[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] [Applause] [Music] la [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] [Applause] [Music] the 330 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 February 12th 20125 Madame clerk please call the role mayor go here vice mayor core council member Aras council member Gonzalez I'm here council member Weir council member Smith I am here council member Coman here and council member bashier here thank you we have no members of the public present or media so I am going to foro public statements Madame clerk next item please close session item 4A conference with legal counsel existing litigation regarding five matters one blast para by and throughs Guardian at lion Joseph etan V city of Bakersfield two Anna Hernandez by and through her guardium at Lim Rudy Hernandez ubani LZ R LZ Sylvia larees V city of Bakersfield item three Kyle Peterson V Christina Moreno Gonzalez the city of Bakersfield at L four ingred Crawford Smith at L uh V city of Bakersfield and five Jeffrey durn V city of Bakersfield at L thank you we're adjourned to close session [Music] m [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] n [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I'd rather try and accompl something try to and succeed I'll all [Music] I the tri to suceed [Music] TR a shi try to and fully succeed I'll all wait and fully succeed [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh oh [Music] a [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] he [Music] [Music] he oh [Music] a [Music] n [Music] n [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] e [Music] [Music] [Applause] the [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] n [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] o [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] o he [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I [Music] right [Music] [Music] am [Music] [Music] [Music] now [Music] [Music] I [Music] m [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] no [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] m [Music] [Music] he a [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] w [Music] [Music] he [Music] [Music] he he [Music] [Music] I [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] n [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] reconvening the 330 city council meeting Madam City attorney thank you mayor uh there just a minute council member Coman just all right we are reconvening council member comment we are reconvening the 3:30 city council meeting Madame City attorney uh thank you mayor there were five items on tonight's close session 4 A 1 2 3 4 and five and in all matters there is no reportable action thank you thank you and with that we stand a journ at 510 and we'll start the 515 meeting in just a minute [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] welcome to the Bakersfield City council meeting this television broadcast is brought to you by the local cable companies the county of karna and the City of Bakersfield you can watch the rebroadcast of this meeting Saturday at 700 p.m. Sunday at 10 a.m. and the following Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. you can download the agenda for this meeting at www. Bakersfield city. us PRD 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 February 12th 2025 Madam clerk please call the role mayor go here vice mayor core council member Aras here council member Gonzalez here council member Weir council member Smith I here council member Coman here and council member Bashir Tash here thank you welcome to all of you tonight we have the pleasure of having Pastor Al gone from the Christ Church of the Valley offering the invocation Pastor thank you so much for your Church's investment in the Amore Ministries in Mexico and then also for your collaboration with flood working together with the homeless we appreciate that and then following the invocation tonight we have the ridg viw high school Virtual Enterprise business plan team Unleashed who will lead us in the pledge the uh ve program provides a handson experiential learning experience for the class uh students gain that business entrepreneurship experience business management public speaking teamwork and so much more you'll be able to see that uh when they talk about their program uh so grateful for all that you've done this plan now is moving them on as the first place winners in California onto New York in April and we are so glad to see another group from Bakers V move on we'll let the team members introduce themselves uh after our pledge so would you all stand now for the invocation Pastor well thank you mayor and thank you uh council members uh as a newer member of Bakersfield little little over two years um thank you all for how you lead uh for the the burdens that you take on for how you lead the city and uh the fact that we get to open a meeting like this in prayer uh doesn't happen too often in Southern California where I'm from just throwing that out there uh but let us pray Lord You Who by your power made the mountains and You Who uh quiet the the Seas and the Roaring Waters uh we thank you we thank you for our city we thank you for our country we honestly we thank you for this planet and this life that you have given us uh we thank you for each and every person in here each and every person that leads this city each and every person that has a role in this city uh whether it be a big or a small role and Lord today I just I pray that your Justice that your righteousness that your ways would be mirrored by all those in this council meeting uh that every single person in here uh whatever uh Faith whatever place that they come from can just be reminded that every single person in here is created in God's image every single person deserving of love and respect and joy uh over the mayor and over um all the council members and all the people in our government that work tirelessly for us Lord I pray that you're with them that you give them wisdom oftentimes Lord they put their own needs aside for the needs of others often times they have real hurts and real pains and they swallow them to help others for them Lord I could think of no better healing than your presence I can think of no better thing for them than your counsel be with them Lord be with them as they guide the city be with them as they make all of the the decisions that lead the city into the next era be with them as they uh they fix that which needs fixing be with them as they amplify that which is already working Lord we pray that you are over the city watching over it making it a beacon of light in our County making it a beacon of light in our state a beacon of light in our country we love you Lord we thank you and we lay this prayer Up in Jesus name amen amen it is now time for the plag salute please stand salute pledge I pledge aliance 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 well thank you you may be seated Wolfpack if you stay there Pastor thank you so much it's my pleasure to be able to present this certificate of recognition to Ridgeview High School Virtual Enterprise business team in honor of ridg viw High's Virtual Enterprise business team company unleash winning first place at the 2025 Virtual Enterprise California Conference and trade exhibition in recognition of your dedicated efforts to pursuing Excellence congratulations on your achievement we can hardly wait until you win Nationals so it's my honor to be able to present this to you would you come up introduce yourself your coach your advisor and whatever else you'd like to say right and who would like to receive it thank you so much hello my name is Sophia pinball and in our program I am the vice president of our marketing department hi good evening I'm Abigail Ariano and for our business I am the vice president of Human Resources hi I'm J leas and I'm the VP of sales hello everybody my name is Robie jahoda and the Chief Financial Officer for Unleashed hello everyone I am yahida Mata and I am the COO for our Unleashed business plan team good evening everyone I'm AUD natividad and I am the CEO of unleash this year to tell you a little about our company we focus on the lifestyle and health of dogs specifically right now and with products like our tailored nutrition plan and Pa Pro collar we hope to give Li give dogs a better chance at Living a more positive lifestyle to introduce our coach Mr Garcia today and our adviser Mr Taylor good good evening everyone um it is a pleasure for me to work with these kids this is my third year working at ridg viw with a ve program and it's just a blessing to see these kids be very good at what they do this is quite an honor and I know they're very humbled when it comes to the level of success they put in the hard work the effort to really be able to lead um in the state being number one we're very blessed and fortunate that of the um teams are at review they are one of five teams that are going to be going back to to New York and um because of all of them and their level of Engagement that really has made made a difference and it really allows me the opportunity to use my business skills that I've acquired over my 30 years um to apply it with all of them to be very successful so I thank you very much for inviting them good evening guys my name is Miguel Garcia I'm the uh teacher the Virtual Enterprise teacher of these students uh but first and foremost I want to thank you guys for acknowledging um the hard work of these students as an educator it means the world to me to to see my kids get this recognition um what they've accomplished winning the State title is is a big deal um but no one's worked harder than these kids they deserve it it couldn't happen to a better group um I want to thank I mean the community for the support because it takes a village I want to take our advisers Mr Taylor and all the staff members who've made this happen um we appreciate you guys' time um and acknowledging our students here at Rie thank you guys thank you let's give it up for the w good all right uh you can stay all night but I'm imagining you're supposed to go and study so thank you so much you're welcome to stay congratulations you thank you here 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 deorum including any disruptive behavior that interferes with our ability to have an orderly and efficient meeting prevents a city council from conducting the business of the city consider this a first warning to everyone attendance that conduct that disrupts this meeting May result in your removal from the meeting and or the chambers being cleared behavior that disrupts the meeting includes repetitive statements shouting interrupting staff or presenters during the meeting speaking out of turn an outburst from the audience and then also surpassing the two-minute time limit Madam clerk next item please presentations item 4A proclamation to Christy Torres chair of the Safe Surrender Coalition and Aaron Rogers member of the Safe Surrender Coalition declaring February 2025 as safely surrender baby Awareness Month in Bakersfield well we are pleased to to have Aaron Rogers who's been a champion for this cause for quite a while safely surrender law was first created in 2001 the laws helped to decrease the number of newborn infant deaths Statewide due to abandonment or unsafe Loca in unsafe locations and thank you so much to the Coalition for your dedicated efforts to protect our little ones and to make sure that all are safely surrendered it's my honor now to read this Proclamation the mayor of the city of Bakersville California has officially proclaimed February 2025 as safely surrender baby Awareness Month in our city in recognition of the safely surrendered baby Coalition and its efforts to provide a safe alternative for newborn babies to be safely surrendered in recognition of the partnership of government nonprofit organizations private businesses and residents that are committed to providing places of sanctuary for these babies in recognition of the need to heighten public awareness regarding the issue and the need to provide a safe refuge for the innocent newborns involved in recognition of the five infants safely surrendered in 2024 and in recognition of the 103 precious infants safely surrendered since the program's Inception in Kern County in 2008 and it's my pleasure now to be able to present this to Aaron Rogers thank you thank you so much Aon and the mic is all yours thank you mayor go thank you councilman we are deeply honored by this Proclamation and by giving attention to this very important law I personally have two friends who received a safely surrendered baby into their family and I know what a difference this makes I also work daily with women in crisis pregnancies and to give them this alternative that they can carry their baby to term and safely surrender it to any fire station or Hospital often brings great relief to her to that woman facing an unplanned or crisis pregnancy and I want to share just a quick story I was at um the Wasco city council meeting a week ago and as I received the proclamation on behalf of our Coalition I was walking back to my car which was a while I mean it took a few more steps you wouldn't think in Wasco you'd have to hike to get back to your car but I did and there were three little girls that were in that meeting and I heard their voices as I was walking back to my car saying wait wait and I turned around and they ran up to me and they said we just wanted to thank you for saving the babies that was a very humbling experience and I can tell you it's not me it is a cooperation of government of uh Support Services in our County of adoption agents IES of public servants like you and of nonprofits like the baker Pregnancy Center that we are able to have saved 103 babies and so to each of you I say thank you for helping us save babies thank you so much a couple of them here three one one all right thank you thank you in keeping with the council's resolution public statements are now received at different times depending on the item I will call on the city clerk to call for public statements at the appropriate time so please listen carefully if you wish to make a public statement please fill out a public speaker card and place it in the tray on the counter next to the speaker Podium we ask that you mark whether you're here to speak on an item listed on tonight'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-agenda public statements if you're here to speak on an item not listed on the meeting agenda you will be called first to speak statements are given a two-minute time limit per speaker 20 minutes total for all non-agenda item public statements if you're here to speak on an item listed on the agenda I will call for you at a later time if public statements become disruptive and I've to clear the chambers to regain order the meeting you will be called in one at a time to provide your public statement when your item is called Madam clerk do we have any public speakers regarding items not listed on the agenda may go we've received six public speaker cards regarding items not listed on tonight's agenda the first public speaker is Rocky Stu stter followed by Lisa Smith welcome Mr student would you raise the microphone please thank you go ahead hi my name's Rocky stter um I've been here before it's ridiculous that little cities like corkran and now Maricopa are getting a pump track and still this is I've been doing this for 10 years coming to these meetings and you guys still won't do nothing for the kids it's ridiculous so I'm going to take this route when I was 21 I got pulled over for riding my bicycle with no headlight ended up in Laro they almost beat me to death in that 29 years I've learned what this country does what these cops do they kill three humans in a day on average in this country 30 dogs a day on average in this country this country has dropped more bombs than any other country this country has only been the only country to drop nukes this country has produ has has uh tested over 50% of the nukes and then you guys want to stand behind God that is the most funniest crap I've ever heard in my life God only knows love God only spreads love tell me who would God drop a bomb on who would God start a war with and then another thing this is all stolen land this is all all this land that just all this you're doing all this evil on is stolen you stole it and then you want to call it America we live in Earth We're All Humans like I said you can keep saying that you do good yeah you may do good but you do a lot more evil than good and your good does not does not cover up all the evil you've done every bomb you drop kills innocent babies animals Earth and like I said you've dropped more bombs in any country and you you're going to going to