[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Blue heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Music] The 3:30 p.m. meeting of the Bakersfield City Council is now in session. Good afternoon. It's my pleasure to call to order the 3:30 regular city council meeting of August 27th, 2025. Madame clerk, please call the role. >> Mayor Go, >> here. >> Vice Mayor Core >> here. >> Council member Aas. Council member Gonzalez. Council member Weir >> here. >> Council member Smith. >> I am here. Council member Kman >> here. >> Council member Basher >> here. >> Thank you. In keeping with council's resolution, public statements are received at different times depending on the item. I will call on the city clerk to call for public statements at the appropriate time. If you wish to make a public statement, please fill out a public speaker card and place it in the tray next to the speaker's podium. We ask that you mark whether you're here to speak on an item listed on today's agenda or in a matter not on the agenda. Speakers who do not identify a specific agenda item will be presumed speakers for the non-aggenda public statements. If you're here to speak on an item not listed on the meeting agenda, you'll be called first to speak. Statements are given a two-minute time limit per speaker, 20 minutes total for all non-aggenda public statements. If you're here to speak on an item listed on the agenda, I'll call for you at the appropriate time. If public statements become disruptive and I've declared the chambers to regain order of the meeting, you'll be called in one at a time to provide your public statements. Everyone in attendance is expected to adhere to the rules of decorum established by resolution of the city council. Failure to abide by the city's rules of decorum, including any disruptive behavior that interferes with our ability to have an orderly and efficient meeting, prevents the city council from conducting the business of the city. Madam clerk, do we have any public speakers regarding items not on the agenda? >> Mer, we've received one speaker card for items not on tonight's agenda. That speaker is Dave Damahowski. >> Welcome. Please introduce yourself. >> Good afternoon, mayor and council members. Dave Damowski with the Homebuilders Association of Kern County. uh here to talk to you briefly about uh the governor's budget trailer bill which included an ownorous provision which puts an a vehicle miles travel on new single family development as well as multifamily. Uh there's significant costs involved. A CALR study for LA County uh indicated uh possible impact fees of over $200,000 on single family homes and rent increases of up to $1,300 a month in the LA County market, which is different than Bakersfield, but that's a substantial impact. Um the funds go to the state to a a trust fund that's actually in existence. CALR has used this trust fund to exact uh uh VMT mitigation fees uh for uh infrastructure projects being built uh in conjunction with development. And so there there's some uh uh uh strange provisions that would not guarantee that if the city or county adopted a BMT impact fee program that the funds would come back to that jurisdiction. they would go to the state and they would have to apply to get them back for either infill development or infrastructure improvements for housing within the local jurisdiction. Um, also it's it's very odd that at a time when the governor is advocating for some SQA reform to stimulate housing production uh that they've added SQA complexity and potential uh risk of additional SQA litigation through these provisions. So, I'm here to drop off a packet of information for the council and to actually request that you consider uh taking a position in support of repealing uh the VMT provisions of of AB130, which is section 58 of that bill. Uh thank you for your time and and I'll leave material with the city clerk. >> Thank you so much. And we'll follow up on that definitely. Uh Council Member Wear, >> thank you. Um maybe we could um put together opposition to that and is that in order? >> Uh council member Weir, mayor and councel, uh we have been following this trailer bill. Uh it is complicated enough bill that we don't believe our current um legislative program answers every aspect of it. But I do think it would be appropriate to ask staff to bring back for a council affirmative vote a letter of opposition. >> Thank you, >> Council Member Coleman. It is there now. >> Thank you, Mayor. Uh thank you, uh Council Member Weir, because I was going to make that referral myself. I think that uh that more analysis is needed to fully understand the impact of uh using vehicle miles traveled than for uh for housing fees. And I was going to make a referral that the staff prepare a letter of support for the immediate repeal of section 58 in Assembly Bill 130 and bring it back to uh the council for consideration. >> We'll do that. >> Thank you, council member. >> Thank you, mayor. >> Madam clerk, do we have any other requests to speak from the public? >> That was our only speaker card. Mayor, >> thank you. Next item, please. reports. Item 3A, update on city council priority initiatives and council referrals. Mr. Clay. >> Thank you, Mayor, mayor, and council. Uh the presentation this afternoon will cover uh the uh a little more of the details of our annual work plan. We typically do this each summer. Um after council has a spring workshop identifying priority initiatives, we uh have that information influence the budgeting process. And then after July 1, staff puts together the specific uh projects and some of the timelines and metrics that we're going to use in support of those broader uh council priority initiatives. What each council member has in front of you in hard copy and we try to make them a little bit bigger this time. We hope that it's a little more legible than the last time, but you have uh two different documents. One is a list of referral um items and another is the actual annual work plan. You'll note that we distinguish in the work plan between the fisc year 2526 work plan, but then also behind those, you know, this the first two pages are this this year's annual work plan. The next three pages happen to be items that we're continuing to close out or finish from the last work plan cycle. And I'll cover uh some more of that information in a moment, but just wanted to orient you to those two documents. What you don't see is there's you know many other referrals actually um that we have logged and tracked but we what we're you know you have in print in front of you are just those referrals that are going to be worked on in the next um you know four to to six months. Uh of course uh any work plan is going to be connected to your city council goals and we continue to have those five overarching goals. Uh we actually made one revision to that at your last workshop about uh being innovative, efficient and effective city government, not just innovative and effective city government. Uh related to the strategic plan overall, again, there's those five council goals. We have 26 different objectives that is more of a fiveyear look at, you know, big picture topics. And those are um items that you'll see in the far left hand column of your printout that we try to tie each one of our priority initiatives to one of those overarching objectives. I'll note that we had a very aggressive work plan in fiscal years 23 24 and 24 25. We had a lot of catchup work to do. We had 88 different initiatives identified by council. 10 of those were identified as higher priority as I asked council to focus in uh to prioritize our efforts on those things of highest impact. And I'm happy to report that 57 of those 88 are um completed, you know, 100%. Um and going forward though, we have 31 of those initiatives that, you know, they're all underway. Many are close to completion, but some have a multi-year nature or still have some pieces that we need to continue to finish there. But your council identified six priorities um in the workshop earlier this spring and I applaud council for um having focus and identifying a smaller set of initiatives that allow us as staff to also remain focused and get to work on those topics. Um so what were those six? Uh the first was to enhance accountability in our criminal justice system. There's more than one component to that which we'll see in a moment. Uh to revitalize our urban core, finish undeveloped parks, enhance our performance management systems, and that's really about internal efficiencies and effectiveness, our habitat conservation plan, and then working towards smart growth and more master planning of our communities. So, I'm going to walk through each of these six. And again, you have more details in front of you. Uh, and even what you have in front of you doesn't have every detail to it, but it gives you a very good sense of um the the pieces that we're going to pursue and support of these overarching um uh initiatives, but I'll walk through the main components of each one now. So, for enhancing criminal justice, it's really about jailbed capacity as our highest priority there. also developing a regional diversion program that helps um free up jailb capacity and get people into treatment for mental health or substance use uh needs. Uh there was a component the council asked about enhancing code enforcement capacity. Um I would say around code enforcement capacity given some of our fiscal conditions we're not anticipating you know adding staff there but we're looking for tools or efficiencies that help us to just gain capacity by working smarter and one of the first of those is an administrative citation process and that's been to committee um and we'll come back in some asp and it's actually been to the full council and we're working towards having a more streamlined process for our administrative citations and citations in general that frees up staff time um to move more expeditiously on code enforcement. And then as we counseledled together as staff, what are the ways that we could support this overarching uh initiative? Uh the fire department acknowledged that we continue to struggle with some of these repeat structure fires and arson and we've got some um plans in place to help us uh get at some of those repeat locations as well as you know what we believe sometimes to be repeat arson and uh tighten up on that process as well. As it relates to the urban core, we have actually two different components. We have the downtown core and we have what we're calling urban historic neighborhoods. And we had, if you'll recall, we had some of those conversations in our workshop. So, for the downtown core, we do have a downtown vision plan that's going to be taking place in the next year. Uh, we're going to have a specific redevelopment plan that's for Chester Avenue. That's a component of that downtown vision plan. We're going to move forward with our parking enterprise and a parking pilot. We actually have received a grant to um help us pay for uh implementation of a new electronic parking um monitoring, you know, system and payment system that allow our garage to be more efficient. And then start to consider, and this of course will be, you know, subject to uh some um conversations with council, but we're also looking at what would the use of surface lots and on street parking look like with this tool. But we're going to start with the garage and then look at expansion out from there. Uh also the mills act we've been working on for a couple of years. It's a fairly extensive process to to do studies and surveys. We've done those studies and surveys and this will be in front of the city council for consideration for the Mills Act which is a historic preservation designation of uh those um properties in the downtown area that would be eligible. uh working towards the downtown element of the general plan. That will actually be in the second half of the year um after we get through um the the overarching portions of the general plan update, but that is in on um on in Q. And then there will be several complete street projects um uh for the downtown core as well. For the other historic urban neighborhoods, we've done the Oldtown current visioning process, but we need we have some demonstration projects that are part of implementation of that we'll work towards. We also have a prosperity neighborhood initiative in that same neighborhood, which means we work with community partners, uh, local businesses, schools, faith-based groups to improve that neighborhood. Um, also we'll continue implementation of TCC throughout the MLK area. Continue to work towards phase one of the MLK park with we received that $1 million grant from the federal government um to uh build the first half of the park. Um, and we also have a planning process that will be complimentary to the TCC process uh visioning along the MLK Boulevard corridor. And then we've identified in our prior work plan and we're going to continue to move that forward to look for mixeduse projects we can do on MLK Boulevard. For our undeveloped parks, we're focusing first on three parks. Ward 7 has a neighborhood park that has will have construction of phase one. We will begin the design for Hershel Moore uh and for Alandre in the second half of the year. but also added that we're going to produce for council some funding alternatives and design alternatives for how do we get at those u parks in ways that maybe are a little more creative um and uh find ways to at least build out initial phases of those parks. Um uh and uh find ways to have maybe a reduced footprint or um reduced amenities until u more resources are available. The next segment is on our performance management. Uh we're going to continue to work in the space of our key performance indicators. Um you'll see some of the detail in the work plan that we we do have key performance indicators. We collect that data. We report it out twice a year, but we don't have automated processes for all of that collection and visualizing that in data dashboards. And so we're going to start working in that direction. We're going to continue our performance audit program. We have a staffing study which is probably the biggest component of that related also to our our budget conversations but we'll also be doing projects with our CIP grants and then we have follow-ups to a couple of other audits that have been done in recent years and of note in particular is technology services had two performance audits and we're implementing the follow-ups um to those recommendations and findings. Uh, an important piece of this, I would probably argue the most important piece for this next quarter is our operational review of all departments. Um, that's also connected to the referral from Council Member Comman um, and supported by council as we look at our budgets, taking a really deep look at our um, departments. We're going to look first uh at just budgets and expenditures um and then we're going to take a look at CIP projects u that um either have been on the books for a while or or have been completed and that probably be in this next couple of months. And then by quarter