growth and people
coming to Walnut Creek for shopping, arts, dinner and everything else which we like what
are some proposed solutions to reducing the traffic congestion and dealing with
it specifically during peak hours? Brendan? I was waiting for the traffic
question. When I started talking to people late last year, the beginning of
this year, and saying, hey I'm thinking about running for City Council, what's
important to you wasn't public safety wasn't anything besides the traffic
fix the traffic and you have my vote I heard a lot so I said sure I'll do that
no problem but that that's a joke because there is no magic wand
obviously to solving the traffic problem that we can make incremental change I've
met with the city staff and I said hey how can we fix YVR and the answer is we
We can, but it's by percentage points.
So if you drive it every day,
you're not gonna notice it necessarily.
What we can do is look at it sort of a 30,000 foot view
and say, okay, if we can't make say just YVR flow faster,
because the lights are already timed
and maybe we can make incremental change there,
but we have to take a bigger picture look
at why there are more cars on the road
and why it's difficult to get across town
at three o'clock in the afternoon.
And that has to do with making sure that people
don't necessarily have to drive that every single day.
That might mean focusing jobs on the east part of town.
It might mean making better bike access,
more pedestrian access, looking at public transportation.
If we can give people an excuse
to not have to drive necessarily,
then they might take that.
So I think over the next couple of years,
and even when we're dealing with the general plan,
is how can we connect the downtown area to Heather Farm
out to North Gate a little bit better
rather than just a six lane highway essentially.
And how can we connect the downtown area
to the Southern end of town?
And specifically, how can we make sure
our kids crossing the street are safe?
But I'm all in favor of taking maybe a big swing or two
and looking at how we transform,
how we move people around the city.
Because as you said, it's only going to get more populous.
And I'm not anti-car, but I am pro other forms
of transportation.
Thank you.
Great.
Sharice?
Thank you.
Yes, I agree with much of what my colleague is saying here
in terms of having the multimodal options
and that thing about the last mile.
So if I'm going to take BART, how am I
getting between my house and BART?
If I want to go to downtown, how am I
getting there from the North Gate Area where I live.
It's not that far, but if I'm one of those cars
that's adding to YV Road
and adding to the parking situation downtown,
how can we change that?
That's actually one of the ways
that I first got involved with the city
was when my kids were little
and I was wanting to walk and bike with them,
my kindergartner and second grader down the street.
It was only a few blocks past Foothill Middle School
to Walnut Acres Elementary School.
And it was challenging because there weren't
all of the safe ways to go, right?
There was a crosswalk that wasn't there
and people would get stranded on a corner
and couldn't get across the street
to where the actual sidewalk was.
And there wasn't safety to walk and bike to school.
And so I ended up organizing with parents
and the principals of both schools
actually talking to the neighbors
and then talking to the Department of Transportation
from the city to talk about what it would look like
to create a safe route to school
because I had friends of mine, neighbors of mine,
who were driving their kids to elementary school
every single day that route that was like four blocks, right?
How many cars, why do we have that many cars
trying to go to that school?
And that makes it less safe for kids
within that neighborhood who want to walk
and bike to that school.
After two years, we were successful in adding a bike lane,
crosswalks, flashing light beacons for both school sites,
And so, I'm proud of that accomplishment and I understand what it takes to be able
to get something like that done.
The city couldn't have just looked at that and made that project happen.
They needed the input from the neighbors for what it needed to look like for the neighbors
who were going to lose their parking spots when that bike lane went in, right, because
there's trade-offs for all of these things.
But when we work together, we can come up with a plan that is actually workable for
everybody.
Thank you both.
So this is a pretty friendly campaign, you know, no opponents and of course there could
be a write-in but probably not.
And you're both on the Planning Commission but let's say you were running a competitive
campaign against your opponent.
What would be a key message that you would have that would differentiate you and make
you stand out?
And I'll start with you Cherise.
Thank you.
For me, my strengths that I bring to the table
are my background as a community organizer
and my experience as an elected official.
So as a community organizer,
I was trained as a community organizer
in affordable housing and back right out of college
as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer.
And the whole theory behind community organizing
is that you don't go into a situation and say,
I'm your organizer, I'm gonna tell you what to do.
You do the opposite.
You listen, you connect, you facilitate and you help the whole group to be able to come
together for a solution that works best for everybody.
So I always bring that sort of frame of mind to the table.
And then I was on the Mount Diablo school board for seven years starting in 2018.
And that was a challenging place to be as you can imagine through COVID.