sit up there and tell lies every day of your life and say God supports America God blesses America lying is a sin God only knows love God only spreads love keep doing what you're doing you'll see what happens thank next speaker please Lisa Smith followed by Adrien welcome please introduce yourself thank you my name is Lisa Smith um I thought I would come and tell you what's happened since the last time I was here um a week after uh I was here and I did hear from Mr Gonzalez thank you so much for that a week after that I was driving down Stein Road and found four 12 olds playing on the elevated freeway embankment because the gate wasn't locked so I promptly went home and and I did what I needed to do to make sure these kids were safe and then I went home and I started making phone calls and got voicemail after voicemail after voicemail after voicemail and you got to remember I'm the person who knows the phone numbers so then I started sending out mass emails and I think you received the photos and some of those emails and I went by the next day and the gate was still unlocked so I did it all over again and then I finally out of frustration called the mayor's office and thank you Madame mayor for your contact with me multiple times and we were finally able to get a lock on the gate a little tiny Master Lock and today I found it broken again now in between those two things Zach and I met because we had a previously scheduled appointment and he spent a horrendous amount of time out with me looking at these lots that you've inherited and now it's your responsibility to manage and he came up with some really good ideas and I threw a couple ad him that made him groan but he is considering today I found the lock missing again and because Zach gave me his personal cell phone number I was able to reach him and then I thought what happened to the lady who was trying to call half an hour before me so I've gotten a lot of referrals to staff he's got a great plan that he's been talking to me about here's what I'm here to ask you to do we put up with ages of it's not our property it's the contractor the contractor's responsibility the contractor didn't do it the contractor turned it over to you when you had your big bicycle ride down the middle of the Centennial Corridor it's been your responsibility still since then I want a deadline I want posted signage telling people where to call yes Madam lar I'm aware I want to know that in two months time you have a safety plan and a patrol plan for this neighborhood because I don't want kids playing on the freeway again thank you Miss Smith uh we appreciate your caring council member Gonzalez Miss Smith thank you so much for visiting us again at city council I um really appreciate how much you advocate for your neighborhood and for our community um I wish that more uh Baker so residents cared uh to Advocate as much as you do I appreciate all the effort um I also want to just give a quick acknowledgement to uh Renee Williams at real property who also has been part of responding to some of these concerns especially as it relates to the the gate and the particular locks on on the property of course um our Public Works director want to thank you as well for all of your effort and for spending what I think was over an hour with uh Miss Smith and a special little ride along uh recently um that that certainly demonstrates your commitment to getting it right and I think we all want to get it right Miss Smith um I think there's a couple of issues as I am better understanding the the um surrounding area U part of this area is actually in the county um and so when it when we talk about uh Safety and Security a safety plan that would also have to include um the County Sheriff's Office am I correct on that Mr CL yes council member okay um I'm also aware that there are some still Remnant Parcels from from uh the uh construction of the Centennial Corridor what that means is you know City went out bought bought a bunch of properties several hundred properties uh to constru Centennial Corridor we now have remaining Parcels that we didn't use that weren't part of the alignment some of those properties will actually be sold and there's state and federal guidelines that dictate how we go through that sale and we're going through that process now that's the good news is that I think we're we're very close to actually moving forward with the sale of many of those properties the harder part is that there's certain properties that actually aren't considered Remnant Parcels they're actually part of rideway and those areas will actually be become the jurisdiction and responsibility of calr and so part of in uh Zach you're going to have to help me out here but part of the reason why we placed Gates uh adjacent to the rideway or the alignment uh is because we were trying to meet calr standards that have been established so that they have access uh to maintain that that property that is correct it's the they they requir so much width for the whole freeway not just the road itself but the embankment and everything so that they can properly maintain it and get their crews out there to maintain it okay and and we're working on the lock issue for the for the gates yes there's um a number of issues going down to uh street cleaning weeds uh incomplete sidewalks fencing that gets torn down Gates gate locks that get broken homelessness related issues so there's a a number of issues okay um so again Miss Smith thank you so much for raising these concerns um and you know I would like to communicate to all the residents who live within the city and also south of uh Stockdale who live within the county pocket um that it is the commitment um of the city uh to address these issues as quickly as possible uh to gain Clarity and I I I think your idea of some s sort of posted signage is not a bad idea uh it's something similar to what we do with uh vacant properties what I've asked the city to do in downtown um and it's uh actually going to be a referral that I'm going to make tonight that we work towards um doing something uh that helps provide uh Clarity within the community related to who actually is responsible for each property thank you madam clerk next speaker please [Music] please Adrien followed by Robert hooks welcome please introduce yourself hello my name is Adrian um and I want and I'm here to thank the the city for the road improvements that has been going on for the past couple years um I've been using them uh specifically The Pedestrian and bike safety uh these new green stripes have really helped me get along through the community safely um Union has has been a crazy Street and now with the traffic slowed down I'm able to use the bike path right and I feel safer this uh has not something that has been new it's you know I would say the the good road movement has was started in the late 1800s and a lot of it was to build a better Road not just for Farm or rural areas but for also bike um in pedestrian and so we want to make sure that that continues and it it you know very early on um I would say other cities in California has already been doing this and I'm glad to see it especially because we've had many casualties um accidents with uh not only adults but minors uh on bikes along uh through Bakersfield um and so to focus on bike and pedestrian safety I I'm personally I think that is the sound of something better which is your motto and so I think that we can continue with that path and it's going to make a big uh change in Bakersfield and that's really all I have to say thank you thank you Adrian mam cler next speaker please Robert hooks followed by Hector Hernandez welcome please introduce yourself yeah hi my name is Robert hooks um and so I see that we're kind of in unprecedented times again with the changes in Washington and it seems to me that with the diversity of our um population and industries in Bakersfield and in cernan county that we really have the opportunity to show how and maybe even set the example for the nation how we can work together to solve problems I plan to ask a couple questions but I was trying to figure out how this works so I'll just make a couple of statements so I am hoping that we are working to help help the farmers recover some of the money that were um Frozen from the USDA funding freeze that came out of Washington and I also hope that we are not planning to change our Dei policy or eliminate our Dei policy based on some of the guidance that's coming out of Washington that's all thank you Mr hooks next speaker please Hector Hernandez followed by Olivia Snider welcome please introduce yourself good afternoon my name is Hector Hernandez um Hector Hernandez Jr to be to be here um I come from M mon hi um I I'm pretty sure you guys saw what happened today the walk out and all this movement that was happening this was happening we we did I was the one who technically organized all of them but I was able to get all the schools in Kern Kern County to help walk out today the problem was a lot of the schools and a lot of the students that were there with parents that I was talking to like oneon-one a lot of them said that the schools prohibited them from walking out some of the schools I'm not going to mention which school one of the schools threatened the students that were in leadership and their in their ASB that if they are um part of the walk out that they would be demoted from their position those are and there's a school where they literally lock the front doors they locked all their gates for the students not to get out one of the students had to sneak out of school and her mom was waiting for her to pick her up so that's how she was able to get to today's walkout so my question is to you guys wh why are you guys trying to Hush The Quiet the kids down and prevent them from exercising their First Amendment right thank you that's it thank you Mr Hernandez next speaker please Olivia Snider yeah member Gonzalez uh thank you uh Mr nandz thank you so much for uh coming out today and addressing your concerns um also thank you for your leadership uh that you demonstrated um I want to communicate to you that um that the high school district high schools are governed by the current High School District and they actually have a governing board the current High School District Board of Education and they meet also on a regular basis I encourage you to go to that board of education where they make the policies they actually set the policy for for high schools within the current High School District uh we don't at this dis set policy for the high school district U but thanks again for being here today and um I'm more than happy to reach out to you after this meeting to help welcome please introduce yourself hi my name is Olivia Snider and I'm representing sniders um I want to say thank you for all the efforts of Mak Bakersfield safer with bicycle paths and the bicycle path on Union has been great we do have a lot of customers who rely on bicycles for transportation so it allows them to get to the store so that they can safely fix their bike or get what they need on their bike I'm also hoping that it has a Compound Effect where there is a lot of accidents on Union and Niles just because it's a three Lane Street people are going very fast but we're hoping that there's going to be a little bit less accidents on that um that corner as well so I just wanted to say thank you guys for all your efforts and everything that you're putting forth in it thank you thank you Mr n and thank you for your fam's investment in our community for years and years Madam clerk next speaker please is at the end of non agenda Mayo that was our final non-agenda uh speaker and now would you call for those on the agenda please um if they are to speak at this time actually we don't have any right now right at America we've received uh five public speaker cards um regarding items listed on today's agenda the first public speaker is Cindy Wade regarding item 7 E2 welcome please introduce yourself hi my name is Cindy Wade and I'm going to read what I have to say because I want to say it really fast so I can get my two minutes in it say I want to thank the city council for giving me the opportunity to speak here today this is my first Public Announcement that I have made regarding my Endeavor that I have been working 7 days a week 12 to 15 hours a day for the last two year three years even though I am a nonprofit animal solution this is my first grant I've ever requested I'm grateful that there is an opportunity to see Improvement in the Oldtown Kern area even though I do not live in the east side I have spent 40 years of my life there more than I do in my own home area I have been very involved in Bethany Ministries which is a Ministry that own 14 pieces of property right in the hub of Oldtown Kern throughout the entire time I've been working in this area I have witnessed a severe problem with straight cats and dogs dead cats and dogs on the road and even abuse and packs of dogs and sick and injured I personally throughout the years have done everything I knew to intercede it's literally taken hundreds and hundreds of cats I have um at my own expense trying to to change their future after years I came to the conclusion that you cannot rescue yourself out of this problem I purchased a piece of property I'm sorry I'm nervous um at 601 Nile Street which is a building built in 1928 it was a church I made a decision the best way to see the change to its best in the Next Generation and educate our children on how to care for and be responsible pet owners after purchasing the building I rescued 70 kittens and 30 cats from one house across from my building I have worked very hard to transform this building to look like a castle a castle of hope this is where children will come to the castle and they will be taught a fun and exciting way and prayerfully they will never forget I want this building to Forever More be for the community to be used to advocate for the well-being of animals thank you very much thank you Miss Wade and thank you again for your family's investment through Bethany Ministries your mom and you and I know how much you care about that neighborhood thank you thank you next speaker please I have my request on I can't council member Gonzalez Miss way thank you so much for uh being here tonight and for all of your work and Ministry throughout the years I've had the honor of knowing you and your family for 20 years now I think and Pastor Ethel was a gem and an amazing spiritual leader for many many people throughout the community and Bethy Mysteries was a Beacon uh of light on Niles Monterey area and I I know that the castle of Hope will be that as well so I'm I'm happy to support this tonight and work with you on this project and thank you for your commitment in Oldtown Kern blessings on you madam clerk next speaker please mayor go the next four speakers are all speaking regarding item 7 E5 the first speaker is Jessica Kirchner just a reminder she's coming down each speaker's given a two-minute time limit and the agenda item is limited to 20 minutes total the consent calendar as a whole constitutes one agenda item go ahead welcome good evening mayor go and council members my name is Jessica Kirchner I am the CEO of impact Sciences our contract is before the city council tonight uh it is on the consent calendar but if there are any questions about the item I'm here and available to answer questions thank you Mr chrisher next speaker please Fernando via good evening Mayu yourself I'm sorry my name is Fernando via um and I hear am here on item 7 E5 as well good evening mayor go and members of the city council we're here simply we have two other speakers as as Jessica Kirchner mentioned we're here to answer any questions we realize that this item the two contracts under this item are under the consent calendar and will not likely be be pulled for public discussion but if they are by any council member we're here to answer any questions we're very excited to see the council moving forward on taking action on these items and the project to which it pertains and and we're very pleased to see you proceeding forward so thank you very much I think the two speakers on this item would also say the same thing but I don't mean to speak for them thank you very much thank you Mr via Madam cler next speaker please Courtney hack welcome please introduce yourself good evening my name is Courtney hack I'm with HKS Architects um also as Fernando mentioned pertaining to item seven E5 on the agenda um as Fernando Fern as Fernando mentioned we're just here to answer any questions that may um pertain to the contract that's set for approval on the consent agenda thank you next speaker please David Henderson welcome please introduce yourself hello I'm David Henderson also with HKS Architects and and