two we'll be looking at more efficiencies uh and uh you know some of the potential staffing adjustments going into the budget um process um after midyear. And then lastly there as we've you know titled it data analytics and work efficiency technology solutions that really means new technology that's in support of our departments being more efficient with the real-time information center for the police department that is going to be a considerable force multiplier and allow us to use a lot of good data um um and do it in a way that you know should reduce personnel hours. We also uh have a tool for the fire department that's going to help them be more efficient in their inspection world. And the financial forecasting tool has actually, you know, been built. We're going to do some refinements of that. And then we have some advancement in some of our employee performance management tools. We do have our annual um performance evaluations of employees. Uh but we're finding some tools that can help us automate that process and help us track um some of the goals set by employees uh through technology that that can help um bring up reminders and uh sort of ping staff to you be checking back against those uh action items for the habitat conservation plan. It's a little more focused uh because it's a very distinct uh but you know those are the quick steps is we we do have a new framework that we've identified that CDFW is supportive of and and we've um we are supportive of as well as staff and so we're working to get a consulting contract in place to um put that framework to the specific language and a specific plan. Uh the challenge is that does need to have an EIR review which is going to take some time. Um probably you know through uh the the end of the fiscal year or perhaps even beyond. Um that's our probably our big timing challenge is the EIR on that one. Uh but while in parallel there's what's called an urban conservation easement that we're working on with CDFW that will be required as part of adoption that we can have done in parallel with the EIR and then uh complete our community and stakeholder engagement and get approval from both the state and from the city council. And then the last item is around smart growth and master plan communities as uh smart growth strategies. Um I would um consider this to be um a long-term goal that's not going to all be completed in this next year. And so some of the first steps are to of course take the smart growth lens uh to our general plan and there's really you know depending on how you define it. You know we we have looked at different models. We we see there's about 10 smart growth principles that most uh jurisdictions uh take into consideration. We'll review our general plan update from the lens of those 10 principles. Uh but then probably in the second half of the year look to create a toolkit that helps um create greater awareness of both um staff, the community and even for the council of what those smart growth um principles are from that toolkit for master plan communities. Again, that's also something that can often uh take a number of years to um work towards large, you know, master plan footprints. And one of the the things as we've talked to um those who have been successful at master plan communities is that we need to identify some of the larger footprints that we can have those bigger conversations with those in control of that that property. And one of the tools that the city can use is infrastructure to help people think big picture about master planning as well as land use. And of course, we've been taking that in consideration with the zoning updates and and general plan update. Um and but then also we have several of these, you know, sort of subregional or neighborhood um studies and there's opportunities to leverage those neighborhood studies to make sure that there's a consistent vision and plan. And even though property owners have their their uh rights to pursue the the projects that they think are best, we'll at least be able to have tools to encourage them and show them the vision for those neighborhood based um plan areas. Development standards, we're calling that out as a specific element of what we consider to be, you know, smart growth. And so we're going to have updates to development standards. This is something that has been discussed for a couple of years now. on uh we're going to uh bring it to a head in this next two quarters. So that will be in the first half of this fiscal year to uh have an update of both our subdivision standards as well as um some of our uh road standards in connection with um the circulation element and general plan adoption or I guess putting it um forward to council. We won't be adopted with those um by the end of the calendar year, but we'll have those um back in front of council as we um bring the general plan, you know, update drafts to council. Um and then lastly on the neighborhood business nodes, uh we uh are probably going to focus a little bit more on that in the second half of the fiscal year because we want to put more emphasis on the first three in the first half of the year. Uh but we will be identifying uh even through the general plan is going to be one of our recommendations is that we identify specific neighborhood business districts that can be acknowledged um in our uh uh plans um that will help us uh give definition to those. And then the second piece would be to create um a set of policies and programs that can help support you know local businesses in those areas. for example, like an EOA area would be one of the tools that would be available to a neighborhood business district, but there could be other uh supportive programs that um the city can um offer to our neighborhood business districts. So, that is a a highle look. Again, you have more of the content in front of you on the paper at the components that we're going to pursue in support of the six uh priority initiatives of the council. I'm going to to shift gears and uh over to sort of referrals and some clarity about um I've spoken to some of it already of what's going to be in the first half of the year, second half of the year. I'll cover that in a little more detail, but I'm going to actually pause there and if there are any questions from council about uh these components of the first of the six um priority initiatives. >> Do we need to go to the public first, Madam City attorney? Um, yes, we we can. >> Okay. Uh, madam city clerk, is there anyone from the public who wishes to make comment on what's been covered thus far? >> May go, we have not received any speaker cards. >> Thank you. Okay. Then, council members and technology, I don't have my screen up the way it normally is. Uh, Council Member Coleman. >> Thank you, Mayor. I'm really excited about uh the promote smart growth and master plan communities. I'm very excited about having some of those. One of my frustrations is how long everything takes. You know, we uh thought we would have at least when I came in, I thought we were going to be finalizing a general plan about this time and we're still a long way from that. So, uh that's just a side comment. I guess it's a snide comment, but uh anything we can do to move this stuff along at a faster pace I think would be appreciated uh by the community. I wanted to ask you on item 4 a enhancing performance management and you talked about doing an operational review of departments and that kind of thing. What if any role do you imagine council would have in that? >> Yeah, it's a good question. Council member Coleman, as indicated in um our response uh to the referrals that came out of the the budget uh cycle, uh we would like to have some workshops with council um probably after the first quarter we get through um our initial review there, but where it's going to affect service level impacts where you could see uh potentially even some recommendations to revise some policy ies where we might come back and say, "Here's a list of a hundred things that the department does. We prioritize them from one to 100. The last five, we're not sure it really makes sense to do those anymore. But before we stop doing those, you know, I think that's at the level of of a council, you know, conversation. and some may be subject to specific council determination depending on whether that's you know municipal code or or appropriations but ultimately it's the role of council to you know set appropriations and set those policies and we think there could be impacts to those based on some of the recommendations coming out of the operational review. I also just see value in council being better familiar with all the operations and departments ask good informed questions. So we would like to tee up workshops to look through the details of those operational reviews. I think it would probably be a challenge um to conduct the reviews at the council level, but we want to bring back to you a summary uh of the key considerations there and get some some feedback and direction on where we go with the those decisions. >> Thank you. I I know personally I would like that to have those kind of workshops and be engaged in the process instead of waiting till the end and saying here's what we got. So I I would appreciate that. Madam Mayor, I have no further questions. >> Thank you, Council Member Commen. Council member Weir. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, I I know that we've reached this subject many times about where we're going and what it is that we want to be as a city. And I don't know, I suppose this is a good way to measure some things, but it's it's not taking us anywhere. It's not it isn't an an organized attempt to s to achieve certain goals. And if we don't ever do that, if if we're not going someplace, if we're not going to reach a hill or or I don't know, if we're trying to reach a goal and and we're just puddling around. We It just seems like we're never ever going to be able to um make us any further ahead than what we were last year. I mean, it just we're just pinging around. We're not really making any major strides. >> Council member, we're um appreciate the feedback. uh I I would reflect to the broader document that does identify, you know, timelines and metrics and if there are recommendations about metrics or targets that the council would like to see, I'd be very open to that feedback. >> I think we need to go where we're going. Where is it that we're going? What what is it that we want to be? And I know I've said this time and time again, but it just it just h the old guy is just getting old, you know, but and that's how I feel. It just, you know, it's never going to make it. We need to we need to have a vision of where we are and where we're going. And if if we can't do that and tell somebody and we go down the elevator and the guy says, "Well, what are you doing in your in your um with your items?" And you tell him and you've got maybe four or five specific items that say we're doing this, we're doing this, we're doing this and this and that's where it's going to take it's going to take us here. And I just think that's missing. >> I appreciate that feedback. >> I think council mayor, we're we we would we've been in workshop as a full council. These are the priorities identified by a consensus of the majority of the council. I would point to to the goals uh the overarching goals and each goal also has a little bit of a descriptive statement. And so when we talk about safety and resilience, the statement is about, you know, creating a safe livable community. That's where we're headed. We want to have a safe livable community, a safe clean, actually as I I forgot that piece. You know, it's it's a safe and clean um you know, quality of life community. And then to chunk that up into, you know, each annual plan. We can't necessarily tackle all of that all at once, but we put that an annual plan together that identifies what are the specific initiatives based on feedback from the council that are going to take us towards those goals where we identify these specific projects, metrics and timelines, right? And that's, you know, that's the the best process that we have identified to date to set that direction and and measure um, you know, increments towards that those five council goals. >> Okay. I and I understand that. I know how to I know how to do those graphs, too. But it just we're not moving forward. We're not we're not sitting here and saying this is what we want to have University of of Arizona State University come and help us do things that we need or we need to have whatever it is whatever it is that we want to be. If we're going to be whatever it is that we're going to be, we need to find that out. And that's what determines where the plan flows from there. And I' I've done these many times and I don't understand why we can't seem to get to that point. I I'm not blaming anybody. I'm just saying this is very frustrating for me. I again I appreciate the feedback. I I don't have a further response for you. Council member, >> are are we not going to pay attention to what we want the city of Bakersfield to be? >> Again, I would I'm sorry, council member. I would argue that that's what we did with the five goals and the priorities. You you can't do it just by sitting and looking at at at keys. That's that's not going to happen. >> Anyone else wish to comment at this time? Uh city manager, would you like to continue with your presentation? >> And there's opportunities to continue to ask questions at high level or detail as we continue to move forward with the presentation. So this is just a page again for and by the way the the um hard copies that you have in front of you will be provided to the city clerk that will be part of the public record so the public has access to these same documents as the city council. This slide is just to demonstrate that we do have a you know a fairly in-depth tracking mechanism for each one of these um both priority initiatives as well as the subcomponents of of each of those initiatives. Also we have a fairly you know in-depth way that we track all of the council referrals that we receive. And so this is just, you know, not to, you know, make anybody's eyes cross, but this is what our staff is tracking on a a bi-weekly basis um where we're at on all of the council referrals. Uh just for some reflection, um in 2019, we had um a much excuse me, prior to 2019, uh the pace of council referrals was much more modest. So we had probably you know 30 or 40 referrals in a given year. In 2019 that number um skyrocketed up to about 80 and in 2020 we had 100 plus and this is just a reflection over the last few years of where our referrals are at. Um um we saw a bigger number in 24 than we have historically and we're on pace this year uh for a higher number as well. And that's one of the reasons your council will recall uh in um uh November we had conversations about trying to um be a little more focused in how we uh approach addressing referrals. And then in February, we had a session much like the session today where I identified those specific referrals that staff would be focusing on because we can't