[Music] up [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [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] welcome to the Bakersfield City council meeting this television broadcast is brought to 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 700 p.m. you can download the agenda for this meeting at www. Bakersfield city. us precidia the honorable mayor Karen K go good evening it's my pleasure to call to order the 515 regular city council meeting of March 27th 2024 welcome to all of you Madame clerk please call the RO mayor go here vice mayor Gonzalez here council member Adas here council member we council member Smith I'm here council member Freeman here council member gray here council member core thank you and tonight we have the pleasure of having father Theo Anthony from St Francis offer the invocation I'm just so grateful father for St francis's uh engagement in our community the support of our entire community and particularly the most vulnerable so um after that we'll have council member gray lead us in the pledge would you all please stand honorable mayor go council members city manager staff sisters and brothers it's absolutely an honor to be here with you thank you for having me years ago when I was serving in Fresno all that I knew about field was freeway 99 that's all I knew and U 3 years ago when Bishop assigned me to St Francis people ask me two question number one where were you before I said I was serving in Western Australia so they were like what's wrong with you from Western Australia to Berfield that doesn't sound good I said well I love this city I love this people and beautiful parish and one of the things when I first assigned was assigned here in beckfield one of the things I I checked with the uh Parish was do you have pickle ball and they said the city has got lots of pickle ball cards I play pickle ball so thank you for having so many different pickle ball courts here in the city so uh 10 years ago when I was serving in Fowler city of Fowler near Fresno we started pickle ball with 10 members before I left we had had 200 members playing pickle ball in the city and that really helped our young people in their mental health from all these gadgets to sports is a wonderful thing so I want to thank you all for encouraging Sports in the city of Berfield so um once again I want to thank you all for serving and um thanks to all our brothers and sisters fellow citizens for being here God bless the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen Heavenly Father we come to you today asking for your guidance wisdom and support as we begin this meeting help us engage in meaningful discussion allow us to grow closer as a group and nurture the bonds of community thank you for creating us and sustaining us day by day thank you that you made us in your image to exist in community with other people people we thank you for our city thank you for our elected officials the businesses the churches the families and the individuals that make our city the great place that it is Lord thank you for the civil government we pray that our civil servants would acknowledge their calling and perform their duties Faithfully be with our judges attorneys and law enforcement grant that they would never neglect or abuse their Authority but they would S stand firm for truth and Justice keep them safe from harm that they serve our community I pray for this council meeting tonight give the council members wisdom and guidance as they deliberate on the items before them may every decision be righteous in your sight for our benefit and for your greater glory we ask this through Christ Our Lord amen thank you would you all join me to salute the flag of the most wonderful country on Earth salute I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank thank you you may be seated thank you Father here are a few guidelines to help our meeting run smoothly we request that you turn off your phones please be courteous in the use of cameras and videos for safety reasons and as a courtesy to others no signs are allowed in the council chamber or in the lobby Applause is allowed during the presentations portion of the meeting but not during other portions of the meeting everyone in attendance is expected to adhere to the rules of decorum established by resolution of the city council failure to abide by the city's rules of decorum including any disruptive behavior that interferes with our ability to have an orderly and effect efficient meeting prevents the city council from gun conducting the business of the city consider this a first warning to everyone in attendance that conduct that disrupts this meeting May result in your removal from the meeting and or the chamber being cleared behavior that disrupts the meeting includes repetitive statements shouting interrupting staff or presenters during the meeting speaking out of turn outbursts from the audience and cassing the two-minute time limit Madam clerk next item please presentations item 4A proclamation to Katie Perez dean of students at Bakersfield Adult School declaring adult education week in Bakersfield during the week of April 10th 2024 colleagues we know how important education is and it's always my pleasure to be at the Bakersville adult school because you have adults there who really want to further their learning and their experience and broaden their knowledge and so it is my honor today to be able to present this Proclamation whereas the state of California will observe adult education week April 8th through April 12th 2024 and whereas the current High School District along with its Board of Trustees acknowledges that the Bakersville Adult School serves the changing economic and cultural needs of a vigorous expanding community and whereas Bakersville Adult School prepares more than 5,500 students to meet their academic personal and professional goals by enrolling in one or more of their diploma GED programs and whereas Bakersville Adult School prepares adults to successfully complete the process to become new US citizens and whereas in 2023 214 adults received their high school diploma 46 adults earned their GED and 707 adults at Bakersville adult school and the Laro Detention Facility completed one or more Career Technical education programs and whereas in two in 2023 30 adults in the lero Detention Facility completed court-ordered parenting and neglect classes to reunite with their families and Bakersville Adult School graduated another class of its 2-year vocational Nurse Program now therefore I Karen go mayor of the city of Bakersville do hereby Proclaim April 88th through April 12th 2024 as adult