I was president of the Mount Diablo school board in 2021 when we were trying to reopen
our schools. It was a very challenging time. I'm used to conflict and challenging meetings.
But I appreciate the opportunity to be on the dais and being able to bring all of those
different voices together to try to make the best decision we can for everybody. And I
love to learn. So I have my bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, my MPA in public
administration, but I'm a lifelong learner, so I also went to the Planning Commissioner's
Academy, got my master's in school board governance, and did Leadership Contra Costa.
So I'm looking forward to continuing to learn and to build on the relationships that I have
across the region that I built as a field rep for the state assembly member.
Okay.
Thank you.
Brendan?
Shout out to Leadership Contra Costa.
Yep.
recent graduate as well, but I think what differentiates
myself as a city council candidate is that I'm a small
business owner, I'm a dad of three young kids,
and I have experience with the city.
I've been a commissioner for 10 years now.
I was on the Parks and Open Space Commission
for about eight years, and I was fortunate enough
to be granted a seat on the planning commission
where we've been for about 18 months or so.
So I get how the city works.
I'm just smart enough to be dangerous.
I'm learning as I go.
But I also think that I have the skills ready
to start in the job day one.
But back to what I was saying before,
I'm somebody who is still in the working hard
to pay the mortgage type my life.
And I know that other city council members
are also in that stage.
But I'm somebody who's, I'm in the trenches, right?
where my wife just had to join us late
because she was driving the kids to school, right?
Later today, I will have to go and pick them up
and go to an orthodontist, you know?
And I know everyone has been through that,
but I'm in that stage of life,
and I say that because I feel like I can bring a certain,
I know what it might take to help raise a family
because I am right in the middle of it.
And I'm working as a small business owner,
I'm a real estate broker, I work for myself.
That affords me the time to be able to do stuff like this.
but in terms of what differentiates me,
I think it's those things.
I'm at the stage in my life where I think that
I can be a good bridge between the very good leadership
that we've had over the last few decades
to the next phase of leadership that Walnut Creek
is gonna need as we go into the future.
Thank you, both.
I am going to move into public questions,
but I first wanna thank you both for your honesty
and openness and being so forthcoming.
So thank you.
So the first question we have is,
we have the largest population of older adults in the county,
which I did not know, here in Walnut Creek.
And they don't all live in Rossmore.
How would you prepare our city to be there
for our growing senior population,
giving the city doesn't have a dedicated senior center?
I'll add public senior center to that.
Cherise?
Thank you.
Well, I first want to thank Ellen Osmanson
for being in the audience today,
founder of our Mount Diablo village, that has been such a warm and welcoming place for
seniors to gather and educate and socialize. It's organizations like that, that we need
to collaborate with and learn from to be able to make sure that we understand what the needs
are of our senior population, and, and how we can help as a city. I know that we do have
the Senior Center at Civic Park, but when you look at some other cities, they do have
a more robust Senior Center and things that they provide. One of the issues I hear a lot
about is transportation for seniors. And I know that our city has some sort of pilot
projects of things that they're trying out, like the idea of, you know, a like lift credit
that you can give out, it's been a small program
and kind of a trial, but I think there's a kernel
of a good idea there, right?
That people need to not just have a bus
that takes a very long time to go around
and only goes to these certain spots.
How do you get, again, that last mile piece?
How do you get from your house to that bus stop, right?
So the idea of the lift credit or things
where you can actually get door-to-door service
is something we need to continue to look at.
What are the options and how can we continue
to help our seniors?
But I think the biggest thing is
having their voice at the table.
So as we're talking about housing, transportation,
our general plan, how do we make sure
that they are there with their perspectives
to be able to make sure that their needs
are part of the discussion.
Okay, great, thank you, Brendan.
Yeah, I think when we look at how we're supporting
our seniors, it needs to be looked at
Maybe I can just in terms of
how can the city support their
quality of life right with
people like living in Rossmore
in large part because there's a
lot to do there right there's a
community there's clubs it's
arguably easy to get around I
mean there's I know there's
transportation there that can
take you through Rossmore and
into the city but what the city
of Walnut Creek can look forward
to doing especially as we are
going to keep our numbers
probably continuing to grow in
is that maybe we look to build some more housing in the downtown area where they are not arguably
going to be taking their cars every single day to go to work and we make the the way that they
get around a little bit safer right as Commissioner Kahn was saying we can profit with our I'm sorry
we can partner with our non-profit partners right there's more than a few in the county that provide
meals, access to health care, transportation.