pursue a hundred referrals at once. It's just not really feasible. Um and um I'll I'll share those in just a moment. But also I wanted to share that despite having a very high volume, we've worked um very hard to uh address all of those referrals. And you know sometimes the ref referral may be addressed as you know there's not you know further action to to move forward but a majority of them we've we've completed whether it's a constituent issue or or we've completed a policy review or brought something you know back for council action. And so you can see from those prior years 22 and 23 very few items pending. A couple of those are just long-term items we've been waiting on. Uh we're through a majority of those for 2024, but still have several that are pending from 2024. Again, as we've tried to focus our efforts as staff, um I've been more judicious about those referrals that we can uh make actionable in a given quarter. and we try our best to align those to what other um priority initiatives of the council we're working on or connect those referrals to other staff work that uh we do when the time comes to do that. But you we still have a number of those outstanding for the last year and a half. Uh but uh we've done a lot to to address and and complete those referrals. It also should be noted though that you know the referrals up to this point um and by the way this is based on the rubric of last year's priority initiatives because as of July 1 we have these six new priority initiatives but um it's worth noting that a majority of our referrals are not related to the items that council has identified as their highest priorities. And so it's important uh to reflect that, you know, we're probably going to focus more on the referrals that have also um been tied to items that council has identified as a high priority. So, uh, in that vein, um, and you know, I've already made the the case that, you know, the number of referrals outpaces our capacity to respond. And so, we're having to be, um, selective and, you know, what we choose to to move forward with. And that's, but also want to do that, you know, transparently to the council uh, in these open sessions so that we can have direction that if we're we're not, you know, tracking the most important things, council can help, you know, redirect there. uh you have in front of you um two different lists for the referrals. The first one is the priority list from quarter two. We completed many of the items that we said we were going to work on in quarter two of and that that sorry that was quarter two of the calendar year. I probably should have said quarter four of last fiscal year, but uh we've completed many of the ones from the last cycle. Um uh but we still have a few that are pending from the last quarter of last fiscal year. Um but then you also have the next page identifies the 15 referrals that we're adding to our work list for this coming quarter. Um and again those are tied to items that we know are you know important to the council and have aligned with council initi initiatives. So the next several sets of slides will walk through uh those but I I failed uh to remember there's one other slide I just wanted to uh highlight as discussed also in our workshop in the spring about the referral process just clarifying the referral process that um there's you know we have a series of you know constituent requests that come up we handle those you know on a daily and a weekly basis and the help team Michelle and PLA are fantastic at getting uh those constituent requests addressed quickly uh without waiting. We also have what we call council projects. It may be that it's not really the level of a priority initiative. It's not really a referral, but it's you know something that council members brought up that we'd like to work on and we track those a little bit separately as well. But formal referrals requests that come from the deis those what we consider formal referrals and all the numbers I've given you today reflect formal referrals and there was clarification in our workshop that if you know council member would like to raise a question about a referral that has been made. We anticipate that that can that should be done at the time that the referral is made so that if there's questions we can bring it back as an agendaized item that the council can then vote on. Um, also committee referrals. Uh, um, just as a reminder, this is actually in our council policies about committees. If referrals are made in committee, um, there is a request that the committee chair would come back at a a city council meeting and just report out the requests that have been made at the committee level. And we've had times where we've been better at that and times where we've gotten a little l axe about that reporting out function. But we still track them all and we're working on them all as staff. But it's a good practice for other council members to be aware of referrals coming out of committee and and I make a commitment that my staff that'll work with the chairs of each committee can help remind you when we have referrals to bring those up at upcoming council meetings. The third piece that we talked about at our retreat uh workshop was a what we call the 4-hour rule that for referrals that we choose to work on that will limit the amount of staff time committed to that referral to an initial 4 hours then we can bring back to council to say you know we we think we should move forward uh or many of them I think can be addressed in the 4hour rule but if we have a referral that's going to take a significant amount of time we'd come back to the council and say do do we really want to continue to move forward with this referral for all before we dedicate more staff time to it. And then uh just also as reminders, uh we're going to continue to do meetings just like this one this report today to go over um what is the prioritization of those council referrals. And then an final reminder that you'll see the outcomes of referrals come to you in a variety of ways. Sometimes you'll see a referral follow-up come in my city manager reports that I send out every other week. Some will come as a formal memorandum. Some will be items that go to committees and so it's on the committee agenda and that's how that referral is addressed and sometimes it will come forward as council action. But again, we continue to track these in this, you know, spreadsheet and until we ensure we address all of those referrals, but you you may see those referrals come back to you in any one of those four ways. Now, moving forward, this is just uh what are the things that we're going to be working on, you know, in the next quarter, perhaps two quarters in each of the five council goal areas. If you see a PI next to that, that means priority initiative. That it's that's why it's on the list. And if there's an R next to it, it's because that was a referral that's also, you know, sort of in that bucket. So, in this coming uh quarter, we're going to finalize the physical improvements to the one-stop shop, but continue to integrate subdivisions into development services and and continue the per permit streamlining process. We're still working through a few tweaks on our second phase of the electronic permitting process, but we did go live with our high volume electronic permits. We're calling them instant permits. Now, instant doesn't mean 1 second, but instant does mean 10 or 15 minutes. And so, there's a number of high volume permit types like a water heater, the basic, you know, things that uh we now have a tool that helps us get those approved in a matter of minutes u and simplify the process for the public. But we have a lot more permit streamlining to do on the big ticket items like how long does it take to finish a site plan review? how long um does it take to you know u get uh to um certain inspection steps? And so we've made a commitment to get towards those guaranteed timelines and we're going to be working on that through the the fall. Also, we're in the in right in the middle of the general plan update. We're going to be doing a lot of work on that in the next few months. Um the habitat conservation plan as I already noted we're going to work on the first steps of that um in the next uh um two quarters but then the EIR will take a big chunk of time after that. Uh we have an EI EOA program update that's responsive to a couple of different referrals that'll be coming back uh to committee in September and probably to the council um the month after. I've already noted we're going to be launching our parking pilot and then I've also noted the neighborhood planning processes. We've got um a a RFP um out for the downtown planning process. We've already um received responses back from an RFP for the MLK neighborhood planning process and we're developing the RFP for the South Bakersfield planning process. So, those are all going to be underway. And then the ADU incentive program's already been presented to committee. We're going to RFP that out. We expect to have a contract back in front of council by um this fall um to have an administrator administer that program. And then from a referral, a couple of referral requests, we'll have an update on our economic development strategic plan uh that reflects also our economic incentives framework come back this fall. So those are all things we're going to focus on. The next slide, when you see pending, that really means that's the stuff we're not working on. Just to be transparent, this is what we're not going to be trying to um bring to, you know, to the back to council in the next couple of quarters. We have items from our work plan from um the prior fiscal years that we still uh want to con um partner with CSUB and and Bold House on the Energy Innovation Center and the technology park. But um um we don't see those um having major work in the next couple of months. The advanced manufacturing park in southeast Bakersfield also still on our radar but pending. Um the EIFD in Korea uh tools we expect to do some leg work on those but they won't be in front of council right away probably in um next year. the downtown element's going to follow some of the other general plan work as is the economic development ordinance will be connected to that and then some of those mixeduse demonstration projects. They're they're a big lift and we're going to get through some of these other items before um we put a lot of staff time into those or safety and resilience. Jail beds, jail releases, there was a a priority initiative and referrals related to jail releases. That's going to be a very um big body of work this coming uh quarter. Animal welfare uh we have responded to uh the referral recent referrals and we'll be identifying some funding and incentives for more spayneuter. Um we are going to be working on the traffic calming side. We're going to be focused more on school. We have several projects that have already been in Q and we want to tee up additional projects related to school traffic safety. We had a request to ask Calrrens to come back and do a report on Union Avenue. That's been in Q for a while, but we've now got them teed up to come this fall and provide an update on that project. Fire master plan is actually being worked on right now by the International Firefighters Association. Uh tobacco retail license updates. We've had a couple referrals to bring that to the safe and uh healthy neighborhoods committee. We will do that this fall. Um, and we're I've already noted we're working on the administrative citation process uh and the repeat structure fires. And then um not that we're having a big major lift on this last bullet, but just noting that we're continuing to we have the we've had the NOA out for the affordable housing trust fund. We're going to be awarding several projects and the community land trust has picked up a lot of momentum and there's good work happening with them and that will just continue over the next couple of quarters. a couple items that are still pending. Uh, you know, we we've had some referrals about creating a strategy specific to domestic violence. We've got some work to do and some of the other criminal justice accountability that we need to focus there and come back to domestic violence. Um, the the diversion program I think also has to wait until we get a better handle on the jailb piece and then we can um put more emphasis on the diversion program. We've got some affordable housing items that uh staff are working on, but I don't expect to council to have them in front of you in the next two quarters. And then uh the alley um securing alleys program was a former item that is still um frankly on the back burner until we can address some higher priority items. Reliable infrastructure, seventh and eighth movements big priority. wastewater rate plan. Of course, circulation element and development standards. I've talked about both of those. Um, we've had some referrals related to CALR maintenance and highway landscaping. We're going to pick that up. We've had conversations in the past about that, but we're going to give it another run. And then I've already noted uh the two park pieces that are going to be um out in front uh and others will come in the second half of the year. And then uh for our complete streets projects um we won't necessarily uh be heavy into those but we need to get them uh started in this next quarter. And then we have uh energy efficiency studies that are going to happen in the next um couple of months as well as we should have our community choice aggregation feasibility analysis complete in this next cycle. And then we've been talking about solar street lighting for a while. Um, and we're going to have some projects that are going to go to deployment to see how well those technologies work and may maybe be less reliant on PG timelines to get more street lights up. Some things that are still out, you know, uh, on uh, the pending is HGMAN flyover funding. Chester Avenue. We do have significant funds for that project, but we prioritized 18th and 19th and H first and then we'll come back to Chester. And then we have other projects for MLK Niles Monteray Monitor. Is that all of them, Zach? Or Union? No, California Avenue. Um that are have been in design and we're trying to get those shovel ready so we can go get grants for those. But I don't expect any major progress on those in the next two quarters. Those are probably be be um in and out u uh quarters. And then uh we had a prior item to work with get on fueling stations that's u right now a little bit pending because they actually haven't you know their property purchase has not been finalized and we'd like to see that happen before we invest um more there. And um a couple of other you know items um we've got a you know a facilities master plan that'll probably be in the second half of the year. Sci-fi has been slow and then our fueling and charging stations. Also there's a few things up in the air that we think make sense to to lock up before we put a lot of investment in those as well. Community character and quality of life. Um the smart growth I already noted that portion of