education week in our City and salute the administration teachers and students at Bakersville adult school and honor each of them for their efforts and accomplishments it's my honor to be present this on behalf of our city thank you so much for your investment and I invite you to offer some remarks thank you so much everybody um council members City attorney manager director everybody up here mayor go we just at the bakersf adult school love what we do we love our community and we are striving every day to make our community a better place to help our to help our community members reach their goals and we just want to thank you all for all of your continued support mayor go especially and we'd love to see everybody out on our campus if you'd love to come visit we'd love to have you anytime thank you so much thank you so [Applause] much mam clerk next item please public statements thank you in keeping with council's new 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 give your card to the city clerk we ask that you mark whether you're here to speak on an it 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 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 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 mayor go we've received 21 uh speaker cards for items not listed on tonight's agenda the first public speaker is Christopher Beretta thank you and if you can all just be prepared we have uh 20 minutes for this segment and so if you want to help your other speakers here it would be uh just wise to keep your remarks brief after Mr Brea we'll have Lena welcome please introduce yourself hi everyone um my name is Christopher Beretta I'm a member of ward 3 um so I'm here to talk about what many people are here to talk about um I know that a lot of people in this community want um some sort of resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza um many of those arguments have been moral and ethical ones uh personally I agree with those I I think they're right and I think they're just but if uh uh if that doesn't hold sway or or um is not enough to convince this body um I would suggest two things number one uh please consider that uh the United States directly sells weapons that kill innocent civilians in this conflict in the Gaza Strip strip uh number two that the US actively Opus skates the truth uh in regards to the United States relations uh and and and Israel's actions throughout this conflict these two items should be of deep concern to every American citizen uh no matter how you feel about how the conflict started or the parties involved um so the other thing I want to say is that um passing a resolution like this may not change the war or anything to do with it but it's not insignificant it's a litmus test for how we as a community respond to these things um so please take action consider what everyone here has to say thank you thank you Mr Beretta next speaker please just a reminder to all of you as you come up if you would just adjust the mic according to your height please theena followed by Muhammad haran followed by Mildred Gonzalez welcome please introduce yourself all righty my name is Lorena and since the last city council meeting the International Security Council has ordered an immediate ceasefire that was backed by 14 other countries but because the US abstained the US has the Israel sorry has continued to ignore international law because this country the United States continues to arm them with weapons and funds to continue their atrocities and continue the escalation of the murder that they are currently um taking place the whole world is watching watching you watching them and they are standing with the Palestinian people in calling for their freedom and their right to self-determination but by continuing to support the illegal settler Colony you guys are condemning yourselves in the eyes of the world you say that you have no power or influence but if you really believe that none of you would be sitting up there today we fully recognize that the word of the Bakersfield City Council will not bring an end to Israel's war but it will continue to put pressure on our higher branches of government to stop all Aid to continue contributing to this genocide even smaller cities like Madera and alhamra can recognize the significance of their word and speak up and call for a permanent ceasefire while you continue to pretend like it doesn't affect our community in any way you continue to ignore our gaze you continue to ignore our pleads and instead Andre you're focusing on reconstructing a pickle ball court for a second time within the last 5 years totaling over a million dollars when that money could be going to better things all right and you also prefer to spend your time closing down small businesses that are in the downtown area that don't fit your Aesthetics with your band of bullies that you guys call The Hub if you guys had any time for all of that then you have time to say the simple words and call for a permanent ceasefire now but I guess that's not where your hearts are thank you next speaker [Music] please Muhammad Haram followed by Mildred Gonzalez followed by Sumer Abu Daka welcome please introduce yourself first I'd like to thank all of you guys for making me feel like I'm at home in Palestine with the checkpoints every single day you guys prove to me how similar you guys are to the Israeli occupation forces I stand here to speak to all healthcare workers to the EMTs firefighters and paramedics imagine being bombed on your wait responding to a call being ambushed and shot at trying to rescue a child imagine not being able to drive your ambulance due to the amount of Destruction and dead corpses that cover the streets imagine responding to calls without access to your vehicle or being on the phone of a seven with a seven-year-old begging you not to hang up as you hear gunshots and explosions in the background or digging into what's left of a home uncertain if its occupants are alive or under the rebel to the CNAs the nursing students and nurses imagine having so many patients that you resort to laying them on the floors imagine working with no electricity as bullets and bombs fall near you imagine asking a child to hold her father's IV bag imagine working not 24-hour shifts about 168 hour shifts for nearly 7 months straight imagine assuming the role of physician and Performing care beyond your training or scope of practice due to the dire circumstances imagine having to work even after seeing your entire family brought in body bags to the Physicians imagine what it be like trying to incubate patients whose bodies are completely