[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] right [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] m [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] n [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] the 3:30 p.m. meeting of the Bakersfield City Council is now in session good afternoon it's my pleasure to call to order the 3:30 regular city council meeting of November 6 2024 Madame clerk please call the rooll mayor go here vice mayor Gonzalez here council member Aras council member Weir here council member Smith I'm here council member Freeman here council member gray here and council member core here thank you in keeping with 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 for the correct time to speak 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 today's agenda or in a matter not on the agenda speakers who do not identify a specific agenda item will be presumed speakers for the non agenda public statements if you're 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 here to speak on an item listed on the agenda I will call for you at the appropriate time if public statements become disruptive and I've de clear the chambers to regain order of the meeting you will be called in one at a time to provide your public statement when your item is called everyone in attendance is expected to adhere to the the rules of decorum established by resolution of the city council failure to abide by the city's rules of decorum including any disruptive behavior that interferes with our ability to have an ordinally and efficient meeting prevents the city council from conducting the business of the city Madam clerk do we have any public speakers regarding items not listed on the agenda mayor go we have not received any speaker cards regarding items not listed on tonight's agenda nor have we received speaker cards for items listed on tonight's agenda thank you uh and next item now close session item 4A conference with real property negotiators for a property located at 2157 to 2221 Mohawk Street thank you motion toour to close session and we adourn to close session are you a CSU be or BC student yes well this is a very short meeting and we go into Clos session so unfortunately it's not going to count for your class but if you'd like to come back at 5:15 we'll have our regular meeting all right well thank you for being here what what school did you go to BC Professor Holmes how you feel all right well we'll see you later or on another day sorry thanks for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] l [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] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] to [Music] the [Music] all [Music] for [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] [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] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] all [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] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] there stop direction thank you and with that we stand the journ at 4:52 and we'll start the next meeting at 515 [Music] [Music] and suceed all [Music] [Music] i' rather try and accomplish try to accom [Music] [Music] here all and fully succeed [Music] [Music] a [Music] oh [Music] oh oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] he [Music] n a [Music] [Music] he [Music] [Music] n [Music] n [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] e e [Music] [Applause] [Music] no [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] n o [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] n [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] a [Music] oh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] e [Music] right [Music] [Music] here [Music] now [Music] [Music] now [Music] [Music] all well [Music] [Music] welcome to the Bakersfield City council meeting this television broadcast is brought to you by the local cable companies the county of Kern and the City of Bakersfield you can watch the rebroadcast of this meeting Saturday at 700 p.m. Sunday at 10:00 a.m. and the following Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. you can download the agenda for this meeting at www. Bakersfield city. us priding over this this evening's meeting The Honorable mayor Karen K go good evening it's my pleasure to call to order the 515 regular city council meeting of November 6 2024 Madame clerk please call the role mayor go here vice mayor Gonzalez here council member Aras here council member we here council member Smith here council member Freeman here council member gray here and council member core here thank you tonight we have the pleasure of hosting the 68th annual teen government day 80 students from the Kern High School District met with departments throughout the city earlier in the day and joining us tonight are some of the students who participated in this day of learning so at this point point I'm going to invite each student to introduce yourself stay state your name and then tell us a little bit about yourself so we'll just start right there at the end W one good evening my name is Alexandra Cruz Rivera I attend deloro high school and um some of my college goals I'm either between a psychology or a human biology major um I have received a 4.6 GPA and I'm a current science fair participant at school some of the school activi I participate in are ASV senior president I am my school's newspaper sports editor um I do track and field cross country cheerleading um I am in the California scholarship Federation I'm an active member of School site Council the outdoor club mariachi band and Orchestra some of my hobbies include running writing and music and I'm also a member of the four Dream Builders thank you and we'll have our next student hi my name is Thomas Woods I go to bakeri high school and my goal in college is to major in finance and economics with a minor in political science or uh political science replaces Finance uh my career goal is to become an investment banker transition to being a CEO of a financial literacy app and to to empower youth then becoming an economist for the government becoming a Economic Policy analysis analytic sorry uh my C of GPA is a 4.42 7 I've had principal's list all four years of High School uh I've gotten the mayor Commendation for community outreach Bank of America student leader I'm a toal show Grand Prize winner for rapping uh check me out on Spotify and I got the fourth place in the National Virtual Enterprise uh Finance competition some school activities that I do is I am I am ASB president president of Bakersfield economics Club president of National H Society I'm a Virtual Enterprise finance officer uh and some hobbies and interests I I love to read especially books on economics psychology and politics I love to play tennis in my spare time and drop some bars community service that I'm a part of is four dreambuilders I'm a four dimension student I'm a Children First Student board member I'm a leaders in life executive uh on the development team and I'm part of the youth commission and I was a children first intern over the summer and I developed a school uh School back to school supplies drive that I gave 75 backpacks to kids in Niles thank you well welcome council member and now from Ward wh hi my name is Abigail Snider I'm a student at Centennial my college goal is to attain a bachelor's degree in physiology or biological sciences with um the intention of going into a career in orthopedic medicine my GPA is a 4.5 and I'm an AP scholar a four-year member of California scholarship Federation and I'm a member of of the Bakersfield College Early College uh I play Varsity soccer and golf at Centennial I'm the ASV president a link crew commissioner I'm a member of the science National Honor Society National Honor Society and um also our chemistry Club um some of my hobbies outside of school I love working out traveling hanging out with my friends uh I spent a lot of time playing sports and at school I also love to read one of my biggest um our community service project is through my club the science National Honor Society and we have worked with um the valley fever project in swabbing samples and trying to find active strains throughout the city welcome council member and now our mayor hello everybody my name is Albert Abad I go to Stockdale High School my college goal is UCLA or UCI where I plan to study uh medicine my career goal is to be a pediatrician uh I have a 4.5 GPA top scholar athlete award and I have received the Mustang Pride award for school activities I am the a president packam president National Honor