for item this that's been mentioned before and we're we're just here to answer questions and we reviewed the contract and have no issues with it so thank you madam clerk are there any other public speakers may go that was our final public speaker thank you next item please appointments item 6A one appointment a six alternate member to the youth commission to a term to expire July 2025 three applications for appointment have been received from John O Malachi Lopez and Oscar Serrano thank you this appointment is by Ward therefore I'm going to call on council member bashirtash to share his alternate youth commission nomination for award six council member after reviewing all three applications it was uh a little difficult to decide between three amazing individuals that really want to get involved and see um the best for our community um after spending some time reading through the applications and and uh being thoughtful with my decision I decided to uh nominate John uh o uh for the position as alternate for w six thank you would you like to make a motion on that I do you have a motion please cast your votes motion is approved with council with vice mayor core and council member we absent thank you Mr o thank you very much for your willingness to serve Madam clerk next item please consent calendar items 7 a through 7i for approval a staff memorandum was provided regarding item 7 E4 requesting removal of the item from tonight's agenda a second staff memorandum was provided regarding item 7 i1 removing the item from the agenda for further analysis thank you and I see no requests for recusal and council member Gonzalez wishes to pull 7 E1 one council member geles would you like to make a motion make a motion to approve the consent calendar with the exception of 7 E1 and then the items that have been removed yes you have a motion please cast your votes motion is approved with Vice mayor core and council member Weir absent thank you and now 7 E1 M gonalez 7 E1 is regarding the naming rights agreement with Dignity Health for the arena theater and Convention Center colleagues as you know the naming rights for the mechanic bakes Arena Theater and Convention Center expired on January 31st 2025 and we are so fortunate to have a wonderful Community Partners and Dignity Health who um have uh stepped up uh to sponsor and to uh agree to the naming rights of the Arena Theater and Convention Center I'm just so excited about this partnership um the arena and the whole facility has been an important asset to the city of Bakersville and has really contributed to the continued revitalization of downtown Bakersville um and I know that that success will only continue with this uh with this 10year partnership agreement uh I do want to recognize Ken Keller who's here with Dignity Health tonight thank you so much for being here as well as Adam Miller and Chad Carpenter with the arena thank you so much for all the work that you do and getting this to the Das here tonight so with that I'd like to make a motion to approve 7 E1 you have a motion please catch your votes motion is approved with vice mayor core and council member Weir absent thank you next item please thank you Dignity Health public hearings 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 and make your statements succinctly so others may speak we'll hear statements from those opposed to Steph's recommendation first then we'll hear from those who would like to speak in favor of Steph's recommendation if there's testimony on both sides each side will be allowed a five-minute 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 and 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 give them to the clerk shall 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 tax equity and fiscal responsibility act hearing on behalf of the housing authority of the county of Kern number one conduct to public hearing number two adopt a resolution approving the plan of finance and number three indemnification agreement thank you Mr CLE yeah mayor and Council I would just give one preface that I give every time we have one of these hearings which we um shortened them up called them teer hearings we are well the entities seeking after these uh resources are required to hold a public hearing before a public body but these are not funds that the city spends these are not funds that the the city overseas we actually have no fiscal fiduciary responsibility with these funds but we're facilitating these public hearings uh to help them meet their um legislative obligations to do so with that uh we are available to to answer any questions about this and M Jenny buers can you know provide some high level perspective on what these um funding allocations are identified for but again these are not City funds or or funds that U we would have an obligation for thank you Miss buer some high level points high level this is for a $12 million request from Housing Authority uh for their bonding of the Nile Street project it's 51 affordable housing units thank you and at this time public hearing item 9A is open is there anyone who' like to speak in opposition to it's 8 a sorry no let's see we had a change it's both it constitutes both 8 a and 9A 8 a and 9A we had a little change uh is there anyone who'd like to speak in opposition to staff's recommendation please come to the microphone identify yourself and proceed seeing none is there anyone who'd like to speak in support of Steph's recommendation seeing none I'll close the public hearing return it to council for comment and Action Council M comman thank you mayor I just want to say that uh over the years uh through the Redevelopment agency and for and the planet commission as well I I've been so overwhelmingly impressed by the relationship with the housing authority and the job that you got guys have done on all the projects in town I had an opportunity when I was on the Redevelopment agency to go to uh the Bay Area and receive an award and one of those projects really was uh a project that was led by the Housing Authority so I just I I always give them a lot of leeway when they come uh before the Planning Commission or anything else because they do topnotch projects uh you know you drive by their projects and they don't appear to be low-income housing they're you know they're just a very very nicely designed and well-maintained project so I'm happy to uh support anything at this point that the Housing Authority uh is asking so I would make that motion to approve that if there was no other speakers thank you mayor I don't see any other requests for speakers you have a motion please cast your votes motion was approved with vice mayor core and council member Weir absent thank you madam clerk next item please reports I item 10A a public safety update presentation will be provided by the Bakersfield Police Department chief Greg Terry thank you before we begin please note that if you're here to speak on reports item 10A the city clerk will call for public statements after staff's presentation each speaker again will be limited to two minute time limit and a 20 minute total city manager CLE yeah thank you mayor and Council this presentation is provided in response to referral by a request by coun M Smith to clarify some 2024 traffic data information there was a public commenter who had shared some information but it was at really countywide level and just a good opportunity to to reflect accurate um data and information that uh was uh reflective of City specific incidents related to Traffic Safety um Chief Terry is uh actually unwell right now we wish him well but um assistant chief Brent Stratton will be helping to walk through this presentation but I'll go ahead and um get us started if I may see clerk so Chief Stratton will will um help kick us off here but I just wanted to again set some context we have begun collecting much more traffic data than we have historically as a matter of course of law enforcement we've always collected good data but um we've actually been investing in um software that helps us to better analyze and present that data in in um graphic representations to just really help us be more thoughtful about how we do interventions and so that's reflective uh I would say two years ago we were putting together um tables and graphs through some of the Microsoft Office tools and today uh we can provide to the city council uh much more meaningful data analysis of uh traffic collision you know data as well as many other data points and so this is a high level uh we receive a monthly report from the police department and I've shared that out a few times with the city council as a whole to reflect on that data and uh so tonight we're going to just provide a summary uh presentation for the public but again we've got um good data that we're tracking on a regular basis to help us really understand the nature of what what the issues are that we're facing Chief Stratton good evening thank you for the opportunity to be here and give you a briefing on uh traffic safety and some of the traffic safety efforts that the police department has been making um for 2024 as we closed out some of our numbers the good news is that we were able to see an overall U reduction in total fatal collisions as well as a significant reduction in Dy related fatal collisions uh we did see a small increase of overall total injury collisions and as an agency we really try to focus on the reduction of head-on and broadside collisions those are the the collisions that um have the greatest impact to um to our community and have the lowest survivability rates so those are the areas that we really want to try to focus on we've been using as uh city manager has talked about trying to take a more data informed approach and having the data um really direct where our resources where our intervention um efforts are are are going to come from so you know in in years past we've been seeing some increases and and we're thankful to uh because of some of the the efforts the Partnerships with the city some of the Community Partnerships and the investment um to see a reduction in 2024 was was a good year um we still have we still have a lot of work to do though you'll see in the bottom right hand corner where we talk about primary collision factors as we break down our data trying to inform what is it that contributes to uh most accidents and we see that speed um and and DUIs pedestrians in the roadway as well as the ignoring of of traffic signs and signals running red lights still continues to be the the biggest factor that leads towards our collisions we brought forward a three-year um trend for you just to see where 2024 ended up in respect to the the previous years as well and I talked about some of the numbers that we were seeing really in 2022 which were much too high and we've been able to to really bring uh back a reduction to our community in 2023 as well as in in 2024 in many of the areas one of the areas where we saw an increase as you can tell is in in the areas of uh bicycle collisions that that has still risen from 2 and 22 to to 3 and 23 and and going to to five of them in 2024 um so that's an area that we want to continue to see Improvement and we're working with our community engagement division to find ways that we can um work to uh to provide good messaging within the public um and with with our our drivers to make sure that our our roads are are safe for those who who choose to um use bicycles in in our community and I think there's been uh strong efforts made by the city in that regard um as well as with the police department within our our enforcement and that's something we want to continue to try to focus on because we want to bring a reduction to that number um but thankfully in the other three areas as it relates to pedestrians and vehicles and overall total number we were able to to see a reduction this year thankfully breaking down some of the data um a little bit further as it relates to fatal collisions you'll see that five of our fatal collisions were DUI related I was actually a little bit surprised by that stat I thought the numbers um would be higher than than they were but um and you can see that in other years we've had higher number higher percentage of the Fatal collisions have been DUI related and we saw a smaller percentage of them this year which is uh which is a good thing to to see but we still want to bring uh more of a reduction um next year excuse me when we talked about having a a slight increase approximately 1% increase on non-fatal injury collisions um this is we've seen an unfortunate Trend that you can see continuing to increase so we still have more work that we can do as it relates to non-fatal injury collisions as well um we've really prioritized again some of the Fatal collisions some the broadside head-on head-on collisions focusing our enforcement efforts um at those intersections where we're seeing those and you some of the non-fatal injury um collisions are are things oftentimes rear ending and things like that are are things that we can we can really start to focus on but our main focus has been on reducing the fatalities and trying to make the roadways more safe um for our community so this is an area that that we want to to to bring some decreases and continue to focus on uh for next year so again this is a just a brief snapshot um but I'm happy to to do the very best that I can to answer any questions for you about some of our our efforts and and things that we're we're trying to do as it relates to to education as it relates to our enforcement and um the city's been has been doing an excellent job on on working with roadway design um as well trying to find some answers and trying to take a multi-prong approach to making our roadway more safe for our city thank you Chief Madam clerk do we have any public speakers regarding this item mayor go uh we have not received any speakers speaker cards regarding this item thank you council member Smith thank you mayor thank you Chief um I'm mostly familiar with the engineering changes those are easy to see and sir and work with public works and and staff on those as far as the what efforts we're making on education and how we're changing the enforcement I'd like to hear some more information on that yes sir as it relates to our enforcement um you know we've been able to the city has has continued to invest in the police department we've been able to increase the number of officers assigned to our Traffic Division steadily every year and when Academy graduates you know we've assigned officers to a variety of different areas throughout the department but traffic is one of the areas we've continued to assign uh officers where their sole duty is to be 40 hours a week to be focused on on traffic enforcement we're working through that via um via patrol car um we've been able to expand our motor program we believe that our our our Motors are able to help do a lot of traffic enforcement that that is much more difficult to do in a car we've been able to have our um commercial enforcement as well working um with a dedicated officer working with you know large Vehicles big rigs and things like that um we've been able to expand our major Collision investigation investigations team because when we have these fatal these fatal accidents it it's like working a murder investigation and and the amount of work that goes into them and there's a lot of expertise and equipment and training that goes into that so we've been able to to develop that um to develop um investigators who are assigned to conducting hit-and run investigations and the follow-up work to be able to apprehend those who who commit these crimes as well so those are some of the areas on on the enforcement side as the city manager alluded to we're becoming much more proficient with our data and letting our data inform where our enforcement is going to be when it's going to to occur as well so those are some of the efforts we're doing um you know enforcement base we've been working with our partners from with the California Highway Patrol um we've had investment via grants with the uh office of traffic traffic safety and working on um increasing the number of TR uh DUI checkpoints and things that we do we've also been able to um have the office of traffic safety to be able to allow us to give us the authority to not just have fixed checkpoints but to have some roving DUI patrols as well um in an effort to to maximize what that enforcement looks like we've tried to increase our messaging uh towards the community around DUI enforcement um and so we still have a lot of work that we can do within the community engagement division um we are open to any partnership that somebody may have within our community of things that the police department can do from an education standpoint uh to to try to amplify