covered from head to toe to third degree unlike anything you've ever seen before imagine amputating not one but multiple limbs of children with a shaving razor and no pain relievers pain relievers imagine having to rip open a mother for a C-section without any anesthetics epidurals or narcotics to the therapist imagine trying to explain a four-year-old child why his entire family was just killed why he'll never be able to see his parents or siblings why he has no access to food there is no PTSD because the trauma's ongoing it never ends imagine having 2.3 million p just like this this is the situation our brothers and sisters have been on the Forefront saving lives to the best of their ability with the help of God the the sentiment of being a family and of advocating for one another throughout through thick and thin is often e heing com today I ask every healthcare worker listening to extend the solidarity beyond our borders stand in our stand in solidarity with our brethen Gaz where of Israeli war crimes continue consider Palestinians as your patient too I'm not done and the least treatment you could offer for your Pati is to join us medal that so that our Pati can receive medical treat is up and I'm going to ask you to leave what kind of healthare worker are you to refuse treat Trea your chance to call and stand up for with your brothers and sister healthare this is a chance to stand up for Palestine the pal will be free next speaker please Mildred Gonzalez followed by Sumer Abu Daka followed by pure du welcome please introduce yourself hi my name is Mildred and this speech is for you Karen you recently went to a leaders and life event and you gave the opening the opening speech stating the following all the leaders I'm thinking about something that we hear often about changes in the environment but you know what as Leaders you can change the environment as you walk into the room does the environment change you go on to make a prayer of Peace the Prayer of St Francis as you said we as the youth can make a change I'm here to make that change I'm here to ask you to help the youth and listen to our voices stop ignoring us we will fight until you accept our resolution and stop supporting the war machine that is Israel how can you stand there and tell hundred hundreds of impressional impressionable kids that we can make a change in the environment when you won't listen to the people here trying to make a change in our environment how can you stand there and make a prayer for peace when you're actively supporting a genocide how can you pray for peace when you won't accept a ceasefire for the Palestinians so I ask you this one last time are you going to stand up and support peace or continue to be a hypocritical Zionist sympathizer I'm waiting for an answer Miss Gonzalez we've said this before the council not engage in this kind of dialect go ahead and conclude your comments I have a question for everyone in this room raise your hand if you think Palestinians are human again we don't engage in raising our hand shame on you the other council members have raised their hands in the past and you decide to still stand with Israel next speaker [Music] please Samir Abu Daga followed by pure do welcome please introduce yourself for the F for the fifth time you know why bother try to explain why we're here you already know very well for over 10 weeks we've implored you over and over to introduce a ceasefire resolution so that your exact votes can be recorded apart from just hand raises rather than doing so you sicked your terrorist police force on us while claiming you want to listen giving us your blank stairs pay attention Andre giving us your blank stairs with no comment is not listening it's tolerating our presence hoping that one day we disappear and won't come back we made it very clear that we aren't going anywhere because while you have everything to lose we have nothing but this a genocide is happening right now every day you are making a decision when you continue to support the apartheid terrorist colonialist entity that calls itself Israel you will have to bear the consequences of those choices and history will bear witness to your cowardness and deceit Karen will you acknowledge the genocide that's happening are you going to quiver your lip at us Andre will you acknowledge the genocide that's happening or are you going to give us that dumb cluess stare on your face for the fifth time will any of you press the button and respond you can do that we all ask you to raise your hand because it's the easiest thing to do and only man PRI was able to and just because it's the easiest doesn't mean it's the only thing you can do you can respond you can introduce the resolution you can allow a conversation to happen but to hope that we're going anywhere is hoping that we will forget this and we won't you are running out of time free Palestine free Palestine Mr time is up your time pleas bring your you can hit the button and ask to respond go ahead and respond do you have anything to say after five times of Us coming here I've made it clear that we don't engage in this kind of back and for to have a discussion with us your time is up please take your seat you want to preach decorum and respectability please take your SE it's happening right now take your seat or I will ask an officer to escort you out a genocide is happening you refuse to acknowledge next speaker please next speaker pure do followed by Rich O'Neal followed by Amelia welcome please introduce yourself so last time I was here I was cut off let me begin where I was cut off I was stating how Karen will not call for a ceased fire or a genocide because she supports people like Ronald Reagan who support a paride in South Africa make sure to have that in the audio you know for us to listen into later and not cut it off like last time also Andre Gonzalez oh my goodness let's talk about you next oh no no wait let me go back Karen I also forgot you also look up to people like Kevin McCarthy oh my gosh that did not age well did it so Andre un under the agenda of miscellaneous right G1 appropriate appropriation of Transit occupants taxes for spec Ator seat replacement agreement 202 24-14 at Mechanics Bank Arena appropriate about over 2.1 million Transit occupation taxes fund balance to the community facility Capital Improvement budget for the spectator seats and Replacements at mechanic Bank $2.1 million that you can use for the community you know the community that you like to stock and post online making sure that there because you love your photo ops because huh did y'all know that Andre was at practice at the East