Society member Spanish Honor Society member tinling dance leader K-pop dance leader I've been in Orchestra for four years I played baseball for two years connection project leader and I'm also a blood drive Ambassador my hobbies and interests I love dancing singing playing video games learning uh and studying astronomy medicine I also love fashion and solving Rubik's Cubes for community service I'm a National Honor Society member Spanish Honor Society member blood drive ambassador I was the smiles across miles vice president last year and I'm also part of the for dreambuilders welcome mayor Abad and now vice mayor of War I hello my name is Gloria hustus and I'm currently a senior at shapter high school after high school I plan on attending a college to major in biology and pursue Orthodontics and I also would love to continue my involvement in student government I'm a recipient of honoral CSF and multiple scholar athlete Awards I'm involved in ASB as the president track and field interact every 15 minutes dreams over drugs College Bound Key Club and FCA some of my hobbies include pentry where I've received the titles miss shapter and miss lavender I'm a photographer as well as a runner um I am actively involved in community service as a Shafter High Learning Center um volunteer ribbon cutting honorey community outreach at feeder schools and dreams over drugs aist thank you welcome council member and now Ward five council member hi my my name is Sydney van Fon I am a senior at Foothill High School um after um High School I plan to go to college and study business to become a marketing manager um I currently have a 4.0 GPA um honors roles all four years um National Honor Society and I'm the Youth of the year for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Kern County and Coastal California um I am the ASP president at Foothill as well as I'm involved in Varsity Cheer um a member of the Trojan Advocacy Center I am the President president and founder of the ecy club the historian for the Bible Club um the social media manager for the PA for Claus Club I am a part of the equity team and a member of the school site Council um some of my interests is I like to film and edit videos um go outside go to the lake hiking everything outdoors like that um as for community service um through the ecology Club I've done many cleanups at our campus as well as at local parks um I am a member of The Goth the do Club I am a Bakersville Junior at for the Women's Club and I am a member of the California Association of student councils welcome council member Von faon and the next one Ward six good evening my name is Brandon andon Juani I'm a student at gares Memorial High School my college goal is to receive a BFA and musical theater and hopefully make it to Broadway so my GPA is a 4.82 academic GPA some honors include CSF honors and HS honors and a pltw scholar I am the co-president of garus ASB the president of garus engineering and pltw the activities director of the Italian Heritage Club I'm also member of the garus drama club I have all four years in garus band twoyear link crew leader and re Ambassador I am also the head of Gara Sports media and broadcasting uh some hobbies include performing regularly at the Ovation Theater and my community service includes building and painting sets graphic designs monitoring auditions at Ovation Theater I participate in the yearly Angel basket project with St Francis Paris school which I have done for over 10 years and I'm a volunteer and referee with the current youth rugby program welcome council member Anton Giovani and now forward seven good evening my name is Von fory I'm a student at Independence High School uh some of my college goals include attending uh a foure university hopefully Stanford or USC where I plan to study law engineering or potentially uh political science uh at school I have a 4.5 GPA I'm currently first in my class and I've received academic Excellence all my years of high school I'm an AP scholar and I've been a four-time CSF member um I'm also a member of NHS and Spanish Honor Society uh within school I participate in activities such as debate uh I'm in my our associate student body I'm a president of the energy Academy and I part and I'm team captain of our robotics club I'm a founder of a club nerd Network and um that leads into my hobbies uh I like a lot of nerdy Hobbies I play games uh board games video games things like magic Warhammer I also love to play basketball and one of my favorite things I've always loved is dinosaurs um one of the things I do in the community is I'm a member of four dimension uh I do a lot through my church The Church of Jesus Christ latterday Saints um I'm a member of the National Honor Society the Spanish Honor Society and the United Nations Club welcome council member and now Madam City attorney good evening everyone my name is yahaya Naomi mat I am a senior attending Ridgeview High School and currently I maintain a 4.5 GPA and rank first in my class I actively engage in several clubs where I hold leadership roles such as serving as treasure for the Spanish Honor Society I am also the finance lead for the graphic arts program the social media manager for the friends Foundation club and this year I stepped into the role of chief chief operating officer or the COO in the Virtual Enterprise program and I'm also involved in link crew and the valley strong program beyond beyond my current involvement I have built a foundation of leadership networking and involvement throughout my high school journey I have been a co-president of the FCA Club event Comm commissioner for the medical club and I have prioritized community service through the Kiani club and various Church events last year I began the Virtual Enterprise program as a marketing manager progressed as the vice president of marketing now the COO and we placed top 20 in the nation um for business plan I have also participated in the science fair in science fair my freshman year and earned third place in Kern County for plant biology additionally I served as a JB captain for the soccer team and I have also um well I'm looking ahead I plan to pursue a college education in the medical field Andor business with aspirations to create a positive impact in my community and make meaningful a meaningful difference with that said my hobbies and interests include soccer graphic design public speaking marketing Finance volunteering entrepreneurship learning and much more thank you welcome Madam City attorney and now for our city manager good evening everyone my name is Angel gardo agular I am a senior at East Bakers old high school my college goal is to earn my PhD in economics hopefully from Stanford or USC and then with that I hope to become an economist for the uh Federal board my current GPA is a 4 438 and some Honors that I have received I currently am a finalist of the questbridge National College match I a four dreambuilder and I've been recognized by Dartmouth and Williams College as a scholar of their schools um some school activities that I participate are as interact Club I serve as the president I also serve on my asb's executive board I run Varsity cross country and I am the captain of the East bakersfi Varsity tennis team I also co-founded the honor fight Honor Flight Club of East bfield High School and I also participate in NHS and CSF on my spare time I enjoy playing tennis and then when I'm not playing tennis I like going out and trying new foods and then some community service that I partake in I lead in participate in projects through uh interact Honor Flight National Honor Society for dreambuilders and I'm also a previous intern of the children first nonprofit welcome city manager Gallardo and now now for our director of development services good evening my name is Andrea Sanchez I go to fill High School uh my college goal is to hopefully attend a four-year College where I can become a psychologist and help kids with trauma uh my current GPA is a 4.2 and um some activities I'm involved in is ASB I am the senior class president I'm the president and founder of the PA for Claus club and I'm vice president for the orchestra Club social media manager for e ology club I'm a part of the Advocacy Center and I'm vice president for our School site Council um some hobbies that interest me are playing the violin which I've been doing since I was 7 years old I like to play in the Mariachi Orchestra I enjoy hoping animals I draw paint film and edit and a big interest of mine is speech and debate um and I also enjoy going on Sunset walks um along with that some of community community services uh I cleaned