our message we're excuse me we're very open to that and we're looking for ways that that we could do better in that regard as well sir if I may as well uh council member just as far as just education broadly in general uh we've been fortunate to be able to partner with blue zones who've helped us with several events that are you know trying to help Foster not only more healthy and active lifestyle but also better safety as it relates to pedestrian and bicycle uh practices on our you know City you know roadways and and Pathways uh but I would acknowledge to this Council that you know we've received um referrals and suggestions to create more of an education campaign and so that's one of the things that we're working on through marketing Communications as well as partnering with the school district because that's one of the specific subelements of Education that was requested by this Council on the multimodal committee was to create an education campaign around schools so we're working on an education campaign that is not only for schools but just also for distracted driver and just safer you know driving um and use of our you know roadways throughout the city uh and that's that's pending we we need to get that back to the city council that you know is a more of a sort of Citywide holistic campaign but we have had some good targeted efforts on some specific law enforcement um areas like DUIs and then the blue zones efforts but we've got a um more of an education campaign in the works um for city-wide efforts thank you yeah just you just sent me the red light numbers for the years I think we only have eight intersections out of I don't know Public Works how many intersection traffic signal intersections do we have 100 and something um AR mayor council May Smith I don't have the exact number off the top of my head but yes every every arterial yeah I'm sure 100 plus and eight of them have red light cameras and only certain movements have those cameras on them and and we've got 12,000 violations over the years so yes sir people are running red lights on a daily basis all over the city so yes sir I'd say we have I believe it's 10 10 intersection with 16 different approaches and and by approach it's it's it's a direction we um you know we have been studying and working about what an expansion could look like and we've tried to prioritize those areas where we've had uh again the head-on and the broadside collisions is where we've tried to to to really do some research for what expansion might be we've also tried to look at the areas where we get um Community complaints but where we see um just uh high speeds and people driving at high speeds to really try to slow people down that's the DUI is one component of it but really just we've got to slow down throughout the entire of our community and and I think we can see some really strong reductions if we can just get folks to drive a little slower yeah I appreciate that um I talked in the past about all around the all the schools the council as a whole has talked about that you know that that's a problem and and I know it's hard to address all the schools so I'm going to give you one specific referral Liberty High School you know is just down the street for me it's a on the corner of an arterial and a collector Jetta is a collector at that point and there's just there's no guidance there's no striping there's no and and people passing on the ride kids walking across the street I mean just it's pretty random and opportunities for bad things and I think that you know we could do some guidance along that street and and do some striping to help I would appreciate it thank you thank you council member Smith council member Gonzalez may I may I say just one thing to council member Smith as well regarding some of the schools I just wanted to relay as we've been able to increase our staffing we've been able to increase the number of of school resource officers and we plan on continue to grow that as well and that's one of the things that we ask our school resource officers to do only have five for the entire city but part of their their efforts is to maintain some of that high visibility around some of the schools as well and we've been working with our partners at the current High School District to really encourage them to work on some proactive traffic enforcement regarding their high schools as they have statutory Authority regarding in some of the areas around their high schools and I've seen that they've begun uh training one of their officers on on traffic enforcement and we're starting to see a little bit of that there so that's an area we can continue to lean in on the enforcement side I realize you were talking about infrastructure but it it gave me a thought that I wanted to relay to you that is uh something that we're working on as well sir appreciate that thank you thank you council member Gonzalez thank you so much chief for the report thank you Mr CLE um for recognizing uh council member Smith's referral um I had an observation I was looking at this data which is really helpful by the way um for us to make policy decisions in the future excuse me um but as we look at you know 2022 Visa 2024 we we I'm looking at the pest ran non-fatal injury collisions really has stayed the same we had 133 non-fatal injury collisions with pedestrians in 2022 in 2024 there was 136 and yet if we look at fatal collisions um related to pedestrians in 202 2022 we had 37 we dropped down to 2024 so more than half in uh 2024 17 um what can we we you're the expert Chief what can we um deduce is changing uh in terms of the reduction of fatalities Rel to pedestrians it's a it's a great question as I look at the data and you kind of focus in on some of the pedestrian component to it too it's good to you know on one hand it's it's good to see that the number of fatal collisions is dropping so I I'm wondering then I'd need to dig a little bit deeper if that means these are you know slower speed issues and and the SL lower the speeds the the your percentage chance of of survivability goes up right so I'm I'm wondering if that could be a component of it um but I don't know exactly what it's attributed to I will tell you that uh pedestrian enforcement is something that we're working on as well in trying to uh take maximum efforts that we can and working on education and enforcement to try to keep you know people from from being out of the roadway as well I would love to do a little bit more analysis on that I I I would love to believe that some of the improvements we've been making to uh our roads and and reducing um speeds and the green paint and some of the additional geometry um improvements have really contributed to this reduction but um I'm just surmising at this point it would be helpful to have some sort of analysis from the experts Mr clug yeah thank you council member and mayor and counsel um another former conversation I can't recall if it was a specific referral but we've been acting on on the discussion is to create a working group that can um really dissect specific instances to understand you know what happened at you know for a particular Collision or incident um and that group is also talking about just looking at how do we dig a little bit deeper and analy ing the overall numbers to or to understand what what is that data telling us our partners again at Blue zones have offered to um you know do some of that work with us we also have a coalition that was already in place that's looking at some of that and so we're we're combining some of our staff efforts and the and a pre-existing Coalition and our blue zones Partners to form a new group that's really going to look at some of those instances uh kind of what we would call a case conferencing of those instances and look also at some of the aggregate data to to dig a little bit deeper in that perfect one last question do we collect data related to um collisions caused by distracted drivers we do um and and I can get that for you I know that um going back to the the first page that is one of our um I'm sorry it's not one of our primary collision factors I I thought that it was higher R higher um percentage of occurrence than than it has but we do have that information as well and it's something I can get for you I think that would be helpful in future presentations and I'd appreciate it um I know anecdotally um I've observed so many um distracted drivers uh just today and uh that's every day I think so and I think it's becoming more and more of an issue with all of the various different technology and vehicles now and with everyone with a smartphone and other devices um I think it's a serious problem and um I still have a outstanding referral that the city um launch a distracted driver campaign where we um have you know go out full court press throughout the community um with lots of different Community Partners to make people more cognizant of the real impacts um of distracted driving and how many people have have died as a result of collisions because the driver was distracted on their phone and uh we need to we need to raise that issue in the public uh much like uh um you know seat bels was an issue in in the 80s and you know drunk driving this is becoming a serious issue in our community it's very dangerous so um I hope that we can continue to do that I know I have some items on my to-do list as well regarding that and I'm looking forward to partnering with staff to to launch that campaign I couldn't agree with you more um as I think through it with our with with the Fatal Collision I could see how we would be able to collect that information because we would have the ability you know pursuant to search warrants to see cell phones to be able to determine whether somebody was on their phone at the time with non nonfatal collisions generally you know that's not something that we seiz and so it would be report it would be dependent on somebody self-reporting that so I could see some difficulties with Gathering the data but I think anecdotally I agree 100% And from an education standpoint that's something our community engagement division would be very happy to partner with with um our Traffic Division and yourself to to some ideas on how we can message that or move it out I think it's absolutely in line with our our mission of of following through with education not everything is enforcement some of it's education and then you know obviously design environmental factors as well but this is definitely falls falls in line with what we'd like to do so I'd be happy to partner with you on that sir council member arus thank you mayor um several years ago when we um many many members of this Council myself um and and along with leadership at the staff level uh when we we set out on on this Mission uh to make our street safer I think it was very clear that the goal was to literally save lives that's right um and I think that this data shows that we are doing just that and I just want to say thank you to uh you your staff um Chief Terry's leadership um but also you know everyone else who has been a part of the broad Coalition uh to bring about this change you know we I see a couple folks and Friends from uh blue zones in the room uh thank you uh for your leadership if there's any way we can keep you beyond the 5 years of your initial contract please let us know um but there are so many uh who have been crucial to this work um and thank you to City staff um special thank you to Greg and and now Zach uh for leading uh this effort through the public works department um it has taken um a mindset shift um from a planning standpoint um but also from a community standpoint something that we need to you know Embrace and get used to makes us feel a little bit uncomfortable uh but I think it's important for us to understand that if we're saving lives then it's something that we need to address too um but enforcement enforcement is a critical component to that um and I just want to say thank you to both you and chief Terry for embracing that and being a part of the solution um many years ago we struggled uh to be able to have enough officers who are enforcing uh you know uh appropriate speeds on on the streets can can you give us a sense of how many more officers today there are either on motorcycles um or in traditional vehicles uh who are able to do this level of enforcement for us sure I'd like to first um thank you for your your initial comments but you said it perfectly the police department is what but one very small portion of the of the team in the city deserves a tremendous amount of credit for the work they've been doing again we talk about things from an enforcement an education and an environmental standpoint and the environmental standpoint is really the city and our Community Partners that you've referenced and the council's leadership so you you know that there's other folks other than the police department that that deserve the the thanks for that from an enforcement standpoint we have um been able to grow I don't have the exact numbers handy but we are at I I believe it's 16 motor officers and when we started out on this we were at zero so I mean we we've grown tremendously there um I don't know that our traffic um division is the biggest that it's ever been but it's certainly the biggest that I can remember in you know the 21 years that I've I've been here so um with police service technicians uh with officers with sergeants and a dedicated Lieutenant we're you know we're well in the mid mid to height 30s number of people that that's that's what they do I don't know what the exact number looks like I think the data will tell us that when we see uh a decrease in red light uh camera citations when we continue to see year after year after year decrease in fatal collisions and decrease in in injury collisions um and when our enforcement you know is is mirroring that and matching that then I think we'll have a good idea that we've got a proper handle on it um for the here and now we intend to to continue to increase as we getmy and as we grow we're continuing to to allocate resources towards traffic because we do believe it's it's an area that's it's important for the entirety of our city and our community and and while there's some positive Trends over the last two years we recognize that there's still a tremendous amount of work that needs to be done and as our city continues to grow um in geography as well as in population um I'm I'm concerned about th those challenges quite frankly but um it's something we we'll continue to work to to meet fantastic thank you and um since you brought it up I I recently heard that there was um a pretty uh significant increase in the amount of officers uh that we have including the recent Academy I would love for you to share a quick update uh to the public and to the council as to where we are with that compliment sure our overall allowed compliment is 512 we're sitting close to the 468 470 something like that we have another Academy slated to start on June 30th um we're going through applicants in the background process now but we're hoping to be able to to close that Gap significantly um to to be able to get um as close to compliment as we can so the the the council and our community has invested in our department tremendously we've had a lot of great support from human resources and other areas and helping with our hiring and recruiting and we're really hoping to be able to retain um the officers that we have and keep them here in our city and our community to um to help push us to closer to reaching that goal but we we've still got a ways to go but we're closer than we've ever been city manager click do you wish to speak I was only going to reflect that our compliment on the budget was raised from 407 to 507 then to 512 but have filled positions when uh the the goal was first set to um increase officers by 100 we were we had 385 filled positions and chief say the number again where we're at today 68 sir fantastic thank you for that clarification um just a couple more questions um in um my research um uh and then talking to the city manager it's it it's my understanding that nearly 40% of all collisions are taking place in the late evening um and early morning can can you provide some clarity and and and maybe just some anecdotal information as to why that might be um the case you know I'm assuming uh related to uh folks driving Under the Influence um potentially also some lighting challenges um but I would love to to hear from you uh as as the expert on this issue yes uh some of the data on the on the first slide well I can just read it to you that 39% of all of our fatal collisions occur between 900 p.m and 3:00 a.m. um and that the the majority of them 11 of them occurred on a Saturday and eight of them were occurring on a Wednesday I don't really have