Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. 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 March 11, 2026. Madame Cler, please call the role. >> Mayor Go, >> here. Vice Mayor Core >> here. Council member Arias >> here. >> Council member Gonzalez, Council Member Weir, Council Member Smith, >> I am here, >> council member Kman >> here, >> and council member Basher >> here. >> Thank you. In keeping with council's resolution, public statements are received at different times depending on the item. I'll 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 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 statement when your item is called. 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. Madame clerk, do we have any public speakers regarding items not listed on the agenda? >> Mayor, we've received one speaker card regarding items not listed on uh today's agenda. That speaker is Darlene Den. Welcome. Please introduce yourself. >> Thank you. My name is Darlene Den. I'm a property owner in the city of Bakersfield. I am here to speak today on the proposition um notice. Um my issue is not regarding the um protest but some process issues. I have recently received my MPA from Cal State Bakersfield and I have over two decades of public analysis. What was really confusing to me is I started pulling apart the report and I ended up printing it because yesterday there the report appeared to be different than it was this morning and this morning yesterday it was 28 pages. this morning was 137 pages and it's back now to 208 pages. And that caused me to have a a moment of wonder on revising. And in my experience on Coastal California, when you revise, you leave a report on it and then put the next one as a revised. And this was highly unusual or um from what it appeared to me. The second thing was that there isn't a direct author of who is going to who is the engineer report responsible under the requirements of 218. My questions are it appears page six changed because what I made in my personal notes was on the 2024 restructuring of the water board on trying to understand the city's system of the enterprise zone. Um, page nine listed the,087 of the sewer user fee of being the deficit. So when I listened to the October 22nd meeting, they talked about the 475 is meeting that deficit and that was a challenge. on page 15, the changes on the engineers report on the RFQ was modified the com and but it did say that the final report would be anticipated in April 20 26 which to me under um 218 appears that we have started the process before the final documents were available to the public and I look for them and it maybe is available but I can't find it anywhere on your website and then within the report it said that it was going to be provided in April and that was my question and is that the other area is some of the sufficiencies and insufficiencies are on different places and that was my concern. Sorry >> Miss Den thank you for sharing. Uh Mr. Cleger you able to have staff follow up or if you want to offer any comments. >> Thank you mayor and councel. We will absolutely have staff in our wastewater division reach out to Miss Den. I think we can provide answers to those questions that have been um put out there. Just for sake of clarity at a high level, we have published multiple different reports into one complete package. And so your council is aware that we had our cost of service analysis. We had the ACOM engineering report. We had the staff analysis of uh the HF&H cost of service analysis that proposed the rates. And so we've actually combined that into one really big PDF that's available on our website. And so that may we're trying to be comprehensive and transparent and that may be part of uh what's leading to some of those questions. But our 218 notice is definitely based off of the the cost of service analysis which is sufficient for the 218. We have the ACOM memo that's towards the end of that and uh the ACOM engineering report is not required for the 218 uh but it is available in there in that whole packet and we're going to continue to see more details come out on the specific engineering of um uh the future plant 4 and plant 2 and plant 3 upgrades. Uh but for the sake of our 218 notice, it's based on a cost of service analysis which has been complete for now for some time. >> Thank you Mr. Clay. Min staff will follow up with you. Thank you for speaking. I just wanted to leave the last note that in when you do revisions for the sake of transparency for the public it would be very important to list the dates of the revisions or that revisions were made because as a someone who is very analytical on pulling apart and comparing it makes me anxious and I don't want to feel anxious on something this important. Thank you, Miss Madame Clerk, do we have any other speakers for this section? >> Mayor Go, we've received no other uh public speaker cards for non-aggenda items, nor have we received public speaker cards for agenda items. >> Thank you. Next item, please. >> Close session item 4 A, public employee performance evaluation, city attorney. Close session item 4B, conference with legal council, existing litigation, one matter uh regarding Ingred Crawford Smith at LV, City of Bakersfield at L consolidated with AJC v uh city of Bakersfield at L consolidated with James Raymond v uh Warren Martin lead case. >> Thank you. And for the record, Council Member Gonzalez entered at 333. And so now uh adjournment to close session. >> Motion to adjourn to close session. >> We're feel. Heat. Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Hey. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey hey. Hey, hey hey. Heat. Hey, Heat. Hey, hey hey. anywhere. Hey Hey, hey hey. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N. Are you down? Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. I don't know. Heat. Heat. Hey. Hey. feel. Hey Hey. Hey. Hey. I don't know. Heat. Heat. N. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. of the Oh yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey know. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Oh, hey. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, Hey, hey hey. I feel I Hey hey hey. Hey hey hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. I'd rather try and accomplish something failed. Then try to accomplish nothing and slowly succeed. Clear all night. I'd rather try and accomplish something great and fail than trying to accomplish nothing and fully succeed. Do not try something and fully succeed. All night and fully succeed. Hey, hey hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey hey. Let's begin. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat up here. Hey, hey, hey. I need down. Hey, hey hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Yeah. Heat. Hey hey hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Woohoo! Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Oo. Hey. Hey. What the heat? Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Yeah. Hey, hey hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Wow. There you go. Heat. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey hey hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N. Hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey. Hey. Hey, hey hey. Hey, hey hey. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey hey. Heat. Hey, Heat. Hey, hey hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey. Hey, hey hey. Ow. Hey, hey hey. Hey, hey hey. Hey, hey hey. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey hey. Heat. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Reconvening the 3:30 city council meeting. Madam City Attorney, >> thank you, Mayor. There were two items on close session this afternoon. Uh on the first one, the employee performance evaluation, there is no reportable action. And on item B is in boy, that is one existing litigation. The city attorney was given direction by a 60 vote with council member Weir absent. >> Thank you. And with no other business, we stand adjourn at 510. And we'll be starting our next meeting shortly. We're going to need a little bit of time just to switch out technology. Hey, hey hey. Hey, come on. Hey hey hey. Hey, come on. Hey. 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.bakersfieldcity. 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 March 11th, 2026. Madame clerk, please call the role. >> Mayor Go, >> here. >> Vice Mayor Core >> here. >> Council member AAS >> here. >> Council member Gonzalez >> here. >> Council member Weir, Council Member Smith, >> I am here. >> Council member Kman >> here. >> And council member Basher >> here. >> Welcome to all of you. Thanks so much for engaging in the civic process. And I know we have some students from Bakersville College. Professor Holmes class, raise your hand. Welcome. We're glad that you're here. Today we have the pleasure of having Pastor Marissa Banks of Compassion Christian Center to offer the invocation. Pastor, we are so grateful for all your service to our community, your church's service, uh, Gapiland Christian Academy, and then your partnership with the city's initiative to prevent and intervene in gun violence has been invaluable. And then thank you also for the big improvements to the former Seeds of Inspiration Garden, now known as Compassion Christian Garden on I Street. It's just looking so much better. Following the invocation, we had the pleasure of having our 2026 Bakersfield pageant title holders who will lead us in the pledge. And it was just about a week ago that they were chosen in a competition. And it's not, although they're beautiful, it's not a beauty competition. So much of it really focuses on their ability to serve. and I am with the title holders several times a week and some days several times a day uh at different events where they're serving and providing all kinds of assistance to nonprofits. And today we have Mrs. Bakersfield, Angela Moretti. She's the owner of Brow Coutur by Angela. She's a licensed esthetician. She mentors future beauty professionals through Kernheis's regional occupation center cosmetology cosmetology program. Do you want to stand up and just say hi to the audience? Um, Mrs. Bakersfield. Thank you. And then we have Miss Bakersfield, Devon Jackson, who's a student at Arizona State University, majoring in business, and she's going to be taking your job. Oh, she just left. Uh, she's going to law school. Uh, Devon, Miss Bakersfield, would you like to give us a wave? And then, Miss Teen Bakersfield, Tina Benu, a junior at Centennial High School. She will major in polyai and she aspires also to become a lawyer. So lawyers up there in the front row. You just never know. And she wants to engage in politics. And then there's another Miss Bakersville Trinity Garcia who is unable to attend tonight. But would you all please stand now? And Pastor Marissa. Hello to our wonderful council and those who run the city government here. Thank you for having me this evening. to all of the ladies behind me who have beauty and brains, which is okay, right? And to the wonderful residents of Bakersville. Shall we pray? Father, we thank you for today. We thank you for the city of Bakersfield and all its residents. We thank you for this city council as they endeavor to govern wisely, strategically, and fairly. We pray for wisdom, knowledge, and understanding in both the simple and complex matters so that Bakersfield is a model city that thrives. Today, we call on an abundance of diverse industry to our city. And we declare Bakersfield is safe, attractive, and prosperous in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you. >> Amen. On behalf of the Bakersfield pageant, it is an honor to be here this evening to lead the pledge of allegiance. Please join us and stand. 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 we receive uh the model city and the declaration of Bakersville being safe and attractive and all that there is for our city. Kim Kimberly Price who is who is a former title holder. Thank you so much for being the mother of all the title holders. She's at events with me multiple times through through the week. Thank you so much for your leadership and service. We appreciate you. And pastor, you are welcome to leave at this time if uh you would like to do that or you may stay with us. We would welcome your participation. 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, and outbursts from the audience. Madame clerk, next item, please. Presentations. Item 4 A, proclamation to Hector Vasquez, executive director of the American Red Cross, Kern County and Eastern Sierra, declaring March 2026 American Red Cross month in Bakersfield. Well, we are blessed to have the Red Cross here. In 2025, Red Cross responded to more than 200 home fire events. They aided in 285, and I'm sure it was more than 285 cases, assisted more than 900 persons and families displaced by home fires. And we are so grateful to this wonderful organization and for our volunteers. couldn't do it without volunteers. And it's my honor now to read this proclamation. Whereas during American Red Cross month in March, we celebrate the humanitarian spirit of the city of Bakersville and Kern County and reaffirm the city's commitment to helping ensure that no one faces a crisis alone. Whereas caring for others is at the heart of our community, exemplified by the people of Bakersville and Kern County, whose simple acts of kindness through the Red Cross provide help and hope during people's most difficult moments. Whereas volunteers, generous contributions shine a beacon of hope in people's darkest hours. Whether it's delivering shelter, food, comfort during disasters, providing critical blood donations for hospital patients, supporting service members, veterans, and their families, saving lives with first aid, CPR, AED, and other skills, or delivering international aid, and reconnecting loved ones separated by global crisis. Now therefore, I, Karen Go, mayor of the city of Bakersville, do hereby proclaim March 2026 as American Red Cross month in our city and encourage residents to support the American Red Cross mission. Thank you so much. And we just welcome you now to provide comments, Mr. Vasquez, and then if you can also introduce >> Yes, absolutely. >> Our guests. >> Hello everyone. Thank you guys so much. I am here and I'm joined by some wonderful board members. We have Carolyn Forester, Cindy Hugi, and uh Russ Hugi. Uh mayor, thank you so much for this proclamation. Uh in all honesty, none of this work that gets done, it cannot get done without the sweat and time of our volunteers. I'm very appreciative for the for the city of Bakersfield, their support. Uh our volunteers are constantly answering those calls, whether it's at 2:00 in the morning or at 6:00 in the morning, it doesn't matter. We have a beautiful team called the disaster action team. this team. Whenever there's a home fire here in the city or anywhere in the county, uh the firefighters will let the the victims know. They can call the Red Cross. Within two hours, our team goes out there. We provide financial assistance. We provide aid, but more than anything, we provide hope. And that's what that's what our volunteers do day in and day out. Our mission talks about human suffering, re uh alleviating human suffering, and that's what we do every single day, especially through our volunteers. So, I thank all of you guys for this proclamation. And one thing that we always want to keep uh at the heart of everything is is is uh being prepared. Preparedness is a big thing within the Red Cross. And I wanted to say something very special. Yesterday uh for the first time in in Kern Countyy's history, we had a major drill where we opened up three shelters sim semimontaneously and that was the first time in case something major was to happen in this county. We wanted to make sure that we were prepared and everything run very smoothly and the county knows that they can uh count on us. So thank you mayor go for for this proclamation and thank you guys. >> Thank you Red Cross. Can you hear? Thank you. One more. Thank you so much. >> Thank you everyone. I'm not an expert at doing this. I feel very accomplished. I've mastered that skill. Not quite mastered. >> Yeah. We'll take little victories at a time. In keeping with council's resolution, public statements are received at different times. Depending on the item, I will call on the city clerk for public statements. If you wish to make a public statement, please fill out a public speaker card and place it on 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 statement. If you're 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 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 statement when your item is called. Madame clerk, do we have any public speakers regarding items not listed on the agenda? >> Mayor Go, we've received two speaker cards regarding items not listed on tonight's agenda. The first public speaker is Johnny Olig. Welcome. Please introduce yourself. >> My name is Johnny Olz. Um, I wrote something down. Um, so I have a question for you guys. Um, why did Mike Connor's retire? Was he forced to retire or did he get caught using contractors on private jobs all while using tax dollars to pay for these jobs? Am I wrong or am I right? I would actually like an answer on that one. This brings me to his prodigé, Kevin Peoples. He currently works at the streets department. Can any of you tell me how much a full load of asphalt cost? It runs about $2,000 if you're wondering. Every day there's three extra deliveries. There's three extra loads that are shipped out of uh James Road Granite, I believe. I can't remember the place. It's $2,000 to $6,000 every single day that they do paving. Uh the streets department does paving. Where does that money go? Into Kevin's pocket. How do I know that? Because I've been talking a lot on social media as you guys may or may not know. And people have been calling me about these people. Uh did you also know that he steals grindings and sells them to Santa Maria, Delane, uh Delano and neighboring cities or projects? Uh you should check the stock piles of your grindings around the around the city. Um and the thing is every city employee knows this though they fear retaliation. So now I ask myself, if you're looking for ways to balance the budget and pay for the sewage issue, how about you look within and see who is taking from you guys because you have thieves all around you. Um he's I I Kevin People's is a con and he needs to go and talk to any city employee talk I mean anybody. So I ask you guys, so I ask you specifically Andre, you want a ceasefire, I will stop investigate him. I will stop doing what I'm doing on social media. You want to win for assembly, I'm I'm for you. But if you guys don't investigate this, why should we if you can't do your job right now, why should we vote for you? So anyway, I'm out of time. I'll leave you with that. Thank you. >> Next speaker, please. Abby Power. Welcome. Please introduce yourself. >> Thank you. Um, hello. My name is Abby Power. Um, I'm a policy advocate with Leadership Council for Justice and Accountability. Uh, we urge the city to analyze the lack of tree canopy in neighborhoods that already carry a large pollution burden. The city's existing conditions background report shows that many communities in East Bakersfield and just west of Highway 99 are in the 70 70th, 80th, 90th, and above percentiles for diesel particulate matter pollution. Emissions from diesel engines contribute to the production of ground level ozone. And according to the report, Bakersfield scored second out of 226 metropolitan areas for high ozone days. Ozone can irritate lungs, cause inflammation, and also aggravate chronic illnesses. and asthma rates are unnaturally high in East Bakersfield and in communities along the west of the 99. The existing conditions report shows that these census tracks are amongst the 80th to 100th percentile for asthma rates compared to all census tracks in California. These areas also do not have adequate tree canopy with many of the communities in East Bakersfield downtown and adjacent to the 99 having less than 6% tree canopy coverage while some are just slightly higher. The USDA Forest Service has produced multiple studies that show that urban forests can lead to a net reduction in urban ozone formation as they remove ozone and particulate matter. Additionally, increased tree canopy can decrease air pollution by reducing air temperature which leads to less ozone formation and by reducing energy consumption in buildings which lessens air pollutant emissions from those energy sources. Lastly, we want to ensure that the city's general plan update includes mitigation measures that comply with AB98, which requires dense landscaping at any new warehouses or logistic centers um that is in that is within 900 ft of a sensitive receptor. The city should use the opportunity of this general plan update to also analyze the lack of tree canopy in areas that have significant industry and are located near communities where residents face high pollution burden and to create a plan to increase the tree canopy as another tool for reducing air pollution. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Power. Council member Gonzalez. >> Thank you, Mayor. I I apologize uh to the speaker, but I just wanted to make a comment on the former speaker. I just have to comment like what what we just heard was just wrong. I I I I just it bothers me when I I'm all in support of public comments, but I do know that in our city, we have an appropriate process to uh make uh certain uh claims and address certain concerns. Madam City attorney, if you can just for the public's benefit, for the city council's benefit, please uh if you will describe to us the process. Well, mayor, vice mayor, um, council member Gonzalez, thank you very much for going back to that item because I think that those statements, the speaker should be aware that there is such a thing called slander and that is borderline slander. If there is something that needs to be investigated, whether it is on an elected official or an appointed official or a city employee, um something in writing needs to be sent um to the city clerk and the city clerk will elevate it to the appropriate um department head, whether that be the city manager um or that be the city attorney. >> Thank you. And madame city clerk, has there been a written complaint filed? There has been no written complaint filed at the city clerk's office. >> Okay. Uh, you know, I again, I'm not trying to stifle any public comments and we're all thick skinned up here. We're all adults. We can take uh the comments. Uh but what I can't accept is just stand by idly and watch good public servants who I've witnessed do their job uh ethically and responsibly to the best of their ability uh be subject to such accusations in front of the entire public. I I just feel deeply that that is just wrong. I I we do have a process and I want the public to be aware of the process. Every citizen should feel comfortable pursuing that process should they demonstrate or should they excuse they witness a complaint that is legitimate. Um and by all means we will hold people accountable. We will do whatever we can to hold folks accountable. Uh but there is an appropriate process and these you know public outbursts I just think have no place. Thank you. >> Thank you. We'll now move on to public statements listed on the agenda. Here to speak on items listed under consent calendar item seven. Your time to speak is now. Again, each speaker is given a two-minute time limit and each agenda item is limited to 20 minutes total. The consent calendar as a whole constitutes one agenda item. If you're here to speak on consent calendar hearing items 8A through D, public hearing item 9A, reports item 10A, deferred business item 11A, or new business item 12A, now is not the time to speak. You'll be given an opportunity to speak when those items are called later in the meeting. Madam clerk, do we have any public speakers regarding appointments item 6A or oops that's sorry or items listed under the consent calendar item seven and there yes >> mayor go we have received one speaker card for agenda item public statements tonight um the first public speaker is Sharon Bil regarding item 7D2 two. >> Welcome. Please introduce yourself. Get myself. Okay. Uh, good evening everyone. My name is Sharon Briel. Um, I would like to um get oriented to my notes. Um, u I'm call I'm writing here. I'm here today because of the EV vans. And believe me, I believe in EV vans, but I'd like to um have you consider something else. Beggar Shield is ranked one of the number one in uh nation for particle pollution six consecutive years. Third worst for ozone. The pollution isn't just blowing over the mountains. 30% of it comes from our oil wells here in Bakersfield and it hits the disadvantaged communities the most. The PM2.5 particles enter the bloodstream directly causing permanent lung damage in children and elevated cardiac arrest for seniors. That's me. Um we average more than 100 100 ozone days per year. 32 times the federal allowance. Trees are among the most coste effective tools to against both pollutions. They filter at the street level. They reduce the heat that drives the ozone formation. Every dollar invested returns nearly two in public health benefits. What I'm worried about is um we've lost 704 trees. Um, based on the report you're going to hear tonight, using that same uh rate of loss, that would be about almost 3,000 trees over the year period 2022 to 25. And they've planted about 3,500 trees to replace them. And that's good progress. And we're glad that there's been that progress. But we don't know where these trees are planted. We don't know what trees were planted. We don't know what criteria was used. what no documentation on whether these trees reach the neighborhoods that need it the most. These are the things that we need you to find out more about. >> We also >> time this up. Can you bring your comments to a close? Go ahead with a couple more sentences. >> Okay. Anyways, uh the bottom line is although EVs are an effective way to reduce pollution, it would be better for you to plant more trees. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Buril. Madam Clerk, do we have any other speakers for this section? Marico, that was our final speaker. >> Thank you. I haven't received any requests for recusals or removal of items from the consent calendar. >> Mayor Go, may I? >> Yes, please announce >> consent calendar items 7A through 7 I for approval. A staff memorandum was provided regarding SE item 7A, correcting the minutes. >> Thank you, Vice Mayor. Motion to approve consent calendar agenda items 7A through 7 I. You have a motion. Please cast your votes. Motion was approved with council member Weir absent. >> Thank you. It's now time for the consent calendar hearings. The purpose of this section is to vote on all the items listed under consent calendar hearings in one motion without further comment. If anyone would like to speak on any of the hearing items listed, the item must be removed from this portion of the agenda. If an item is removed, it will be placed at the end of the regular public hearings portion of the meeting. And at this time, Madame Clerk, >> do you wish to make any comment? >> Consent calendar, public hearing items 8A through 8C for approval. >> Thank you. At this time, I apologize. 8D for approval. There we go. At this time, I'll open consent calendar public hearing items 8A through D. Is there anyone in the audience would like to request that a hearing item be removed from the consent calendar? If so, come forward. This isn't the time to take testimony, only to remove the matter from the consent calendar hearing. Does any council member wish to remove an item? At this time, consent calendar public hearing items 8 A throughD is now closed. Vice Mayor, >> motion to approve consent calendar public hearing items 8 A through 8D. >> Thank you. You have a motion. Please cast your votes. Motion was approved with council member Weir absent. >> Thank you. Our next item is public hearings. Each side will be allowed 15 minutes. It's 15 minutes for all speakers per side. So, it's important that you identify yourself, make your statement succinctly so others may speak. We'll hear statements from those opposed to staff's recommendation first. Then, we'll hear from those who'd like to speak in favor of the staff's recommendation. If there's testimony on both sides, each side will be allowed a fiveminute rebuttal. There's a clock on the TV screens behind me, which indicates 15 minutes. Please step to the microphone and identify yourself. After 14 minutes, a yellow light will come on. At the end of 15 minutes, a red light will flash indicating your time is up. Quickly end your statement. You may ask questions during your statement, but they won't be addressed until the public hearing is closed. If you have written comments that are longer than your verbal statement, please give them to the clerk. She'll provide copies to the council. Please be courteous to others who wish to speak. Madame clerk, please read the public hearing item. Public hearing item 9A, a public appeal hearing to consider planning commission's approval of the general plan amendment number 21-0424 and Williamson Act cancellation number 25-001. Uh this request includes uh one a resolution adopting a uh mitigated negative declaration pursuant to California um environmental quality act. Two a resolution adopting a general plan amendment to change land use. Three, a resolution adopting a tentative cancellation of Williamson Act land use contract. Lzo Drury LLP on behalf of Supporters Alliance for Environmental Responsibility submitted the appeal to the planning commission's approval of the request subsequent to the publication of the agenda. Um the city uh received a letter from the appellant withdrawing their appeal. That letter was provided to council as a staff memorandum. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Click. Any comments? >> Thank you, Mayor. Mayor and Council, I do not have uh additional comments here. If um there are follow-up questions as well as summary background, we'll turn that over to development services director Phil Burns. >> Mr. Burns. >> Council members, I have a brief uh presentation. Um, as city clerk stated, uh, this is a pill. However, we did receive a withdrawal letter. Um, but let me go through why why we're here tonight. Um, what this is is a GPA um, general plan amendment and a Williamson app consolation for this project located in Southwest just off McCutchen Road. And this is an appeal of the planning commission uh, approval and I can get >> on the side. >> Got it. This little B switch. Perfect. All right. So, what this is is a change of land use from agricultural to loadinium residential cancellation of the Williamson act contract. Well, it's actually a tenative cancellation until the fees paid and um adoption of the mitigated neg deck. Um the original planning commission approval was on September 18th, 2025 and appeal in 20 uh September 29th from Lzelle Drury. And then we had also additional uh data dump on uh correspondence on November 18th, 2025. And then the applicants u provided staff with a response back on January 8th. Staff reviewed that response and now brought this to back to your council. Um, our position is for the council to deny the appeal and approve general uh plan amendment 2110424 and the Williams Act consolation along with the approving and mitigated deck. And with that, staff is here to answer any questions you may have. >> Thank you, Mr. Burns. At this time, public hearing item 9A is open. And as we've heard, the appellant withdrew the appeal. While there is no opposition to the project, we'll go through the public hearing with the understanding that staff recommends approval of this item. Is there anyone who would like to speak in opposition of staff's recommendation to deny the appeal and approve item 9A? Please come to the microphone. Seeing none, is there anyone who wishes to speak in support of staff's recommendation to deny the appeal and approve item 9A? Seeing none, I'll close the public hearing and return it to council for comment and action. Council member Coleman. >> Thank you, Mayor. In lie of in light of uh the appellant withdrawing their uh appeal. Uh, I make a motion to uh deny the appeal and uphold the planning commission's recommendation to approve general plan amendment number 21-0424, the Williamson Act cancellation number 25-001, exclusion from agricultural presclusion from agricultural preserve number 10 and it and it proposed negative declaration. Thank you. >> You have a motion, >> mayor. Just for the record, um we want to include four zeros in that. I don't think it's a substantive to deal, but both the clerk and I think council member Coleman, it's uh cancellation number 25-00001. >> I'm sorry. Thank you, uh, city attorney. >> Thank you very much. You have a motion. Please cast your votes. Motion was approved with council member Weir absent. >> Thank you, madam city attorney. Madam city clerk, next item, please. >> Reports item 10A, recreation parks department tree advisory group update. >> Thank you, Mr. Kle. >> Thank you, mayor and councel. This has uh been a long anticipated uh presentation and uh this is a topic that was discussed at our last meeting. We had been prepared to provide this presentation and and had a clerical error that pushed it over to this meeting. Uh the tree advisory group has been doing important work over this last year and uh Keith Howell from the parks and recreation department as well as members of the tree advisory group will provide an update to your council on what is all the work that they've been doing over this past year. >> Welcome. >> Thank you. Good evening mayor, council members that we are here to present the hard work that we've been that we've completed and the recommendations and move forward and give the update of a tree advisory group. So first I would like to explain what the how tag our tree advisory group was originated. There was concerned citizens that approached the council with our tree trimming practices and also our urban forest management. council has directed directed to have us create a group which was a tree advisory group to work with professionals and citizens and so we can address these issues and make sure that the big shield has is monitoring their urban forestry properly. There's a process that we go through on the selection of the committee. Uh they fill out a form it's submitted to the city manager's office for selection and the city manager office selects the the members of TAG. We have six members. Six members that are in um that is the members of TAG. Auntie Lori Laura is Cal State Bakes professor of biology and member of Kern County Kawi Sierra Club. Dr. John Carlick, University of California Cooperative Extension. Marco Rodriguez makes college executive director of facilities and operations. Melissa Iger, director of tree foundation of Kerna. Pete Wilson, Panorama Vista Preserve member and an avid bike path or bike cyclist and also Rich O'Neil is a co-founder of Kern River Parkway Foundation. As you can see, we have a wealth of knowledge that we sit and we discuss monthly uh to look at the challenges and how to overcome them. At this time, I would like to introduce Ray Sllayton. He is our city uh tree arborist, our certified arborist for over 18 years. as he comes up that we would turn this over and he's also a city representative that sits on the tree advisory group and he'll walk you through onto the recommendation that TAG has recommended and how we have actually moved forward and implement these recommendations into our operations of tree trimming our maintenance operations. Thank you. >> Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, council members. Uh my name as Keith mentioned is Ray Sllayton. I am the city arborist and the supervisor of the tree division for the city of Bakersfield. Um I am one of two arborist uh that is on staff here at the city of Bakersfield. Um I have been certified for approximately 18 years and my colleague who's in the audience tonight is been certified for 12. Um a little background on um urban tree management. Um this tag meetings are phenomenal. I have to say we're doing great work. Um we have these meetings on a monthly basis. Uh we facilitate these meetings with industry professionals as Keith mentioned a wealth of knowledge. Um and the goal we focus on is how to manage the issues you know in in urban forest such as you know tree trimming schedules the inventory uh tree planting and we also just face some other challenges in an urban forest that you wouldn't in a forest per se. Um you we have to worry about um certain business districts with their signage. Um, we have to also get buses, uh, high-profile vehicles, um, actually just, uh, any trimming of any safety signs, school signs, signal signs, whatever, signal lights, things of that nature. And the hardest of my job is citizen complaints. As you can imagine, uh, city trees are affecting private property. Um, if they're over a roof of somebody's house or, um, debris falling in their pool, things of that nature. um becomes very challenging but that's where urban forest differs from other aspects of forestry. Um so uh I'll get into the tree contract a little bit. Um at the request of the tree advisory group uh the previous tree contract was paused in March of 2025. Uh this was done to improve contractor oversight. Uh we also reviewed certain contract lang language such as uh ANC tree trimming standards. Um and to also have uh city arborist oversee daily trimming performed by contractors which is something we've always done but we reiterated that that's something they wanted to really make sure was being done. Um, so with these recommen recommendations taken into consideration, uh, the new contract was awarded and trimming began on August 4th of 2025. So we had a a break in trimming for approximately, I don't know, 8 months, I would say. Um, our trade trimming schedule. Um, this one has been interesting. Um, I didn't know if it could be done. Um, but at the request of tag, there were some concerns about trimming during nesting season. Uh, according to the department or California Department of Fish and Wildlife, nesting season is typically February 1st through August 31st. Um, so what we were challenged with was bringing that into a fivemon trimming cycle instead of a year round like we were doing in the past. Um, city staff has done their best to adhere to the nesting season recommendations set forth by the state. Uh, for example, as you can see on this slide, in 2024, the trimming we did during nesting season was almost 9,500 trees. Um, and as you can see, in 2025, we reduced that to 173 palm trees, and that was done in August when the contract was awarded. Um however um uh what I was going to say here when we we cons we actually consulted with the u that number was specifically reduced as you can see you know went from 9,500 to 175 um when consulting with um Fresno questions were brought about a 10-year trimming cycle um and that's Fresno's ultimate goal. However, Fresno trims year round and the the trees are evaluated annually by an arborist because some trees require more pruning more frequently than others. I mean, different varieties of trees, they grow at different rates, of course. Um, I do believe and I anticipate with this new trimming cycle, we'll be on a 5 to six year cycle is my estimate. Um, however, we will continue to uh address clearance issues and address those safety issues year round. Tree removals. Um, at the request of tag, there was concern that tree removals were not being reviewed by a city arborist. And as you know, we did remove 704 trees last year. Um, no secret. Um, uh, however, we did make some changes. Um, I was able to look, me or my other certified arborists on staff, we looked at every tree that was removed last year. Um, however, this year we went one step further. Um, the trees that were scheduled for removal were not only inspected by one of our as a city arborist, but also um, a contracted track certified arborist. Uh, track stands for tree risk assessment qualified. So, it's an additional step to an arborist. It's actually he's trained just to look at defects, things like that. Um, and before each tree is removed, it is also photographed and documented. So, it's not just we're out there cutting stuff down. Um, one of the big accomplishments I think um is this recommended tree list. Um, that was one of our first topics I think was to get a tree list. This was given to a subcommittee which was created and uh they met multiple times and they submitted recommendations to the group for recommendation and review. Um it was actually director approved the tag uh recommended tree list on December of last year. So that is up on our website and uh it's a living document so it will be changing slightly here and there probably as things change but um it's a great list I think to start with. Um it consisted of three different categories. One was a Kern River Parkway because that's uh strictly um native plants. We don't plant anything that's not native in that parkway. Uh streetcapes which are mediumsized to some large trees and then parks which can pretty much have any kind of tree in a parks. Um so the next slide I have is a tree inventory at the recommendation of the tree advisory group. This was another important priority. Um the scope of work was fought to bid. A contractor was selected and the tree inventory is now pending your approval. Um the tag recommendation was to have a comprehensive tree inventory and use Fresno's tree program as a model. City st city staff has consulted with city of Fresno's numerous times throughout Zoom meetings and phone calls multiple times. I probably dozen times. Um, after consulting with Fresno, we discovered that the first thing they accomplished was a tree inventory. This gave them a road map as to maintenance, scheduling, risk assessment, and future planning locations. The purpose of a tree inventory is not only how many trees we have, but other attributes as well. Some of these attributes include tree risk assessment. This is extremely important to me. um is not just we need to know the health of our trees, but it also mitigates a hazard tree that could potentially fail and possibly cost the city millions in lawsuits. Not to mention could be someone's life, and we don't want that. Another attribute would be the tree species, diameter, height. This is would ensure that we're not planting too many of the one species. This is important because the disease attacks one species of that tree would have overplanted could devastate our urban forest. Uh example of that is we had redwoods that was the the tree of choice back in the day as we know we lost a lot of those. So we don't want to have a monoculture they call it. Um this inventory would also it's on my notes but it would also let us know where to plant and where we planted. So that would be a plus. Um so that's pretty much all I have right now. Um, at this time I'd like to turn the po podium back over to Keith How, assistant director, and uh, he can give you an update on previous year's plantings and what the future holds for the group. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Race, Mayor, Council members. At request of TAG, um, they wanted an increased planting across the city of Xville. As you can see on this table here, since 20 uh 2022 to 2025, you've seen a significant increase. Actually, it's 53% increase of trees planted um throughout the city of Beckersfield. That is a trend moving up and we are very and this really just demonstrates that that we are sustaining a year-over-year planting increasing. Also another tag recommendation as as we going in looking into budget shortfalls and how we can make sure that we get involved and and plan as much as we can. Uh we went out and looked and we obtained a transformative climate communities grant and that was particularly for low park. We ended up planting 80 trees in low park. that which is a strategic investment in the underserved areas and as we go and evaluate and not only that we are continuing that work um as a as a committee or as a group and looking for different opportunities and projects to make sure that our parks and our streetscapes are able to have projects completed on it as also talking about tree for tree I know we've all mentioned that it's a recommendation that if we remove a tree we plant a tree and it's been discussion I just want to make a clarification on that aspect ect is that necessarily does not mean that once we move a tree from a certain location that right away we'll come back and plant that tree back in that same location. There's other places around that trees have been missing for longer and as you can talk see with our numbers over,22 trees have been planted 2025 or 2025 and the previous slide showed that the removal was 704. So we are progressing and moving forward and really looking at strategically how we can move forward and work with the group. Where are we going from now? Our future 2026 tree planting. I know it's a a lot of topic, a lot of conversation on this and same staying with the tag recommendation of that we do want to plant trees. We want to make B make sure green and increase our our canopy. And one I want to first of all just say thank you council because you have funded $150,000 for our spring planting and it's sincerely we want to thank you. Now what are we going to do with that money and how are we going to use it the best ability what we have done right now that we have evaluated planting locations and we prioritize prioritized underserved or underserved areas. Um, we have changed our operation as before as as Rece was talking and speaking about how we have the oversight of tree trimming and tree maintenance of our urban forestry. But not only that, we have also put the city arborist over our tree planting. Him and his staff, they will go out identify locations where trees need to be planted, what tree needs to go there. you know, as they saying is the right tree, right place and really look into it and make the recommendations and execute it and work with the contractor to have make sure it's the trees are planted properly. Another tag recommendation had us look and talking about how can we make our dollars, you know, spread further. Um, and one of the one of the discussions came up with, you know, different size trees in different location. So, as a group, we looked into this and and communicated and there's different sizes as 15 gallon is the size of tree. then also a 24-in box tree which is a larger tree. So with ours the city staff has went out to these locations and they've made decisions say hey where can we have these 15 gallon trees these smaller trees. Of course we cannot put them into the hightraic areas you know of foot traffic because of damage they're smaller. However, you know, that's where the 24-in box comes into the place. But also, there's locations that, hey, with the area that we're planting, the size of location that a 24-in box might be too large and be will be struggling and go in shock. So, that might be an opportunity as a 15 gallon would be a proper place to put it. So, with the tag recommendation, and this is I'm very happy about this is that not only do we not receive the recommendations, we put it into action. Last Saturday at Bill Park, we had Arbor Day. This was a planting with volunteers that came out. We planted 18 trees in Bill Park. Eight of those 18 trees were 15 gallon trees. And so not only that are we receiving the recommendations, we are actually in and city staff is executing these out in the field. Pretty impressive on with the transformation. So as know where are we going and also with this funding for spring planting in the next two months there's 600 trees going to be planted. We've already started Baker Street, Q Street, South H Street. We have these locations that has been identified and it's continue to to continue to go and be these areas will be planted to start have plants. But not only that, that as now we are planting for our spring planting, we have staff now finalizing our list of what we're going to do for our fall planting and identifying locations, making determinations, and setting the schedule to move forward. So right when it's able to because we all know that there's a period of time that we can plant in Bakersfield and there's a period of time that we cannot plant uh just for the survival of the trees and so we have identified these areas and we're ready to go. So right when our planting season opens up again we will be ready and to execute this and not only that and we appreciated with additional funding that we received but and during this budget time that we are requesting additional funding for um for tree planting. So, as we work through the next couple months through the budget, there's a recommendation for additional funds. And once again, I just want to just just really thank you guys for the funding on it. That just shows that we're all we're all committed into making sure tree grow and also um make it greener accomplishments and adoptions by tag recommendations. So, as you know that we went down and we and on each slide it shows that what tag recommended and then what we how we executed it. And this is just showing a snapshot of what we actually accomplished in 12 months as a city. Okay. The first is a city approved recommended tree list. That was that is tag that is tags work and they had subcommittees and they executed it not only in you know it's three categories was talking about and we completed that director and it's approved and it's posted on our website. Also implementing a new trimming schedule. I would want to say this again because this is huge. it we it didn't take us a year two years through our cycles to understand and adapt to the sit to the request and the recommendation. So once again in 2024 during nesting season 9,474 trees were trimmed after the recommendation adoption and looking at our operations and making adjustments. Our last trimming cycle was 173 palms. That's significant definitely for a city as large as ours and that we're able to go in and just make these changes and say, "Hey, we listen and we're we are doing action because we want to work together." Another is tree inventory. As Ray has talked about, we do, you know, one thing that the group that we've talked about is reaching out to different municipalities uh industries professionals and really collaborate to them, say, "Hey, what is the best practice? What is the most efficient ways?" And that's how we collaborate. And these what we've done we've went out and we've talked with um as Ray said at Fresno and we're understanding and so what we did is and took the recommendation from TAG and say hey we want a comprehensive you know it's not a driveby we want them to look at the tree get it so we know what we have so we can schedule our workload for the year that's what Fresno does Fresno take their inventory per every year and they get the data and then they strategically say hey you know this area does not need to be trimmed now you know over here needs some trimming and based upon the data And that is where why the recommendation from tag was saying we need a tree inventory and not only that the liability and the risk and that would help us. And so what we did is we combined it completed it also is PSAs you know public service announcement. This is one thing that was recommended by uh tree um the tree um advisory group and we implement this when we do terming and stuff. we send out, we work with the public information information officer and make sure that we post it out onto our social media onto our website and so they understanding that they can plan accordingly because I know that when I go to work and all of a sudden there's you know the lane's taken away or there's construction going on you know we don't you know we want to make sure that we give enough time and this is what we have implemented on our trimming website notification right now as we we have got a section on our web page that we have on for the tree the recommended tree list Not only that, I'm currently working with city staff onto our reporting app and looking to adding a tree section. So, not only that, we can communicate with the citizens that has complaints and and have that educational part, but also is tracking the data to know, you know, where we're going, what's got completed, how often. And this is the information that TAG has recommended for us to provide and and talks to see how we can improve and to become more efficient. And not only that is now that we are nationally recognized Tree USA 2025 a third party coming out and say hey they seen we we applied they approved they see the work that we're progressing and as we continue to go and so as I look at this list these are some heavy lifts you know planting trees in 202522 this is 12 months of all this work that we've done we sat down monthly meeting discussions communicate and we're executing and so it's pretty it's pretty impressive But that was what we just got accomplished and what we recommended and we're executing. Now we're moving into 2026 prior pritori pritorizing uh framework. So as we went to the group and we asked them there was three items that they want to but you know want to start to work on as we're going. So one is the heritage trees framework and we're currently running that through the the tree advisory group. you know, we want to protect something that we can't replace. And so, as we're walking through it, uh, information is providing and we're collaborating and to see what direction we need to go and how we can accomplish that. Another one is public education and outreach. This is huge because a lot of the discussions that we've had is that as a city and as a department, there's only so much that we can do is like, for example, onto private property. We hear about, you know, shopping centers and how they trim their trees and so forth, but there's a limitation where how far we can step in. So as a group we decided that hey education let's educate the public and let them become our partners and that we can and they can be our advocates and maybe that's how we work through it. So we are continuing to work through this in 2026 to find out how we can do this train them and and have and move forward. Another one is development and healthy tree standards. That is growth that adds to the urban tree management not subtract. And that's what we're looking at. And these are the three topics right now. Of course, there's going to be more as the year comes through and that will be added. But this is our looking forward. But I just want to assure that you know the council that the things that we've worked on in the past, we are still working on them. We're not leaving on the table. We still go back. This was our first year. We're going to come back in. We're going to look at it, revisit what worked, what was our successes, you know, collaborate with with other municipalities, other business or industry um personnel and find out how can we improve it and become more efficient. And these are the actions we're taking. And also, if you would notice this, it's not one or or the other. These are simultaneously what we're working together on. When we're looking into our tree maintenance of the urban the tree maintenance aspect of it and our tree planting, there's two things, but we're simultaneously working together to approve these to move forward with these in a positive manner. Uh, and exactly, you know, looking for funding and grants and allocations and also looking at our operations and what adjustments we're going to make and with the changes. And so this is an ongoing that will still be looked at but then continue to move forward. Okay. Uh this here is is uh our next celebrating is Earth Day April 25th at San Miguel Grove/park. It's off of Manor Street. So it's in partnership with Big Shore Rotary Club. We would like to invite the council, the community uh to join us and we'll be planting some trees, doing some, you know, cleanups in that area. But before we get into question, I would also like to recognize that we do have a few TAG members here tonight that would like to share some brief remarks before opening up for questions. The first one would be uh Dr. John Carllet. >> Well, thanks Keith and good evening everyone. I'm John Carlick. I'm with the University of California Cooperative Extension. It's part of the UC system. Our administrative center is at Davis. We've been in Kern County for more than 100 years. If you were in agriculture, we would probably have met um less so in the city, although we do offer the 4 program and many of you are, I think, are familiar with that. So, I just want to thank uh Keith and Darren and Race uh for the opportunity to participate in TAG. I come neither as an antagonist nor a protagonist. And I appreciated the words of the invocation because as part of the University of California, we would like to offer wisdom, knowledge, and understanding in the areas where we have expertise. And so that's why I'm with TAG to try to offer I'm more interested in the scientific uh aspects of horiculture and environmental science. I'm interested in how trees grow, how we can help the city improve the rate of sustainability of those trees after they're planted. And I think just looking at the slides, you would notice such a challenge it is to plant trees in an urban environment. This is not what nature does. So uh I think that's it. I I have many uh PowerPoint presentations, but I was not invited to give one of those tonight. So, we'll do a technical talk at some other time. So, again, uh Keith, thank you. And I'm going to sit. >> Thank you, Dr. Clark. >> Thank you, John. The next speaker will be Marcus Rodriguez, uh BARL College Executive Director of Facilities and Operations. Uh good evening everybody, Margo, council members, city manager, staff, and the community. I appreciate this opportunity to present uh as a member of the inaugural tag group this last year. Um trees are important to the community. I know there was uh in the public comment section, there was concern of our air quality. Unfortunately, Bakersville ranks always in the top five for worst air quality in the nation. It's not a secret. Number two for ozone typically. And so, um, I think with this tree advisory group, it's been very beneficial for the city of Bakersfield and all the constituents that we serve here. uh for Baker Shaw College. Uh we really want to um be a part of this whole activity because you know trees are important to us at the campus as well and really for all tree camp uh school campuses in Kern County, not only the cities. Um you guys have received and I want to congratulate you on receiving your Tree City US designation. And I think you guys got it for 23, 24, 25. Uh, Bakersville College. Uh, fortunately, we've gotten a treat campus higher education still uh still recognized by the uh National Arbor Day Foundation for the last five year. This is year number five for us. So, we're working side by side with you to achieve this these milestones. And I know that uh I believe it's Jesterro Park that you guys have received your ArbNet designation as an arboritum. So congratulations there. And so you know this this is the love of work for the council for the people that serve within the committee. We enjoy working with trees. I've been working with I worked in production agriculture with trees and now on landscapes now for the part better part of about 30 years. But the combined experience on the panel with John Carl, Melissa Iger, Conway Lopez, uh Pete Olison is well over 150 years of of day-to-day operational procedures and research. So again, thank you for allowing us to serve here and u I hope that with this work that we're doing that ultimately we are doing parts and pieces of an urban forest management plan and that'll be that'll eventually come to a documented format or whatever that we can follow for not only for the next few years but for the legacy that we leave behind for the community in the next 25 years. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> The next speaker is Conway Lopez, president of Tree Foundation of Kern. Good evening, council members there. Uh, I want to thank you for allowing me to come up here and speak here and um, our planning that we did last week. I want to thank Councilman Andre for Gonzalez for coming out. Bring your boots next time, but you know, thank you for coming. It's really important. You know, we we definitely need more trees. Being uh executive uh of the tree foundation, we have planted over 24,000 trees in the since 93. And as a contractor, I've planted over 50,000 trees. So, I have planted plenty of trees and we definitely need more trees, but there's a time when to plant and time when not to plant. Now, this uh thisund uh there's 40,000 trees that need to be assessed. You've got uh we got some old parks out there. You got Jastro Park, Bill Central, Jefferson, and we'll throw MLK in there with trees with a lot of health issues. We got kids that play out there. And if these trees aren't assessed, somebody's really going to get hurt. All it takes is one accident to for have a not $180,000 lawsuit. It'll be millions of dollar lawsuit. So I think before we start planting a bunch of trees, we have to see what we have here now to actually maintain. And I think an assessment you you're going to see any hazards, age, disease, cavities, root issues. So I think it would be a mistake if these trees are not assessed to have all the data there. and um working with TAG. We I think we're headed in the right direction. We have tree pres we've been talking about tree preservation, tree planting, tree issues, and I think the city's doing a great job right now and heading that direction and being part of TAG. We're kind of most of us there are on the same wavelength there. So, I'm just, you know, we have between 400 50,000 to 500,000 trees in Bakersville. I don't know if you guys know that, but that's a lot of trees here. And there's 40,000 trees that are going to be assessed. Those are at the older parks. And I sure hate to see a tree fall and have a liability. So that is my suggestion that it's really be important for an assessment so we don't have an actual lawsuit. >> Thank you, Conway. I'm ready for some questions. If you guys have questions, >> we have to go to the public. Um, thank you, Mr. Howell. Thank you, Mr. Sllayton and Tree Advisory Group. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Do we have any public speaker requests? America, we've received three speaker cards for this item. The first public speaker is Eddie Lane. >> Welcome. Please introduce yourself. >> I'm Eddie Lane with Sierra Club. Um, I want to speak about this report. Key portions of this report are misleading. It reads that the request of tag tree trimming during non- nesting season indicates according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife nesting season is February 1 through August 31st. That's a halftruth. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife next indicates the best time is during the dormant season late fall to winter. Late fall would be November and December. That's a big issue. Also misleading, no mention of a subcommittee meeting with Keith Cal on June 26, 2025 during which he indicated there would be no tree trimming uh ex except during uh only occurred during October through February provided for your review. And I've got a whole lot of uh of these uh these little these little uh invoices here. provided for your review are invoices showing tree trimming uh and removal from July these are just three from July 25 20 July 1st 2025 to September 30th 225 a price tag of over $225,000 657 trees are removed no funding in the budget to replace them that's California Records Act request also misleading that a tree trimming schedule exists which been shared where where our request there's a five five-page letter that we provided to you with 11 specific items that the rep department would provide a written response to those issues. The first being the common sense report that there be monthly monthly tree trimming reports to this council and as well as to the to tag including the cost monthly reports. That's what we really need, transparency. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Lane. Madam clerk, next speaker please. >> Sharon Bril, welcome. Hi. Um, I think that, uh, everyone is trying their best to do a good job. Uh, and we're not trying to be adversarial towards the city staff. We know they're working under a culture that is probably not the kind of culture that's going to s where trees are going to survive with climate change. So, I I want to say that I appreciate what they're trying to do. Um but as a citizen uh who works in the parks on the southwest side, the part of town that is closer to what would be a healthy environment for people having more trees in my area of town than other people. Um I just know how important trees are to making it possible to go walking. As a senior, walking is really important, but you can't walk if it's real hot and there's no tree shades. And on Scarlet Oak, there's over 15 trees that have died through the years that I've lived there and they've not been replaced. And I'm not asking for them to be replaced because there's places that need trees more than my area. But what I'm saying is we've got to change the culture here. We've got to be more appreciative of how difficult it is for a tree to survive when they're overtrimmed. They just can't survive. El Rancho did a whole lot of trimming on older road. If you drive by there now, those trees are now sitting off a whole lot of water shoots, which is the weakest kind of part of the tree that really can't support the tree because it's been overtrimmed. Lastly, the reality of planting trees now is bad. It's going to be too hot. I, as a citizen, took buckets of water down to water trees that were planted in Pin Oak Park because they were too far from the sprinkler. So, you need to take care and use that money wisely or it's going to be wasted. >> Thank you, Miss Barrow. Madam Clerk, next speaker, please. Anchelau, >> welcome. >> Good afternoon. My name is Ana. I'm a biologist at CSUB. I'm a member of tech and I'm also a member of the tree advisor of of Sierra Club. Sorry. Actually, when I was looking at all my colleagues from the tree advisory group, I was worried or I was wondering why I was not asked by the city staff to present my experience. Was there a reason? You know, I'm not always saying something negative. I could also say a lot of positive things that we have achieved. But why wasn't I asked to say something good? Okay. So, um, okay. So, I want to say a couple things. So, we all agree that trees are good. So unfortunately, nobody who is exposed to the Bakersfield air for years and years and suffers from from mental health, from physical health uh problems is putting out a lawsuit. So you're not expecting to have any any lawsuits from them. I don't like that. Here's the the scare being put out there. If we are not trim trimming our trees, there will be a million dollar uh lawsuit against the city. I think this is exaggerating and trying to scare you. I think what we need to focus on is really how to get our tree canopy increased. And Keith Howell showed the data that more trees were planted over time. But what I would like to see as a scientist who works with data is did that actually make a difference? What is the percentage increase in tree canopy? And then when we plant a lot of trees, yeah, that is good. But the trees that we plant are small. So what is the tree canopy coverage increase? we probably see or have the benefit from from these plantings in maybe five or 10 years. So we need to consider that. So we don't see a lot of um like uh canopy increase and um reduction of urban heat island effect in the next years and and that I come to my last point. Can I have one more sentence? So go ahead. What I want to ask for is that we really if we want to improve the tree canopy, we need to have sustainable funding to get going with this because if we only get money for for this year $150,000 which we can maybe plant up to 600 trees, we need more money in a sustained way because otherwise we will not significantly increase the tree canopy which is in Bakersfield like in some areas less than 1%. So, we need a debt. We need a this should be a priority. If we're really all behind it, we need more money and grant writing is part of it, but also the budget of the city of Bakersfield should consistently um give some money for it. >> Thank you, Miss Larry. >> Madam Clerk, are there any other speakers? >> Mayor Go, that was our final public speaker. >> Thank you. And so now we'll just go to the public. Uh Mr. Clay, would you like to offer any comments before we go to the uh council for comments? >> Yeah, thank you, mayor and council. I just wanted to offer one point of clarification. We did acknowledge some of the early assessment work related to the inventory in our presentation and we acknowledged, of course, that there had been, you know, work bid out. Um, but that does uh not uh contradict the direction that we received at our last meeting. We recognize and understand the council direction that the tree inventory was not going to move forward as proposed at the last meeting that in instead those funds would be allocated towards planting of trees. Uh we are reassessing different ways that we could potentially still accomplish um the principal goals or all the goals of the inventory as recommended by the tree advisory group. Uh but I I just want to acknowledge that council direction from last meeting and and that we we received and and and understand that direction and we're thinking about other ways to to pursue the inventory. U I anticipate a number of questions from council. Happy to answer those questions. Just one piece of information that I don't think was as um I could put a a finer point on it from the presentation. the number of trees that were uh trimmed or removed in this last year. Um the 600 to 700 number that has been referenced a couple of times in different presentation points and comments. Uh those trees that have been trimmed or removed during the nesting season, those were all dead, dying, or represented hazardous conditions. And so we've always said that we're going to have to continue to trim or or address any trees that rep, you know, represent a safety concern, but outside of that, we're not doing proactive or we did not do proactive trimming in 2025 outside of the dates that were suggested. >> Thank you, Mr. Click. Vice Mayor, >> thank you. Uh thank you to staff as well as to the members of TAG for your work on um making sure that we increase our tree canopy and we keep our community healthy. Um when this when the council first established the tree um advisory group, the goal really was to reduce the heat island effect and study how many trees we have. Are we taking good care of them? And I appreciate the partnership between community members as well as the city and I feel that's when government does its best work is when we have very thorough and active uh participation um between the two and also it then activates others to join um for my own knowledge and just out of my own curiosity so I can best understand um what's kind of going on here uh I just had a couple of questions for our Yes. So you shared about the rotation or the scheduling of trimming. Um how far out do you schedule the trimmings? Like is there a point at which you all sit down and you assess or is there are you gathering information? um is there like a documentation happening of when there are dilapitated trees and and then you sit down you review it. What could you walk me through what that process looks like? >> So I think Race you want to talk about this is all brand overseas everything. So I'll let Ray speak on that. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Vice Mayor U. So the way it works usually is we have we're separated into six different areas um six areas of uh maintenance I guess you could say. So, six different supervisors. What they'll do, they'll put together a list of their trees that are they think may be in bad shape. Um, I will receive that list and then myself, my colleague, uh, will look at that and then we will, if we deem that it is in fact dead or dying, then we will reach out to the contractor who is tree risk qualified, he'll assess it. So, there's not usually one or two arbors looking at. There's usually three of us at some point, sometimes two. I'm sometimes in the office. I can't get out, but my colleague, he definitely looks at it and so does our our track certified um contractor. >> When is that usually like at what point during the during the year? At what point are you >> depends um for it depends on the risk. Um some trees you can look at and say I can almost guarantee it's no risk. If it falls, it's not going to hurt anything. It's there might be a sump behind the wall. it's leaning towards a sump. No one lives in the sump. No one's there. So, that in my opinion could probably wait till we get a chance to get to it. There's other things uh that could be immediate hazards in a park, things like that where I'm going to take action immediately. I'm not going to wait because to me it's a liability for the city. So, that that's how it kind of works. It's we have a lot of eyes out there. Not only supervisors, our staff is out there. We haveundred and how many staff do we have? 150 staff roughly. So, you know, in the parks and streetscapes every day. So, they report back also. I hope that answers the question. >> Yeah, it does. Um, so it's not it's not like a collection of or like gathering all of the trees like you're not just coming up with the list and then you're sitting down. It's kind of case by case is what you're sharing. >> Yeah. Yeah. Well, actually, we do gather. I mean, there'll be times where we know it's our trimming season's coming up and we'll go out and look at all these different uh trees or areas, streets where we know we didn't trim maybe the last year, we want to trim this year. Um, we do have some high-profile areas that we get a lot of complaints in certain areas of town that we have to address. Um, but to answer your question, no, there's not a a time of the year or a collective list that we have Okay. Yeah, >> it's it's very difficult. I mean, it's like I said, it's kind of hard to manage what I don't know I have and been doing it for a lot of years to the best of my ability. Um, everybody I've talked to, all my colleagues, uh, different cities, Vicelia Fresno they all have a way to to manage it. Yeah. >> What would be a good method that is for managing it that works in other places? Um well there's several programs there's ite fulcrum um software software is software that absolutely what it does it gives you an extra >> we don't have software right now like when sorry >> no you're fine >> when you are looking to remove a tree you aren't >> essentially you're not taking inventory of that there's no way of documenting okay but a software would help >> and nor do we have any way to know where one needs to go back or that area or you I don't know really. Okay. I mean, we I kind of know because I do it every day, so I know where trees are coming out. >> Um I know there's certain areas. Um I know Plans Park has some really old trees that are really in bad shape. >> I know we need to plant trees in that park, >> right? >> Um so it's a lot of it's up here, right? >> But I that's no I'm not a computer, that's for darn sure. >> But um yeah, software would help. Um, and like I said, there's different different ways. Fulcrum, iTree, there's all kinds of different um, programs to do. >> Well, I think that's one solution that we found tonight. I I'd like to make the recommendation that we explore a software that would allow for us if we don't have something already um, that could allow for us to inventory trees as well as for us to then better identify where a tree needs to go once it's removed. Is that something we've already looked into, city manager, or I'm surprised we don't have something like that. So, Vice Mayor, mayor and council, um there's a couple of different pieces to this one is uh that the inventory item that we discussed at our last meeting was part of this solution. Just to be candid with you, um the piece about software um as we have uh been doing our catchup around software uh over the last five six years, we've u had a significant increase in the number of software systems that we've deployed. Um and uh you not not just our our ERP, you know, core financial system. We've had dozens of other software systems that we've implemented and we've been trying to prioritize and phase those out. But uh we we do look forward to either using uh some of our GIS tools or a specific standalone software that can help us um track that information. That is on our um target, but we haven't gotten to that um point in sort of our prioritization list of all the softwares to to implement. But yes, that is on our list of future um tools that would be helpful for us. How do we add that to um a solution for I think that's kind of the crux of is we don't we're not documenting a tree that gets removed and or why and then we don't know where to put that tree back. That's exactly the issue. >> Vice Mayor, if I may. Um so the contract we put out for a tree inventory, the contractor provides the software. It interacts with RGis which is something the city does have now. >> Yes. So it would mesh with their with our system. So we would have that layer in our GIS. So they would do all the software, they would do all the inventory, and then that would be sent to us to put onto our our layers, I guess you could say. That's how Argis works. Different layers. >> Yeah. Like I'm not a computer guy, but uh I I'm still learning this stuff, too. So it's new to me. I just want to make I just want to help us get to the solution of how we resolve where you all are doing the work in taking care of trees that um need to be healthier. Our community advocates are saying that >> the trees are not being replaced and it seems a solution is that we implement a technology a software where you know even like our big city app you just click a picture and you submit it. If our employees have that or something of that sort seems that it resolves what what we're kind of stuck at at least one sticking point within this. Um so if that was a part of you're and and city manager you're saying that was a part of the tree inventory conversation we had at the last meeting. So those dollars that were allocated were also to add a software that would then do a tree inventory cuz that was not in the item that was not listed as one of the solutions of the tree inventory. a tree inventory as it was described in the item was a list of trees that are in the city andor trees that should be planted in the city. >> Could I get some clarity on that? >> Yeah, thank you, Vice Mayor, mayor and counsel. What that item would have done was it would not acquire a new software system for tracking. It would have populated that information into our GIS system. I think um I'm I'm taking away some good feedback from this conversation that you know could there be opportunities to um there are some softwares out there where people can take pictures and upload those pictures um you know kind of like a mobile app application but in in large part the item that was before your council um would have populated our GIS system with that inventory information. >> Okay. Well, on that note, I'd like to make a referral that the software that our arborist has suggested be explored and we explore it that our city implement it in the ways that other cities like our neighbors in Viceelia have done. Um, and I hope that that helps bridge at least a part of um the gaps that we're seeing in in the tree planting. Um, I have a few other clarifying questions. Uh, there it was mentioned that there are locations for the 2026 tree plantings. Um was the tree canopy percentage p in determining those locations um was the tree plan that's in our park master plan is was that what was utilized to determine the planting locations for those that are happening in 2026? >> At this point what we're doing is we know where we have vacancy holes basically. So I know currently we're doing Baker Street um uh Chester this week. I think we'll have someone on Chester going in. Um what was the other street we just did? >> Yeah. You want to help me Keith because I can't remember exactly where you put from them all, but >> yeah, you had listed them. I just my hope is that we can use that tool that city staff has so diligently worked on with