the parks for with the AR ecology Club um we've painted the hard park trash cans I teach kids at elementary schools um violin and singing lessons and I'm a huge helper at our Catechism classes and I'm also a part of the migrant program welcome director Sanchez and now for our Public Works director good evening everyone my name is Braden mindoro and I'm a senior at Liberty High School in my future career I hope to pursue a career as a White House correspondent or a political pundit and I hope to study political science at Columbia University or like everyone else Stanford um a few of my significant honors are I have a 4.5 GPA I have two Congressional recognitions from two different members of the House of Representatives as well as from two different members of the California state Senate and I'm also first in-class at Liberty I'm also the captain of our Varsity Mock Trail team and our president of our We the People program I also preside over our ASB as ASB president I'm a long-distance swimmer for the Liberty swim team and I'm involved in the four dreambuilders and four dimension programs um I've been Basque dancing at the current County Bas club for the past 13 years and I also serve on the youth commission as the mayor's uh mayoral appointee and I'm also the vice mayor of the Commission in my free time I when I can I like to sleep but I don't get much of that nowadays and I also like to write film reviews um in the community I'm involved with a few nonprofits I'm uh the social media manager for my family's nonprofit the mindoro magic Foundation as well as for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society team shooting for a cure I'm also involved with Marley's muts the yorman forsman Leman syndrome Foundation as well as Liberty asb's nonprofits that we like to work with so welcome director Muro and for our final student Mr clerk good evening my name is samel Yenni and I'm a senior at Frontier High school um I hope to attend a 4-year University and hopefully work in public health or become an immunologist um I currently have a 4.5 GPA I'm an AKA top scholar I've received National College aard recognition and I've been a part of Kern County honor band uh since my freshman year um I'm currently a part of NHS project best and I'm currently vice president of interact at my school um I've been part of marching band for the past four years I'm currently ban president and I've been saxophone section leader for the past two years and um I'm also of our Spanish Honor Society and I'm on the Varsity Boys Tennis Team um I love listening um and reading and also playing and listening to music um I roller skate and I like to watch movies a lot when I can um I currently am planning a community service project uh with four dreambuilders I'm on the current youth Literacy Council um I work with volunteers around different schools in the KH uh khsd District um through current volunteers United and I volunteered with um several organizations through my school's interact web thank you welcome Mr City Clerk and aren't we in great great hands with these wonderful students let's give them big round of applause thank you so much students hope you have enjoyed your day and we're grateful for your participation in the Civic process so as we approach Veterans Day want to take a moment to thank our men and women currently serving in the armed forces as well as our veterans and those who pay the ultimate sacrifice to protect our precious Freedom thank you so much to all of you so at this time we get to have the privilege of having one of our veterans Mr Rick Knight who's also a dosent at the portrait of a war Gallery portrait of a warrior Gallery who will offer the invocation he's a US Marine Corps veteran and uh served as an infantry combat Marine during the Vietnam war where he served uh in a province in the Le ocean border he was awarded the bronze star with a V for Valor and a purple heart for injuries suffered in combat uh he's also our trauma chaplain With Honor Flight and a dosent for the portrait of a warrior Gallery thank you so much for your dedicated service and then following the invocation Jose Lopez who is a veteran and he is also our Kern County veteran services officer he'll lead us in the pledge uh Jose is a US Army veteran deployed to Iraq in 2006 he earned two Army Commendation medals and an Army Achievement medal and a Combat Action Badge he was appointed in 2023 as the Kern County veteran services officer after having served the department for more than five Years thank you so much Jose for your support of our veterans and assisting them and their families and then applying and receiving the services earned by the veterans uh for their honorable military service thank you so much and at this time would you all please stand [Music] all I can say is thank you dear Lord thank you for our freedoms and Liberties here in America thank you for our public school systems that are teaching our children to be our next fold of leaders Lord I just uh praise and thank you for um raising us up in a country that uh has a constitution based on your word father God on your will and your ways you know Lord as uh as the meeting commences uh we just uh we want to pray that uh you would please uh lead us in the deliberations and our decisions tonight maybe and in our uh discussions that we have Lord uh you've provided us with a wonderful City and community and our public servants our citizens are provided with comfort and safety and many other attributes bless this gathering this day and God bless America in Christ's name I pray amen amen please place your hands over your heart salute pledge I pledge to the of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible and for all thank you and you may be seated and would you like to introduce your two helpers thank you uh to my left I have Ruby Lopez a first grader at veterans Elementary and on my right I have Ruben Lopez a fifth grader at veterans Elementary also they came to make sure I didn't forget the words well welcome and thank you for helping thank you and thank you so much to both of you for your service to our country and so at this time I'm going to have mayor Abad uh offer some guidelines here are a few guidelines to help our meeting run smoothly we request that you turn off your phones please be courteous in the use of cameras and videos for safety reasons and as a courtesy to others no signs are allowed in the council chamber or Lobby Applause is allowed during the presentation portion of the meeting but not during other portions of the meeting everyone in attendance is expected to adhere to the rules of theorum established by resolution of the city council failure to abide by the city's rules of theorum including any disruptive behavior that interferes with our ability to have an orderly and efficient meeting prevents the stud the city council from conducting the business of the city consider this a first warning to everyone in attendance that conduct that disrupts the meeting may result in your removal from the meeting and or the chambers being cleared behavior that disrupts a meeting includes repetitive statements shouting interrupting staff or presenters during the meeting speaking out of turn outbursts from the audience Madam clerk next item please public statements 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 St Ms at the appropriate time so please listen carefully for the correct time to speak 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 are here to speak on an item listed on tonight's agenda or a matter not listed on the agenda speakers who do not identify a specific agenda item will be presumed speakers for non-agenda public statements if you are here to speak on an item not listed on the meeting agenda you will be called first to speak statements are given a 2minute time limit per speaker 20 minutes total for all non-agenda item speak public statements if you are here to speak on an item listed in the agenda I will call on you at a later time so please listen carefully if public statements become disruptive and I have to clear the chambers to regain order of 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 m we have not received any speaker cards regarding items not listed on tonight's agenda thank you we will now move to the public statements listed on the agenda if you are here to speak on items listed under consent calendar item seven your time to speak is now again each speaker is given a two-minute time limit and each agenda item is L limited to two 20 minutes total the consent calendar as a whole constitutes one agenda item if you're here to speak on