the smart growth as it relates to the general plan will be in the next couple quarters. We're looking at those master plan potential development areas and and who some of those land owners may be. We've been working on a special events process update. I think that'll come back to council this fall. We're working on some illegal dumping and we've continued to work on referrals related to tree canopy and heat island effect and we'll still be working those in the next two quarters. Um the neighborhood business nodes as I noted earlier will probably be the second half of the year as well as more details on that policy toolkit for smart growth. Uh we have some um highway corridor beautifification projects and gateway projects um that have seen some progress but I think um construction and and more notable um visible improvements won't come till the second half of the year. Uh we've also been focused a little bit more on our our water rates and wastewater rates. And so the urban water management plan is in process, but your council won't see that until second half of the year. Um we have the referral out about budget community engagement, but that will happen in the second half of the year anyway. That's why it's still on that pending list. And uh some of the the requests around a motel registry, vacant building ordinance um is also um just a little bit lower on the priority list at this time. Last segment and then we can get to questions. Sorry to um uh speak a lot, but um for this first uh for this next couple quarters, we're going to do the operational review of the departments. That's a big priority uh to get ahead of the budget process. Uh we'll be doing our key performance indicator review from the end of the fiscal year. Staffing study is big. The the real-time information center is going to be worked on by BPD. And then our catchup on our financial reporting continues to be and I mean it flies sometimes under the radar, but it's a big deal and we're we're working to get that catchup in place for this fall. Um, some things that are still on hold are ERP implementation of the HR component. We've implemented finance. Uh, just as a reminder, we're still doing some cleanup, you know, little bug fixes on that. We're still pending some of our financial reporting tools that come out of the system. We have not been satisfied 100% with the reports that our integrator built for us and we're putting pressure on them around that. But we've also been expressing some or experiencing and expressing some frustration about our HR module and we're in negotiations tough conversations with our impleer about whether uh we're going to continue on the path with them with our HR module. And so right now that's on hold until the second half of the year fiscal year. Um, also we do look to the future to have quality data dashboards and more automation of the KPIs, but that's um down the road. It won't be in this first half of the year. And then uh our grant process audit um is going to also wait until we finish with the staffing study. And uh we have some of our other technology tools that we're just spreading out over time um because it doesn't make sense to try and do them all at once. And so some of those that you might see in the work plan won't happen till the second half of the year. Uh with that, um happy to take questions on what we prioritize as well as just what are the big pieces. >> Thank you, Mr. Kle. Madame city clerk, are there any requests from the public to comment on this section? >> No public speaker cards have been received. Thank you. Our council identified six priorities during the annual goal setting and we see that nearly 60% of the referrals go outside those priorities. What does that do in terms of staff's ability to really focus on the six goals that were prioritized by the council? I see we're getting a lot of referrals and even though you have the 4hour rule, I imagine that staff time is still being taken up and away from the council priorities. >> Yeah, thank you, mayor, uh, mayor and council. First, I would say we do have a handful of referrals that come up in a council meeting that is a quick constituent response, but I would say it's less than 10%. And we take care of those happily, you know, quickly. The other referrals typically take a fair amount of time. And when we have referrals that um may be uh you know not connected to a prior priority or a current priority, it does take a fair amount of staff time and it means we're just not making as much progress on the initiatives that council has identified as those that are most important. Um I think we are doing better by the way uh since last year of you know now that we have this process where we identify those referrals we are going to work on and those that we're just going to let wait and not work on that's helping with the staff focus and I think it's reflected in results that we've seen a lot more initiatives for example you know our our community and economic development department has had you know many many tasks as a new department to to address and we've increased the pace of contracts that have been issued issued and RFPs that have been completed in this last six months because we were able to have more focus but uh having additional referrals and it may not feel like it's a big lift but you know we have to do staff analysis and prepare memos and put it on a committee agenda it can take a significant amount of time and >> that's understandable. So colleagues, I just wanted to remind you that there is that formal referral process when it's made during the council meeting that you have the option to express disagreement if you don't think it should go forward. I know for the two of you who are new just to make sure that that is part of the process that's built in because if we've already as a council determined that there are six priorities and you're feeling at any time that there are referrals being made that are excessive that are still taking up staff's time then that would be the appropriate time to speak up and determine during the next meeting whether it's something that we do want staff to spend their time on. So that's just an option for all of you. Uh, any comments on this last section? I don't see request to speak yet. Council member Coleman. >> Thank you, Mayor. You know, we got a lot of stuff going on. You know, when you go through that list, there's a lot. I don't think people understand how much you guys are doing over there at the well, I don't want to say city hall north, but you know, staff is doing. Uh uh I I think that we need to try to do a better job of communicating what all we're doing. But I I did want to uh focus on one couple things in your report. Uh first of all, regarding uh referrals. Um, I I I try to minimize my referrals, but I'm wondering if there's not some overlap between a referral that I may have made versus one you're already working on, another council member may have made. Is there any way for us to do a review? I don't want to make more work for you, but you know, if we can say, well, you know, Councilman Coleman, your referral is very similar to one that Councilman Aras made, you know, a couple weeks ago. I I may choose to withdraw my referral or he may choose to modify his or something. So maybe we can eliminate minimize those referrals. >> Great thought, council. >> So I can make a referral for that. No, >> no, I do I do think it's a great thought, council member. So, mayor and council, um, two thoughts. Uh, we actually, again, we we didn't want to inundate you, so we provided you a shorter list of the referrals that are going to be worked on in the next two quarters, but we're happy to also provide the bigger referral list of all referrals, but also we don't expect council members necessarily be looking at that every week like, you know, every two weeks we as are as staff, but we're happy to give you the bigger list. But to your point though, we do take a hard look and and our new we have a new system that's helping us track all this. Thankfully, it's a nice automated technology tool and we can connect link in the system referrals that are sister referrals or similar referrals. We've actually closed a few referrals by saying, "Hey, this new referral number, you know, 1 2 3 4 um includes the formal referral 5678 and and so we're closing out 5678 as it's part of this, you know, newer referral." So, we've we actually have been able to close some referrals because we've seen that connectivity. Um, and if we see an opportunity, I I do feel like I have the ability to reach out to the referring council member and say, "Hey, this is pretty close. Can we just combine these two up and we can report that back out to the full council in these reports? You know that you'll see that you know the ones that may have been closed as duplicates or similar or we just batch them up. So for example, we had four different referrals related to tree canopy and heat island effect. We're working those as a group instead of, you know, um, sort of four distinct, you know, initiatives because they're they're connected. And so it may take us a while to complete those, but when we complete them, that's four that, you know, will be completed at once. So we we are looking for those connections and we we regularly see them. >> Thank you. Um, you I I appreciate that you made this note about committee referrals uh being reiterated to council because I know that there are referrals made at committees and and I I didn't know we were supposed to be doing that and I appreciate if any support you have to give us the information that we need to come back to council and do that because that may give us another opportunity to object to a particular referral or whatever. So, uh, thank you for, uh, refreshing our memory on that. I appreciate the 4hour rule. A lot of work can be done in four hours. So, I would assume that a lot of your smaller referrals can probably get done. But then what happens after that 4 hours? It come back to council or what is happens there? >> Yeah. So, um, a couple of different paths. um when we do like let's say a memo for example, if it's a memo where um uh and you haven't seen one of these in recent months because we haven't had one yet since we did the 4hour rule and also because we're a little more focused on a shorter list of referrals. We're not looking at, you know, all of them. You haven't seen many 4-hour rules um come back. But the intent is that I would send a memo to council uh that states, you know, here's the analysis up to this point and a recommendation whether we move forward or whether we, you know, pause there. But the other place is at a committee level. If we take an item to a committee, we've done four hours worth of work at a committee level. If the committee says, "Yeah, keep working this," then we I think that's that's uh equates to the 4hour role. We'll keep working it. uh or we could actually tee stuff up specific on a council agenda. And you know, I'm not looking for more uh challenging items, but if we had a challenging item, I think it would be fair for the full council to have an opportunity to have a vote on a consent item or a report on a business item to say, "Yeah, let's move this item forward or no, we're done with that item." Again, you haven't had one of those teed up in recent months. We haven't, you know, kind of brought one of those to a head as of yet. Um, but I anticipate, you know, through the fall as we've started using that four-hour rule and working on some of these referrals, you might get some of those memo items or a council agendaized item to get a thumbs up from the council. Do we spend, you know, more hours beyond the four or do we leave it at that? >> Okay. Thank you. I I appreciate the time you do spend on the referrals that I send. I always try to meet with you or staff before I make a referral uh to try to minimize the the number of referrals I sent. Um and I just wanted to touch on a couple of things that you talked about the priority initiative and referrals. This was uh on I guess page 20 of your presentation. The priority for the one-stop shop. I know that we talked about the one-stop shop before I was elected to council and you know we're still talking about it and I I I'm curious of what hell's taking so long. >> Yeah, good question. Uh I think there's multiple components to it. Um but as far as the staff um moving into uh the department is done, the physical space is underway. If you've been over to the permit center in the last week, it's kind of a mess right now. And so that'll be finished very soon. Um I think the one-stop shop really will be done in just in the matter of a couple of months. The permit streamlining, whether you consider that part of one-stop shop or distinct permit streamlining uh is going to take a little bit longer. And um I think even you know Phil and his team are a little frustrated at the length of time, but we've had some challenging delays with our electronic permitting implementation and we wanted to make sure we get that in good order before uh we lock in, you know, some of the other process improvements and permit, you know, timeline guarantees. So uh I guess my two answers to to sum it up is that it's been a big lift and that's part of why it takes time. And the second is that our again our implementation of the new electronic permitting software has been challenging. But beyond that um the one-stop shop is very close to done. The permit streamlining is going to still probably go through most of this next fiscal year and in phases of which permit timelines we >> So we're already we're already receiving some of the benefits of the one-stop shop then. >> Absolutely. No. Yeah. Absolutely. And actually, I would argue some of the benefits of the permit streamlining as well. We've done lots of process improvements, but we're yet to to wrap up in a bow are permit, you know, um guaranteed timelines, but we have seen improvements in um our process and and time flows and having all of the staff be, you know, in one-stop shop. >> Thank you. I apologize for taking so long. Uh the the only uh last item I have was the EOA program update and uh you mark on here that you're responding to a referral and um are we are we looking for more economic opportunity areas? Is that what we're trying to address? >> We're doing a couple different things. one is just look at the the policies of the program in general because it's still a fairly new program and we've learned some things along the way and so we've kind of we've made tweaks almost every year to the program. We've also had though some requests to take a harder look at um specifically how we do the downtown EOA because it has the most demand and we actually have had some processes that are a little bit different for that EOA than other EOAs. But then also, council member Basher Tash had made a referral to look at a couple of the policy elements um that affect sort of relocations and and um you know what what is a fair incentive for a business who's already in town. But also to your point um a last piece we are looking at is um whether or not uh the data supports adding an additional EOA area as well. >> Thank you very much. I appreciate all your work on this report, but uh but beyond that, I appreciate all the work that goes on behind that. So, thank you very much, Madame Mayor. I have no further questions. >> Thank you, Council Member Coleman. Other colleagues, questions or comments? >> Seeing that, Vice Mayor? >> Motion to receive and file. >> You have a motion. Please cast your votes. Motion is approved with council members Aas and Gonzalez absent and council member Weir voting no. >> Thank you madame clerk. Next item please. Close session item 4A. Conference with legal council existing litigation regarding Stephanie Denise Martin versus Griffin Michael Turner, City of Bakersfield and Dos 1 to 10. >> Motion. >> Motion to adjourn to close session. We're adjourned. 