an explanation for the Wednesday that seems I I don't understand what that looks like from a Saturday night perspective that makes the most amount of sense to me I do think that there's the potential for people being out it's the weekend I think you know the time frame in which it's occurring I I think we could deduce that alcohol has an as an impact in in that for sure but um the other opinions would be you know they'd be anecdotal and and I'm not 100% certain about it but we've tried to mirror our deployment um strategies and that's kind of what I mean by being data informed we want this to inform how we deploy and when we deploy if we're having the most amount of our accidents between 9:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m. then we want to make sure that that's when we have the most amount of officers out there and we're hoping that a high visibility drives that down that enforcement drives that down so we want them to be available during this time frame and not and and maybe staff minimally when when incidents are occurring until we can get to a spot where we have you know a robust Staffing at you know at 247 but for the here and now we're we're trying to do the best that we can to to let this inform when we're going to assign people where we're going to assign them um to to try to bring these these numbers down fantastic um I'll just finish my comments by saying that I agree with my colleagues and what the city manager that I think it's really important that we get uh the data uh to demonstrate the reasons why we are seeing uh improvements in in safety on our streets um it I've also um uh heard from City staff that there are really three top areas that we've identified throughout the city um please Chief or city manager correct me if I'm wrong um but the first being montere and Beal um the second being 23rd and 24th Street um and then the third being Brundage Lane near Madison Street um I would appreciate it if you could shed some light on those three areas um and then I saw that that there was a potential strategy around Monteray and Beal um but I didn't see strategies for the second two sure and we'd love to understand what our approach is going to be yeah so the report is there something um you know as the city manager spoke about us improving with some of our data and talked a few times about letting the data inform our strategies we've really looked at where are we having the most most amount of of collisions and those are the top three locations of where we're having the most amount of collisions so um it's it's really not uh it's really not rocket science that's where we should send police officers and traffic officers to try to do the best that we can to tailor our enforcement our high visibility around those locations and so we're continuing to dive into that data to determine what is the best approach does it have something to do with uh is that would those be areas for um you know red light camera expansion um is that where we just literally drop anchor and put a motor officer there um what is it that that we do to try to show a reduction from those but those are intersections that are pretty highly traveled um so as you can you can imagine it makes sense that we're going to have the most amount of collisions there so um those are areas of of focus for us and trying to make sure that we can bring a reduction to those areas you know anytime you have an ACC there's always going to be a top three location and so we try to look at this thing on a month-to-month basis and if every month we're seeing the same intersections then we know we need to prioritize that if it's if it's starting to rotate and it's moving around okay that might be a little bit harder to pin down but for the last if for if for the next couple months we continue to see that there then we'll know that those will be the areas of priority and focus for for our traffic officers fantastic city manager or um Mr Meyer is there anything that you would like to add particularly on uh you know the infrastru infrastructure improvements that we could potentially uh make that could potentially help the situation in those three areas uh thank you Council I was going to say no but then you said infrastructure and Al so I say yes you know we actually have significant infrastructure planned along monitor that's um been funded uh through some grant funding we also have a complete streets project that has been under designed for um um the mon Niles area uh and so again as we look at some of these highest priority areas we are looking at whether or not the built environment adjustments can make an impact and uh trying to prioritize which ones we get into design go to get grant funding for and make upgrades as well fantastic well as always thank you for the presentation and great work thank you sir thank you council member Arius council member Smith thank you mayor just uh couple thoughts the the graphs show the last three years but I'm looking at data from 2018 and at that time we we had total fatal collisions of 27 and 19 was 31 and then we started going up and then like a lot of things in our society covid changed and in particular traffic fatalities and speeds and stuff changed and so we we hit that Peak at 22 and then and then we have a reduction which we've seen across the nation also my point is is that we're still not back to pre covid type numbers 2730 we're we're substantially above that at 44 total fatalities and so keep working on it I guess sir message so that's just a point and I've always said that when we look at graphs and you know timelines it's the longer is the better and so you know a five to 10 year look on those types of things I think make more sense than just the last two or three agreed I I I definitely agree I think it's good to be able to give us that that longer that longer term perspective I've had a harder time to be able to to talk about what we were doing five years ago and many of us within our organization weren't in the positions we were in so I'm a little more uninformed about what our our strategies were but I certainly think there's value in being able to look at it from a longer term perspective and I agree completely we got a a long long way to go and that's kind of what I meant I I think our city has grown has grown it's going to continue to grow and and I'm I'm concerned um for sure and so I know we still have we got our work cut out for us this is not a this is not spiking the football by any means this is uh I'm I'm happy with some improvement but I got a lot of work to do for you sir thank you and I guess the the other comment you know Union Avenue was the worst Street in the city and we've seen substantial changes on that both from calr and from us and so I would like you know maybe next year a year from now you know let's look at long-term data on specifically on Union Avenue what what has it done the last 5 to 10 years thank you thank you council member Smith council member Basher Tash it's my turn um not to take away from the millions and millions of dollars that we spent on trying to improve Public Safety I'd like to bring up a really awesome point and that is the automotive industry and designing vehicles that have safety Fe Fe that that didn't exist two or 3 years ago my car yells at me when it thinks I'm distracted and forces me to keep my eyes on the road and as we continue to see cars grow and standard safety features be there across the board these numbers are going to continue to drop without us spending even a penny on public safety and of course the numbers are going to be skewed because our city is growing over and over again so a lot of the question like why have the the the the fatality has gone down cars have shifted from wanting to just protect the driver and the passengers to wanting protect themselves uh cars stop well before even getting close to newer vehicles um but as we see older vehicles phased off of the roads that aren't equipped with safety features like that like you know like seat belts were brought about and and have saved uh billions of lives and um that number is going to continue to drop and drop and drop uh cars recognize pedestrians walking around them now they stop uh they they hesitate um they they they alert you when you're distracted when when you're hugging a line when you're getting close to things they really don't just want to protect the passengers and drivers they want to protect themselves from being destroyed uh and turned into Rubble um so I don't want to take away from what we've done but you know there there's a lot of facts and Truth to that National numbers have as you said have reflected that we're going to see that continue to uh to decrease as a whole as Things become more and more intelligent uh but I think trying to uh our biggest challenge is trying to get people to do the right thing um you know there's a a very small margin between controlling people and allowing people to you know be free to to make stupid decisions and I think the point is accountability um that's that's a huge thing something that I've really noticed over the last few years that I didn't uh really see growing up in this town was the street takeovers and intersection shutdowns and the the droves of hundreds of kids on bicycles with no helmets uh taking over streets and I often wonder uh why is it happening and not being shut down and they just continue to stroll and I know it's a big need to tackle and it's like how do you even begin to hold you know 500 kids on bicycles that are writing fixies down uh oncoming traffic how do you hold them accountable how do you stop you know 200 cars in a in an intersection spinning Donuts um you know I I I don't know but I think those are uh important things to consider and look at and I think that a lot of these things will solve themselves with time as technology upgrades uh as we've seen that on not just a local but a national level uh i' encourage anybody um to to kind of do some research behind that it's pretty pretty awesome but I don't know what your thoughts are on on the the groups and the takeovers and sure and that sort of thing yeah uh We've we've worked very hard to try to be as impactful on those as we can we've worked with we've um you know previous California legislators have worked on some legislation that have um we've been able to to take advantage of we've gone through throughout the state to find agencies that are doing it well we've worked within our Traffic Division to be able to develop um an understanding of the variety of different laws and vehicle inspection things that we could do when you do have some of these vehicles detained it is difficult anytime you're trying to detain several hundred people and you have to really determine who's a spectator which may not be illegal who's actively involved in these things how are they being um pushed out through social media what are the the things that we can do so we've we've taken a pretty strong enforcement stance with what we can we've we've I don't have the numbers for you I can get them I mean we've we've made arrests we've impounded Vehicles we've a ton of citations um we do the the the best we can to try to to Corral and and move them around but um they they've become a little more Nimble as well and they're for a minute or two and gone and move some of these things have been where you're taking over an intersection and some of them we've had homicides at we've had shootings um we've seized uh firearms and a variety of different uh rifles at different events and so it's been um it's not something that a single police officer can tackle themselves it usually takes a coordinated response to be able to get towards that and that's something that we've we've worked towards um large amounts of oftentimes young people with with bikes through the kind of a takeover Style on bikes is it poses similar challenges less less dangerous than some of the the um examples I've given you that that we've dealt with but is it it does present some some enforcement challenges for us as well um so so I wouldn't say that there's been a reluctance um to do it but just a difficulty and a little bit of of a grappling on on how to how to do it and in in chasing juveniles that are oftentimes not as compliant and just pulling over when an officer tries to to stop them and so you're you're chasing somebody on a bike and and how does that terminate oftentimes are some of the factors that that we grapple with but it is definitely something that we're we're working towards we have made um enforcement efforts towards towards that as well but um again we we have some area for room for improvement for sure thank you council member B uh council member Coman now thank you mayor Chief thank you very much for this report I really appreciate it I think I agree with councilman council member Smith that we probably see need to see a little longer tail but I understand that some of the data collection techniques have changed a little bit so I don't know how accurate that would be so that was kind of one of my questions is uh how much of this can we attribute to the change in data collection when did you start collecting this data sure I think we've always captured some that we can give you the Fatal collisions and ex we've we've always captured that but I would say that it's really been the last three years or so that we've really tried to become a little more data informed I would have told you you four years ago I I I couldn't talk to much about data at all now I'm you know I got a propeller on my head pretty much you know and I'm I'm becoming a I'm becoming a data geek so we're learning as an agency or or proficiency has grown the council's invested in performance analysts for us and we have more people that are that are trained more equipment to be able to pull this this data so I think over the last couple years our data is better than it's ever been but broad Strokes of the number of collisions and fatal collisions we have that information and we can we can absolutely present that to you I would struggle with giving you an an analysis of it because again over the last couple years we've really started to get settled in our positions and before that there was a you know big a big shift within our agency and so I I think we'd have a hard time being able to give you an analysis going back farther than three or four years but raw data numbers I have for you sir um on the on the uh I guess that's the first sheet you kind of listed um the primary collision factors and this was actually I just now noticed the word fatals that was only for fatal accident yes sir that wasn't for all accidents that's that's correct um and and often times they they mirror each other you see a lot of similarities um between um between what occurs but yeah this is the the main we call them pcfs the primary collision factors on on fatals but I can get the information too as it relates to all all the collisions I I really just wanted to see if you had any I know you have these are the top four I would assume uh you give us all of them but um is there any priority to them are they just listed here they're just they're just listed here um I don't have them broken down by numbers that is information I can get to to have them ranked um but for us you know these are the things that uh so for me these are the things that I want our traffic officers focusing on I don't need them riding parking tickets if that's not one of the primary collision factors to come and bring 20 or 10 whatever parking citations isn't going to do anything to make our roadways more safe these are the things that I want them focusing their efforts on and these are the things that what their enforcement should be about this is what our education should be about to try to have a coordinated response to really uh drive in and make sure that as a as an organization we're we're focusing in on what we can do to try to show a reduction here well thank you for saying that because we all worry about you know what the officer's priorities are in the street so it's really nice to know that you're paying attention to that in your training can you talk a little bit about signs and signals and what what what problems you're seeing that are contributing to these factors yes sir that would mean running stop signs running red lights and things like that just not failing to to to stop at these intersections so um that's that's often times is what contributes mostly to broadside collisions is people blowing through intersections and that leads to fatality so when you have somebody blowing through an intersection and then they're coming through at a high rate of speed and then often times if there's an intoxication component to it there those really become increased the likelihood of of of a fatal encounter tremendously