consent calendar hearing item 8 a or b or new business item 12a now is not the time to speak you'll be given an opportunity to speak when those items are called later in the meeting Madam clerk do we have any speakers regarding items listed on consent calendar item seven Maro we've received five speaker cards regarding consent calendar item seven the first public speaker is Selina Wilson followed by Sandra meloa followed by by Ash Hung Welcome with the first speaker please come up here Selena Wilson Sandra meloa welcome please introduce yourself hello uh my name is Sandra moscia and I am a current policy Advocate with Leadership Council for justice and accountability um Leadership Council our partner organizations and Community leaders join you today to urge the city council to pull agenda item 7 E5 for a continuance to the next city council meeting to allow for a public discussion and provide the community an opportunity to discuss the use of this additional f in we have continuously advocated for a right to counsel program that will educate tenants on their rights and provide legal counsel for tenants as the eviction prevention pilot program is currently being executed we ask that before allocating additional funds to the EP Council open the floor for a public discussion of the implementation to date so that as a community we can identify needs and opportunities based on what is learned we urge you to keep a focus on what is really needed our in our community making sure people stay housed the community is asking for funds to be used for tenant rights education while information on the eviction process is important knowing your rights as a tenant is key to ensuring that tenants can properly and legally protect themselves from slum Lords funding should be used solely for tenant support currently over 70% of landlords have representation in current County when less than 2% of tenants do in courts providing resources for landlords will further widen this already existing Gap we urge you to pull item 7 E5 for a continuance to allow space for public discussion lastly Leadership Council stand in solidarity with our colleagues from the ACLU asking the city council to remove the ban on public sleeping and camping with shelters running at capacity and limited limited preventative measures enacting this ban is inhumane and will further traumatize and displace houseless individuals we urge you to remove this ban and invest in preventative and permanent Housing Solutions instead of f further criminalizing our our homeless neighbors thank you thank you Miss mosa Madam clerk next speaker please Ash hung followed by Rosa Lopez followed by Wendell Wesley Junior welcome please introduce yourself good evening council members and teen council members my name is Ash Hong I live in Ward 5 and I'm a fellow at the ASL view Southern California I'm here to speak on agenda item 7 C1 I urge urge city council to reject the changes to the ban on public sleeping ordinance and to reconsider having this ordinance at all punishing sleeping in public makes it harder to get house and it should have no place in our community the proposed changes to this ordinance frame the presence of unhoused people in public as a health and safety hazard instead of what it really is a necessity the number of people living without shelter in Kar has increased 64% over last year with 340 people becoming unhoused for the first time this far out Paces the availability of affordable housing and it will continue to outpace available shelter spots until this underlying need for more housing is met bans on sleeping and camping thus punish people who are trying to meet their basic need for sleep and have no other options without a dignified and permanent place for people to land all these ordinances do is move people from block to block these ordinances go against best practices and federal guidance for a reason these bans make it harder for people to exit houselessness and they can worsen public health and safety forced movement separates unhoused people from case workers resources and important property it worsens heal Health outcomes and causes depression anxiety and sleep deprivation getting ticketed even once can wipe out what little money on House people have saved creating a vicious cycle of tickets fines and jail time I ask the council to reconsider the amended proposal and the need for an anti- camping and anti-s sleeping ban here at all our city will only Prosper if we can ensure that that everyone in our community including people who are unhoused have access to health safety and dignified housing thank you for your time thank you Miss Wang next speaker please Rosa Lopez followed by Wendell Wesley Jr welcome please introduce yourself uh good evening my name is Rossa and I'm a long-term resident of War I um I'm also a long-term advocate of the community and I work for various I support various Coalition efforts and I work for the ACLU office I came out today even though it's a heavy day for me and for many of us that are fighting to create a better community and a better world for everyone um and hear it locally but I'm here to ask that you reject the amendments to the proposed uh to the proposed ordinance uh that amends the sleeping in public space ordinance and and ask that you councel the ordinance Al together um as the previous speakers have mentioned this does not address the real issue U of the access to affordable housing since implementation of this ordinance we've seen an onh housee population increase more than 2,000 of our uh neighbors are on house why because we continue to waste funds pushing them out of our site and criminalizing them for being poor what the community truly need is investment in affordable housing and according to the point in time count about 40% of unhoused population interviewed um attributed their houselessness to job loss or increase in rent so what we need is affordable housing and other alternatives to living in public places not this ordinance ordinance that criminalize people and find them of up to 250 for a criminal infraction and up to $1,000 for administrative citation what this Ordinance do is create a dangerous rhetoric around our our house communities that rhetorics that can cause real harm to us and them uh we must we are better than this we can do better and we can create real solutions to this um human human human crisis thank you thank you Miss Lopez and next speaker please Wendell Wesley Jr welcome hi Council and um young adult councel staff um so let me see it sounds like we have a rig system here you know we don't build enough homes and now people don't have no place to sleep and so now we're going to find them and criminalize them doesn't seem fair and we know it's not right we need to bring the people here the citizens back to the table to find real solutions just thinking of ways to just get rid of people on the street put them in prison's jail or whatever you know and these are for profit and all they all they're guilty of is just not having a place to lay their head so the eviction prevention program was something that was meant to keep people hous so we really need to find Solutions s of keeping people hous we appreciate the extra $100,000 but we really need 2 million and on top of that gbla right now at this point in time has not been able to effectively really keep people hous if someone goes and Robs a Bank they have a public defender but if someone's getting evicted they don't have an attorney so we really need that $2 million you know this is a legal right that everybody should have and there's such a huge disparen here for penalizing ing someone for maybe a rental dispute that may not even be their fault and they don't even get an attorney versus someone that Robs a Bank that gets an attorney so we need to find real solutions we we can fix this but you need to bring us to the tables we actually have real solutions that'll work thank you thank you Mr Wesley Madam clerk are there any other speakers mayor go that was our final speaker thank you very much so this concludes this section of the meeting students at this point I'll invite you to either join the audience or you're welcome to go home and keep doing your homework so you can uh continue with your 4.8 GPA and cure cancer while you're also doing everything else congratulations on your achievement what just wonderful students we have here we're so proud to have you here you'll be able to watch yourself forever from 10 years from now if you want to turn on the Bakers City of Bakersfield's Channel you'll see yourself up here but all the best to all of you from the city