others. I mean, the tree canopy is the lowest in ward 1 and seven. So, I'm hoping that we can start where we have the least amount of trees. It's >> Yes. Uh, mayor, vice mayor core. Yes. So from our last uh last council meeting that I was speaking of and council member Eris and also yourself was talking about ward 17 that is the priority for these trees to go into these areas as we look into the index and so we have made that a priority um and that's why that's where we're working and as we go into the fall and we're identifying other areas and basing off that un underserved areas and also looking at the tree index as review and to schedule the plantings in these locations. Okay. Yeah. I mean, we have an excellent tool. I mean, it has a list of, you know, trees that would feel more native in our city and aren't water intensive. So, my hope is that that tool be utilized when we are and we have community members that are willing to volunteer their expertise to to really aid our our city staff in in the way that um that would help us really and get the word out that we're doing good work at the city in in accomplishing our goals with increasing our tree canopy. >> Yeah. Council member, Vice Mayor, I I agree with you exactly on that is the communication and telling our story and we do look at the the tree plan and as we're looking through it also states in one of the the the recommendations is to expand that tree list that is in our plan and that's why that the tag the tree advisor group did pick up on as a recommended tree list not only for what we should plant also to educate the public and it has states onto the tree plan on what is the best tree for our environment and we move forward And there's some trees we're not going to plant that do that does not do well and as the committee the group came through and eliminated them off the recommend tree list and we are utilizing that tree list onto the plant into our planting. >> Thank you for that. Um, my question about the tree inventory, and really this is for my own knowledge, is um, do you need a different tree inventory when you are determining which trees you're going to plant than the one that's in the park master plan or is that the is that the list of trees you use when you do plant trees? Like when you're selecting what we plant, what do you are you referencing that? >> We are referencing that. And then also because as you know that Conway Lopez he was also on putting was a uh worked with the tree master plan. So we are actually added to that list. So we are looking at the list and I believe uh don't quote me I I can look that it is on both recommendation list and what to plant. So we're looking at to what trees best fits us and as we talk as a group. >> Okay. And um for for our tag group um when we are coming up with this tree inventory, is it kind of like is that part of what you all are talking about at tag? Is that like a participatory kind of um conversation around that particular inventory or I'm kind of curious how because I from what I'm hearing there's services available from volunteers are willing to help with that and there's a education institution willing to partner is that something we've considered >> so when we looked at it and we discussed it multiple times within the tree at U tree advisory group as a group and discussing on what is the recommendation from that group on a tree inventory and they want a comprehensive plan. So it's also as the risk assessment. This plan that that we talked about uh or as a tree inventory, it's just not counting the trees as driving by. It's really looking at the health of the trees, understanding the size of the tree and uh the canopy. And so this is a whole lot more information that is provided through this. It's data driven. It would be the first time ever that the city of Baw has all their information on to be in data and then we would take that tree inventory and that would be the decisions that we make because on that when they do the tree inventory and they inspect it it'll lab it'll notify hey this is needs to be trimmed or does not be need to be trimmed that's on the report that's that's submitted and at that time the city arborist will review that and that would designate where we need to trim what we don't need to trim but these are all all these conversations that have been in the tag in the tag meetings and we brought up in concerns and actually looked at it and then that's where it came into where we want to talk with Fresno and other industry uh professionals. So we've had multiple discussions on this and as we were chipping away we were coming up with our tree contract and also the training practices because that was a big priority. But another thing is to move forward and to increase our our urban force management is that we would need to know what we have and this was where the discussion was uh centered around and so we executed the plan. Vice Mayor, if I may, just really quickly, and I appreciate Keith trying to be comprehensive with his answer, but just to to be a succinct answer for you, is >> the level of detail required a certain level of expertise and the most expeditious way to get that level of detailed expertise was determined by the tag to be by contract. Could we potentially, you know, consider uh, you know, folks who may be at an educational institution and graduate students or other volunteers and train them up to a certain standard. That could be a possible solution. But to get the level of detailed inventory required, a level of expertise that again, the TAG determined the most expeditious way to get that was by a contract, but we're looking at other options based on council's feedback at our last meeting. >> Okay. Thank you. Um I just have two more comments. Um and one is around the tree advisory group when it was created. Um, you know, obviously the the work is important and popular within the community and folks are uh intrigued and interested, but we have a number of community- based organizations um that I feel would also be valuable uh to add to TAG. If I'd like to make the recommendation that um we explore with recommendations coming from within TAG members uh to add groups um and those are folks that are here regularly the Ottabon Society the Native Plant Society building healthy communities leadership council of course the Sierra Club and um and even if there's student groups I I feel there's a plethora of folks who are committed to making sure that we reduce the heat in our city and are able to plant um more trees uh especially given our air quality, given the conditions of our environment. Um so I I feel there's a lot work to do and uh your group could certainly uh benefit from having more shoulders in the room. So um that would be my recommendation is to expand the tree advisory group and um for each tree uh that's removed at least one tree is to be planted. Um, I almost want to lean on my city attorney and ask how we write that in somewhere into a practice at the city. >> Mayor, vice mayor, um, I'm going to look over to Phil Burns because I thought we had a landscape policy if um, that already provided for that. If not, we can certainly add it there. >> Mr. parents. >> Vice Mayor, I I I'm struggling to think of a we do have landscape requirements and that's really more for private development than the >> uh streetscapes and things that we're talking about here. I think that's more related to public works and parks is maintenance. Uh we do require anytime a private developer removes a tree within like a site plan, they're required to put that tree back at at an adequate size. >> Okay. Well, I'd like to explore that being an ordinance at the city of some sort or where it can be added and if there's other cities that have a similar practice or at least a guiding principle. Um, and as we build in more support systems with having a way to document where a tree has been removed and as we grow this as a priority at the city, which I certainly think it is, and there's diligent work being done around it, um, I hope that can ground us. Um, I would say to you that of the of the options that you gave, I do think that development services can come up can mirror a policy because we have other policies as to how the council treats general plans and and and and those types of um policy issues. I think that that would be better than an ordinance, but we already do have and I would agree with you that we probably do need to review our existing ordinances on trees and the crime that um you know what is the crime when someone um damages a city tree, etc., and what and what that what that penalty should should entail. That's definitely something that should belong in the ordinance. >> Thank you. I appreciate that and I appreciate if that would come back to us so we can have a further discussion about it. I think trees are more than just something that stand in our community. They provide shade, but they also provide refuge. They provide us the ability to keep communities healthy uh in a multitude of ways. When we talk about the social determinance of health, it goes beyond just our physiological health. Our mental health is better if you're staring at a tree even and you see the leaves moving. Um communities are known, I mean, statistically, uh have less crime when there is shade. Um, and our summers are just far too hot for us to not prioritize this and and take care of it. Um, and and have trees that are native to uh to our home here in Bakersfield. So, I appreciate all the work so far and I appreciate our community advocates. Um, and I look forward to more work to come. Thank you, Vice Mayor. We have four more requests to speak. Colleagues, are you able to hang on before we take a break? Okay. Council member Gonzalez. >> Okay. Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate that. Um, first of all, thank you to Recreation and Parks for the wonderful presentation and also thank you to the members of TAG for your commitment of time and energy volunteering to help us uh move towards a much more robust and healthier tree canopy. I think all of us up here and there's many people in the community recognize the value of a of a strong tree canopy throughout the city of Bakersfield. Uh, this is a conversation that the community has been having for decades now. I mean, I remember when I first came back from college and we started conversations in the community about a tree canopy and the heat island effect. So, this is these conversations aren't new. This has been a longgoing effort for years and years and years. And I think the level at which we have these conversations is really important. And it feels like we're getting into a lot of uh a lot of important um uh nuance uh as it relates to our tree canopy and trees in general. uh because as we talk about a perhaps a new policy of not to remove a tree without replacing it, we have to consider not every tree is equal. There are some dead trees that are still up. There are some diseased trees. There are trees that are obstructing the line of sight for um traffic and for pedestrians and could lead to a lot of dangerous situations for our community. Um there there are important nuances for us to consider when we have these conversations. Um and I want to just again thank all of the folks in the tag team because it was my expectation that that those conversations those nuance conversations were happening in this group because frankly none of us up here on the council with all due respect to my colleagues I don't think were certified arborists. I certainly am not. I was the president of the tree foundation for a couple years, but I I was not a certified arborist. Uh and so I want to make sure that we give space to uh those experts to give us their best recommendations. Um and and that's uh that's my position on all of this. How many of how many of us in this room actually are certified arborists right now? Will you please raise your hand? Okay, a few. Okay, there's about four, I think. Now we look at the uh the whole conversation we've had within the last half an hour or so. I'm distilling this conversation down to three main topics. U number one is the tree trimming standards and really the time of year. Time of year. Um currently tag is recommended September through January. Correct? >> It's yes or no. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, out of those folks who are certified arborists, how many of you are confident with that tree trimming schedule? Just want to get a poll here. If you if you are comfortable with that window, please raise your hand. If you're uncomfortable with that window, raise your hand. You feel like it should be longer. >> Yes. >> Okay. How many of you can live with that window of >> Yeah, please. >> Sorry. I think we can make it work if we have to. It puts a lot of pressure on staff and contractors, but I think it's it can happen. After seeing what happened this year, I think we could possibly do it. And outside of that schedule, um there are times when you might need to trim a tree. >> Absolutely. >> Those are examples you gave just a moment. >> Absolutely. 100%. >> Diseased trees. >> Correct. limbs that are >> the complaints basically over over walls into pools, roofs of houses, um line of sight issues, things you mentioned, signal lights, things like that, high school lanes. >> So even with that standard, you may have to deviate from from it and trim trees outside of that schedule. >> That is correct. Um, these invoices that we received, are those examples where we had to trim trees because of other things other than trimming a healthy tree? >> I'm not exactly sure what invoices you have, but um, no, it shouldn't be. They should be our general contract for tree trimming, >> Mr. Clug. I again without having reviewed them in depth um but my understanding based on the fact that we um only had our contractors do proactive trimmings for those 173 palms outside of that all the rest were on an as needed basis during that time window. >> Okay, >> Mr. Gonzalez. >> Yes, we we didn't have a contract. We we paused the contract in March of 2025 and we didn't start again with a new contractor till I believe it was August. There may be some stuff in March that happened possibly, but >> okay. >> To my knowledge, um we didn't do anything until August. We did remove some trees in August also, >> but those were, as Mr. Kle said, those were dead or diseased or there was a reason they came out. It looks like all of these were dated for September. >> September. >> Anyway, >> yeah, September was was within our window. So, they are for regular trimmings. Yeah, I gotcha. I just got this, too. So, I'm I'm reviewing >> August September would be within our window correct? >> Yeah, exactly. All right. Second topic, uh, because I want to hear from my colleagues. Um, tree planting is the second topic, right? And I think um there was a good point made that it's not just about tree planting in order to enhance the tree canopy. We also have to make sure that we're number one planting in the right time of year because we have had experiences where we've planted tons of trees and they've only lasted a few months and you know they weren't around the the following year they died. >> Uh that that's a waste of taxpayer money. That's a waste of our time. Um and it's just a waste in general. So, you know, it's not just about planting a whole bunch of new trees. It's also about understanding when the right time is to is to actually plant and also um the appropriate trees to plant and where. Is that correct? >> That's very correct. And also infrastructure is a big part of this. Um if you don't have water to a tree, we're not going to it's not going to make it. Let's be honest. Um uh I think that's the for my opinion that's the biggest challenge I see as a city arborist is I would love to plant trees in underserved communities and and it'd be great. I just it's not going to live. The infrastructure >> in the newer parts of town, let's be honest, are built differently than the old part. Um so when we're looking at planting in underserved communities, it's going to cost us more >> because of the infrastructure issues we have to uh consider. >> Yeah. Thank you. And then the last topic wasn't hit on at all. May maybe somebody referenced it and that's related to climate. You know, um I appreciate us comparing Bakersfield with Fresno. Um but we have very different climates, right? I mean, that's sort of the elephant in the room here. And and and I'm not sure why we're not being honest. I'm not not honest, but just being upfront with the reality that, you know, our average rainfall is like 6 in annually. Fresno is like almost 11 in. Is that correct? >> To my knowledge, yes. >> Okay. And and I mean, how does that contribute to the overall tree canopy? >> That was a recommendation from TAG was to reach out to Fresno. >> No, no, I understand that. >> And that's what we did. I mean, it was kind of it was what we did. I mean, we're it's a group and we all together as a group we talk and it was brought up, hey, maybe we should talk to Fresno. We use Fresno as a model. Um, we're trying to work together and make things better. I mean, we're >> question is just as an arborist, what is what is the impact to the amount of rainfall >> in a region to the tree canopy? >> Oh, it's significant, I believe. I mean, it's it's different. We have different species. I know some of the trees they use over there are different than what we have here for sure. >> Um, you want to speak, John? >> Please. >> This guy's wealth of knowledge right here. >> I love it. I love it. >> Please do. >> Well, I think you ra I think you rais an excellent point and the rainfall difference is significant. uh the climate therefore and I'm using that term now broadly but it is different uh tree species selection will be a little bit different irrigation requirements will be a little different I think we have to remember here in terms of reference evapo transpiration the amount of water plants need varies by a factor of 10 from winter to summer so these things need to be considered and we haven't yet entered in in back to what I'm really looking forward to and that's a discussion of root geometry and soil physics and that plays too exactly into how we water the trees, how we establish the trees and how we're going to sustain them. But I wanted to acknowledge your point because I think that I think the difference is important and I think we'd use other cities as models as well if we wanted to. >> That was going to be my recommendation. Thank you so much. The mayor's asking me to wrap up my comments so I will do so. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. >> Thank you, Council Member Coleman. No, Council Member Coleman. I'm sorry. The public comment is already up and we're trying to move this along. We have a number of other very large issues for consideration tonight. Council member Coleman please. >> Thank you, Mayor. I'll try to go through my comments quickly. Um, Mr. How, uh, thank you for coming here today. I really appreciate it. I'm sorry I didn't get the name of the arborist. >> My name Rick Clankace. Race. R A C like race car race slatton. >> Okay. Thank you. Um you know at the last meeting I expressed some frustration because we haven't heard from the tree advisory group. This was formed over a year ago and the very first we've heard from you was when you came here asking for $180,000 for a tree survey. And so that you know set me on my heels a little bit. And so I I I guess my my question really is it took you a year to decide you needed a tree survey? >> No, it did not take us a year. We've been working and working with the group as a topic comes in. We work through it and we collaborate through what we wanting, what's the recommendation as working through then also going through the process. uh there are certain things that we wanted to make sure that we were addressing that was the top priority which was the urban management the tree trimming and so we accomplished that but it was an ongoing as we're working through with the group. I appreciate what you've said here today because it gave me a little uh different perspective and I think that's one of our frustrations is for the last year we've only been getting one perspective and you know nobody from staff has been coming to uh kind of advise us on what's going on. So, I I I I really would would like that maybe talk to city manager about uh you know having more frequent updates as long as this becomes this remains a significant issue. But uh I wanted to ask you a specific question, a technical question. What is a city tree? If you look at slide number 11 in your presentation, you show a nice streetscape. Is that entire streetscape are all those city trees or are they not city trees? And that I think that's a a real important question for me. >> Yeah, not all not all trees on a uh streetscape is a city maintained tree. You're asking for particularly that one. >> Yeah. And that slide right there, you see this? Yes. Trees down the median. Yes, that's those are yours. Yes. >> What about the trees on the sides? Yeah, it's hard to tell it. You know, um I I I don't know what street this is or whatever. I guess my point is that, you know, I go down some of these streets and I I don't know who's maintaining them, whether it's the city maintaining them or the individual property owner. So, and this came up on Gosford because I called and complained about the way the trees were being pruned. And I was told that well we don't have any authority on those that face the street and and and if that's the case what is being done to get us some authority to be able to control that if anything >> we have discussion I think I referred to >> city manager >> yeah council member I don't think there there is conversation about the city trying to take that authority on I think you have a couple of different tools one you have code enforcement that could be used as a potential tool. Uh I think uh the other tool is our development standards for new construction, new builds. We can control what goes in. Um I understand the the interest in making sure that we have a good look and feel and good quality of life in our community. Um I would caution the council to try and overregulate the trimming of trees as a code issue. I don't think we have the capacity to to frankly enforce that and manage that and it would take significant additional staff oversight to manage that at a different level. I think that's one of the reasons that at the TAG they it was noted earlier in the presentation that one of the best tools that we have is the public education and outreach is to try and get more information out to um both um contractors who do that work as well as you know uh property owners and developers who who do that trimming. But I think to take that liability on as a city is a bigger liability than we can handle and to regulate it is also something that I don't think is within our capacity right now. >> Uh I understand what you're saying, but I don't think the general public knows the difference between who's pruning the tree the tree on the side of this road and who's pr pruning the tree down the center of the road. And so I don't know if there can be, you know, these tree trimming companies need to be licensed by the city if there can't be some oversight through the lensure or whatever. I don't know. Uh I guess maybe that's a topic for another time. But uh I am concerned about that. You know, we have some guidelines on how to trim trees and uh you know, all the species are different and some if you c if you top them, they'll never grow again and uh some some the property owners want to do that. Uh but we have a vested interest in beautifying the whole street. And so I don't I really like the tag to address what what might be done about that. I don't know. I don't know. Um we you uh city manager talked about development standards and you didn't mention that here today uh about specific trees that we require and have we developed a new master list of trees that the developers can plant or is it still just plant just by size and they can plant whatever they want? No. So, actually, in fact, Council Member Coleman, actually, we do have staff member, we do have staff that does review the development plans on landscaping and making sure that they're following the correct specs um and also the right tree is getting um planted into the right area with this the spacing. So, we do see those plans we and make sure that the contractor is following. And just to add, council member Kman, I think specific to your question, we do have a specific tree pallet list of that's allowed and we've been reducing allowable trees in in our reviews over several years, we've tried to make the pallet simpler so that there's more consistency and clarity. >> Okay. U and what what is being done uh to ensure the survival of the trees we're planting? So what we did is right now with the tree planting that we're moving forward and working with the recommendations of tag is that we had looked into operations and making sure that the city arborist is overseeing the plantings and making sure the checks on it and make sure it's the right tree, right location, educating staff and to making sure that we have an eyes on it as it continue to move forward. And so there's an oversight of irrigation and those kind that tree is going to continue to get irrigated because you heard Miss Bil get up and say that she carries buckets out to the trees because they're planted where there no sprinkler heads. So that's a a practice of the past. So uh well depending upon sometimes you know is with the infrastructure there might be breaks, vandalism and we address those. uh but it is our standard that we are making sure that the staff is educated and notified and observe the new plantings and have that on a particular schedule watering schedule and making sure that they are looking and observing it. >> Thank you. And and I'll get to my last two questions real quick. Um the the next question has to do with that tree survey and you know we have a lot of eminent uh uh people here in the room from uh from the UC program from BC's program from Cal State's program. Is it not possible to develop a graduate study program that you know we could they could go out and survey those trees? I mean there there has to be some programs between these universities that can that can do that. Uh I you know you talked about having the species and that kind of thing. I mean the graduate students should be able to determine that. Maybe there's some question about whether they can determine if a tree is healthy or or whatever. But I I just wonder if you guys couldn't come up with a a better plan than spending $200,000 to have a company do that. >> I I think uh council member, depending on whether you'd like response from members of the tree advisory group, what I would suggest is the tree advisory group, which has, you know, individuals from three different um university institutions had recommended this other approach, but we understand the feedback from council is to reconsider a different approach. We'll we'll ask the tag to discuss again and provide a feedback to us we can share back to council. >> Thank you. And my last question I swear uh both both sides need to understand that one of the challenges that we have here on the council is allocation of scarce resources. and we only have so much money and we have a lot of objectives in the city and the the trees are an important one, but they're not the only one. And so, uh, as we approach the new budget year, uh, we've we're not seeing growth in our revenues coming in and we're seeing growth in our expenses, uh, insurance and those kind of things that are going up. And so uh we may not see us spending the kind of money that some people would like us to see like to see us spend on planting and that kind of thing. But our commitment I think at council is still to uh make sure that your group has the resources they need to maintain the trees we have meet the planning obligations. But, uh, you know, a lot of groups just need to need to know that we're probably not going to get everything we want. And so, I'll leave my comments at that. Thank you, Mayor. >> Thank you, Council Member Coleman. Council member Smith. >> Thank you, Mayor. Uh, first, I want to thank the TAG group for, you know, pushing this forward. And I also really appreciate staff working with them over the last year. I you know I see this as a great success story. You know when you talk about the number of trees that you used to trim uh in the wrong season and the number of trees that you trim now and the in the right season and the and the number of increase in actual trees planted is substantial and working with the community in the right direction. So it's to me it's a big win and obvious that we're headed in the right direction. So, I appreciate that. Uh, I have to say I really appreciate the the picture of Riverwalk Park with the concrete and then the uh trees. You know, this is was my idea. So, I'm going to say hurrah. Uh, I will ask about the you mentioned, you know, maybe we'll end up at five or six years on the trimming. Where are we now? Council member Smith, that's hard to determine to be honest with you. I couldn't give you an exact answer on that. Um, right now it's is kind of as needed. Um, so like I said, some species require more trimming than others. I mean, oaks require very little trimming. You could probably go 8 to 10 years on those in some instances. uh re you know other trees such as a Chinese pistache or I mean sorry a Chinese elm that hangs real low all the time you're going to trim those up more for road clearance things like that so it just depends on the species and certain areas you know Brimhall um >> uh I guess it would be what I don't want to go into details but there's a a street on brim brim that is u nothing but Chinese elms >> right >> and we trim those more often than we would >> old river has that too Yeah, exactly. So, it it really I can't answer that question to be honest with you. >> Thank you. So, I guess anyway, my point was if we are I thought what I heard is slowing down on the trimming then theoretically that leaves more money for planting and we could spend the same amount of money and do less trimming and more planting. And since we're looking at next year's budget, I, you know, would make that as a recommendation moving forward. Thank you. Um, again, 1,22 trees from the 7 or 800 is is a big success. I will say on the on the inventory, I'm sitting on North of the River Parks board and they just bought some software a year or two ago where, you know, they're actually themselves doing the trees. And I guess that's one problem I have with what I think I heard with the inventory was, you know, I I get this inventory, but it's not a living document as opposed to if you buy some software, then when you take one out, you know, it shows up in the software, you punch it in, you put a new one in, it shows up. So, it's it's more updated all the time and you actually have software that you're working with. >> Council member Smith, if I may, it is a living document. So, um, the ultimate goal, and I'm sure it's down the roadways, um, would be to have maybe a laptop or a device and in all of our vehicles that we do trimming with, >> right? >> And they would actually update as they trim. >> So then what I heard was the software wasn't coming with it. I mean, you'd have to have the software to do that. >> Well, it it would be this is the software is in the contract. is provided by the contractor and what it would be is it would be able to be downloaded onto our GIS system >> and then we can operate it >> we would have we would have all the records of that and as they continue to update it yearly or probably yearly had to be yearly then it would continue to >> I don't know about them updating it that's my question is why why wouldn't we just have it and >> I think I think there's there's two different routes we could take and again I think we can do some more homework on this come back to council but um the our GIS system is the living system. If they do all that information and then uploads and connects into our GIS, let's say we change vendors in 5 years and they you know we don't don't have the same, you know, vendor, same system, we could continue to use our GIS system as the living inventory or connect it to another software. Another option is have a standalone software that does it all on its own. I think one of the things that one of our technology philosophies is to maximize the use of our existing systems and and licenses and that's why we were looking at the GIS system because it's it's really powerful with the different layers that that was discussed. >> Uh but we'll come back and compare those two options standalone software. >> Appreciate it. GIS. Uh, did I hear we have 500,000 trees in Bakersville? >> Wow. Uh, so I guess that's my last point is is great progress, communication going in the right direction and you know it's it's budget time. So how do we move forward? How do we continue to move forward in the direction that's obvious? Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Arius. >> I promise I'm going to do my best to keep this short concise. >> I'm confident. Thank you to everyone who's come to comment on this issue. I think we are all in agreement on many of the different topics and pieces to this work. Um, I just want to underscore what I think is the biggest challenge, which is that if we are at 450,000 to 500,000 trees across the city of Bakersfield and we only have point not even 1% 65% tree canopy coverage in the city of Bakersfield and we are talking about replacing one for one trees. we will never even get to 1%. And so that is my major issue um that I think we need to tackle. Um I think we have the capacity to do it. I think where the will is there, the resources will be there and you know I think we want to be as helpful as we can to you know make progress on that effort. Um this this is a personal issue for me. Um, I grew up wondering why it was that both my parents' generation and and my generation, each one of us has asthma and we've had it since we were children. Um, all of us born in the Central Valley. Um, and it's not an anomaly. This is a natural occurrence of unfortunately you are predisposed to greater health risks just by virtue of living in the South Sanwick Valley. Um and so I think uh you know it's it is incredibly important if not more important because we live in the south part of the valley that we take this as seriously as we possibly can. Um and so um I I just wanted to underscore that that is my deepest concern. I think that we can certainly make progress. Um, I am looking forward to seeing this come back on a quarterly basis to the safe and healthy neighborhoods committee. I think we're all trying to row in the right direction. Uh, we just got to get into the canoe first. Um, and so, uh, a couple of quick points that I wanted to make that I would love to discuss further in committee. Uh, one is that, uh, we really get a regular update on the inventory. How many trees were being uh, removed? how many trees have been uh trimmed and also how many trees have been planted um would be very helpful and for that to be updated each time it comes back to the committee would be super helpful. Um I also would love for us to get a a better working definition of what we mean by underserved areas. Um, even if we wanted to, we wouldn't be able to, you know, magically dramatically increase the tree canopy in a lot of our underserved areas. It's a lot of square mileage. So, how do we get creative with how we make those definitions and, you know, how do we uh, you know, create a realistic uh, measure of success in our underserved communities? Um, I think I had one last comment, uh, but I can't seem to find it. So, I just want to say thank you so much. Uh, looking forward to the work ahead. >> Thank you, Council Member Arius. Vice Mayor, >> a motion to receive and file. >> You have a motion. Please cast your votes. motion is approved with council members weir and basher absent. >> Thank you and to all of you who've contributed to the progress. Thank you very much. We're going to take a 10 minute break and then we're going to come back for a very succinct presentation for the next item. I'm confident of that. Hey hey hey. Hey hey hey. Hey, hey hey. Hey, hey hey. Hey hey hey. Down here down. Right, Let's reconvene. >> I really like that jacket color. It looks really >> nice. Really nice. >> They told me I'm not sure. They said Sears sucker. >> No, >> whatever that is. >> Oh, it's doesn't Oh, yeah. Sears sucker. Well, but normally Sears sucker has those little stripes you wear in the south right? >> Madam City Clerk, next item, please. Deferred business item 11A, amendment number two to resolution number 206-2021 to revise the council policy for conducting city council meetings to adjust the order of agendas and public comment procedures SB77 update. >> Show you, >> Madam City attorney. >> Thank you, mayor, vice mayor, members of the council. At your last city council meeting, Deputy City Attorney uh Zombrano outlined some major changes uh to the Brown Act as a result of recent legislation in SB77 and council provided direction at that meeting. And so tonight um Ashley in very brief concise format is going to recap the results of that council direction, explain what is before you tonight and some of the immediate steps. Thank you >> Miss Sbrano. >> Yes, thank you. Mayor and Council. Um, good evening. I can't promise that I'm going to garner as much passion and discussion as the tree advisory group, but I do have a very brief presentation for you. Um, specifically, I'm going to provide you an overview of proposed changes to current council policy to incorporate remote public participation requirements uh, which were imposed by Senate Bill 707. SB77 of course for the members of the audience who um maybe are unaware made numerous changes to the Brown Act and of significance for the city right now is the requirement that the public be allowed to participate via two-way audio with the same time aotments as those who participate and provide public comment in person. So, as the city attorney just said, at the last meeting on February 25th, I did make a presentation um a a bigger overview of SPO7707 and some options um for how we can incorporate remote public participation. Um council's general direction and feedback was to try to keep our city council meeting agendas um as much the same as possible uh with a few specific tweaks. So, um, moving the appointments up to the 3:30 regular meeting, keeping the time limits, um, for non-aggenda and agenda item public statements the same, divided equally between remote and in-person participation, um, but having all of those agenda item public statements heard at the beginning of the meeting, um, which some of you may remember is the way we used to do it not too long ago. and then a slight increase to our time limits for public hearings to be 20 minutes per side um per argument and 10 minutes per side for rebuttal. Again, divided equally between remote and in-person participants. So um included in your agenda packet tonight is a resolution that makes those changes to our current city council policy. Um but just to visually demonstrate what that will look like. So, um, the proposed regular 3:30 agenda would look the way you see it here. I've highlighted in red the things that are different. So, you'll see that we have public statements at the beginning of the meeting um both non-aggenda and agenda item public statements um that are split equally between people who are in person and per people who um want to provide statement remotely via that audio option. There's two things that I want to just point out quickly. um agenda item public statements. It doesn't mean 20 minutes for all agenda items, right? Current council policy is 20 minutes per agenda item. Um that's not changing. It's just that they're all heard during agenda item public statements the way that you see here on the screen. The other thing I wanted to point out um because it has been a question that has come up and came up at the last meeting um is this idea, well, what if you don't have any remote participants that are on the line? Um, can you increase the 10-minute time limit for those in person if you have more speakers than you can get to? The mayor already has discretion to make that adjustment if