so it's not a problem with the signals and the signs no sir it's a problem with us ignoring them yes sir right and then the the last thing I wanted to ask you about was a couple of years ago uh the legislature and the governor uh reduce the penalties for jay walking and those kind of things I think that you know we all we've all been out on the road in the evening and somebody will come darting out of the apartment building or run across the road wearing dark clothes or bicyclist just riding out in front of you no reflectors no dark flows you can't hardly see them you know and we we all Panic we you know stop and we manag to not most of us manag to not hit them I'm sure some of them get hit I guess my question to you is then uh considering what the governor's orders were what what can be done about those kind of uh Bad actors sure it's limited enforcement um for sure but it's not completely taken it away um I don't have the law exactly memorized in my head but it is it limits enforcement to areas people are still not allowed to cross when when when dangerous and so it still allows for the officers to be able to take an enforcement action um when when we can um it's still just a citation you give somebody a ticket and it's hopefully they show up to court and don't just crumble it up and throw away or never show up to court so it's not um it's not something where there's a ton of teeth to it but um there we do take take action we do have um directed efforts focus on um for our officers focusing on people who are are walking in in man that's dangerous to themselves and to drivers and people that are driving so there is enfor that um that we do focus on towards that sir okay thank you Chief I have no further questions mayor thank you council member colan we need a motion to rece you have a motion please cast your votes thank you very much Chief thank you mayor city manager how long is the next segment anticipated to be it will be long enough that I advise a break will yes let and we will take a break as soon as we have the motion uh let's come back at 7 o'cl and uh I see in the audience uh the representative of assemblywoman Dr JZ meet Baines thank you so much for your presence here mayor go Motion is approved with vice mayor core and council member Weir absent thank you city clerk and we'll be back at 7 [Music] [Music] you [Music] l [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] wait [Music] right we are reconvening we need one more person well we have no business right now but Madam clerk next item please reports item 10B update on the making downtown Bakersfield Vision plan thank you again public speakers will be received after staff's comments report city manager CLE yeah thank you mayor and Council just to set a little bit of context for this presentation um as we uh had a lengthy question and answer in our last item and we're conscious of time we're going to exped right through this presentation because you have it in front of you and try and focus on the key issues and then question and answer as well and then the other piece of context just is that uh we appreciated the referral from Council M Gonzalez to um make uh an update or status on this plan because uh it was a 10-year plan and and we're about 5 years through that 10-year plan but since it was just long ago enough it's good to come back to it and be reminded uh of the efforts that are around this plan and lots has been happening more are still to come uh and our economic and Community Development director Jenny buers will walk through those highlights and then we'll go to questions thank you Miss buers Highlights Highlights I will highlight that the Downtown Vision plan it's a 30-year phased plan uh that was initiated in 2015 after Bakersville was selected for the high-speed rail station it really focused on the reinvestment into historic downtown and making Chester Avenue the front door to the new uh High speed rail station and so I am going to buzz through these because it is a lot of information phase one was a decade worth of work uh and so here we go hold on uh so here's the vision plans you guys do have copies of us it really is about that reinvestment increasing population supporting activity uh developing those vacant properties so that's the work that we have been uh doing there were strategies for three the three phases included 49 policy strategies and 25 physical strategies so I'm going to only run through this phase one items enhanced Economic Development Economic Development Department was eliminated back in 2011 after Redevelopment uh went away there was a one part-time person that worked on economic development until 2019 and then the department was formed in 2021 we now have four people uh that are dedicated only towards the economic development of our community the the downtown Economic Opportunity area the eoa that was activated it was continued because it was only a term of 10 years from 2014 to 2024 city council updated and renewed it until 2034 we've done 45 eoa activities in the downtown area uh set a goal of reaching 10,000 residents in 2015 there were only 5,000 residents in the downtown we're now up to 9400 and growing that's 19% since 2015 and then we did a study to see how many other housing we could do the study showed that we could do an additional 25,000 units uh implementing iconic and catalytic housing and mixed use dores wera Cultural Center uh get is going to do some Transit Center and housing East Chester City serve there's a lot of housing that's being constructed in downtown enhanced business support we have an entrepreneurship program that's been very successful the EA we have a pick Bakers field which is an online site selector and it identifies uh what activities can happen in different zoning we have size up so if you're a small business how do you compare with other businesses so those are some of our business support uh policy strategy Transit oriented design we are working with High-Speed Rail calr on three studies that will look at what Transit oriented development looks like uh F Street Corridor capacity uh for utilities and then State Route 204 um developing downtown smart cities there's all kinds of things that the city has done uh Clarity permitting system we have a new Digital radio the city has an app now you look back in time and you're like all these things have happened since 2015 so we have a city app there's ask Archie get even has real-time bus and Transit um some things that are still in the work mil Creek Entertainment District uh developing that out completely launching a pbid we are working with the downtown Business Association on what that might look like as a funding resource for the development uh leveraging our publicly owned parcels and also looking at parking uh areas for the downtown policy strategies uh we are going through a general Plan update if you haven't heard and that will include uh zoning ordinance and so the vision for downtown had a lot of items that could be included in that down in that General Plan update there will be a downtown element we're looking at that framework and slated to begin that work in June of this year uh so then some of those downtown policies really about placemaking downtown identity historic preservation we have a study that's occurring with our historic preservation for cultural resources that's to be completed I think there's the slide um anyway the so the downtown historic cultural resources uh will be completed by June of this year really looking at implementing a Mills act making it feasible for historic businesses or historic buildings to update and uh receive some tax value from that these are all of the strategies that we're working on overlay zones residential zones uh ordinances have been being worked on for uh development in our CB and CC Zone incentive zoning uh just a lot of work the architectural overlay Zone we're starting to look at a downtown kind of specific plan layout and what that might be Vision planning similar to what we're doing currently in Oldtown Kern um so those are some of the policies that are occurring right now infrastructure these were items that were identified in the downtown uh Vision Master sewer study that was completed in 2020 a storm drain study that was completed in 2020 uh working on Rehabilitation uh prioritizing Capital Improvements we're going to be taking the impact fee study I don't want to missp speake I think it's going to Housing and Community Development at the next soon going to one of the up one of the Committees soon to look at fee studies parking policy we've done one uh downtown study by Ura that showed how much parking is needed in the downtown over the next uh 5 10 years looking at ways to fund that uh do we look at uh on street parking um fees having access to a a resource an ongoing resource to build other facilities that would be more efficient oh here's the slide okay see I'm going so fast I don't remember the things that we're doing this is the historic preservation policy the Mills act that we're working on adaptive reuse facade easements uh that has been huge in our eoas and um making sure that we have provided resources Woolworth is plated here I spoke with Emily weit earlier today they're looking at a May opening of that building and so we will all be invited to that uh the downtown mobile what active Transportation has looked like we were talking just earlier about uh being walkable and having uh complete streets and those are things that were identified in the vision plan and uh so we did adopt a downtown walkability plan pedestrian guidelines wayfinding strategy all of those just make it a more livable area uh to incorporate into our downtown um then the active Transportation enhancing the economy and livability through Mobility improvements uh smart streets uh complete streets these are all things that we continue to work on but we've also been successful in a couple of other things the complete streets resolution was adopted in 2023 and uh Zach and his team have been working on really evaluating all of the community not only the downtown to the physical strategies uh we did do 23rd and 24th Street intersection improvements Franklin did receive uh safe routs to school 18th and 19th where 65% design for L Street to O Street segment with only partial construction funding awarded and so Zach's team again is looking for resources to get that uh area completed Gara Circle it received a retrofit we do have the Wall Street pedestrian poo um and activating that that was a project we've talked a little bit with blue zones about Wall Street Clock Tower actually this was the first time that I had seen um doing something to replicate or reconstruct the clock tower um and then having rapid flashing beacons at crosswalks uh throughout our downtown area F Street Golden State pedestrian Improvement you're seeing a lot of pedestrian improvements in the downtown area but the complete streets includes not only um what is physically seen it also includes a lot of that civil engineering of um the infrastructure the making downtown Bakersville did include uh what infrastructure was necessary in order to build out a lot of our infrastructure is older in the downtown compared to the rest of the community but also didn't envision having um you know up to 25,000 new residences in the downtown and so that study did include uh utility study and some of that work has been done on 34th Street already um physical strategies there's a lot of open space conversations if you're going to make it more walkable than you do have to have more open space um parklets program that's one thing we're going to explore there is a downtown tree plan to increase the tree canopy Fern River Parkway that's something that's also occurring in the um in the general Plan update public art uh Walter in the recreation and parks department is working on several art installations to the downtown area and then Transit improvements working with get having a circulator shuttle uh get is doing even though they're going to be relocating off of the site there on F Street they're still very much invested in downtown and Mobility Concepts bike improvements uh it was funny when I I was speaking earlier about seeing the very early on videos of this process and Jason ker at the time worked for bike Bakersfield uh Bob Smith is very involved with bike Bakersfield and so you see a lot of the bike improvements that have been made still working on 17th Street extending 30 30th Street and then the Union Avenue bike lane and so that's a lot of work over the past decade to see some of these improvements thank you Miss buers Madam city clerk do we have any public speaker requests regarding this item America we have not received any speaker cards on this item thank council member Gonzalez thank you thank you Miss buyers for their presentation and for moving quickly through it in turn I'll to move through my comments but no guarantees um first and foremost I just wanted to thank my colleagues on the city council both the present Council and past colleagues uh former city council members for always supporting downtown revitalization since I've been on the council um all of my colleagues have supported downtown and Investments that the city has made and I think that there's a couple reasons why number one is that we all know that a strong City requires a a strong downtown downtown is the heart of any major city any midside City and uh certainly we I think all of us recognize the the importance of investing in downtown it's not just War I's downtown it is Bakersfield's downtown the other thing um that I always keep in mind is that many of downtown's property owners and business owners and employers and employees actually don't live in War II are they're not voters of mine they're actually residents of w 1 W 3 W four 5 6 and seven and they come from all four corners of our city and so it's really important uh for all of us to take ownership uh and I've never been um protective of my ward uh and and certainly welcome lots of input from my colleagues and appreciated all their wonderful ideas over the years um and so I want to thank City staff I want to thank Public Works City manager's office city attorney's office uh code enforcement I mean building department every Department really Recreation of parks for all of the work that they've done throughout the years to really Implement a lot of these action steps I have here a page from the action plan there are 34 priority action items 34 um there are many items that we have not touched yet and what I like us to do is um is in some fashion either through committee I guess would ask you for your best recommendation Mr CLE um but to rep prioritize some of these things um and perhaps even uh remove some of these items for example the Wall Street poo for me is not a priority until we fully complete the 18th and 19th Street uh complete streets project I think that should take priority over this poo concept um many of our alleys still function as service alleys and should should continue to work in that in that matter in that manner but I think we need to prioritize it but I also think that you know this 10-year plan uh needs to be extended extended another another 5 years or so um we we we're still in Phase One and I'm not sure we're quite ready yet um to move into phase two particularly um when you consider the uncertainty around um the high-speed rail station um and so I want to make that referral tonight that staff come back and and give us a firm recommendation of of what we do with regard to this plan but my my request would be that we extend it another five years Mr clug yeah thank you council member uh mayor and Council I think the five-year extension um has good alignment because uh as we've you know been uh in communication with High-Speed Rail they're looking at like a 2030 um time frame uh around some of their construction but that's going to take you know some quite some time and so I think uh there's good alignment you know before we're really ready to contemplate you know the development that would occur around a station site uh that's first uh so I would support that that recommendation um second I think what we could do as staff um I think it's important to to get some of that feedback on prioritization I think at committee is a more productive environment uh we are good listeners of council and so I I would recommend that we um come to a committee with some recommendations about what to take out and maybe even what to add uh one or two and and what we would consider prioritization it's easier to react sometimes to a recommendation and then um uh let uh a council committee uh work through that and bring it back to council I would probably recommend the finance Economic Development and jobs committee we're we're on the same page I was just going