of Bakersville thank you so much thank you very nice to meet you have a wonderful night thank you you too good Madam clerk next item please consent calendar items 7A through 7i for approval a staff memorandum was provided regarding item 7 C transmitting additional correspondence thank you colleagues I didn't receive any requests for recusal does anybody want to recuse and then we have a request from council member gray to pull item 7 E9 all right good evening everyone and thank you mayor and uh that'll come later oh sorry you're calling on me uh mayor I'll I'll move to approve the consent calendar with the exception of 7e9 you have a motion please cat your votes motion is unanimously approved thank you and now we'll consider item 7 E9 council member gray now it's my turn thank you anyway I just want to again speak um on behalf of the council I'm sure they would all agree with me that what outstanding students we had tonight what a pleasure it was that was so much fun I wish we could do that every week do on it brings brings a whole different element to our City Council meetings well tonight I'm pulling this item in hopes that I can give encouragement um as to how we can approach this process of reimagining and designing MLK part where it's a win-win for everyone the city the community the taxpayers and so forth and so what I'm talking about for those of you that don't know what I'm talking about let me find it on here real quick um is um revising it's an amendment to revise not to exceed 5,761 556 for construction management for phase a b and c for the the Dr Martin Luther King Junior Community Center in park re re revitalization project in Ward 2 and so as I was going through this and thinking about it from the experience that I've had as a businesswoman and owning a designb build company I just wanted to bring something to the table for some thought um and so I'm going to just read what I um in thinking because I think I can better express it that way rather than just uh right off the top of my head so um I want to say first of all that I am in favor of updating and renovating the MLK Park but I'm not in favor of the process that we're trying to pass through this evening and I'm going to I'm going to explain why I feel that this additional spending of 5,589 566 at this time is premature until a budget is nailed down to design the project too so let me explain why for the past 21 years my husband and I owned a design build company where our customers would come in to discuss their kitchen or bathro model obviously we're talking about a much bigger project when we're talking about an 80 to 100 million project that's been talked about and discussed um than what we ever built but the same principle that we practiced in our business also applied to what we're trying to accomplish with MLK Park our process would start out by discussing what our client was wanting to accomplish and why then we would delve into what their wants and needs look like their dream and then before taking out a tape measure and putting pen to paper we would identify what their budget was after hearing their dream we would then explain the reality within the budget that they had set aside sometimes their budget was right right on for their dream and would cover all the bells and whistles and more and other times their budget was too low to cover their wants but maybe excuse me above their needs and their dream needed to be realigned to their budget the question then was do you want to increase your budget or realign your dream to the budget I think any homeowners sitting in the audience tonight would understand what I'm talking about the budget needs to come first in this case of MLK Park I do understand there's been some realignment of the dream but as far as I understand we still don't have a solid line drawn in the sand when it comes to our budget because we still don't know exactly we have some kind of an idea of it but exactly where all the monies are coming from or how much we have a lot of hopes but our bank account is not fully funded at at this point I am very much concerned that if we spend almost $6 million for design costs and construction management that includes everything that the community wants the dream and the needs this will raise the expectation of the community that we can afford all of it then if we get pricing beyond what we can afford we will disappoint the community waste taxpayer funds design siging something we can't afford it's the same concept as if we asked our young children or children what they would want versus what we can afford to give them we would never ask them if they want a Maserati if we can't afford to give them a Maserati right we don't want to disappointment disappoint them with less than their expectations so tonight I'm encouraging our Council and staff to first start with a solid budget by identifying the money raise the funds begin the process of Designing to that budget I feel that this is a wise planning especially for a large taxpayer expenditure whether the monies come from State funds federal funds private funds City funds we need to be good stewards of what we rece of the funds we receive so I'd like to end my comments with this which I consider great wisdom out of Luke 1428 and 29 and the Bible says for which of you intending to build a tower does not first sit down and estimate the cost to see whether he has enough to complete it otherwise when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish all who see it will begin to ridicule him I am concerned that this project could become a black eye to our city if we do not properly enter into it with the funding that we need to finish the project let's design the project to the budget instead of the opposite of that so in that I will make a motion to oppose 79 at this time thank you thank you council member gray VI mayor thank you mayor um council member gray thank you so much for those comments I think it's important for us to recognize some of the things that you brought up I I think it's really important and I agree with you not to disappoint the the community uh there are many high hopes for this community uh facility um it is long overdue and there are many many many residents and community members who um are looking forward to this facility and it's incumbent upon us on this Das and upon City Hall and City staff uh to find the resources necessary to make this project happen um I also agree with you uh that is important for us to um make sure that we have a a budget and making sure that we have funding and um I believe we do um in fact I want to ask uh city manager CLE um if you can give us a a total number and the number of federal and state grants that we've currently received for this particular project Council M Gonzalez I'll do my best mayor and Council we have uh a $2 million direct allocation that is come from the state we have an 11 $10.9 million Federal Grant from um uh national parks and we have identified uh arpa funding I wouldn't call those Grant monies but we've identified um almost $6 million in arpa funding and I'll I'll ask um assist city manager Rick Anthony or Darren budak if they want to add if I've missed any items there Mr Anthony good evening Rick Anthony assistant city manager um that is correct one correction was actually 11.9 for the federal uh Grant uh as well as I believe a approximate investment already from the city of about 10 million so obviously that's not all of the funding but uh we do actually have a a budget that the city manager has kind of drawn the Line in the Sand as we went through the process we made some amendments on the design uh we removed some administrative uh facilities so we we have made it clear all along that this is the amount that we are are comfortable with and there's also some other options in terms of phasing that we're considering as well to make sure that uh we're prepared when it's time to go out for bid and and for the benefit of the public we're talking about um both the community center and the park at this point yes but we have the option to take on the park facility alone and save the community center for a future iteration that is correct the federal funds from uh the national park services actually designated just for the west side which consist of all the outdoor facilities and What's the total amount projected uh cost for the park facility the outdoor facility is approximately around $23 million and currently we have roughly 29 maybe $30 million including the matches including the matches already designated yes so we have more than enough dollars then today to uh facilitate the