Bakersfield private park might I add that's under child first who's founded by Andre Gonzalez so does that mean that you own the park you're not going to answer that you can't answer that Karen and then you're saying that you have so much free will but why does after every agenda it says staff recommendation approval of this appropriation isn't that like H not a democracy and inciting and telling people how to vote Miss du your time is up please bring your comments to a close we're here and we're going to be here every bring you introduce a ceasefire and I'll be keeping an eye on all of you oh yeah Miss please take your Miss D please take your seat if you do not take your seat I'm going to ask an off to escort you out thank you next speaker please Rich O'Neal followed by Amelia followed by ant welcome please introduce yourself um good evening May here goes city council City staff my name is BR O'Neal uh I speak on behalf of the k Parkway Foundation uh today um if you look at our leg there are a lot of mistakes made and uh we wish to call that to your attention the average eye would some might say it looks improved well what they did was they chopped a lot of the trees down big ones and small ones uh mowed down the vegetation sprayed scrape the ground clean all this during bird breeding and nesting season uh This was done without knowledge of the Landscaping plan for the for the lake developed in 1985 all this destruction without following the goals and policies of the Kern River plan there is no perit or or communication done to Department of Fish and Wildlife right now we we're developing the parks master plan and updates to the to the general plan and so one of our goals is for the Departments within the city to work together to coordinate their activities in places like trucks and lake so we get code enforcement working with parks and Parks working with the Water Resources Department so let Day St today stand for a time to regroup and start again to make the kver parkway a gym of this city thank you thank you next speaker please Amelia followed by Aunt followed by Atia low welcome please introduce yourself what's it going to take my comrades have relentlessly appeared before this Council week after week urging you guys to take a stand for justice a simple demand for an immediate and permanent ceasefire yet their pleas are met with callous disre disregard a soulless response from a council that Harbors murderous police Within These very walls what more can we do this Council devoid of courage and humanity is nothing but an empty shell Karen go Andre Gonzalez along with the rest of this Council you have failed this community and continue to fail each time you choose to ignore them eight comrades are alongside me today having witnessed your failures all the way from Fresno and velia and we made the drive down here in solidarity with the Palestinian Muslim Community along with their allies for Unity is Paramount and we will keep showing up the Central Valley Must Stand United as we find ourselves abandoned under your jurisdiction and others like you the government cares not for those it claims to represent their sole interests lie in dirty money and public appearances which is a hollow facade that conceals their insatiable greed you think just by showing face you've done something great for the community just yesterday four homes were ruthlessly bombed in Rafa and hospitals are continuously being targeted the Bloodshed continues unabated with over 30 lives lost near alifa Hospital in a residential neighborhood Israeli occupation forces have abducted 30 Palestinians in the West Bank during overnight raids while 81 more Palestinians have been killed leaving 93 injured and today 13 children were shot and killed inside of alifa hospital by the iof how do you sleep at night what if it was your own children is selling your Humanity for money really worth more to you do you not feel shame because you should shame on all of you for your cowardice and much worse your lack of humanity thank you next speaker please and followed by Ana laow Follow by Omar um you put up metal detectors and stop people from getting in here to exercise their First Amendment right uh you make people throw away their um possession I had a sticker in my pocket and I and they make me throw that away otherwise they don't let me in here um my friends th have to throw away their nail polish to get in to to get in here to exercise their First Amendment right and then the police just AR arrested them slam their face onto the wall because you don't want us to come in here and speak on the genocide that you're supporting this is fascism thank you next speaker please Ana L followed by Omar followed by Mary welcome yeah afternoon yeah so my name is an LA I'm a professor at California State University Bakersfield in the department of biology and before I speak on behalf of the Kern River I also want to state that I support the pledge of the Palestinians that was brought forward here but back to the river so I want to remind the city council that you should follow the order that um judge palsam put out there that 40% of the water is supposed to stay in the river and with this comes data collection data management and data analysis so the city so far has not really done that so how can we be sure that 40% of the water is in the river and you know I looked back in in my notes and I found that the organization American rivers in 2022 listed the current river as number seven of of the most endangered rivers in the United States so this is not the case anymore so we had two years of rain um above average rain so it's not the achievement of the city of Bakersfield K County and Beyond you know we have done nothing and if you're not following what what judge palsam saying you know when we hitting the next drought where are we then with our urban planning and no River you know you know you you should know with our climate action plan and urban planning in general we need to have cool water in the river trees that provide shade because when the weather modelist are correct we will we will be hitting in a lot of heat waves in the future which will be brutal and having a healthy River in our community would be very very beneficial for our residents so I want to remind you to really work on that and then um also if you need help with data analysis collection and statistics you know CSUB can provide a lot of help we have a lot of smart students we have a lot of ambitious and educated professors who can help you to achieve something good thank you thank you next speaker please Omar just a reminder that we don't have Applause