438 [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Hey. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat up. [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Hey, [Music] hey hey. [Music] [Music] Reconvening open session at 453. Madame city attorney. >> Thank you, Mayor. There was only one item on close session this afternoon and by a 50 vote with council members Arius and Gonzalez absent, uh, the city attorney's office given direction. Thank you. >> Thank you. We stand a journ at 454. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Hey. [Music] [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] D. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Data. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Hey hey hey. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I feel [Music] [Music] in [Music] [Music] I want you. [Music] [Music] [Music] Oh, hey. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] Hey, [Music] [Music] hey, hey. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, [Music] hey. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Welcome to the Bakersfield City Council meeting. This television broadcast is brought to you by the local cable companies, the county of Kerna, and the city of Bakersfield. You can watch the rebroadcast of this meeting Saturday at 700 p.m., Sunday at 10:00 a.m., and the following Wednesday at 7 p.m. You can download the agenda for this meeting at www.bakersfield city. us. Preciding over this evening's meeting, the honorable Mayor Karen K. Go. Good evening. It's my pleasure to call to order the 5:15 regular city council meeting of August 27th, 2025. Madame Clerk, please call the role. >> Mayor Go, >> here. >> Vice Mayor Core, >> here. >> Council member Aas, >> I am here. >> Council member Gonzalez. >> Council member Weir, >> here. >> Council member Smith, >> I am here. Council member Coleman >> here. >> Council member Bashir Tosh >> here. >> Thank you. Tonight we have the pleasure of having Pastor Oscar Anthony of St. Peter's Restoration Community Christian Ministries to offer the invocation. And pastor, we're just so grateful for your investment in our community. Thank you so much for your service. I know you're reaching out to the neighborhoods and pastor actually was a former Ward One council member. So, thank you for that service. Following the invocation, Dylan Bra, who's a senior at Liberty High School, will lead us in the pledge. Dylan raised $30,000 for the Boys and Girls Club of Kern County through his inaugural charity golf tournament was called One Shot at a Time. And the proceeds will support afterchool enrichment for underserved children throughout Kern County. Dylan has a 4.5 GPA. He plays for the Liberty Varsity golf and water polo teams. He's also in multiple clubs including student leadership and project lead the way. He in his spare time he plays the piano and guitar and he's learning about the stock market and he says uh it's going to always go up, right? Um Dylan's dream is to start a golf training program at the Boys and Girls Club and he believes everyone should have access to playing that sport and regardless of their financial ability. We're so proud of you. And so at this time, uh pastor, would you come and lead us and would you please stand? Father, we come uh thanking you for your sovereignty. We thank you for your command that we should pray and honor all leaders everywhere. And we come joyfully to pray for our city council as well as the heads of this department of this city. We pray that Lord you would continue to bless them, give them wisdom, spirit of unity, that you continue to use their effort to bless this city with safety and health. Help us as a community to be in agreement, oh Lord, with moral conviction to do the right thing. Help us to embrace righteousness. continue to give our city council and city staff wisdom and unity as well as protection. Bless our city and we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. >> Amen. >> Salute pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. You may be seated. And Dylan, if you just stay there. Dylan, thank you so much for your efforts. It's um my honor to be able to present this certificate to you in honor of your outstanding service to Bakersville and Kern County in recognition of your heart for our community, raising $30,000 for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Kern County through your nonprofit organization, One Shot at a Time. and in recognition of your leadership and continued commitment to pursuing academic excellence. Thank you so much. Congratulations. Thank you. And if you'd like to say a few words and introduce your family. >> Um I want to say thank you to the mayor and to all the council members for having me and uh thank you all for recognizing one shot at a time. >> What about you? >> Oh, and here's my mom, Rajie. And here's my dad, uh, Babu. And I can't do couldn't have done any of this without them. >> Thank you. on. >> All right. He challenges each of you to raise $30,000. Thank you so much. Here are a few guidelines to help our meeting run smoothly. We request that you turn off your phones. Please be courteous in the use of cameras and videos for safety reasons and as a courtesy to others. No signs are allowed in the council chamber or in the lobby. Applause is allowed during the presentations portion of the meeting, but not during other portions of the meeting. Everyone in attendance is expected to adhere to the rules of decorum established by resolution of the city council. Failure to abide by the city's rules of decorum, including any disruptive behavior that interferes with our ability to have an orderly and efficient meeting, prevents the city council from conducting the business of the city. Consider this a first warning to everyone in attendance that conduct that disrupts the meeting may result in expulsion and/or the chambers being cleared. Behavior that disrupts a meeting includes repetitive statements, shouting, hate speech, interrupting staff or presenters during the meeting, speaking out of turn, outbursts from the audience. And now, Madame Clerk, next item, please. Presentations. Item 4 A, proclamation declaring childhood cancer awareness month in Bakersfield during September 2025. Today I have with me Claudia Guerrera who is the vice president of Gigi the Warrior and mom of Gigi who was diagnosed with leukemia in 2019. Uh she's made it Gigi since then has made it her life's mission to help local children. She was unable to join us here today. Childhood cancer is one of the leading causes of death for children in the US. Each year, more than 14,000 children between the ages of birth and 19 are diagnosed with cancer. Every 3 minutes, a family hears the devastating words that their child has been diagnosed with cancer. Like to issue this following proclamation. Whereas cancer knows no boundaries affecting all ethnic and socioeconomic groups. And whereas increased awareness and research will help educate the public on early diagnosis and provide readily accessible clinical care to pre to patients in need. And whereas dedicated health professionals agencies and organizations have made it their mission to help children with cancer and provide educational, emotional, and financial support to their families. And whereas children deserve the chance to dream big, discover new interests, and live their absolute potential while fighting this disease. Now therefore, I Karen go, mayor of the city of Bakersville, do hereby proclaim September 20, 20 September 2025 as childhood cancer awareness month in our city and urge all residents to join our city in reaffirming our commitment to fighting childhood cancer. And it's my honor to be to present this on behalf of Gigi to you and please offer some words. Thank you so much for your efforts. Okay. Hello everyone. Thank you mayor go council members and attendees for being here. My name is Claudia Guerrero and I am just a speaker today. I am a mother of a child who had cancer. Sorry. Okay. And so this is personal. I never imagined that one day I would learn more about chemotherapy than about cartoons. Or that I know or that I would know the sound of a heart monitor better than the sound of my child's laughter. When you hear the words Your child has cancer. Your world stops. Time freezes and you feel like you can't breathe. And suddenly you're living a life a life that you've never asked for. You're filled with hospital visits, scans, medications, side effects, and fear. Cancer doesn't care how old your child is. It doesn't care about birthdays, bedtimes, or baseball games. It storms down like a thief and it steals everything. Your normaly life, routines, even hope if you let it. But you fight because you're a mom, a parent, a sibling, or a friend. Because giving up is not an option. You learn to celebrate these little things like when they can eat a small bite of food, when their counts go up, when their hair starts growing back. You hold your breath at every scan, every test, every late night fever. And through it all, you learn the kind of strength that you didn't know existed. My child is a warrior. Every child fighting cancer is a warrior. But here's the truth that most people do not realize. Only 4% of US federal cancer research funding goes to childhood cancer. Just 4% is that all our kids are worth. So I speak today not just as a mom, but as a voice for every family that is still in the in the trenches, for the ones grieving like the mother of Genevieve who lost her battle this year on July 2nd. Cancer may have taken a piece of our lives, but it will never have take our will to fight. September is childhood cancer awareness month. You may see a gold ribbon and think nothing of it, but for us it means everything. Gold is for our children. Gold is for strength. And gold is for hope. So please don't just hear this and move on. Share, advocate, donate, and remember. Help make the gold loud, stronger than statistics, and brighter than fear. Because no parent should ever hear the words, "There's nothing more that we can do." Thank you, >> Claudia. Thank you so much for sharing your pain with us and for sharing your courage also and being being willing to be that advocate, the voice for those who don't have any voice. And we just thank Gigi also for her perseverance in spreading the word and we are just grateful that we can have people like you who are raising the awareness. >> Yeah. Thank you, family. Gigi is not here tonight for a good reason. She's working on her FFA project and I think the fair is coming up. So, we send our best to her. In keeping with council's resolution, public statements are received at different times depending on the item. I will call on the city clerk to call for public statements. If you wish to make a public statement, please fill out a public speaker card and place it in the tray next to the speaker's podium. We ask that you mark whether you're here to speak on an item listed on today's agenda or in a matter not on the agenda. Speakers who do not identify specific agenda item will be presumed speakers for the non-aggenda public statements. If you're here to speak on an item not listed on the meeting agenda, you will be called first to speak. Statements are given a two-minute time limit per speaker, 20 minutes total for all non-aggenda item public statements. If you're here to speak on an item listed on the agenda, I'll call for you at the appropriate time. If public statements become disruptive and I have to clear the chambers to regain order of the meeting, you'll be called in one at a time to provide your public statements when your item is called. Madam clerk, do we have any public speakers regarding items not listed on the agenda? Mayor Go, we've received three speaker cards regarding items not listed on tonight's agenda. The first public speaker is Rod >> Juice. >> Guys, >> sure. Welcome. Please introduce yourself and you'll probably have to raise the mic. You're a little bit taller. >> Thank you, mayor and council. Council members, uh, it's an honor to be here. Um, I speak in opposition to the renaming of H Street. Uh, Margaret Thatcher once said, "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." Um, how is it that we can have two votes, almost two votes, offer time for the public to comment, offer to help business to pay for a transition cost without knowing what their costs are. Uh the vice mayor, you you were quoted on 23 as saying, "My goal is to make sure that we have funds available to support small businesses that uh would need help in making the transition." How do we know what that is? The vote has already been taken. It's gone to the planning commission. That makes no sense. I I don't understand how that works. And I I'm I'm confused at that. I've talked to a number of business owners who have no idea what's going on. So, are we saying let's just go decide this matter, then bring it to the people, and then have the people pay for it? Is that what we're saying? Because that's not, as I said in the article, that's a bad business decision. I want to thank the four council members who voted against this thing. Starting off with Councilman Zach, this is this is not good. I'm out in the community. They are not happy at all about this. I started a petition. Now, there are four petitions out there. Then what kind of how why why are we doing business this way? Why not have the open at the beginning have people's comments and then bring this in? Now the votes already been taken in the planning commission and I've ran into a few people who actually worked on this thing and they're not happy with this thing but they can't say anything because they work for the city. This is a bad decision. I I'm not against renaming Caesar Shares as a street. You can name us another place, a new street or whatever, but taking the middle of Bakersville and doing that to me is almost like saying I'm going to put Black Lives Matter right down the middle of Bakersville. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Vice Mayor. >> Well, since uh my quote's been quoted uh here, I will respond first. Um the process begins at the city council and as we clarified in our last city council meeting the research now begins. So staff is going to be working with business owners who are on a street. These re this research is going to be done. We were giving direction to the staff and I can have our city manager clarify for you as well. So um if that's helpful to you, Mr. Clay, >> I think mayor and council vice mayor that is correct is that the motion included um an effort to finalize the fiscal analysis to also uh start uh community engagement and we anticipate that there that will be a process that is fairly involved in you know talking to individual business owners and being able to bring that information both for the planning commission as well as the city council. Thank you. Next speaker, please. >> Rod. >> Good evening and thank you to the mayor, the city council for letting me speak. My name is Rod G. I'm a 47year petroleum engineer and I love Bakersfield. It's a great city. It's a little hot and apparently the downtown area needs continual revitalization. However, it's a it's the best oil and gas town that I've ever been in. And one of the greatest blessings that could ever happen to Bakersfield is the restart of oil and gas permitting, but that's another thing. I wanted to talk about the last uh council meeting with to my shame, it was the first council meeting I've ever been to, and perhaps it was a bad example. Maybe I shouldn't judge all council meetings by the last one. However, I wanted to give you guys some constructive criticism and hopefully some thoughts going forward. Um there was a lot of emotional dialogue and virtue signaling and references to uh race, ethnicity and persecution uh from the public. Uh there were virtue signaling from the council and from the public. There were even comments on uh neo-Naziism and white supremism and that was all very inciting and emotional but none of it was relevant to the question of whether we should give the Dolores Aerta Center $300,000 in grants. Councilman Boscher Tosh, I hope I'm said your name correctly, sir. Sorry if I butchered it. Um, uh, he made he had the most relevant comments on the question. Um, I did not speak, but would have after the public comments were over and after the council spoke had we been given another opportunity. So, I make my comments tonight. I would have recommended that the board that the council vote no on this because the center did not need the money by their own admission. Had they built elsewhere, it would have been less expensive and maybe they wouldn't have needed a grant. If 18 grants have already been done to date, would another 300,000 make any difference. Uh if if 18 grants be done, why do we still need to revitalize? Uh anyway, uh what are we missing here? Where is the beef? Uh where is the costbenefit analysis? Um basically, why don't we go downtown? Um everything we need is in the west. Um safety is an issue sometimes. Sometimes people don't feel safe downtown. >> Your time is up. You can make a couple more closing remarks. >> Thank you. And there are places in I in in the downtown area that are kind of an eyesore. But before we spend money on this and spend money to like reimburse businesses for renaming streets and their costs and that, let's ask ourselves, what's the costbenefit analysis of this? Are we spending good money after bad money? Thank you so much, Madam Clerk. Next speaker, please. Terry Maxwell. Welcome. >> Good evening. Thank you for uh allowing me a chance to speak. Um I'm here because I want to clarify a story that I told the last time I was in front of you. I talked about how uh when I had my restaurant that uh I had I could not get my alley redone. I want to let you know that was long before I was ever on the city council. Uh the city council person that I had at that time ignored all of my requests to have that alley redone. I was concerned for the city because that alley had so many crevices in it. We had two elderly patrons that walked out into that alley and fell. The city's lucky that they didn't sue him because I had already been to the city council and I had read written several letters requesting it. They could have easily gotten a lot of money out of this city. I was I was concerned about that. Now, I I once I got on the city council, um I didn't have to worry about it anymore because I happened to have other another city councilman almost the day after I had had been in front of the city council come into my restaurant. I had him go out in the alley, he looked at it the very next day that alley got fixed, long before I was ever on the council. So, I'm here to request from the mayor and from the vice mayor and for the from the W two assem uh city councilman who impuged my character while I was on the city council to write me a letter of apology. He impuged my time on the council because he said I must have been inept because I was on the council and I couldn't get something like that done. At no time when I was on the city council did I do anything that was selfserving. It's a template that you all should live up to. If you are on there to do things for yourself, for your businesses, or your friends, you're up there for the wrong reason. And I would accept that apology either written or verbal. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Maxwell. Madam Clerk, any other public speakers for that category? >> That was our final public speaker for non-aggenda items. >> Thank you. We'll now move on to the public statements listed on the agenda. If you're here to speak on appointments items 6A or B or items listed under consent calendar item seven, your time to speak is now. Each speaker is given a two-minute time limit. Each agenda item is list limited to 20 minutes. The consent calendar as a whole constitutes one agenda item. If you're here to speak on public hearing item 9A, now is not the time to speak. You'll be given an opportunity to speak when that item is called later in the meeting. Madame clerk, do we have any public speakers regarding appointments items 6A or B or items listed under consent calendar item 7. >> May go, we've received one speaker card for agenda items uh from Terry Maxwell regarding item 7G1. Okay, Mr. Maxwell. Thank you. My name is Terry Maxwell and I'm speaking on this because uh this is the grand jury's evaluation of the taking of H Street and making it a single lane in each direction. Uh I I see that in the evaluation that they had, they pointed out a few things that were wrong with even considering doing something like this. And I have one in addition. they were not impressed with the company that was hired in order to do an evaluation of this particular project because that that company was biased in a positive sense that they they only see that as a one solution question and that is that you need to make H Street one lane in each direction with bicycle lanes that this somehow is going to solve problems that don't at this point exist. Now the other thing that we should probably look at more intently is vehicle traffic. How is this going to affect where is your where is your evaluation of uh the impact vehicle impact? Have you ever been to BHS which sits on 8th Street in the morning or in the afternoon? It is a mad house and you're going to make that into only one lane going by BHS. Have you lost your minds? That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Now, the other thing I can tell you is when I was on the city council and Ken, you and Bob remember when I was advocating that we turn downtown into one-way streets and that was thrown out mostly because I was the one that suggested it because most of the the cities in Kern count in California had advocated one-way streets. Most major cities have one-way streets in the downtown area, but because I was the one that suggested it, it was of course not considered. But one of the key things that they they pointed to was the fire chief said if H Street was a one-way street headed north with three lanes that somehow that would affect their their ability to get to an emergency. When I asked him how long would it take you out of out of your way, it was seconds. But here you are now, you're going to turn a street into a oneway both ways. How is that going to affect that fire department? How are they going to effectively get to an emergency if it's only one lane? It's completely blocked up and now you've put all the all of the traffic over on Chester Avenue. So, they're not going to be able to use that one either. I think you better rethink this. >> Thank you, Madam Clerk. Are there any other speakers? >> Mayor Go, that was our only speaker. >> Thank you. Next item, please. Appointments item 6A. Four appointments to the 202526 Youth Commission wards three and five regular and alternate members with terms set to expire July 2026. We received applications for appointment from Sasha Guli, Caitlyn Henkis, Ella Pepper, Jasmine Bawa, Tanv Duda, Penny, Jasine Tran, and Gonite Core. Thank you. These appointments are by council member. Therefore, I'm going to call on our council members to share their regular and alternate youth commission member appointments. Council member Commen, would you like to go first? >> Uh, thank you, Mayor. I'd like to appoint uh Ella Pepper, a senior at Liberty High School as my regular appointee and Jasmine Baja, uh, student at Independence High School as the alternate. Thank you. And council member Wear, >> I um I'm asking if we can do another survey into W three because I don't have anybody from W three in in my list. Is that possible? >> Yes, council member Weer, that's possible. We can do a new recruitment for additional >> just for W three. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. And so now, Vice Mayor, if you can make the motion. >> A motion to approve Council Member Kleman's appointments to the Youth Commission. >> You have a motion. Please cast your votes. >> Motion is approved with Council Member Gonzalez absent. >> Thank you. And thank you to Ella and Jasmine for your willingness to serve. And to all the applicants, thank you also for your interests. Madam clerk, next item, please. >> Appointments item 6B, League of California Cities 2025 annual conference appointment of voting delegates. >> Uh, city manager Kle. >> Yeah, thank you, Mayor and Council. As is the case each year uh leading up to the League of Cities conference, we have opportunity uh to delegate someone on behalf of the city of Bakersville to vote on resolutions that come forward um at that meeting and um it is typically um uh the appointment process typically comes from nominations of the council from the deis. I wanted to confirm council member Audius you are attending. Yes. Okay. Uh I'll make a motion to appoint council member Audius as our voting delegate and uh mayor Karen Go as our alternate delegate. Please >> can be there. >> You have a motion. Please cast your votes. Yes. >> Mayor, if I could just ask a question. >> Uh yes. I know we are having uh staff turnover um who typically support in this capacity. >> Do we have a new staff member who's going to be help supporting Yes. >> the council? >> We do. Thank you, council member. We actually have um had Juan Aredia who's been working with Anthony on all things legislative and grants uh for um I guess maybe eight months now and so he's well prepared to support council. >> Fantastic. Thank you. Right. You have a motion. Please cast your votes. Motion is approved with council member Gonzalez absent. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Next item, please. >> Mayor, I'm sorry. >> Thank you, >> Council Member Smith. >> Thank you. I I just wanted to comment that historically we haven't had conflicts with council and the league of cities and it has been over the years beneficial for me to go to the league of cities especially when I was a newer council member to to learn stuff what's going on how other cities solve similar problems to what we have and so it's not a referral but just a comment that uh you know perhaps next year we won't have the conflict uh because you know we miss the first day and you drive down after council then you can get the second day but it doesn't really work. So would appreciate that process. Thank you. >> All right. Did we um you have a motion? >> You did you already you already voted. Madam clerk, >> consent calendar items 7A through 7 I for approval. >> Is there anyone who wishes to pull an item? Recuse. Vice Mayor >> Oh, I'm you. >> I'm sorry. I haven't >> Oh, okay. Is your buzzer not working? >> Oh, >> okay. Go ahead, Council Member Wear. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um I'd like to uh pull for item 7E4 for separate consideration. >> Vice Mayor motion to approve consent calendar uh with the exception of item 74. >> You have a motion. Please cast your votes. Yeah, give it a minute. We're just giving technology a minute. >> Mayor Go, um, we seem to have an issue. I'm going to go ahead and conduct a roll call vote. >> Thank you, >> Vice Mayor Core. >> Yes. Council member Aas. >> Yes. >> Council member Gonzalez is absent. >> Council member Weir, >> yes. >> Council member Smith, >> yes. >> Council member Coleman, >> yes. >> Council member Basher, >> yes. >> Motion is approved with Council Member Gonzalez absent. >> Thank you. And now, Council Member Weir 7E4. >> Yes. Um, maybe our vice mayor can make a motion for that item. >> Oh, >> uh, motion to approve item 7E4. >> And you don't wish to make a comment? >> You have a motion. Please cast your votes. If it's not working, do you do we need to take a roll call on this one, too? >> Yes, Mayor Go. We need to do a roll call vote. >> Oh, it opened. >> Oh, it's up now. Oh. Can you give us direction again because I saw it come up on the screens. Would you like to do roll call or is the system working for everyone? >> The system worked, mayor. Uh motion is approved with council member Gonzalez absent and council member Weer voting no. >> Thank you. Next item, please. >> Consent calendar public hearings item I apologize. Hearings item 9A, appeal hearing to consider traffic impact fees imposed on Planet Fitness located at 11425 Stockdale Highway. Planet Fitness is requesting to appeal the decision to impose traffic impact fees at their new location in the village at River Oaks Center. >> Thank you. Our next item is an appeal hearing involving traffic impact fees. As the city clerk said, this is not a traditional public hearing and therefore will be conducted in a slightly different format. City staff and the appellant will each be allowed 15 minutes to speak. Once both sides have spoken and have gone through the rebuttal, the general public will be allowed 20 minutes to give comment. Madame clerk, you've already read the public hearing item. So, at this time, appeal hearing item 9A is open. And now, Mr. Kle, would you like to have the city representative speak? >> Uh, thank you, mayor. I'll turn over to you to our public works director, Zach Meyer. >> Madame Clerk, please start the fi the 15minute clock. >> Uh, good evening. Um, hold on. >> Why don't you just stop the clock for a minute? Are you set? >> Yeah, I'm set. I apologize. Good evening, honorable mayor, city council members. Zach Meyer, public works director. >> So, for the hearing tonight, it is a traffic impact fee appeal called traffic impact fee tiff for for short at the Planet Fitness on the southwest corner of Stockdale