construction of the park we've identified those dollars yes we have identified them okay and you know one of the lessons I learned during the whole trip program um is that often times we do see costs escalate over time and we have to um address those costs but um also we realized and uh additional Awards because we had a shovel ready project we had smart folks on the project who were able to co save costs um and we went from when I first got on the council having to uh borrow over $100 million to uh not having to borrow a single dime for that particular project for the Centennial Corridor because of the state and federal dollars and so the point I want to make to the to the council and to the community is that by actually going forward moving forward with this particular item moving this project into complete design we are setting ourselves up positioning ourselves as a city to go after additional funding perhaps additional federal and state State funds uh so that uh we can actually fully fund the project including the rec center uh by by being shovel already we actually become more competitive for future uh future projects how how would you respond to that is that tracking with you yeah um our consultant is very aware of our budget uh We've made that clear all along and all of the plans and the designs thus far have been in those parameters uh this new our Griffin construction is also very aware of our targets and they actually are helping us to even identify continuing requests for Grants so this is going to be throughout the project uh ongoing uh Grant applications ongoing opportunities for uh some some giving some funding opportunities and we're meeting and talking with folks um almost on a weekly basis in terms of building some momentum to contribute to this project great thank you so much I'd like to move uh approval of the Amendment and now council member Freeman thank you um it seems like deja vu all over again we uh had discussions numerous discussions about we should phase the project build the Park first raise the money and since the building was so much more expensive we should wait till we have funds and and at least design and bid before we build a building and I think everybody agrees with that and goes to your point too paty um and it seems to me that we're following along those lines that I was advocating I don't think anybody argued against me that we need to raise the money we even approved I think it was an arpa wrong we had to get some five or six million we had to get into design phase or we lose the money um which is part of the 20 million for the park or if it's 30 I hope it's closer to 20 but I appreciate that you did pull it off the agenda and that councilman Gonzalez reminded us all and brought us up to speed where are because I don't think all of us knew the the detail of the grants that are available right now so I think that gives everybody some comfort that and actually some comfort and some excitement that we that we have the money to build the park par okay so um given that we have the money and we have this arpa deadline uh which probably end of this year um I'm in favor of moving forward with this first phase of the park um with the caveat that or condition that we sort of agreed we won't begin a building until we at least have the money for each part of that building I.E the design engineering yeah pay for that stop bid it what's the building going to cost cost in year and keep moving forward um and I I I don't see how we could do it really any other way so given that and the explanation we just got uh I'm a support of the motion thank you council member Freeman council member gray I appreciate you uh Mr Anthony come and and clarifying my greatest fear when we first started talking about this was it was a whole lot of money and there there wasn't any real commitments financially and and did it even come up at one time to um you know take a loan out to go into debt for part of it and I was definitely in disagreement so I'm glad to hear the update because this has been bugging me all I had was on the administrative report we're spending another almost $6 million and no update as to what's going on what we've received or or or not to where we've had a conversation like this so I can get behind if you you have the money to to do the park and then we're not going to start tearing buildings down and getting in the middle of something when we're not uh ready for that phase of it so anyway um again it's a it's a matter of being good stewards of the dollars that we have and so I will withdraw my opposition to it if we are staying in the guidelines and we're building to the budget all right that's what I want to see happen so thank you very much appreciate it thank you council member GRE council member Smith thank you mayor I just had a couple questions there was a a number thrown out 80 to 100 million and I I remember hearing that early but Mr Anthony mentioned that we did cut out administrative offices and stuff what what is the general budget goal at this point the budget goal is originally we came to council and said we think it's about 80 85 million um and then the fear was you know 8085 turns into 100 quickly but I told uh our staff to Target 80 I will tell the council that you know just with given you know inflation over the life of this project I'm thinking more like 85 but I asked staff to hold the line there and if we have to Value engineer and he mentioned some of the the biggest items that we did but there's actually been a a a fairly long list of adjustments that we've made in design to keep at that $80 million price tag and also this design contract Does it include the community center also it does thank you thank you council member Smith so we have a motion to approve the amendment do you have a motion please cast your votes motion is unanimously approved thank you madam clerk next item please consent calendar public hearings items 8 a through 8 B for approval thank you it's now time for the consent calendar hearings the purpose of this section is to vote on all of the items listed under the consent calendar hearings in one motion without further comment if anyone would like to speak on any of the hearing items listed the item must be removed from this portion of the agenda agenda If an item is removed it will be placed at the end of the regular public hearing portion of the meeting so at this time I'll open consent calendar public hearing items 8 a through b is there anyone in the audience who would like to request that a hearing item be remov from the consent calendar if so please come forward this isn't the time to take testimony only the time to remove the matter from the consent calendar hearing mayor go yes I have received one speaker card from Dave dmowski thank you Mr dski good evening Madame mayor council members uh I don't intend to have the item pulled but I did want to make a comment on the general issue of impact fees if I could is this the proper time to do that or the we we could do it after council's presentation no there's not going to be anyone so go ahead okay yeah uh quickly by the way my GPA was 2.7 five ah but I did manage to get a planning degree from USC School of Architecture and the school of public administration so it all worked out for the best um fight on Madam City attorney um on the issue of Park fees uh we've had two briefings from City staff on two major increases in Impact fees one related to uh sewer connection fees where we saw a 30 38% increase in connection fees for single family dwellings and a 75% increase in sewer connection fees for multif family uh the proposed Park fee is uh a 50% increase over the uh uh previous amount now in both cases I think there was like a six-year Gap in between uh uh staff updates of those impact fees and when we get into an economic condition like we're in now where we have inflation inflation supply chain issues and and lot of economic disruption you know a six-year Gap creates a drastic increase in a a severe significant financial impact to to any residential project so we would make a request of you that you know if if possible if the staff could evaluate the need for these periodic increases on a more frequent basis maybe not every year uh maybe every two years or in the case of some unusual economic condition we would really appreciate that I think it what what's resulted in is is many applicants uh have gone through the process paid their fees and the city has ended up under collecting you know for Park facilities over a fairly long period of time guy that comes in the week after the new Fe goes into effect all of a sudden