during outside of the presentation's portion Salam alaykum my name is Omar uh firstly I'd like to um you know stand in solidarity with the previous uh speakers who talked about the need to protect the environment um the birds and the water um Bakersfield without the environment is um a desert Wasteland so please protect the environment secondly I would like to condemn formally uh uh aggressively the uh security checkpoints you have implemented before this city hall meeting um why what what are you afraid of uh what has possibly occurred here that has driven you to make us humiliate ourselves and including your own city council staff having to go through these checkpoints um thirdly uh free Palestine okay this is getting ridiculous we've been here for months asking you time and time again to just please say the simple words permanent ceasefire Stop The Killing end the genocide free Palestine thank you and we have now reached the end of the 20 minutes we do not allow that outbursts from the audience are disruptive I'm going to ask those of you who are yelling to leave officers please clear the [Music] chambers [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] he [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] e [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] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] i' rather i' TR to and ful suceed [Music] got try and accompl to suceed [Music] [Music] all [Music] [Music] [Music] oh reconvening at 6:49 Madame clerk next item please agenda item public statements we'll now move to the public statements listed on the agenda if you're here to speak on appointment item six or items listed under consent calendar item 7 your time to speak is now again each speaker is given a two-minute time limit and each agenda item is limited to 20 minutes total the consent calendar as a whole constitutes one agenda item if you're here to speak on calendar consent calendar hearing items 8 a through C or hearing items 9 a through b now is not the time to speak you'll give be given an opportunity to speak when the item is called later in the meeting Madam clerk do we have any public speakers regarding items listed on appointment item six consent calendar item seven meica we've received one speaker card for agenda item public statements from Mary Helen Barrow Miss Barrow Mary Helen Barrow she's coming and I see her approaching welcome Miss Barrow welcome and please introduce yourself thank you very much for your patience I'm sorry that you had to undergo this today I've been coming here for 40 years we've had our ups and downs our disagreements but we've never hated each other we've never disrespected each other I love all of you and respect you for what you do for our community even in the tough times thank you I'll try and keep this fast but I BR brought a printed copy just in case I'm here about the proposed East Bakersfield Mega apartment ghetto that is planned there was a story recently in the paper just a brief note to express my deep concern for the impact that a proposed three-story 38 building 314 unit uh Mega complex that would be proposed for East Bakersfield as a longtime resident of East Hills I wish to emphatically oppose the plan development by Valley development company Aurora Borealis development this abominable poorly planned Mega 314 unit ghetto likee complex would likely necessitate accommodations for between 600 and 800 inhabitants plus another 200 likely visitors and service and maintenance Personnel traveling daily on an already overburdened two-lane Highway and adjoining residential streets additionally please consider consider carefully the negative impact this development and its inhabitants would have on nearby roads would have to be upgraded and expanded cons significantly Local Schools preschool Elementary secondary as well as the community college would need additional classrooms and staff severely your time is up can you bring your comments to a close please okay thank you very much in summary I just wish to oppose this development and I'll give you a copy of my memorandum and thank you very much for your consideration and your patience thank you and good night God bless you and take care give them plenty of security guys thank you and just give that to the clerk please and Madam clerk now next item please appointments item 6A three appointments at large to the historic preservation commission due to the March 31 2024 term expirations of Kathy Butler Steven Montgomery and Susan B stucy commission members will serve three-year terms are you going thank you I'd like to clarify the voting process for you the council will vote electronically and the city clerk will display and announce the results based on these results the council will then make the appropriate motion regarding each appointment so now would you please vote we haven't done this before so if you're having electronic issues just let us know Kathy Butler Steven Montgomery and Roger Moy received a majority of the votes thank you vice mayor thank you mayor a motion to appoint Kathy Butler Steven MCG mcgomery and Roger Mobley to the historic preservation commission thank you you have a motion please cast your votes motion is approved with council members Weir and core absent thank you m Butler Mr Moy and Mr Montgomery for your willingness to serve next item consent calendar item 7A through 7i for approval a staff memorandum was submitted for item 7 C1 transmitting correspondence thank you council member does any member wish to recuse themselves from any item on the consent calendar or to pull any item seeing none I move to adopt the consent calendar thank you you have motion please cast your votes motion is approved with council members we and core absent thank you next item please consent calendar public hearing 8 a through 8 C 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 consent calendar Hearing in one motion without further comment if anyone would like to speak on any of the hearing items listed the item must be removed from this portion of the agenda If an item is removed it will be placed at the end of the regular public hearings portion of the meeting at this time I'll open consent calendar public hearing items 8 a through C is there anyone in the audience who would like to request that a hearing item be removed from the consent calendar if so please come for forward this isn't the time to take testimony only remove the matter from the consent calendar hearings is there anyone who would like to speak to have an item removed is there anyone who can tell me we can [Music] okay m mayor no one has come for thank you does any