Highway and Buista Road. As you can give, this slide gives a aerial of the location of what's there already existing and where the Planet Fitness will be located. So the appeal by Planet the appeal by Planet Fitness is to challenge um the current traffic impact fee which is being oppo being imposed on their building. They allege that the uh tiff amount should be lower because they are a standalone building and not part of a shopping center. The city's position is the applicant is is part of a shopping center and not a standalone building as it has all the following. We view shopping centers that have multiple uses. Shared points of entry, shared utility, access, sewer. >> We're going to need to stop for a minute. I just don't know whether council member Weir is still here. So, we're just going to need to check. I'm sorry. We're just checking on council member Weir. We need to make sure that all council members are present for the entire hearing so that it can be fair and we can hear all points of view. So, we just need to know whether he's left or just step somewhere else. Okay, >> I'm back. >> Start again. Yeah. Um, would you reset the clock, please? And, uh, Mr. Meyer, if you could just start again, please. and colleagues, if for any reason you need to leave the dis, just let me know and we'll stop. Go ahead, Mr. Meyer. >> Okay. Uh, honorable mayor, city council members, Zach Meyer, public works director. So, the hearing item tonight is a traffic impact fee appeal by Planet Fitness. This Planet Fitness is located at the southwest corner of Buen a Vista Road and Stockdale Highway as you could see in the um image on the screen uh where the building is in relation to to the to the rest of the the area. So, the appeal by Plant Fitness is they're challenging the traffic impact fee. We call that TIF for short. Um that's currently being imposed on their building. Um, Plant Fitness alleges that the tiff amount should be lower because they are a standalone building and not part of a shopping center. So, the city's position is we believe the applicant is part of a shopping center and is not a standalone building as it has all the following. We view shopping centers that have multiple uses, shared points of entry, shared utility access for sewer, storm, drain, electrical, and water, and shared common areas that you typically see in shopping centers for landscaping and shared parking. So, some more background um what are tiffs? How are they calculated? And how were the applicant's tiffs calculated? So, chapter 15.84 of the MINI code um defines uh transportation impact fees. Uh any person who applies to the city for the issuance of a building permit to make an improvement to land or for one of the uses which is specified in the current resolution adopting the transportation impact fee schedule and which will generate or attract additional traffic shall be required to pay transportation impact fee in a manner and amount set forth in this chapter provided that the land development activity is consistent with the designations of the Metropolitan Bakersville general plan. So here is the formula and I like to highlight three variables. The first variable is as you can see on the first bullet is the building size. We take the square footage of the building size and and it's at a per thousand square foot rate. Next we have the average daily trips per thousand square feet. This is called the ADT. This is the variable that's in my opinion in question. And the last variable where it says rate, um, moving forward in this presentation, I want to refer to that rate as the as the fee. Um, so this fee, if you look to the bottom bullet, it's a trip rate fees are based on the adopted fee schedule for phase 4 and resolution 84-09. So again, these three variables, the building size, the the ADT, and the fee. So for the fee, this comes from our adopted resolution uh phase 4. Um and this is a non-core area. So for the uh retail commercial shopping center, um it had a range between 50,000 and 99,999 square ft. So we use a fee of $167 for the purpose of the formula. So this this slide shows the evolution of where we are now with the proposed um ADT. So first um the first row um shows the the shopping center size of 73 73,800 square ft. We used the ADT of 79. Um moving down to the next row, um the developer requests a new fee for the whole shopping center. So using the developers engineers calculations we agreed to a ADT of 75.5. Um through another um evolution as more of the land began to be developed and what's currently remaining um the shopping center size reduced to 62,284 square ft. The ADT calculation was again updated per the developers engineers calculations and it went up to 80.72. Um, and if you look on the third row to the far right, we have a column that says planet fitness calculation using this 80.72 ADT. Um we were calculating a traffic impact fee of $340,000 uh roughly um for Planet Fitness. Um Planet Fitness then requested that staff looks at another uh edition of the IT, the 11th edition, where this later edition had a uh shopping center definition that did not include a grocery store which fits the model of the shopping center. So this lowered the ADT from 80.72 back down to 67.52. So again, if you look in the bottom right corner of the slide, you'll see using these this using these numbers, uh the square footage of the building is $25,257, uh ADT of 67.52 and using the fee per the adopted resolution of $167. We're landing at a traffic impact fee of $284,793. So moving beyond that, the city did agree to use that lower rate. However, the applicant believes that the TIFF reduction should be based on a standalone building citing Bakersville Municipal Code 15.84.050. When more than one land use is proposed within the same structure, for example, an an office as part of an industrial complex, each land use type will be calculated separately and the total of the various uses will be assessed. Staff's staff's belief is the land use is the same for the entire shopping center and the applicant's building is not a standalone building or multi-use structure. So sta so section 15.84.050 does not apply to this case. So this is again another aerial of where the planet fitness is is going to be located. This map shows some five arrows on the map where that shows shared points of access. So you know people going to the shopping center can access this from five different locations. There's shared area for parking. There will be shared areas for landscaping. So again, it's staff's opinion and belief that the Planet Fitness is part of a shopping center and not a standalone building. This is another example um where building permit was approved back in 2020 for another Planet Fitness at Panama Ash. Um again, we use the same methodology for this for this traffic impact fee calculation. was the same applicant, roughly the same building size of around 25,000 square ft. Um, based on the total shopping center size, um, the fee and the resolution still landed on $167 and the ADT was used was 79 trips per 1,000 square ft. So using So this is a very similar case to the one that's um, being here tonight. Um, and we get a total tiff of $335,827. And this was paid with no protest. [Music] So, in staff's belief, this is what we view as a standalone building. This is a 24-hour fitness. Same type of um building use at 4302 Gossford Road. This is a standalone gym. Building size comparable uh 23,000 square ft. However, you notice that the ADT is significantly lower at 33 versus the 67 we're currently are with the Planet Fitness. And because um the total square footage is smaller per the adopted fee resolution, this is only $110 uh as it's between 10,000 and 50,000 square ft. So, this total was $87,000. So there's a for a standalone gym there's a lower fee um for the traffic impact fee of a similar building size but again this is a standalone building as you could see in the picture there's no other buildings and this is not a shared shopping center. So in conclusion, um, city imposes imposes tiff based on the adopted fee schedule resolution. Treating the applicant as a standalone building is inaccurate and will have unintended consequences such as special treatment towards the applicant. We don't want other applicants to view we treated one differently than the other. Um, we could potentially see current tenants at the village requesting tiff refunds and there could be other retroactive and perspective consequences. So staff um has two options laid out for city council. Option one, deny applicants appeal challenging its building tiff calculation and concluding the building is part of a shopping center. Option one would be staff's recommendation. And option two is to approve applicants appeal challenging its building tiff calculation and concluding the building is a standalone building. That concludes the um presentation. And I do have um other staff both in land development and public works that could answer any questions and provide any other detail or information if needed. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Meyer. Mr. Kle, do you wish to add anything? >> No, mayor. Thank you. >> Thank you. And now I'll call on the appellent representative to come forward. And when he's ready, Madam Clerk, if you would start the 15minute clock please. here. >> I'd ask for the presentation to be handed out, please. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Madam clerk Welcome. Please introduce yourself. >> Yeah. Uh Russell Johnson, Common Sense Consulting on behalf of the appellent. Um and with me this evening as well is the appellant Josiah Garland and uh Bob Swanson with Swanson Engineering. Um, one, we just want to thank that as you look from staff's presentation, you see there's been a willingness of staff to work with the appellant. So, you can see that there's been this working back and forth. However, because of the difference of opinion, we're here this evening and we you will see that what's happening is that the appellant, you know, in the letter he referenced him from his attorney that he submitted, you saw his reasons for his appeal. We think that there's more constructive ways to deal with this. And we appreciate staff uh allowing the appellant and letting him know of his opportunity to relieve himself of the protest hearing because we think that's helpful in getting an item uh to a potential resolution that we think is helpful for everyone whether it be the appellant or future developers in the community. So we want to appreciate everyone. First, if you go to the second slide, why are we here? Uh the appellent is appealing the interpretation and implementation of the ordinance as it's related to traffic impact fees. Uh the appellant has argued as a reference in the letter from the attorney uh that it's interpreted and implemented incorrectly charging a higher fee to fitness centers and a lower fee to other uses. Uh seeking a fee that is clear and fair. The appellent reviewed the ordinance and believes it's being misapplied. And we've got local folks like Bob here agree with some of those traffic uh interpretations. I will point out um the appellant is looking at developing four other uh planet fitnesses in the community. He's basically saying to Bakersfield, I enjoy coming to Bakersfield. I enjoy investing here. I'm risking a lot of capital. So on the first submitt that was referenced by staff you will see that he did not protest as he looked into the application of the fee there was a different take on it and that's why you see the protest today that you did not see before and that goes with a lot when you're risking a lot and you're putting a lot out there and you're investing in a community. He saw that hey we think there should be another way that this should be done. So with um with this, we're asking for uh the council to utilize that protest provision, review this and potentially find a resolution. So where are tip calculations commonly determined? It's from the journal of the institute of trans transportation engineers manual. We included a photo of that in the slide deck for your reference. We also included a reference to the city of Bakersville municipal code. The administrator shall be guiding the selection of the comparable type report. >> Sure. We also included a reference to the city Bakersville municipal code. The administrator shall be guiding the selection of a comparable type by the report titled title generation and information report institution of transportation engineers latest edition. >> So, >> hey Russ. >> Yeah. >> I just want you to know the court reporter is over there and so she's taking down everything that you say. So, we just need to go a little bit slower so she can get everything. Thank you. >> Fair point. Sorry. Apologize. Thank you. >> So, the appellants's argument is that the fee is being misapplied because they're not treating the uses as they should be in the manual. And the appellants argument is that the uses should be treated differently and that the city is misapplying them. So, the fitness centers pay more under the city's implementation of the ordinance than other uses. If the fees were assessed equitably based on use and the traffic manual, fitness centers would pay a significantly lower fee. And other businesses using the city's method potentially get a reduction. So, in looking in your packet, you will see an example for the Stockdale Buista example. Appreciate Mr. Swanson for preparing this. Um if you look at this in the green you will see that the green is what the applicant is proposing should be used which is a rate charging a fee of 165342 and the blue is what the city is charging showing a higher fee of 284794 I mean I'm getting older I can't read the writing I need to get closer here that should be a difference of 119450 52. But what you'll also see in this example is reductions for other uses. So in essence, it could be argued the city's methodology charges one fee higher on one use and then on the other uses is charging a lower fee. Our argument is and the appellent's argument is that should be relying on the manual and the use that's been identified in the manual. Fitness center pays 175.886 886 more in fees if it were an IT calculation. As currently implemented, the gas station pays 26047 less in fees than required. Uh a fast food restaurant pays 128,955 less in fees. And ultimately the argument is that one use should not be subsidizing other uses. So we're here tonight uh thinking that we think that there's a better way to resolve this. We're asking that this refer this discussion to a council policy committee with the intent to clarify the fees and their implementation. Let the committee review the ordinance and implementation of the manual and let the committee determine how it should be implemented and refer it back to the council for final adoption and then apply the ordinance as it's written. Uh one business should not be subsidizing another when other uses remain unchanged. So with that um we will conclude our presentation. And we know that there probably may be some questions or some thoughts, but simple request. Let's refer this to committee um and see if we can find uh a way to implement the ordinance that is fair and clear. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Johnson. At this time, the city, would you wish to provide rebuttal statements? You have five minutes if you wish to do that in support of the city's recommendation. >> Thank you, mayor. We have no further comments. Thank you. Now is the time for the general public to give comments. You may ask questions during your comment, but they won't be addressed until the appeal hearing is closed. If you have written comments that are longer than your verbal comments, give them to the clerk. She'll provide copies to the council. Please be courteous to others who wish to speak. Each person will have two minutes to speak, 20 minutes total. Please come to the microphone, identify yourself, and proceed. Is there anyone who wishes to speak in the public? Seeing none, I'll close the appeal hearing and return it to council for comment and action. Council member Coleman. >> Thank you, Mayor. Uh, can I ask staff um just let me back up? I I want to thank the applicant for the really beautiful projects you do here in Bakersfield. Uh I I happen to live very near the this particular Planet Fitness. You've done an excellent job of uh building out a really nice facility. It's not the first one. Uh the the Panama Ash, I go by that frequently. Really good-looking projects. It's very well received by the community. So, I want to thank you for your uh projects in Bakersfield. I wanted to ask staff, I had an opportunity to do a little bit of research, but I'm not an engineer, so you know, some of that stuff is a little bit beyond me, but u we're we're not the only community in California that applies TIFF the way that we do it. Correct. >> That is correct. >> Okay. Um, yeah. So, I I I looked at this and, you know, it was a little bit of Greek to me, but I I did have an opportunity to get through it. And, uh, it's it seems to me like there there may be some room to do something different, but I I don't know that that satisfies the the the threshold here tonight. Uh, so I I I'm prepared to make a referral uh regarding this issue. Is it appropriate for me to make the referral now? >> A motion? >> Yes. >> Uh, if I if I may, council member. >> Well, do I'm sorry. I'd like to make the referral before I make a motion. >> Okay. >> Is that all right? >> She's looking at me, so she's not sure. I believe I believe council member so long as we also have direction on the action tonight we can also entertain a referral. We do need direction on the action but a referral could precede that as well. >> All right. So I'm going to make the referral first. I know. All right. So uh I would like to make a referral uh to the housing community development uh committee for city staff to provide an overview on how traffic impact fees uh are determined. What is the status on updating the city's tiff program and whether alternative methods exist in assessing traffic impact fees on shopping centers? Um I know it can be confusing, but uh I' I'd like some review of that and that would be my referral. Uh and then I would make the motion to uh to deny the appeal uh uh as it's written uh but allow this uh us to have further discussion at committee meeting. Is that clear enough or no? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Council Member Coleman. Anything further? >> I have I have nothing further, Mayor. Thank you for entertaining me. >> Thank you, Council Member Smith. >> Thank you, Mayor. I I just want to make sure I understand. So the motion is to deny the appeal. >> Yes, the motion is to deny the appeal, but there is a referral to have further discussion about how we address tiffs in the in shopping centers in the future. So, the motion is to pay what the city's saying at this point, but future projects, we're going to look at the the program. Yeah, I don't know what the timing exactly is going to be on that, but yeah, we were going to look at how we apply tiff for shopping centers to be sure that it's fair and uh to have some dialogue about how that can be done and what other communities are doing, that kind of >> Yeah. I just want to make sure that for for this project, the motion is to deny the appeal. >> For this project to deny this appeal, uh the fees will stand as they are. >> Okay. And uh but we'll we'll have more discussion uh the applicant will be noticed other the public will be noticed and we have committee meeting uh to discuss that. >> Thank you. And then I've made previous referrals regarding our traffic impact fee program. Does this go along with that or there's been talks of well we can't really change them without an EIR. We need an exis and where where's this go really? >> City manager click and then city attorney or either >> city manager click. >> Yeah, thank you mayor and mayor and council and I will ask the city attorney to to chime in if I get anything you know wrong here. But um first let me just clarify that staff's interpretation of the referral and the and the motion are consistent with with council's you know dialogue that that this affects this particular action now uh but that the referral could affect future um uh applicants. Of course, that would be pending some change of practice or policy that would have a certain point in time where we say going forward now, you know, the rules, you know, change, but it could affect future projects. Yes. I think Council Member Smith, um, to how we apply, you know, specific interpretations of, let's say, you know, uh, section 15 of the MUN code. Some of those could change without necessarily changing every aspect of our tiff calculations. So some of some of that review could include some um changes to the municipal code or or interpretation thereof. But I think changing you know what you know fee basis we have that would you know be that would require uh of course an update of um the tiff program. To answer your question about whether this is consistent, I do think it's good timing. We're, you know, we're thick in looking at um the projects uh that would affect our future TIFF fees. Of course, that is, you know, a process that takes some time. Um, but I think we can weave this uh review into the review of the rest of our TIFF program and at the same time look at some of the policy issues that that again may be just municipal code uh specific language um that uh could be updated independent of the full tiff rate structure itself. >> Would you add anything, city attorney? >> Sure. Um, thank you, city manager Kle. I would only indicate that again 15.84 of the MUN code, which is which is the section of the chapter under which the appellent has um is is before you tonight, that is specifically entitled transportation impact fee. So, I'm I'm reiterating to a certain extent what council member Kle has said that when this does go to committee, and I believe council member Smith, your referral um is absolutely in line with Council Member Comman's that when that committee looks at the transportation impact fee program and where it goes in the future and overlays that with what policy changes need to be made or the council may want to consider. Part of that discussion is going to have to be if I change a policy, do I then need to um what effect does it have on the tiff? Do I need to change the nexus document? And again, I'm not um I I don't know what the council may be considering. So that discussion is a bit premature tonight, which is why it needs to go to a committee level. But 15.84 is specifically the transportation impact fee. So I would suggest that at least initially my thoughts are anything that changes 15.84 84 is going to have to have a new transportation impact fee study as well as the nexus document. But again, I don't know what other policy considerations you and your colleagues have in mind. Does that uh make it clear as mud? >> Absolutely. I guess just my initial thought process is the the arguments we hear tonight is you know different ways to calculate commercial shopping centers and in the end does the does then that affect our overall tiff base? I mean our our estimated funding from TIFF. >> My gut, uh, Council Member Smith would say yes. >> And if it does affect that, then then that kicks in the Nexus study. >> That is correct. But again, not really going down that rabbit hole and having a broader discussion. My my initial reaction would be to say to you, yes, that uh then that would affect the nexus document. And then I think that's what the city was getting at that then those future ramifications right on that on the um the viability and the applicability of that nexus document and what exposure to risk it may exposure of risk it has on the city if you change it has to be discussed in committee. >> Thank you. You know not my ward and I'm in favor of what however direction he wants to go. I just we've we've talked about tiff for quite some time now and and it continues to cause grief in the community in different areas and the sooner the better that we address it and begin to move forward. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Smith. Council member Arius. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, on this particular item, um, I received some information about a, uh, recent, uh, court case in Sheets versus Elorado County, um, that I believe is relevant to this particular topic. Um, nearly identical. Um, I did not have enough lead time to be able to dive in and I was just curious to know if the city attorney was aware of this particular case to see if it was relevant to this discussion. Mayor, council member Arius. Um, according to my deputy city attorney, uh, that Sheets case is a offshoot from the Nolan Dolan, uh, uh, I would say trilogy or progedy case. Um, and again, not having it here in front of me, um, I would tell you that again, the Nolan Dolan analysis basically says that there must be a connection. There must be a nexus between the fee that is imposed, uh, and that is the nexus document. And I think Sheets reaffirms that Nolan Dolan analysis. I I am not aware that the Sheets case specifically goes to identical facts that you have in front of you today. Now the Sheets case may again I haven't I haven't read it. It doesn't come to mind uh as I'm sitting here. Um I don't know if perhaps whatever city was in the Sheets matter if they had a different policy implication on standalone shopping centers. Again, that is very possible as long as that city's Nolan Dolan Nexus document supported the applicability of that fee. Got it. Thank you. And I mean in my very quick review of um the summary of that case, uh it goes beyond just the essential nexus, but also discusses rough proportionality of the proportion of the fees applied to the particular project. And I think that that also deserves some additional analysis as it relates to this particular case. Um so I would support uh the referral from council member um um from the fifth district. Um but also I would like to ask a question of the applicant um as well because if there is a denial of the appeal tonight um what does that do for um any next steps after you know should should this council deny the appeal? Is there an additional opportunity down the road when we if we change the tiff um calculations for them to uh bring this back before this body? >> So um point of clarification through the mayor councilman Aries uh it's important to point out that the appellant has already paid the fee that the city >> has requested but he paid it under protest. So the fee has been paid per the city's calculation which the appellant is protesting which his reasons were laid out as stipulated. A great example is the letter that his attorney submitted. Right. Our proposal would be instead of denying the um appeal this evening, lay it in advance until the council makes the policy decision within committee and then it comes from committee and comes to council. That would be our preference. >> Thank you, sir. >> We we're at your mercy. It's your ordinance, your your appeal hearing. So, thank you. >> And I appreciate that comment. Um, I think that that certainly is an option of this council to continue those conversations while we hash out in committee um, you know, the traffic impact fees schedule the way that we calculated so that um, it wouldn't u preclude uh, this particular request. >> Thank you, Council Member Aras. Council member Coleman. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, I I just wanted to clarify my referral and I I think it's appropriate to enjoin uh any previous referrals made by uh Council Member Smith that we have a comprehensive review of this process and how it all comes together. And u I'll get back to my original motion. I leave my original motion stand. I think we need to close the door on this chapter. If we make changes in the future, the the uh applicant will benefit from that. But I don't think we should leave it uh open. I think that we've establish that for the sake of this discussion, the uh the applicant is not a standalone shopping center. he's in existing shopping centers, but as as we define it, uh if we decide to make changes in the future to those rates, then any applicants at that time will enjoy those uh those benefits. My motion is as as I stated it. >> Thank you, Councilman. Thank you, Council Member Coleman. You have a motion. Please cast your votes. Did they do they repeat the motion? >> Okay. Uh can we repeat the motion? It's >> Madame Mayor. >> Yes. >> My understanding is is if the the motion is to deny the appeal in in its most simplest form is to deny the appeal. And again, the city attorney's office would recommend that uh council member Kleman's comment is is is taken seriously. we need to put a pin in this and 15.84 does not allow this matter to be it can be continued. Um but even 15.84 does not uh does not contemplate a continuence or a referral to a committee to allow a committee of three to decide how to do this. So I think it is appropriate again um to put a pin in it and the motion is to deny the appeal and from there council member Coleman and council member Smith have that joint referral to the to the committee. You have referral. You have a motion. Please cast your votes. Motion is approved with council member AAS voting no and council member Gonzalez absent. >> Thank you. Next item, please. Council and mayor statements. At this point, I don't see any request to speak. Is No, we are fortunate in our community, in our city to have some very dedicated employees and we've had one for 40 years. David Antie, who has been uh a building maintainer in our general services department, is retiring after 40 years. That's a long, long time. Today at lunch, we had a celebration. uh director Meyer was there uh with me and so many wonderful comments were made about Mr. Ante just uh overwhelming praise. We got to present him with various awards but what a dedicated man and he concluded by saying the following. Being a city employee is like being an ambassador. And tonight we just applaud David and thank him so much for his wonderful service to our city for 40 years. And with that we stand adjourn at 6:31. [Music] Heat. Heat. Hey, hey hey.