need be. Um, that's not changing. She'll still retain that um discretion in um moving the meeting along and making those adjustments as may be um uh appropriate. You'll see appointments will also be um moved up to 3:30. Likewise, the proposed regular 5:15 meeting agenda um we'll see as you it will be here. It's it's basically the same as our current agenda. Again, the big change is that we've got public statements at the beginning of the meeting. Hearing your non-aggenda and your agenda item public statements all at once at the beginning of the meeting. Um I did highlight in red hearings. It's not because anything is substantively changing in our in our public hearing procedure. The instructions are the same. they're going to occur in the me at the meeting at the same time. Um, but I just wanted to highlight for the council and for the public that change to the total time limits um with the division between in-person and remote participants the way that you see here. So um in many ways it's actually going to mirror public statements a little bit more closely because you've got a 20-minut time limit total uh 10 minutes in person, 10 minutes remote. So with that, the next steps um requesting a motion to adopt the proposed amendment to current council policy, which is resolution number 206-2021. In the body of the resolution, we do have it taking effect April 1, 2026. Um the reason for that is to allow a little bit of time for our city clerk to make those changes in our agenda platform software um so that we are ready to go uh the first meeting in April. The caveat to that is that we did incorporate into the resolution that the remote participation provisions um that are in the council policy, they will take effect when that has been implemented. Uh which will occur on or before July 1 of 2026 because that's when it is a requirement of the Brown Act. Um, but I have already been working with and communicating with our staff on getting that um, contract put together so that we can roll out um, implementation of that technology platform to ceue up remote speakers appropriately. Um, and we anticipate hoping that we can do some of those test runs for your meetings in May um, May and June so that we are uh, hit the ground running in compliance by July 1. So, if there's any questions, I'm here. Um, if not, I think we can take a motion. >> Thank you, Mr. Ombbero. Very succinct. Miss Denera, do you wish to add anything? Colleagues, I don't see any requests to speak. Uh, council, again, we're having some issues tonight with technology, so if I don't call on you, just raise your hand. Council member Basher, >> I'd like to make that motion. >> Oh, you're going to make a motion. All right. You have a mo uh any requests for speaking? Seeing none, you have a motion. Please cast your votes. Motion is approved with council member Weir absent. >> Thank you. And now next item, please. New business item 12A. consideration to execute a lease agreement with an option to purchase property located at 1430 and 1440 Truxton Avenue with Irwin LLC, a California limited liability company and appropriation in war 2. One agreement with Irwin for the lease with option to purchase of the office space located at 1430 and 1440 Truxton Avenue. The lease term is for 5 years with the initial monthly base lease rate at 34,600 per month plus utilities and CAM charges. Included in the lease is an option to purchase the site with sales price of 13,600,000 if we close by August 15, 2026 or 14,50,000 if we exercise the option by January 15, 2027. and two, appropriate and transfer um 400,000 from the capital facility reserve for expenditure on the due diligence to effectuate the purchase of the building. Mayor and councel, uh uh I'll kick us off on this item and we will also be succinct on this one, but also given uh that is a a hefty item that hasn't been before the public before, we want to at least work through our presentation uh for public awareness. Although for your council uh this you know the the main points of this topic uh will look familiar to you and so we'll move fairly expeditiously. The first thing I would do before I even hit some of these bullet points is uh clarify for uh those who may be uh wondering why would the city entertain a significant property purchase uh when we have covered publicly that we are making adjustments to our operating budgets to uh be more in line to have our expenditures be more in line with our revenues. The answer is that this is a good fiscal move that saves money for the city. Both in the short run, significant savings, and in the long run, even greater savings while we acquire an asset that addresses a significant uh space need for our uh police department. That's the quick answer why. But just to give a little bit of background, in 2021, we did a space assessment as our police department grew by more than a hundred staff uh through the public safety vital services tax measure. we had space challenges that we couldn't address. We also did a city-wide space assessment that demonstrated that uh we were we had a little bit of capacity, less than 10% space capacity, though uh and that would uh uh serve us for some time, but over time we would need additional office space for citywide staff. Um we at the time in 2021, we determined that we would have to lease space. We did not have purchase options or or city um facility remodel options that would allow us to uh create space for our staff and we have very limited options for lease also in the downtown area and throughout the city in 2021. The best option that we had was a a fairly competitive rate that we uh were able to acquire office space on California Avenue. And for sake of clarity that is different than our training academy that's on California Avenue. There's been some confusion about those two. This is for office space. So, we've been in that lease since that time and that it was intended to be a temporary lease until we could identify a long-term solution. We've been looking at properties uh for several years actually that could address those long-term space needs. We received council direction during that time frame to uh consider our long-term solution in the downtown core uh close to our other office spaces. And then in this last year in 2025, Trxton Towers became a a viable option. And so we started to do early homework um some early conversations which then led ultimately to significant interest which then led to negotiations with the property owner. Um again big picture this move is consistent with our fiscal restructuring. This is part of creating more ongoing operational capacity because it frees up the dollars that are currently being spent on a lease that does not lead to any long-term asset ownership. Uh, also it's a unique opportunity for significant savings in the short run uh that that at the same time addresses those long-term space needs as I already communicated. And I'll kick it over to Mr. Gary Hen who can go through some of the details on what this acquisition consists. >> Good evening, Mayor and Council. Uh I'd like to just again be succinct in in that spirit uh and go through some of the major deal points uh that are before you. Uh this is an aerial view of Truckton Tower. You can see uh right there on the corner of Truckton and Chester. Uh the the building itself has really two uh major components to it. It has the tower. It's 10 stories. And then you can see in this um in this view uh 11 item number 11 that orange is also part of the purchase. Uh I think the main part of this picture is to show its access to the courthouse, its access to other government buildings. What is outside the picture is what we currently own, which is uh this building and then our other uh buildings to the west of this site. Uh this is just a a quick site layout uh site plan. The uh meets and bounds are 17th Street to the north, Chester to the west, and Truckton to the south. The parking structure, which I think is a gem as a part of this uh this uh potential purchase, is 292 stalls. That's significant for downtown. It's signi significant for the city. Uh you can see if and we'll talk about the two different options you have before you is a lease option or a purchase option. But if we were to just do the lease, we would still have access to about 94 stalls. Again, you can see more of the layout of the the building. What's not a part of this uh transaction is that building that says adjacent building. That's actually superintendent of schools. They own that building. And then there's a little uh urban park between those two. Just to speak again really quickly to this, you'll see in subsequent slides that are we're going to see savings in the next five years of over $800,000 just on the lease option alone. if that's all that we do. We also leveraged this lease option that would give us the ability to meet our immediate needs at a savings while considering this option for purchase. It doesn't lock the city into that purchase. It gives us some time to do our due diligence as well as determine the appropriate timing uh for uh the um expenditure of the dollars for that purchase. uh we understand the direction from the council to to consolidate uh in the downtown area. It allows us a lot more operational efficiencies. Our staff will be much closer to one another and to the training areas. Right now, we do have some downtime as folks travel between the the different locations of the of the California Avenue office space. Uh and we're very well positioned to support other city initiatives in uh building up and promoting our downtown efforts. Uh there's some positive market timing right now. Um we understand that the the future costs for similar properties in the mid and long term are going to increase and we and we do have the space needs now as well as into the future. And and again, just I would highlight that the parking structure alone uh would probably um cost us the same amount to build the parking structure tomorrow as the entire acquisition would cost us today. Uh just a couple of key points to highlight here and and we're going to get to the difference between uh the lease transaction and the purchase transaction, but some of these deal points relate to both. So, if approved today, uh, we can begin our due diligence period. And so, that's the last bullet point there is the due diligence period could start in the middle of March and we have until the middle of July to make a final decision on uh, purchase andor lease. Um, I think that the other important part of this uh, structure that I want to highlight is in that yellow box. Uh, this is more to the lease. Uh BPD has been through that facility. Um and and Chief Terry's here if you have specific questions for him. He's been through um they they find it sufficient. They find it plenty of space to be able to move where they're at in California a over to this building. So the ground floor, second floor, third floor uh would be able to accommodate them. And that many of those spaces are moving ready. Uh they were recently occupied. They're they they don't meet need much work. So, that's uh one major positive of of both the the lease andor uh purchase. Uh city manager Kle talked about this main uh bullet on your right there that there's significant savings if we just choose to do the lease. Uh California AB is quite expensive. I've got some bullets on your left of how expensive and how it's been increasing over the last uh six years. Uh you the reason we're going to see some savings is the first two years in that building in if we move in on the trucks and tower significantly reduced uh pricing. Um we'll we'll talk more there but again I think that there's a lot of value in the purchase and we'll get to the purchase in just a second. Uh obviously there's cost to operating a building. The tenants will still exist. Uh they do have 37 units that can be leased. They have several long-term tenants. Clifford and Brown, Superintendent of Schools, M Roan Cohen, Judicial Council. Um, if we purchase that, we would want them to continue to be tenants. They're good paying tenants. Um, there's also uh a a bit of operating expenses, but we'll we'll go through that the revenues really cover the expenses based on tenants. And then there's also the potential because there's 20% vacancy that there's future growth revenue potential in that building. So, here's the purchase option. I really do think that the purchase option is our best option, but uh we'll we'll um go through both. Uh there is low risk. We've got 120 20 one 120 days to uh do our due diligence. We did receive direction that we need to do outside vendors to do the examination of this building and we've got those teed up and ready to go. So, our outside uh vendors in terms of structural windows, roof, elevator, they can uh do that due diligence for us. Uh there's going to be obviously a deposit to get going. But the two different options I want to present to you is if we can close early and do all of our due diligence in this 120day period, we could close by August. And that's our early option. The price there would be 13.6 million. Um if we can't, if we need more time, we need to extend that due diligence period. Um the price does go up if we close in 2027. Obviously, there's the $550,000 difference. Uh so the action before you is to approve the lease with an option to purchase uh for both the tower and the large uh old Bank of America space and uh appropriate some initial upfront money. So we can do many of these outside vendors to investigate the building which is what the 400,000 is. >> Thank you Mr. Helen. Mr. Kle, do you have any further comments? >> I do not. Thank you, Mayor. >> Thank you, Council Member Basher. >> Um, so if we make a a decision right now and we we do our due diligence, does this come back for final approval or this is, you know, then we just kind of go with what we we figure out it. >> Thank you, council member. The purchase and sale agreement does give the council authority um to move forward. However, the appropriation of the $13 million will come back to your council for a decision after the due diligence period. >> Okay. Um I would like to make a motion continuing this item. Um I I've I I've asked for certain things that I haven't received yet. I know that we want to do the diligence, but this is not a government company or we're not a government we're buying from. we're actually purchasing from a private company. And so they do have a P&L statement or some type of financial statement. Um it would be very very important to have access to that. It would be very important um to be able to go through this the lease contract that we have. I I would also like a copy of the California lease contract. We have the copy of the contract proposed uh for this new project. But this is a major up uh uh uh venture for us. And if it makes sense, it makes sense and I support it wholeheartedly. But um I won't I won't make a $14 million decision based on PowerPoint. No offense. The PowerPoint is great and I appreciate your brevity. I just as a business guy, I think those are realistic expectations that any taxpayer uh would be concerned about looking over just to make sure that we are making a right move with taxpayer money. Uh and if it makes sense, this is a great opportunity. It's a it's a great opportunity for us to to save money and have more space. But um uh we got to be truthful and transparent and just make sure that everybody feels good about it. So uh that that's my motion. >> Thank you, Council Member Vasher. Council member Arius. >> Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple of quick comments. Uh thanks thanks for the presentation. Um my concern is uh for you know many of our departments and city staff uh who have had to get creative in you know o over the past year and some change in how they do more with less um whether that be less personnel um less resources in order to get their job done. Um but at the same time, you know, we are here considering an opportunity to invest up to, you know, north of $14 million uh into this particular property. I'm not saying that it's a bad decision, but I I would ask um you know, either Mr. Howland or Christian, you know, what do we say to our team members who may be asking themselves that that very question? >> Thank you, council member, mayor, and council. I would my answer to them is this is exactly what we've asked everyone to do is to get creative and to find operational savings. This creates operational savings in the hundreds of thousands immediately and millions in the outy years. And so this is part of the fiscal restructuring strategy. Thank you. And my next question is um we talked about the need for additional space. Can we just underscore, you know, which departments are we filling that uh need um and which which departments stand to benefit if we you know move? Yeah, I think council member, mayor, and council. This is principally to find space for the police department. I will acknowledge that as we look at this space and some other spaces that we have staff in between now and when we would actually move staff into spaces, we're going to evaluate who are the best staff to move into this building versus maybe some of our other existing buildings. So, there may be a domino effect, but this is about creating space for our police department. and it's principally investigations um but also a couple of other elements of the police department. This is a space need for PD. >> And my last question is um related to Council Member Basher Tash's um motion. Um what if any challenges would that present to the ongoing negotiations uh with with the company? >> Yeah, I I forgot to introduce I also have uh Matt Star here. He is representing he's with ASU is representing the seller. Um he c he could talk about a little bit about the delay but I'll I'll um um I can talk briefly based on where we are in the negotiations because we we have been talking to the property owner for quite some time. Um there could be uh an increased cost if we delay this. So let's say we we push this out uh 6 months, 9 months, a year. Um he might either move on to a different seller. He could uh you know decide not to sell. He could uh you know not not move forward with the lease. I think it's been uh an interim process meaning we tried to engage with the property owner uh earlier in the year last year. as you know, came to uh you in a in a early year item in 2025. Uh he wasn't interested at that time in terms of the price points that we were talking to him with. And then when we got into the lease discussions, that's when he started to become more engaged and really start to come down to the price points that we uh felt that this could appraise at and it would it would make sense for us. So, I think a delay could be more costly and and we might lose this space. Um, so there's there's potential future costs if we don't do this now. >> Council member Basher, go ahead and clarify your >> Yeah, I'd like to clarify my motion. In the business world, 6 months pushing something out to review a contract and do homework is ridiculous. Give me a few weeks. give us a few weeks to review if we can get that that stuff that I've asked for. This doesn't need to be long drawn out. It's a yes or a no. If it makes sense, makes sense. 2 plus two is four. That's that's all I'm saying. I'm not I'm not looking to make government slower than it than it has the the history of being. I want I want to expedite this and I want to make a good decision for everybody. That's all I'm asking. >> Did we have any additional comments? >> Thank you, Mayor and Councel. Uh I I would just add that it can be done with with some delay. Um, but there is some trigger points with regard to the timing of the option to purchase and there's possible effect of your expiration of the the California Avenue lease that could come into play too because that does need to be considered as a potential renewal prior to the expiration early 2027. If >> if I may on behalf of council just be a little more pointed. Does does two weeks cause particular challenges? >> No, it it possibly could cause some acceleration of the due diligence period, which is already kind of tight at 120 days, but it's doable. >> Okay, that concludes my comments. Thanks. >> Thank you, Council Member Smith. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, I I think this is a great opportunity. As somebody who actually builds stuff, to me, this is a 35 to $40 million building if you had to build it today. And the parking structure is probably a $10 million build if you had to build it today. So, it's a $45 to $50 million uh construction project if you had to replace it. And it's downtown. It uh meets, as city manager mentioned, all the council goals as far as moving downtown. the the the due diligence I think is what council member Basherash is asking I mean we have 120 days all we're committing to let me understand this the only thing we're committing to initially is the lease >> that's that's correct >> and the lease makes sense because it's cheaper than the existing lease on California Avenue and it moves our policemen back downtown where we wanted them in the first place. And then by signing the lease, then that gives us the option to purchase and the 120 days to do the due diligence at which time we can close or we can say we're out, we like the lease, we're good. Just to add one other piece to that during this 120 days due diligence, we we can certainly uh get all the information that you need to help you feel comfortable. Also, if there is something that comes back in that 120 days where >> this this is a huge issue, we for sure will bring that back to you to say, >> you know, we we we would give the the property owner right to cure. If they can't cure, then we have we have a bigger issue here and we should walk away and and find some other option to have BPD go into. >> Right. So, I'm in favor of moving forward and I will make the motion to move forward as staff presented it understanding that there is plenty of time to analyze and to move in a different direction if necessary and it makes sense to me to move forward with the lease because it does multiple things. uh saves money, number one, moves police back downtown, uh number two, and helps the economy of downtown, number three. Uh so that's where I'm at. Thank you, >> Council Member Coleman. >> Uh thank you, Mayor. Uh so I like this project. I I've made no uh bones about that. I like this project. Uh, I like the fact that allows us to consolidate some of our space that we have around town that we're leasing. It also has the ability to grow as we decide more different units need to be consolidated in different places. Uh, one of the things that we talked about was uh having a uh a resource center for new businesses where they're coming to town, maybe moving economic development over into this building. Uh, I think it would be a great thing to have a a a business center or something that, you know, new business could come. They could see what we're proposing and have some maybe chamber of commerce, some other people there that uh could make it a a very nice experience for businesses learning about Bakersville when they come to town. Uh, the parking issue downtown is big. Gain to gain, would you say, 295 spots? 92 >> 292 spots that we control. Uh that's just awesome. And I don't want to see it filled up with police cars, by the way. When I'm out driving around my neighborhood. So, uh uh and I think it's real important for the comm for the community that the city uh control that corner. Uh, you know, one of the things that I've struggled with since I've been on council is what is our long-term vision? Are we really looking into the future? And I think uh I think that that corner really has a significance in the future of Bakersfield and for us to be able to control that corner, I think is awesome. And uh al the last comment I wanted to make is that I think this comes from money we're already spending. We're going to use savings to uh not only lease this space but also to potentially purchase it. Uh and none of that comes from measure n and none of that comes from any of those other areas that we all uh we all worry about. It doesn't come from your trees. it comes from uh money we're already spending on uh late. So, I'm in favor of this. I share uh council members Basher Tash about wanting to see those numbers, but I'm okay with seeing those during the due diligence period. >> Thank you, Council Member Gonzalez. >> Thank you, Mayor. Uh thank you, staff, uh for this presentation today and thank you for all of your work uh preparing this for the city council. Um I have had the honor of serving uh this community representing downtown for the last 10 years and um community's focus has been uh to revitalize downtown Bakersfield and we've we've done a lot of work to make that happen. We're seeing a renaissance of of downtown and I'm very proud of that work and there's a lot of people who have made that happen. One of the things though is that that's that's keeping downtown uh from continuously improving. what's holding us back uh is that there are far too many vacant buildings and there are far too many buildings with lots of square footage that are underutilized. And my fear is that you know if there is not a new tenant or a new uh owner of the building that this large building becomes uh underutilized, severely underutilized, maybe even vacant. um and it then becomes a liability for the city of Bakersville in the future. And we've seen a lot of vacant properties that are liabilities um and become real problems. It requires code enforcement time. It requires uh unfortunately the fire department's response. It requires BPD's responses. And um we need to look for any opportunity um to revitalize those properties particularly along Chester Avenue. And so I think, you know, the council for years has said downtown revitalization is a high priority for the council and I think this is one way that we can get uh get even further down that road. Um in terms of the fiscal um responsibility and analysis for the the committee, I think it was well well said already. this just makes a lot of sense in terms of saving dollars for the taxpayers and utilizing this property. So, I think there are a lot of wins here. Um, and then of course the parking is a huge win uh for downtown Bakersfield. So, I'm in full support that we move forward, but clearly I want to make sure before we get to that agreement uh to actually purchase this property that all of my colleagues feel comfortable and and we get their questions answered. So, I want to respect my colleagues uh request for uh some additional information and analysis. >> Thank you, Council Member Basher Tash. >> Yeah. So, the difference between my motion and Bob, your motion was that you mine isn't going to cost $400,000 right now. Like if we make this motion, it's 400 grand to go due diligence, which could be saved if we get a P&L statement for the place and look at the the new lease compared to the old lease and say, "You know what? We're being assold a bag of goods that's not true and we need to make a decision." We just save 400 grand versus moving forward with this, doing the same thing and spending $400,000. I I I don't I don't see why we wouldn't do that for the taxpayers, why we wouldn't do that for ourselves to make that decision. I'm not I'm not saying no. I'm not making a motion against this. I'm just saying let's be sure that we're sure. Not just based on, you know, a presentation we just saw, but goodness, like I would never buy anything personally or as a company or business like this, you know, just those are things that I would want to see. I would demand to see before I even proceeded into any type of of of conversation. So, I mean, we want the same thing, but you the thing you're asking for is to spend 400 grand when we may not even need to do that. uh if we get this information and it looks like it's not a good fit, then we move on. Or if it does look good, then we move forward with it and everybody's happy and it's a win-win-win. >> Thank you, Council Member Smith. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um my experience is government as you stated is very slow and I don't I don't know where you're coming up with the 400,000. As I stated our commitment at this point is to the lease. The lease buys us the option. Am I understanding that? >> That is correct. Council member Smith, if I may, on the $400,000, we are asking council to appropriate $400,000 to cover all of our due diligence costs. What I would argue is we are not expecting we're automatically going to spend all of it. We chose that number because we think there are a number of studies and analyses that need to be done, but also though we're not going to do all of that first. So what I would argue that's in the spirit of I think both um conversations that are out there is we can provide um council with this initial request about the two different lease pieces the P&L before we go and commission additional due diligence costs and if there's a determination that you know based on the P&L although I that may be enough to say this is a bad deal. I'm not sure that it will be, but but it may be if it was tr truly bad news. We could then back out before we spend the $400,000. Um uh to we could not back out, I would say we could choose to not continue to spend the 400 uh some of the $400,000 on the additional due diligence. So that just gives uh that council is authorizing staff to be able to go and start that due diligence process, but we could come back early in the due diligence process before all those expenditures are made with these this information um to your council. >> How quickly could you get the information that council member Basher Tash asked for? >> We were just having that conversation, mayor. We we can get that to you immediately. Yeah, we >> immediately. >> Yeah. The next council meeting is in two weeks. >> Is that correct? >> I would also like to add so with the execution of lease, there's not an obligation to exercise the purchase option immediately. That can be delayed. Uh built into the contract, there is the ability to exercise the purchase option as late as uh January 15th of 2027. Granted, the price does uh increase if close of escrow is not completed by August 15th of 26, but there's no immediate obligation to exercise the purchase option. So, you could conceivably move forward with the lease and hold the purchase option execution until further information is received. >> Any other requests? >> I believe I still have >> Council Member Smith. >> Thank you. Uh I I will stand by my motion because there my experience again in real estate is you have nothing until you have a signed agreement. And the longer you postpone that agreement is opportunities for seller to change his mind, somebody else to come in, you have nothing. If we have something, then we can move forward and our risk is that we're going to save money on a lease. Thank you. >> Vice Mayor, >> quick question to clarify. There's the due diligence period that would be initiated if we go with Council Member Smith's motion. >> Correct. The approval of the dollar amount of 400,000 will come back to us in two weeks at the next city council meeting. No, >> that is not his current motion. His motion is >> right. Not his motion, but what your suggestion is. So you're you had said earlier that >> um today we're just giving you authority and then when that dollar amount is back on the >> So let meenda >> this is a good question vice mayor because I do think it is nuanced and so let me just clarify a little bit. >> We with what we will do with the $400,000 is we will hire third party individuals to go out and assess the building. So what I was suggesting is a commitment by staff to provide council with the information that's been requested and delay our hiring of those third party folks for again a couple of weeks. What I will acknowledge is that placed a lot of trust in staff to come back to your council with that information and you're trusting us to wait until we receive some council feedback if there are concerns with the P&L. Uh but I would argue that we are warranted that trust to um ensure that um there there isn't a major concern uh expressed by the council uh uh in the next couple of weeks before we start spending or not spending but contracting for the expenditure of the 400,000. For example, if one of those uh agreements, which I don't I only anticipate maybe one but probably not more than one. If any of those agreements were over $100,000, those would come back to your council on a future agenda item for that contract. Many of those expenditures will be underneath that threshold. And so we could move on those, you know, independently as staff. But um as a as a middle ground, I was just suggesting we could uh move forward with Council Member Smith's motion knowing that we're going to share that information immediately with council and that we would not spend the 400,000 immediately uh until uh we could have that information shared with council. >> Okay. And thank you. So in in going with council member Basher Tasha's motion that essentially is just the same process beginning 2 weeks from now after everyone has had the material has sat with it has absorbed it has had time to reflect and then this same conversation happens in two weeks >> potentially. Yes. I I don't believe by indications that we'll have a major shift with our negotiations, but to council members's point, um this is somewhat of a signal to the party that we're negotiating with and they they may change direction, but but yes, we could have the same conversation in two weeks. >> Do you anticipate a shift? Like you've been in conversation pretty regularly like >> Good question. I don't know that I can anticipate how the the seller will react. I I think that this has been an extended conversation already and he's been quite patient and accommodating with it. So I I I don't expect it necessarily, but I I can't anticipate. >> Okay. Thank you for the clarity. >> Are there any other requests for comment? So we'll take the second motion first, which is Council Member Smith's motion. Actually, mayor, with a motion to continue, that takes priority over all motions. So, the motion to continue goes first. >> Motion to continue. We will now take council member Basher's motion. You have a motion. Please cast your votes. Motion fails with council members Core, Arias, Gonzalez, Smith, and Coleman voting no. Council member Weir absent. >> Thank you. And now Council Member Smith's motion. You have a motion. Please cast your votes. Motion is approved with council member Weir absent and council member Bashier Tash voting no. Thank you, Madame Clerk. Next item, please. >> Council and mayor statements. >> Mayor, >> Council Member Gonzalez. >> Thank you, Mayor. Uh first and foremost, I just want to congratulate the city of Bakersville, the city council, the city manager, the city attorney's office, um economic development, uh on the creation of the Bakersville Community Land Trust. This morning was a historic moment for our Bakersville Community Land Trust where we handed the keys to a Bakersfield family for their own very own home. These were perpetual renters who now own their own home uh in Bakersfield as a result of all of our efforts over the last few years. and we have more homes uh uh underway uh that that will soon be owned by Bakersville families. So, what a what a great accomplishment. And I just want to thank my colleagues uh for supporting this initiative and thank you city staff for all the hours of work. In particular, again, I want to thank the city manager's office and the city attorney's office who really spend a lot of time on the BCLT in the background. It means a lot to me and to so many families who are now in their own home. Um, tonight I'd like to make a referral uh that we uh that the planning and development committee consider uh revisions to our cabaret permit uh process. I'd like us to consider three things. The process uh so that we can uh create a much much more uh smoother and expedient process for the applicants. Two, that we change the policy. Um, I think that we should let people dance and if if someone needs a permit that we should require a permit for perhaps after 10 p.m. at night. Um, but I like the com I'd like for the committee to explore that option. And then three, that we uh change the name from a cabaret permit to a an entertainment venue license or something similar to that. There are many cities that have moved away from the term cabaret and I'd like the city of Bakersville to do the same. Thank you all. tonight. >> Vice Mayor. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, I had the opportunity with uh, Council Member Basher Tash as well as key department chairs and staff um, folks from the city manager's office. Uh, we've been hanging out in the auto mall pretty often and we get to hang out with uh, hang out in Zach's neck of the woods, but also just have really um, productive conversations. And I am incredibly thankful to staff for meeting us in W 7 and and listening to um you know the folks who make one of the most important tax basins in our city. Uh there were so many ideas. We did a walkthrough of the entire auto mall. And it was in it was incredibly important for us to be on foot to see and feel what um customers who come from all over the valley across the state who come to Bakersfield shop for their car, choose to purchase it here, or those who are local and choose to purchase locally, what their experiences as they um are conducting business within the city of Bakersfield. And we had the opportunity to walk through the automal um with folks who own their dealerships within um within our auto mallal in Ward 7. And there were so many ideas that came forward. And as a city planner, it was really exciting to just hear folks from the auto mallal saying we could put a crosswalk here and um extend the sidewalk in so many different places. So, uh, we met them again this morning and regrouped to share more ideas and and share some of the progress that our city staff have already made to meet some of the needs expressed by by the folks in the auto mall. Um, and along those same lines, as uh as our city grows south um and as we get ready to develop our South Bakersfield uh development plan, I am curious for us to explore um and and kind of reimagine our EOA program to include business districts um and the utilization of the program. see see kind of like the positive outcomes that we've seen um that that have occurred in in other parts of our towns in our in our city to to really elevate them and and see how we can create business districts and and really like create cultural districts um for businesses that have kind of created their own organic district, but how we as a city can support and elevate those. So, I'd like us to explore the expansion of our EOA program policies um and to include business district economic investment distinct from the criteria for not just disadvantaged communities, but also those that are looking to grow um and and are kind of becoming their own districts uh and how we can kind of give them an identity. Uh and and that's something that I know as city staff we'll have more conversations with uh our South Bakersfield development plan. Um but where there's opportunity and and if it's AOA or if it's others um where where that can exist. So with that, I want to thank city staff uh for walking in the heat, but also it was uh extremely fruitful and I look forward to having that same kind of collaboration, that private public partnership to come up with really good pragmatic solutions in other parts of our city. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Tonight, Pastor Marissa Banks prayed that we would be a model city, and I'm just so grateful for our international exchanges. This week we had the pleasure of hosting Supreme Court justices from Mongolia in Bakersville. They were studying our system, our justice system of supporting foster youth and juvenile justice youth. uh spent a lot of time with uh former with judge Robert Toya and our justices in the city along with the dream center Kern County Superintendent schools dream center with CASA and they reported that they have a lot of information to take back to their country. So thank you to Friendship Force and all who were involved with that effort and I don't see any other requests to speak. So we stand adjourned at 8:22.