count member wish to remove an item from the consent calendar hearings seeing none vice mayor um oh I'm sorry at this time consent calendar public hearings items 8 through 8 a through c is now closed vice mayor move to approve the consent calendar hearing items you have a motion please cat your votes motion is approved with council members we and core absent thank you next item please hearings 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 the staff recommendation first then we'll hear from those who would like to speak in favor of the staff recommendation if there's testimony on both sides each side will be allowed a 5 minute rebuttal there's a clock on the TV screens behind me which indicates 15 minutes please step to the microphone identify yourself after 14 minutes a yellow light will come on at the end of 15 minutes a red light will flash indicating your time is up quickly end your statement you may ask questions during your statement but they won't be addressed rest until the public hearing is closed if you have written comments that are longer than your verbal statement give them to the clerk she'll provide copies to the council please be courteous to others who wish to speak mam clerk please read the public hearing item public hearing item 9A public hearing to consider resolution setting city of Bakersfield domestic water availability fee for service areas in the city uh of Bakersville domestic water system thank you Mr CLE thank you mayor and councel our Water Resources Director Chris budak is available for questions on this item this is typically uh just our annual update process that we go through each year thank you Miss bu thank you mayor go and Council um we are bringing today the uh water availability fee increase uh we are looking to increase our availability fee from uh $65 to4304ss per acre so it works out to be uh just under $2,000 per connection um this uh water availability fee cost covers uh growth of the system so it'll include source as well as um infrastructure like storage tanks or uh Wells to um meet the growth of the city and I'd be happy to answer any questions thank you Miss budek at this time item 9A is open is there anyone who would like to speak in opposition to staff's recommendation to increase this domestic water availability fee please come to the microphone identify yourself and proceed at this point we're having somebody go out to see whether anybody outside would like to speak Sergeant is there anyone who wishes to speak in opposition no one came forward thank you seeing none is there anyone who wishes to speak in support or in favor of Staff staff's recommendation to increase the domestic water availability fee please step to the microphone identify yourself and proceed again our Sergeant will go out and check are you mayor no one came forward thank you so seeing none I'll close the public hearing and return it to council for comment and action so vice mayor uh the adoption of the resolution thank you mayor I move to adopt the resolution you have a motion please cast your votes motion is approved with council members Weir and core absent thank you and Madam clerk next hearing item please public hearing item 9B public hearing to consider title 17 amendments to the residential parking standards first reading of an ordinance amending Bakersfield Municipal Code title 17 by adding deleting and amending various sections primarily related to residential parking standards city manager C thank you mayor and Council our development services director Chris Bo will have a brief uh just summary statement about uh what this first reading represents thank you thank you city manager CLE um on our last public hearing on the 13th of March um the council pulled a component of the residential um development standards specifically related to parking and made a referral as it relates to a revision to that proposed ordinance the the draft of that ordinance is in your staff report um and um staff would recommend deliberating upon that and coming to a decision thank you at this time item 9B is open is there anyone who would like to speak in opposition I to the residential parking standards ordinance please come to the microphone identify yourself and proceed and right now we have our Sergeant going out to check sergeant is there anyone who wishes to speak in opposition to the residential parking standards ordinance no one came forward thank you seeing none is there anyone who wishes to speak in support or in favor of the residential parking standards ordinance please step to the microphone identify yourself and proceed and our Sergeant is going out to check for Sergeant is there anyone who wishes to speak in support no one came forward thank you seeing none I'll close the public hearing and return it to council for comment and action vice mayor oh I'm sorry council member Arius has a request to speak thank you mayor um um in making the motion um as proposed by staff tonight um I also just want to um make mention of a couple comments that I had received uh via text from um some great folks who are doing developments in southeast Bakersfield uh Max Basera who uh was here tonight but unfortunately couldn't make comment uh because of the um protests that's happening tonight and he just wanted to say Maro and members of the city council uh my name is Max masera and I'm the principal of pacificus for company I'm here to support City staff's item 9B to recommend new amendments to the residential parking standards his partner Eric Mora um said the same thing um I've had many conversations with folks in the development Community um who are in support of um staff's recommendations tonight so I just moove approval thank you thank you you have a motion please oh I'm sorry um Patty council member gray I need clarification on what we are doing here exactly tonight are we approving the this parking standard what are we doing mayor council member gray you are uh giving first reading to the redline version that was in your packet okay so that would mean you're approving all of the red line uh that's in the packet so we would be approving all the new standards tonight cuz I'm getting mixed messages that that's not what we're voting on tonight we're voting on no you are voting on that and that's first reading and then we will bring it back on April 10th for second reading and then it will be in effect 30 days after should they have an explain to council member I'm totally confused yep um I I think the confusion might stem from the fact that this um is a bifurcation of title 17 and the Amendments as initially proposed could staff walk the council through how that's