to say that I think that that that's the most appropriate step okay great thank you there's there's a couple of things that I I want to mention in some referrals number one is you know as we continue to look towards the revitalization and and continue to work towards the more uh proactive steps to revitalize downtown we also have to recognize the most immediate needs related to safety the perception of Safety and Security within downtown um you know one of the issues that has been raised by Property Owners is that uh their insurance carriers are reporting that there is a a a crime report uh that comes out that that that really determines uh in large part uh property insurance rates and in some instances uh downtown and Oldtown karna have been rated a 100 out of a 100 uh in in related to Safety and Security we we need to really take a harder look at that and see how we can enhance um our security um I know there's been a lot done related to uh private security related to our impact teams but I wonder if you know for example if we can uh you know work on creative ways to really uh enhance patrolling from our Police Department between the 3:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. period we've seen certain instances happen within within the downtown I Know Chief uh is not in this room but that's just a referral of something that we can I'm hoping that we can explore and look into in the future um homelessness is another issue that we know um really impacts the downtown and I want to make a point to my colleagues there's really nothing inherent about downtown that creates the homelessness problem uh homelessness is not a downtown problem it is a Citywide problem that disproportionately impacts downtown and downtown business owners and property owners and residents have had had to deal with uh homelessness and the impacts of the unhoused population disproportionately and um and so I really appreciate the city's investment to to address some of these issues but I do think that there are some uh environmental design issues that we need to address um and so you know for me the question is what's really attracting people or unhoused to the downtown and I think some of the things are really obvious one is the vacant buildings that's why I'm really happy that we have the the registry related to uh vacant buildings but I'm hoping that we can uh continue there's an outstanding referral uh to to enhance that ordinance on the books and I know staff is working on that we also know that dark alleys are a contributor to to Bringing people into uh into the downtown and we need a strategy to really address those dark alleys either through enhanced lighting or perhaps lock or or or closing some of these alleys um and then open dumpsters open dumpsters have been a a chronic nuisance for for years and we've had a program to actually provide metal lids and locks on some of these dumpsters but uh frankly it's it's been moving um at a modest Pace but there's still many more dumpsters that are unlocked and that are open um I would like to go ahead and and um make a referral tonight that we look towards an ordinance that requires uh all uh property owners in the downtown to uh Place metal Lids on their dumpsters along with locks I think that will help us as well and there there are many other different um policy strategies that I'd like us to pursue I I'll save them for uh another night um but all in all I just want to thank again staff for all of the work throughout the years of really focusing in on downtown a lot of the plan that we've in place are really setting the stage for future development over the long term and we're starting to see that development accelerate we're starting to see more and more restaurants come in more and more investment come in it's it's this is not hyperbole weekly that I get calls from uh potential developers or investors who want to do things um in downtown I was just on the phone uh two days ago with um an NFL player uh related to in interest in developing in downtown Bakersfield and so you know there's momentum and people are feeling it and the community is feeling it um and we just need to continue to uh push forward and there are lots of different things in in incremental ways that we can do to really help accelerate that continued revitalization the UA program the facade Improvement program and then some of these quality of life ordinances that will help us clamp down on some of the problems um I think we'll the combination of all those things will really help us uh get to that next iteration of revitalization so thank you thank you thank you for all the work thanks ccil member Coman thank you mayor so miss buers um we approved uh the highspeed rail plan many years ago and uh I like eight or 10 years ago and there was a a a sum of money that the highspeed rail was supposed to uh give us for some of this infrastructure improvements along F Street Golden State Highway and those areas there and you know other cities received money from the highspeed rail but we've never seen our money and so do you have any idea where we're at with that city manager C and then um assistant man assistant city manager Anthony yeah I'll start off and and then Anthony Valdez assistant city manager can follow up as he's been our liaison with highspeed rail I think one distinction I would draw first is that um we don't have any sort of legal claim to a dollar number that was ever made to the city just for for clarity sake I think there were Illusions to some of what highspeed rail thought they could accomplish or some of our desires of what we could try and get them to to include in their project um some of the other areas that have received a lot of monies like Los Angeles's Union Station you know received significant funding allocations but those were actually from different buckets they were from some some State buckets and and they got the funding because it was tied to multimol and High-Speed Rail but it wasn't technically highspeed rail money and and so uh we actually you know we don't have sort of a dollar amount that we can lay claim to in any sort of legal document there's just been a lot of I think conversation and discussion what I could say two other points and I think Anthony will speak to these and maybe you know delve in a little more is that uh highspeed rail um I think particularly as they've progressed down the alignment um and with some of the financial challenges for them to complete the project uh they're very focused on their own track and their own station improvements and we know that there's going to be significant investment at the station site itself but we're hearing what we're really hearing is there's not going to be a lot of other funds for other extraneous you know um transportation you know ele uh aspects even that tie into the station Beyond just their footprint what we have been able to do and and this is a kudos to Mr Valdez for fighting and scraping for everything we get for Bakersfield is they have included recently uh dollars to do studies dollars to do um to connect and align with other um uh State uh programs uh and we're trying to leverage as much as we can the work that they're doing to get value out of those planning efforts uh I think where we could get more dollars or something like when when um I can't remember I believe it was Merced but uh they were able to tie a Federal grant that was for infrastructure to High-Speed Rail under a prior Administration and so they were able to get a $25 million Grant because of it of its connection to a highspeed rail station I think there are opportunities for us to go after funds uh but highspeed rail I don't see as um having big dollars to do things outside of their station footprint I don't have much to add except that they they do only have a responsibility to to their station footprint to the track that's leading up uh to mitigate any impacts in the areas leading up into the the station site um much of the development that was done in in other cities places like LA's Union Station uh was with grant money um which is why we've asked highspeed rail to commit to the studies that will allow us to to pursue uh those fundings elsewhere okay thank you very much I'm sorry I didn't turn my microphone that but um can you talk a little bit this is Miss buyers again I'm sorry can you talk a little bit about the transit oriented development and what specifically you're talking about I I see some projects on here but it's really vague it is vague and it's actually one of the studies that we are working on that anthon just referred to with uh calr for the design of the remainder of the station so I don't remember how many acres the highspeed rail station is 40 40 okay I was going to say that uh 40 acres but their footprint is relatively small and so that what they're doing is they're looking at what the rest of that design is um get also received a housing Grant to put some housing located where the current station is and to design that and so that it's uh not only the bus intersection the downtown where all the buses come together but there'll be some residences um and so they received a grant for that kind of development that's very specific Transit oriented uh development one of the challenges that we addressed when we the the the Golden State was not the original location that High-Speed Rail wanted to put the the depot and but we as a community we saw issues with what they wanted to do and bring it in over here near the Amtrak station and so we went back to them and and they agreed uh in time that yeah the Golden State was probably a better way but our problem always was you know uh everything needs to be contiguous in other words you you bring people here and there was nothing down there right and so all of our event space and our hotels are all up here at truckton Chester that area and so uh you know the question was how are those people going to get from the highspeed rail to these facilities is that the kind of thing that you're talking about yeah so G get bus is evaluating uh downtown circulator uh that's one of the ways but the analysis in this document I mean it's over 350 pages long between everything and it includes like how many um for the development of downtown to build out how many more hotel rooms we need how much more office space we need uh kind of these residential studies and that is part of uh this entire Vision plan being a 30-year program and so the first 10 years that we've been going through is really implementing some of the easier items and then as we move through this uh developing and incentivizing more hotels more uh activities uh the circulator that's going to be going through the community making it walkable uh making it bike friendly providing alternative ways for transportation but you're right this study when it was started in 2015 evaluated both sides between 2015 and 2018 they landed on the uh the F Street site and so there's a a lot of development procedures or policies in between both those areas so it it was really developed if either site was selected what that looks for for hotels for residences for activities okay thank you um pbid well let's talk about it let's talk about pbid pit hasn't very been very popular in the past uh we've had a lot of trouble getting those passed do we have any expectation that we're going to be able to to get that done this time around uh I think the focus and we've been what change I'm oh your question was what what's changed my question is what's changed I mean what's changed yeah the business owners or the not the business owners the property owners which are not always the business owners were reluctant to approve a B so what's changed so we're looking more specifically not a swath when you talk about downtown what do you really think downtown is it looks different in all of these neighborhoods and so we've been working with downtown Business Association and maybe identifying smaller areas East Chester right now has a a lot of housing that's going in there's a lot of Redevelopment going in so 18th 19th uh East Chester is Maybe doing a p bid that only impacts them that they can make decisions for themselves because if you talk to somebody that's um over on 18th or 19th or if you talk with someone that's over on F Street they have different needs even if they're just a mile apart and so really working on a p bid that is specific to some of these areas if you were to really break down downtown Bakersfield how would it impact or how could it benefit some of these smaller areas instead of just trying to get everyone from California Union F Street over to sand Deus or over to 34 Street you look at that as what's really considered our classic downtown so when we're talking about P bids now we're talking more on a neighborhood Scale based off of what the Synergy they want to see so I I I I understand what you're saying but I I struggle with that because it's kind of like Insurance you know the insurance only really works if you have a lot of people paying into it right you know insurance is based on uh the the probability of a loss and how much would that loss cost and how many homeowners am I putting in this pool and then we can do the math but if you have you know a small area and a p bid and then the other areas around it are not not contributing to that you know how do you how do you distribute a how do you make it Equitable for the whole community so I think one of the hard conversations going to be and and Cecilia showed me this one that's in Sacramento the Handler District it is two square two blocks in either direction so it's really just a very small area the Handler District that had specific things that they want to do they wanted to have the lights that crossed the streets they wanted to have uh the trash cleaned up they wanted their District to have paid parking and then they were able to utilize those resources to have more funding and then if we were to do something on a smaller scale and they were investing in themselves and the city partnered with them whether it be tax increment financing whether it be an enhanced infrastructure financing District if we did it on a small scale and they really started to see it grow then other areas would be interested well why are they getting that well they created a peab bed they created something that they decided for themselves how to spend the money and how to spend the resources yeah and if I could kind of take us back out to the 30,000 foot level on on the topic of pids I just think the the last two times that it went forward I think they they had a different um maybe um Originals um focus or intent and I think we didn't necessarily do the homework to go and ask folks what do you really want and what's really going to show that value and so we need to go and do that homework I think this is another topic that probably is a good one at the committee level to kind of dig down in and you know um work on some of those areas but I think if we're smart about really understanding what downtown businesses would be willing to pay for I don't think that question was answered prior and I think we can answer that question and and pursue it a little bit differently okay um thank you um May I also because I was part of those two efforts um I I think from my perspective um Mr K is is correct but um also I think overall uh there were there were concerns um related to how the management of the P bid uh would would function what what that would actually look like and so there were a lot of technical questions I think to to answer your question though uh council member Coleman of what has changed a lot of the property ownership has changed uh within the core of downtown and um from my relationships with lots of different Property Owners um I I sense the sentiment is Shifting where folks are more supportive um and I would actually recommend that the city focus in on the 18 18 19th Street Corridor as we are demonstrating our commitment and making a significant multi-million dollar investment to improve the uh the look and feel and walkability of 18th and 19th Street that we also in in concert uh worked with those Property Owners uh to um to develop a property based improvement district but this has to be led by the property owners and not by any other other group um the the other thing that I want to mention is that many of the um P bids throughout the state um fund basic things that currently the city of Bakersfield is funding uh the downtown ambassadors the street cleaning services the you know human waste cleanup um the additional enhanced private security all those things typically are functions of a property based improvement district but in this city and in downtown because uh of our um experience with the pbid um the city has actually stepped up and made significant Investments