And that's gonna be more and more important.
We do have a senior center in Civic Park,
which is probably showing its age a little bit,
but we can look forward to the future
and just make sure that our seniors have what they need.
So number one, they wanna stay here,
but number two, they wanna move here, right?
They wanna sell the big house in Northgate
or somewhere on the peninsula and come to Walnut Creek,
and feel a fun, vibrant downtown that they can, you know,
spend their golden years in.
Thank you.
Great information.
Next one is a question about home ownership.
Home ownership means stability in any given community.
As a city council member,
how would you ensure home ownership is encouraged,
especially for the younger generation
of Walnut Creek residents?
I'll add, like, how would you help make it accessible?
So, Brendan?
Well, as a working real estate broker,
this hits close to home,
and I believe there's somewhat of a,
not a simple answer necessarily to this,
but it's kind of why I talk about
all the other ancillary things
when the answer is specifically,
we need more housing, period.
We have not built enough in the last 50 years,
and that has led to a simple economics equation
of more demand than there is supply,
and that has pushed prices up,
past where it is affordable for a younger family
who would like to live in Walnut Creek
and benefit from the school district
and all of the other things that come with it,
they can't afford it.
And I see that every single day.
We have making, we're making good strides to that.
There's, there are some developments coming up
and they're not all $2 million single family homes.
There's something that's more affordable
where if you make a good salary,
And when I say good, I mean that, you know,
relatively to the Bay Area.
But you're not a multimillionaire,
but you're somebody who just, you know,
we're raising a family here,
we wanna stay in Walnut Creek.
You can qualify for a loan in the 800, $900,000 range
and have a townhome, three bedrooms,
and live in that and build equity.
And then maybe when you wanna expand,
you can buy another house.
But we haven't, we're now just getting the point
where now we're building those things
over the last five, 10 years,
but it's still well behind the curve
of what we need to build in Walnut Creek
to make sure that the next generation can live here.
And the city can help do that
by maybe subsidizing first-time buyer programs and so forth,
but there's a limited amount of money.
We can't just give people free loans
to be able to buy things.
There are affordable housing market rate
that the city has partnerships with,
but they're few and far between.
The real answer is building units
and building them where they make the most sense,
where a family can live and not maybe have a car,
maybe not have a car,
but be able to live comfortably and enjoy the city.
Thank you, Cherise.
Thank you, yeah.
This is a great question.
And home ownership is something
that so many people aspire to
and hope to be able to achieve as an investment
and also just as a feeling of this is the place
that is home. So we want to have that opportunity and we want to have that opportunity for all
different income levels including our teachers and our city staff and our police force and
our nurses. So how do we do that? I agree with Commissioner Moran. We do just need more
housing. What's been heartening is to see the support for building different types
of housing here when we went as a Planning Commission saw Mitchell townhomes coming
in. People had concerns about particulars of the development, but they weren't necessarily
against the development overall. And we did have young families who were in like a small
apartment downtown who were really looking forward to the possibility of a townhome as
as that next step. And so you need to have those different levels of housing available.
And so that was really exciting to be able to see the hope in their eyes as a possibility
here. I also was talking to a City Council member from a different part of the state
who talked about partnering with other organizations who could provide the funding for this but
helping for teachers and local city staff
to be able to help them with the down payment,
that that was kind of one of the biggest hurdles oftentimes.
And I thought that was a really interesting idea
that I wanna look into more
as maybe that's one of the possibilities
we could do as a city.
And then I also appreciate Habitat for Humanity
being here in Walnut Creek.
I used to work for an affordable housing nonprofit
that included people building their own homes to own and that model of habitat being able
to have that project here in our city is really special and I'm glad that we have it.
It really is. Thank you. This is kind of a dual park question. When will the new pool
facility be open at Heather Farms and how can we encourage a facility that holds over
200 people in Walnut Creek so people don't have to go outside the city to have a large
venue. So let me start with you, Cherise. Okay. Well, I always hear Cindy Darling say
toes in the water spring of 2027. Is that still true? Winter. Okay. End of next year.
All right. There you go. There's the answer for when the pool will open. Thank you. Mayor
Kevin Wilk. Yes. So a venue that holds more than 200 people? Yes. Any ideas on encouraging
building a facility that holds over 200 people?
That's the question.
Okay, that is a good question.
So I'm not sure the capacity of the community center that's being built with the aquatic
center, what the how many people that will hold, but there is, as we think about our
next levels of development, there is a question of what will go in where the old Clark swim
pool is when that goes away.