taken place over the past couple of meetings thank you council member originally on the originally on the 28th of febru February um staff brought a comprehensive package of residential zoning standards to your Das right within that dialogue the the component of the ordinance everything about that ordinance except for the parking standards went through first read right in other words the introduction of the ordinance um deliberation about it and such there was concerns about um a parking standard the parking standards having no minimum standards and ultimately my recommendation to council was to perhaps pull that component from their action that night which you did at the same time time during that action council member arus made a referral to bring back an ordinance that had specific standards associated with it that Redline version of that ordinance is before you tonight um and is available for a first reading the remainder of the zoning zoning code um that was specific to Zone district and the like that went through second read tonight as part of um consent calendar public hearings pardon me just consent calendar so everything about the ordinance that except for the parking standards has gone through the process it will await 30 days before it becomes law the portion of the parking is before you tonight as a first read if you take positive steps in in U affirming that first read and voting in favor of that first read it will come back to you on April 10th as part of a second read and then subsequently become law 30 days thereafter so your action tonight is specific to the ordinance as proposed in council member aras's referral okay so I I vote in favor or against what has been referred tonight then I'm that would be correct correct okay because I was told earlier that's not what we were doing so that's where my confusion was lying so okay so then I would like to speak on this this item that I am in opposition to these parking standards excuse me a minute for several reasons and after speaking with other um stakeholders in the community myself um I believe number one there will be bad actors that will come into Bakersville from out of town to try to take advantage of these eliminating these parking standards I feel that like I said the a month ago I feel like we're pushing this high density Society that's only going to create more chaos for our residents um living in cramped areas and then to boot with no parking and having to deal with that on a regular basis I think is going to create a lot of tension in our city and then number three um I have concerns at reducing required parking to only. 25% uh spaces per unit and a multifam projects of 20 units per acre or more in Suburban areas of the city will force excessive unaccommodated parking Demand on public streets because people are going to need somewhere to park and when I look at these parking standards and I reviewed all this before I came tonight and then this is very uh even better presented and I appreciate the the PowerPoint um style that you gave us um that concerns me even further and I have heard from other stakeholders that they didn't feel like there's been enough time from March 13th meeting to now to really properly vet this motion before we're going to adopt it or reject it so um I would like to make a motion to delay this vote on these parking stands standards until we have a full council president and we meet with other local stakeholders the ones that I'm been speaking with that have real concerns about this um and that are sincerely concerned for the welfare of our city because we have opened our our doors up now to out of state not out of state I mean out of you know outside of our area to developers to come in and just be worried about their bottom line only instead of the really the real concern is that welfare of our city and I'm like this is going to be with us for decades so why are we rushing this the way we're rushing it that's what I you know I want to know so anyway um I'd like to make that motion that we delay this vote if this is what we're doing tonight to either accept or reject this these new parking standards delay that until further conversation with other stakeholders thank you thank you council member Freeman thank you mayor well I guess uh I must have misunderstood um my conversation with Mr Cay I wasn't at the meeting last time so I know there uh the previous meeting we had discussed trying to come up with a an alternate parking standard just for the multif family that everything else I thought the bifurcation was everything else had been talked about and pretty much most people agreed to and the only area of controversy was the multif family U parking standard we didn't all agree on that um and I I heard that councilman Aras had I guess a meeting I wasn't here come up with a proposal um but my understanding maybe I misunderstood your Christian was tonight we were voting on that on everything but the multif family which wasn't resolved yet and um and I don't think most of that was controversial which was like 90% of everything except even for for the normal residential par it was simply this one item of multi family parking standard that my understanding is that wasn't coming back to us until April 10th I think it was April 10th and that there was an opportunity for discussion on that so um did I understand that wrong council member Freeman I think council member gray as well I apologize if I was less than clear in my communication I was reflecting that the the second reading which is really necessary for it to move forward that it's not enacted into law until you get to the second reading and the second reading will happen on April 10th and so there's still the next meeting until this conversation really is fully sort vetted and decided is on the second reading at your next meeting but it is on the agenda for first reading tonight so are we I'm not sure I'm clear that we've we've they aren't bifurcated we've merged them all back together it's an all or nothing as opposed to saying everything but the multifam standard is in one approval and the multif family standard is on a different track and tonight we were voting on I thought everything but the multif family stand standard and I was supportive of everything but that one I know I couldn't be at the meeting last time and I guess something happened when I didn't have any input into but are you saying we've already passed them both Sor just a second reading or this is this are there two motions or is it once if I may Council May Freeman and mayor and councel earlier tonight when you adopted the consent agenda you did