he's looking at a a huge increase compared to the guy that was there last week so that that would be our our request we also uh I think would like to work with uh your staff in the future on alternatives to the pack fee approach because construction costs are definitely going up dramatically and uh we recognize uh the need for an adjustment but there may be some ways to privatize the construction I'm not sure every subdivision can afford to do its own Park facilities but um I I think we'd like to explore ways of of uh allowing the development Community to participate in the construction because we typically can do it less than the city can unless prevailing wage is triggered so those those are kind of our our comments and appreciate the opportunity to provide input to you but no need to pull it off of the consent calendar because we we support the staff recommendation thank you mrki and thank you for your investment in our community and to all the developers we need all of you to continue to invest in our growing community and we will continue to be business friendly to all of you thank you so much and we hope to uh maybe see some of these future Stanford economists come back here tell us how to make a profit in the Home Building business under California's regulatory system yes indeed thank you have a good evening does any council member wish to remove an item from the consent calendar hearing okay yeah I will do that so nobody wishes to remove the item would you like to comment council member Freeman I just wanted to comment on Mr D Hy's Point um as you know cast and cook we always built the parks and we built nicer parks for less money absolutely no question about it it's maybe 20% cheaper something if you have the developer however there is before I came to Bakersfield in Southern California it was common where we had to have the developers get together and jointly fund the parks for greater development or they didn't get built or we couldn't get a a tent of map approved we had to show how we would put the park in by working together there's nothing stopping us from you know having an ordinance like that that you know developers you guys have to get three or four of you get together that it's been done many many times and if you all have these tracks around it you're going to fund this park because the city can't build them affordably anymore um it helps your marketing a lot and that Park goes in earlier UPF front uh but it is uh a known practice in other cities so we wouldn't be doing anything new if we considered that in Bakersfield for the future so that's my comment thank you council member Freeman at this time consent calendar public hearings items 8 a through b is closed vice mayor I move adoption of the consent calendar public hearings you have a motion please cast your votes motion is unanimously approved thank you and now next item please new business item 12a 2025 regular City Council meetings Department budget presentations and hearings calendar thank you Mr CLE mayor and Council this is our annual adoption of calendar we have looked at um dates that we're aware of uh for uh things like uh League of cities uh I will say unfortunately the league of cities changed their date for next year um after we had already uh looked at our calendar and and U there is the opportunity to still attend but the league of cities uh conferences the same week as a council meeting beyond that though we have made uh as many accommodations as we can to have this calendar be consistent as we have with other uh years and it is U uh uh available for your action Madam clerk do we have any public speakers regarding this item mayor go no speaker cards have been received for this item thank you vice mayor move adoption to item 12a oh yes council member Arius than thank you mayor I just wanted to um flag one CH potential challenge um for the future representative representing the city on lafco uh in early December lafco is going to um uh move approval on their calendar for next year and there's some consideration um of potentially having it on the 2 and fourth Wednesdays um it has been moved and historically been on the first and third Wednesdays from my understanding uh but there is some interest amongst that group um and staff to potentially make it conflict with ours um so I just wanted to flag that um currently the vice mayor myself serve on lafco U but that's uh potentially going to change in this coming year so just wanted to put that out there thank you thank you so you have a motion please catch a [Music] vote motion is unanimously approved approved thank you next item please Council and mayor statements vice mayor thank you mayor uh council members and members of the public uh you know it's hard to ask people to imagine what would have been had we not done anything um but I'm going to ask all of us to imagine where would we be without the Clean City initiative in our city uh they do a tremendous job each and every day cleaning up all of this trash and bulky waste on uh city right away they do a fantastic job and uh we we can look at many other cities in the state of California to see what happens when you don't have a program like CCI um it's uh it's disgusting uh frankly uh but I'm thankful for our our program there is one item that I'd like us to review and see a potential tweak um we have a number of vacant Lots in uh Bakersfield's Urban core in East Bakersfield and Southeast Bakersfield um and often times these vacant Lots become dumping grounds for bulky waste and uh lots of trash and in fact um I can point to many different examples three as a matter of fact on Nile Street in East Bakersfield that have become chronic nuisances uh with regard to trash and accumulation of bulky waste I think it's really important that we clean this up and then we that we deploy our CCI teams to get a handle on it and I know there's there's some issues with code enforcement and the the process of of noticing the property owner but I think that above any of that should come uh the health and safety of our community and it it it really breaks my heart to see so many of our family members and children in on the east side who have to walk to school walk to work and walk through uh Little D PPS uh each and every day it brings down the neighborhood it sends a signal that there's Urban Decay and it does not uh get us to where we want to be in terms of a clean City uh so I'm going to make a referral tonight that uh staff take a harder look at the Clean City initiative scope and then we addressed this issue with these vacant properties and we excuse me vacant um this vacant land but then we also look at our chronic nuisance property uh uh ordinance and see how we might apply that to um vacant land as well thank you thank you council member frean um I just want I I noticed we we approved tonight a um a piece of equipment I believe when I looked it up at a shredder I don't know what a shredder is but it was a $995,000 shredder uh and I wanted to ask was this is this was a shredder um well first I like to know what it is but next is that a um in the solid waste was that always an electric uh we have this mandate all equs to be electric was that always an electric or did we switch from some other you know gas whatever natural gas to electric for this new piece of equipment uh to answer your first or sorry honorable mayor uh council member Freeman yes this uh piece of equipment is at Mount Vernon uh every piece of equipment out there outside of yellow iron has been electric from day one that's how the whole site was designed uh this Shredder um focuses on more of the uh curbside um processing to break things down finer before we run through our traum screens and get it ready to compost in our wind rows so the shredder is uh very vital to the uh facility as we're trying to build more redundancy out there um without the redundancy when we lose equipment to failure cuz sometimes like a metal bar could get snuck in there and damage a very expensive piece of equipment like this it could create a backlog and backlog sit and they could combust so that's why we needed the shredder tonight okay well thank you I just expensive piece equipment I didn't know what Shredder was um but it did raise the issue from last meeting we approved our first Elric and it was probably you know 20% more than a regular 150 um but given the Mandate is that every vehicle I guess uh in the fleet has to be electric by 2032 2035 what that year I believe it's 2035 uh there's different benchmarks we have to meet get to that point I would also just advise it's not necessarily EV it's zero emissions okay is