so what the other thing I think we need to do is report back to all the property owners of how much City investment has gone into downtown over the last seven years thank you okay um yeah I just want to reinforce that that PB is real is real important uh to when you talk about other other other City resources that were contributing to the downtowns it's a lot easier to sell to the people that don't own property downtown don't have businesses downtown if you know those businesses have a extra little stake in the game I don't know what that number needs to be I just need it I think it's more psychological than anything else but it's really really going to be important I think going forward that that we have some kind of maintenance District what I don't know what what you call it exactly but thank you for your work on that I appreciate that I'm going to uh cut my a comment short I have I can go on and on because I have several questions but uh considering the hour uh I do appreciate uh everything your department is doing uh it was a a big lapse between the old Redevelopment agency and when your agency began there was a big gap of of time and there wasn't any organ the city was still doing things but it wasn't an organized effort so I I do appreciate what you guys are doing I do have a little concern about the number of people that were adding to the department and I just want to ask the city manager to keep an eye on that because we we've grown exponentially over the since since uh measure end passed and I'm a little concerned because once you add people you own them forever and ever and ever and and add I'm sorry we done adding people okay that's good thank you all right so that I'll answer that for CH all right so so I will I will end my comments right now an interest of time and and if I have any more questions I'll give it to you offline so thank you very much for your work I have no further questions Madame mayor council member bashash I just had a quick question for a public works uh the utility conversion that was done in 34 Street it says that it was in the presentation it was initiated by PG but completed or is going to be completed by Public Works is there a reason that PG didn't follow through with that or it fell on Public Works lap did we foot that bill today um mayor council member best your Tash I don't have the answer to that specific question I do know it is a public works project to do the 34 Street improvements it's in 15% design and that's where we are right now is trying to figure out the underground utility issues to make the project work [Music] and thank you um Mr Mar and um we can confirm uh for specifically but there's a what's called a rule 20a process where pg& has to set aside certain dollars that that actually go to locals and then we get to decide what those projects are spent on and I believe this project is one of those where for and it is specifically for undergrounding and those unfortunately those funds don't add up super fast but as they kind of add up and we have enough to go and do a project with we'll go and and um use those PG resources to do a big undergrounding project um and we'll confirm though that that's what it was it wasn't a PG obligation it was just PG funds that we decided which project to complete with council member anything further next council member Smith thank you mayor I just uh a couple things the I haven't heard an update and you mentioned the PQ property is anything happening there or what's currently we we had we had had but you'll recall we had a letter of intent with one developer back in 21 22 that expired we had another letter of intent with another developer um that has not also um um you know come forward with a tangible project we've actually gone back to them and said you know do you want to try and rework that you know um come come back to us with something um but we haven't we haven't had a proposal back yet okay and the other thing is you mentioned a number of we had 5,000 residents and now we have 94 54 yeah it doesn't it doesn't feel like we've doubled our residential people downtown I'll go back and look at uh the original area because I don't think it included Westchester and so we'll we'll go back and we'll look at that because yeah it went from 5 to 9,000 I think I said 15 it's easy to get to 10,000 if you just keep growing there I get it thank you you don't think you added that many I'm I'm working on it but I you know a few hundred anything further council member Smith no thank you council member Aris thank you mayor and thank you Jenny for the um for their presentation and for uh keeping it succinct um I just wanted to um really quickly touch on uh the importance of you know continuing to support our businesses downtown couldn't agree more with my colleague um that we need to continue to do uh this work I think you know under your leadership there's been some Market improvements um with the EA program uh with the program that provided uh uh financial assistance to those who are looking to make um security improvements to their businesses um and and and you know private private security Investments um and and the list goes on and on and I just want to say kudos to my colleague here on the Das for really leading that um effort and I think we have to continue to do more um but I'll just add that I agree this is a really really exciting time for the city of Bakersville but specifically specifically uh downtown Bakersfield and um I will accept my colleague's invitation uh to also do what I can to help uh support downtown um there's a really unique opportunity as it relates to High-Speed Rail um coming in um but also uh amazing uh new developments like the does the peace and Justice Center um where if we are able to uh develop a plan and a strategy um to help the facilitate that Transit uh for um potential folks coming you know from all parts of Kern County the Central Valley um across the country really uh to come and see um the amazing work and Legacy of her um if we are considering um also you know making an acquisition of the Crystal Palace to preserve um the cultural the culture and tradition there um I I think that we we should be spending some additional time thinking about how we can connect all of those pieces and it has been years um since we first started talking about a downtown circulator bus and I think it's time that um we really take a step in uh making that a reality um and I think it's um upon us to really uh look at ourselves and figure out what can the city of Bakersville do uh to initiate um the first phase of what that could look like um there's 's a ton of energy particularly with some of the downtown businesses along 18th 19th and into Oldtown Kern um and I would like to make a referral tonight uh that we bring um some ideas on how the city of Bakersfield can take the next step in building that out in partnership with get bus um but let let's let's let's take some action I think this is lwh hanging fruit uh it's going to increase Public Safety uh throughout those corridors and of course support our businesses and and downtown Mr Anthony is uh speaking at the downtown state of the downtown next week we'll be sure to add that talking point uh to his uh program council member Gonzalez do you still need to speak you already jumped ahead yeah do you still want yes uh just thank you council member aias I've been um petitioning uh get bus for years on the uh circulator I like to call it a trolley downtown to Oldtown uh I think can really enhance um the foot traffic and the number of visitors in both of those neighborhoods and so would would love to partner with you on that um finally I just want to give another shout out to Solid Waste division their implementation of the new trash receptacles um have been well received businesses love it uh visitors to downtown love it I love them um and um and I just want to commend them and I I hope that uh we can do a lot more of them uh throughout the downtown Corp so with that I'll make a motion to receive and file thank you motion please cast your votes thank you Miss buers and I would like to thank Cecilia grego she's here tonight she worked on the plan she works on the eoas she works on the trash she works on all of those items motion is approved with vice mayor core and council member Weir absent thank you next item please Council and mayor statements venam city clerk is there anyone I don't see anyone on my uh thank you so uh council member Smith thank you mayor I just had one other item on downtown and on Bakersfield in general you know I'm a community booster that's why I'm here and I just Bakersfield is a beautiful city overall and downtown is is a great downtown and in most cities can't say that and so uh very proud of what we've done and it's really changed you know go back to when Allan Tandy started and we had a still beams and a bankrupt what was to be the Marriott and and built the Arena built mil Creek Q Street and now the private development is following with housing and Retail and and and what the city does on on cleanup and safety and it is uh it's a great thing and I really appreciate all the people that's worked on it over the years thank you thank you council member Aris thank you mayor um really quickly just a question for staff as we head into the midyear budget I just wanted to get a Time line on when we can expect that to come back to the full Council thank you council member we will are looking to have a preliminary look at the numbers at our next council meeting to then have a final midyear determination at uh one of our March meetings I'll take the opportunity to just give a quick um summary that as I've shared with you uh we are looking at some Revenue reduction measures um to align with some of our recent you know sales tax reports and so I would expect a very um succinct major process because I'm going to be recommending that we um do as much as we can to uh take funds and set them aside for the next budget process as well as make those Corrections we need to make and so I don't expect to be making um many ads as we're we're making some of those other Corrections um we do have some contingent projects that were even go go all the way back to last year that we have kind of pivoted and said what can we do with those you know um project dollars and which contingent projects move forward but beyond that I'm going to be recommending a very um a very conservative mid year thank you for that update um and I know that there won't be um very many opportunities at all uh for us to make significant one-time investments in capital projects but um particularly uh as we have uh two new colleagues on the dis I just want to reiterate uh the importance to me um that when we enter these uh budget conversations that uh staff obviously provides recommendation but really provides some additional insight into all of the many different capital projects um that are on the table um I think think it's very important for us as um representatives of our districts and our our constituents to know uh what the trade-offs are um and and why we're choosing certain projects uh over others whether that be because of grand Investments strategic Investments or it's just the right project at the right time so I would appre appreciate that uh the second is I want to um invite everyone in this room and and Beyond in the public uh tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. we are going to be at Del or Oro High School celebrating the groundbreaking of um a new 1 and a half mile uh sewer trunk line that's going to be installed along MLK uh this is something that has been uh long in the works and uh we're super excited about all the housing that's going to come um uh thereafter and also some commercial and park developments there in the future so uh please join us um I'm also going to announce that uh Mr Gary hen is officially the head coach uh for the MLK Corridor and the southeast uh Bakersfield economic development program um so Gary thank you to you uh Megan and uh the entire team for all of the pivoting that you've uh been able to do um literally weathering the storm um and making the show happen so uh super excited about tomorrow and looking forward to seeing everybody who can make it out thank you thank you council member ARS council member Gonzalez uh tonight at tonight's meeting we um re received a blue memo that staff had pulled an item related to a public art sculpture investment um and that they would um pull the item for further staff analysis and I appreciate that and I want to thank staff um for working with me on this item throughout this week I would like to ask that through in uh analyzing this project that we look for uh new funding sources for our public art program beyond our outside side of the public safety and vital Services initiative and that we um also reconsider um what type of public art projects um I'm I'm in support of public art I think that in a city our size and as we continue to grow that public art has a lot of benefits but that we look for perhaps locally based projects maybe smaller smaller uh projects um that we can um that we can uh place within and throughout the city um I like also ask that we uh look at reallocating that $600,000 that we had committed or that we had allocated rather um that we reallocate those dollars um to some of the more pressing challenges that we're facing related to Public Safety by um enhancing Street Lighting in some of our um neighborhoods that have inadequate lighting and if that's a consideration that we can explore I'd appreciate it um um the last thing is I I had a wonderful breakfast this morning with former city council member Freeman and he's doing well and he misses you all and uh uh he had lots of great insights for me uh and uh I wondered you know if if staff can provide via a memo some analysis on how what what is the protocol for awarding a key of the city and if we can establish a resolution that would recognize both council members Freeman and great uh by recognizing them by gifting them a key to the city I think that you know their contributions as a volunteer city council member with all of the effort that they made over the years the leadership that they provided and um as a volunteer really is worthy of um of that uh high of an honor and so I'd like to to ask the city council consider that um and have staff provide some analysis on how to make that happen thank you council member Coman thank you mayor um I I wasn't going to speak anymore but I will now so uh I will M I will mention that you know Ward five is actually having a a grand opening of the new uh Heart Clinic uh c b Centric health and uh uh on the property of the Southwest Mercy Hospital it's uh grand opening is tomorrow afternoon at 4:00 it's a significant investment private investment in our community and it anchors that that uh area of w five into the future and providing state-of-the-art uh medical and uh other services that are drastically needed in our community U I wanted to address that issue of the sculpture that we just talked about being pulled off U I think the concern was in the age of Doge we need to be careful about what we spend money on and what we call it and so I think that a large portion of the opposition was related to you outside artist and uh that we really need to consider local artists and local businesses when we're talking about these kind of things and we need to be sure they're given an opportunity to do those so that would be something that I would be interested in if this comes back again uh I would hope it wouldn't but um I understand the whole art thing I get it but uh I I think it was the you know the wrong wrong time and the wrong approach to it so I'm interested in in to seeing what else we can spend that money on I'm not sure because it come out of some psvs funds that I really wasn't sure about and so I I I'm sure that limits us to what we can do with it so I have no further questions or comments thank you mayor thank you council member comments I don't see any other requests I had the privilege of going to Sacramento this week with Big City Mayors and we met with the governor the senate protm committee chairs and the Police Officers Association advocating for funding and Regulatory reform to address homelessness Public Safety housing and then youth jobs we called on the governor and the legislators to Advocate the needed resources and to remove barriers through policy reform and then City man assistant city manager Valdez and I stayed over and we had the privilege of meeting with the secretary of the California Departments of Corrections and Rehabilitation and then also Health and Human Services is advocating for issues important to Bakersville specifically so thank you uh Mr Valdez for that and with that we stand adjourned at 7:57 [Music] [Music]