That's not been determined yet.
so perhaps that could be a possibility there.
Interesting.
Yeah, one idea.
OK, Brendan.
OK, well, the question of when the pool is going to be ready
is settled, right?
And we're going to hold you to that, right, Mayor Wilk?
OK.
Winter.
Yeah.
But in terms of where can we maybe fit a 200-person,
I guess, event center, or let's call it that,
I don't know.
That's a great question.
I believe that Walnut Creek, though,
should be thinking about something like that.
Because one of the things that I hear is,
we've got great restaurants and bars and all that,
and we've got the parks and so forth,
but there's a lack of, what's missing a little bit
is that I want something to do that doesn't involve me
being $200 lighter, you know, and when I'm walking out
with like a martini in a steak.
Nothing, there's anything wrong with that.
But there should be maybe a place that we can look at,
whether it's, I don't know, it's Civic Park,
the Shadelands, Heather Farm,
where people can congregate,
maybe we put on some free concerts,
and it's a place for people to come and enjoy the city
without having to make a reservation in advance, right?
It's something besides restaurants, bars,
that we can all enjoy as ourselves.
And 200 people, it's not that many.
I mean, how many does this fit, right?
So it's not a heavy lift.
But if we have the real estate,
I think it's worth looking into,
especially in the next few years,
as people want to do other things,
you know, listen to a band or enjoy the outdoors
rather than just go out to eat every time.
Yeah, or any kind of a conference.
I mean, we have to go out.
Unless we use leisure, right?
We have to go outside the city.
We don't have a lot more time.
Let me take one of these.
How might Walnut Creek expand our ability
to serve those less fortunate than us?
How about a year-round shelter?
Right now, the only shelter serving Walnut Creek
is the winter program hosted at the Trinity Center.
Sharice, let me start with you.
Yeah, I know that is definitely a concern
as we look at how are we supporting
our residents who struggle with housing.
we do have the winter nights at Trinity,
but it seems like there really is a need
for that year round.
So thinking about how we can support that is huge.
And I appreciate that we have the homeless task force
here in our city.
And I hope that we continue to support that group
as we go forward, because we need to always be looking at
where are the holes in the system, right?
We may be providing this piece and not that piece,
but not the one in the middle, right?
So I think it is something to consider.
Brendan.
Yeah, in my dealings with the Trinity Center
and the free tours, they've been so gracious to grant me.
The message has been that this is a great place,
but it's a stopgap.
It is not a, it's a band-aid for all of the housing issues
or the unhoused people that are here in our community.
And while it's a great place that they can get a meal,
pick a shower, pick their mail, hang out.
It's not the solution to what somebody might need long-term.
I would wonder if the demand is there
for the unhoused population in our community
that we would need such like a year-round shelter.
It's not something I pretend to be an expert about
and I'd wanna know more about it before I said,
sure, let's build a shelter.
But I believe the real issue to, you know,
maybe helping solve the housing crisis or the unhoused,
you know, crisis that we have in the Bay Area
is to look towards other avenues of getting people
into an apartment that they can stay in
rather than a full year, you know, a shelter
that may or may not be the right fit for Long Creek.
So that's not to say I'm against it,
but I would love to know if that's something that we need
and where that goes and how many people it houses
and continue to work with the good people
of the Trinity Center to at least solve the problems
that we do have currently.
Great, thank you.
So I was gonna ask Lynn if we could go to 950,
but as I looked up, she ran out the door.
I'll take that as a yes.
Let's see, I'm gonna do.
I know, I know, I know, but people walk quickly.
Out of 70,000 people in Walnut Creek,
you two are the only ones who stepped up to serve,
and that speaks volumes to your dedication to the city,
so thank you both.
Very nice.
Then another one, how do you feel about running unopposed?
Do you think people are becoming apathetic?
So do you have any thoughts on that?
Just a quick, and then I'll end with closing.