there anything that zero emissions uh hydrogen could be a possibility if we have okay not a lot of those but great um I think we it since that you know we only have one stream of Revenue we're not going to ever have any more we got sales tax property tax and we won't get another measure in I don't think uh passed for a long time so we have a fixed Revenue stream and we have costs outside of control that are going up and up and up and up uh which means other things are going to have to be cut and cut and cut to balance and it so we're going to have a challenge or you folks are going to have a challenge in the future of where do we cut to meet these mandates uh we ought to put together a forecast it would not be that hard of all the equipment we'll have to get rid of and replace with electric at the price the electric will be versus what business as usual would have been what the premium we going to pay because otherwise it would have been in the budget anyway as business as usual but there's a premium maybe it's 30% or something uh and we have thousands of I don't know if you have thousand hundreds if not thousands of vehicles some of which are huge garbage trucks I mean which could be million dollar pieces of equipment also where they cost have a million now it'll be a million in the future um plus there's all sorts of much more expensive maintenance repairs workshops I think it's quick and dirty but you do need to do a forecast to say well how much is this going to take each year more than we're you know would have spent is it is it 20 million is it 30 million a year um just so we start thinking about it and start thinking okay are there any other place we move more efficient because we will be facing this burden um cost burden and we'll be having to decrease other things and it's better to look forward and plan when you have this it's basically a tax massive new tax being put on people in baker's field it's going to cost real cash so um you know I'd like if I don't know how soon you can do that I don't want a great detail that would be it's a you know it's the best guess but and if you can get done by the end you're fine if it takes another month that's okay I may not be here but I'll listen U I just think the public and our Council needs to know as we start budgeting that we're just like our pension thing what is it 25 or 30 million extra this year goes to 35 the next year goes to 40 the next year is eating up roads sewers all the public funds now we have another big one that's going to start eating those up but we have no increase in taxes um so we're going to be challenged and I just think it's good to start preparing for the future and being aware of it and maybe maybe someone have creative solution or maybe we can Lobby Sacramento with some other cities that can you back this up a little bit I would think other cities would be pulling their hair out saying let's go petition for an extension of this thing let's do something so we don't cause all these cities to go bankrupt Council M Mar and Council you're thinking is good and it's consistent with many others there have been a few bills that have been proposed last year and this year to delay they haven't you know made it all the way through but we expect to make another run next year with a coalition to try and at a minimum delay this we also actually expect that there may be even legal uh you know challenges to some of these mandates and there may be you know other even you know Federal Direction on this topic so we're going to fight it and and try and delay um uh we we do actually have some uh preliminary estimates our fleet manager has done some some good um math around how many vehicles do we think are going to you we're going to need to do to get that first 50% mandate and then the 75% versus the 100% Fleet mandate and uh so I I think we can actually pull that information together fairly reasonably because they have been running some of those numbers at least for the next couple of years of what we think the additional cost will be okay one followup um do private contractors have the same mandate as all the cities and public entities for example if we private if we if half city garbage trucks are ours but the other half are private contractor um do they all have to convert to Electric garbage trucks by this date I believe they are but I would like to confirm that for you but and is it the same of anything we subcontract out if we have a somebody do maintenance on a park do they all of a sudden have to get all their equipment uh changed out I mean this ripples all the way through every I don't know how you even administer but um I'm just wondering you know how deep does this mandate go because we do privately contract out quite a bit of work and probably moving towards doing more and more of that to be able to we just said let's privately contract out the parks didn't we so we can afford to have Parks but if those people have to convert their fleets to all electric bulldozers and everything well that may kill all the savings we would have had anyway um just you you are correct yes we do uh contract a lot of lot of services that use heavy equipment that could be impacted um I would like to um need some more time to confirm um who is impacted by the Reg ations um the other thing I will add though is we do have um some money already set aside in this year's Capital Improvement program to do what you had mentioned earlier to develop a long-term plan so we're act we're actually in the process of right now of going through a selection process for a consultant to help us with the planning that um H all the the markers you you recommended okay thank you thank you council member Freeman council member gray thank you mayor um I received uh some correspondence from one of my constituents and it's a topic that I've been talking about and he asked me he's an older gentleman he's in his 80s he's not able to attend um these meetings and so he sent this email and he asked me if I would read it to you all I think it's important that you hear from his perspective because we've had a lot of debate on this issue and that is the the traffic calming issue his name is Mr Carl Elliot he's lived in big bille since 1950 he was an architect and is still working part-time um and he has reasonable back a reasonable background and knowledge of um being an architect of planning City Planning and that type of thing uh but as I said he's not mobile at this time so he says council member gray I am grably concerned that Public Works is restriping many main and secondary streets and eliminating 30 3% capacity when they take one lane of traveled way and convert it to a bicycle lane please please stop this travesty before it goes further who is behind this move and why Bakersville does not need these bicycle dedicated streets because there is no demand and very few use them how many users have you seen or has anyone seen please act to stop this thank thank you Carl Elliott so Carl I'm honoring You by that and I appreciate you sending that correspondence to me um and then the second thing is I just want to commend um uh city manager Cay and Mr Rick Anthony um for getting involved I brought that um referral before the council about a month ago Mr Ed gaty had brought it to our attention he had been trying to get these flags done in the city and um you all got right on on it they're beautiful you're on the front page of the newspaper I wish they'd had his picture standing there with you because he is the one who has been behind all this but I thank you for getting on that and those flags uh can you give me a date when they're actually going to be going up Mr Anthony they're up oh they're up then oh good I haven't driven down truckton yet so I didn't see I've been gone for two weeks so I apologize so they're up and they're ready and and all the celebrations that we've got coming up December 7th and so forth so thank you I think that's just a huge I I enjoyed talking to these vets tonight uh krent county is just an amazing City to honor our vets and so thank you for getting that done that's they're beautiful I was really really impressed with what I saw in the newspaper because I haven't been around so thank you okay God bless thank you council member gray and with Veterans Day coming up and uh the celebration of our veterans on the Avenue of Our Heroes uh let's adjourn at 6:32 in their honor thank you and student BC student thank you so much for being here you stuck out the whole meeting and just tell Professor Kim that you came back for the second meeting so thanks [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e