I hope they're not becoming apathetic,
but I think people know that it takes time and dedication
to serve, and sometimes that's hard for people to find the time in their busy lives to figure
out how to really be dedicated to a role like this. It's a lot. And so I do kind of wish
that we did have more competition because I think it's great debate in democracy to
be able to discuss the issues and have a more robust campaign. But I think the community
outreach I think both of us are continuing to do the community outreach
that we were doing anyway as a campaign because we want people to get to know us
we want people to be connected to us as individuals but also to the city as a
whole and be engaged in the general plan and all of the things coming up and so
whether we're opposed or not we're gonna keep doing that outreach and hope that
people still do connect with us and share their ideas. Great. Brendan anything
to add? Yeah, I actually think that there if anything people are are not
apathetic these days. In fact, they're more engaged. And I use an example of
when I started on the Parks and Open Space Commission 10 years ago, there
was not a lot of people that were throwing their hats in the rings just
to be a commission for the city of Walnut Creek. And now when there's an
opening, whether it be on the Parks Commission or planning or transportation
or arts, or I'm forgetting one, design review,
they, there's a line out the door, right?
The Walnut Creek Civic Academy is full.
I'm a recent graduate of leadership Contra Costa,
that we're full.
So people are engaged,
and I think that they're engaged to a level
that we have not seen in a little while,
and I think that's got a lot to do
with the national politics,
and that's nothing wrong with that.
As far as why Cherise and I are running unopposed,
I can't tell you why I kept thinking that somebody or a couple of people would want
to engage just because that's what we're seeing in other cities around the Bay Area, certainly.
I can sleep at night knowing that I believe that Commissioner Count and myself are the
best candidates to run and to lead the city into the future.
So it's not to say that we wouldn't welcome the challenge, but I think that the city is
in very good hands and we're very much speaking for myself but also my colleague here that
we're excited to lead the city into the future. Thank you.
I know it's not for the faint of heart. And I think if anything people are realizing they
need a lot of experience behind them maybe to take on this position as you both have.
So that's that's a good sign. If we had parting remarks or if you want to talk about the one
One thing that helped you with the decision to run or made you feel the fire in your belly,
the thing that you got up and said, I'm going to do this.
What would that have been?
So, Charise?
All right.
Well, thank you so much.
First of all, thank you to the chamber for organizing this and for everyone who came
today and for people who are watching online.
It's just wonderful to be able to have this forum and really appreciate the chamber's
partnership with the city always and
So I think what drives me to what drove me to run for City Council is that I feel like for me
This is the best place for me to be able to make a difference is right here in our city
I bring that experience of being an elected school board member having the lens of the community organizer and
the experience on the Planning Commission
As well as the relationships that I've built across our region as a field rep for our state assembly member
And so I want to bring all of those things to the table to be able to best serve our community here
And I'm excited
And I feel you know prepared and eager to serve. Thank you very much
Yeah, I second that thank you to the Chamber of Commerce. Thank you for everybody that showed up
Even though this is not a very suspenseful race
I appreciate you listening to us for the next last 90 minutes.
What drives me is that I see myself as a leader and someone who can maybe not make the right
decision every time, but believes that I can make the best decision at the time.
I think that I'm uniquely positioned to help lead Walnut Creek as a father of young children
as a small business owner, as somebody who has experience.
But the reason that I'm actually driving me,
as many of you, if not all of you know,
that I ran two years ago, and I was unsuccessful.
And I had a moment where I thought,
maybe I should just not do this anymore,
and maybe public service isn't for me,
and you kind of go through the wilderness.
And I came out the other side stronger,
and more ready to serve.
And I wanted to have my kids look at me and say,
Well, dad's not a quitter.
And he lost one time and that was hurtful,
but he pulled himself up and he got back out there.
And we're now fortunate enough to know
that we're gonna be on the city council together.
And so that's a gift.
But that's what drives me is I just wanted my kids
to know that I wasn't a quitter and here I am.
So thank you.
That's great.
Thank you both for your openness and honesty
and thank you for coming.
Thank you everyone in the audience for coming
and giving us your morning and being involved and engaged,
it means the world to the community and to the chamber.
Thank you to the chamber.
And I'll turn it back over to Katie.
I think she has some announcements.
And Lynn, thank you for not making me stop early.
Thank you, Angela.
My goodness, the amount of preparation
that you had to do for this is outstanding
and we really appreciate your taking the time to do it.
And our council member, Alex,
Thank you so much for your service,
past, present, and future.
You guys are gonna do a great job,
and we are very lucky to have your experience
and depth of knowledge and just advocacy for the city.
So thank you so much.
Before you leave, I just want you to save the date.
October 29th, we are going to have
our 100th year anniversary for the chamber.
We are 100 years old.
I know we don't look it, but we are.
And we're gonna have a big celebration.
So mark your calendars.
It's gonna be down at Cali Craft 538.
So we hope to see you there.
And we'll see you at the next Civic Affairs Forum too.
Thanks so much.