adopt the second reading of that the rest of the residential zoning code update so it was bifurcated okay you did you did vote on that earlier tonight that is done with the the zoning changes the higher densities that's all done yeah okay I would clarify though the parking I would say it's more about it was a bifurcation of parking and the zoning so the parking is on for first reading tonight but it's all parking it's not just multif family or or other it's okay okay so we didn't we didn't remove the multif family for a different discussion it's it's all parking of all kinds correct all residential excuse me all residential parking thank you okay and then the second reading will be on the 10th correct okay well then I uh no I understand since the only portion that I'd hope we'd have a little more discussion that we might someday find a way to have consensus on something um was that one portion on the multif family so if um if the vote is for the entire parking thing everything thrown into it then I would uh agree with h Council Wen gray that you know I'm not ready to support the whole package I was everything but this one item of parking but that didn't seem to be the way it's being packaged so okay thanks for the clarification thank you council member Freeman any other C members wishing to speak so we have uh council member Gray's motion you have a motion please cat your votes motion fails with Council me vice mayor Gonzalez council member Aras and council member Smith voting no and council member we and council member core absent thank you and now we'll take council member aras's motion you have a motion please cat your votes motion is approved moved with council members Freeman and council member gray voting no and council members we and core absent thank you Madame clerk next item please Council and mayor statements thank you vice mayor thank you mayor I just uh three items tonight first and foremost I just want to reaffirm uh the mayor's statement earlier and the council's practice not to respond to uh public comments by raising up hands or any type of responses to specific questions that from my experience has never been a practice on this city council or in my prior service on um the bakal City School Board um and so I I think it we're we're best served when we maintain that practice as a council and a governing body but I do want to respond to a comment that was made regarding Children First and just want to clarify to the public Children First is a nonprofit organiz ation yes I founded children first um I led the effort to build a uh private pocket park that is owned and operated by the nonprofit organization but no I do not own the pocket park and neither do I control it actually we have a we have staff members who actually are uh responsible for the day-to-day operations of that facility um but I do visit um from time to time and so just wanted to clarify that to the public the the Park was built uh as a gift to the children of East Bakersfield and we want to maintain that facility but uh no I do not own that park or control it um the other day just yesterday in fact we had a housing and homelessness committee meeting where the committee explored the um option to expand uh the brage Lan navigation Center and look at uh perhaps a safe Camp uh to meet the needs the growing needs of our community as it relates to the number of unhoused individuals uh on our streets every single night if if uh and I hope that staff can share with the full Council the monthly report that the committee receives um that outlines the various different metrics that we use to really uh measure our impact in terms of uh homelessness and our Outreach efforts but also brings up some pretty Stark realities and that is that 50 five individuals on a weekly basis are denied access to brunes Lane navigation Center because the shelter is full there are no beds available these are individuals who are willing they're ready to go some are begging to get off the street and they're suffering on our streets every single night they need help they're in emergency Cris crisis situation and it has been consistent that 55 number has been consistent week after week month after month and yes we're moving people out of the shelter we're getting them into permanent Supportive Housing we're doing the great work but even still 55 individuals are still bottlenecked un unable to access that shelter and so uh I would like us to continue to look at how do we add a additional 50 beds we heard from the service providers um who uh indicated and and communicated some of the challenges that that they may face if we expand the shelter beds and um I've had a conversation with them again today uh with the both the shelter operator and the executive director of Mercy house and challenge them to be creative and to figure out ways in which they can uh operate a shelter with an additional 50 bets and they accepted that Challenge and in fact they they uh have been meeting to look at ways in which they can accommodate and so I'm going to make a referral tonight that we bring this conversation to the full Council and that we have this conversation ahead of our next uh budget adoption so that we can plan ahead and and provide the support that we absolutely need uh for those individuals who are begging to get into a shelter and there's no room thank you and then finally um Condors fans all over our community are mourning the loss of uh the dancing granny Phyllis Hansen was an advid Condor fan for decades and uh had been uh also a source of entertainment and joy for lots of families including my own family uh whenever uh Kai Joe would play Dancing gr granny would get up and start dancing and I remember going to many many hockey games with all the m my siblings and nieces and nephews and we would enjoy watching dancing granny get down um sadly she has passed away and so what I'd like to do as we look towards um the replacement of all of our Arena seats that we look towards uh saving one of those Arena seats and um providing it to the family of uh Miss Hansen uh in recognition for her spirit Community spirit and bringing so much joy to all of us in the community I'd also recommend and like to make a referral tonight that we dedicate a seat in the arena in her honor and her Legacy and hopefully her memory will inspire other granny's in our community to dance uh at Future Condor games but God bless her and her family thank you thank you council member Arius thank you mayor um I just wanted to um chime in on the vice mayor's remarks regarding our housing and homelessness committee meeting um and provide some additional context that I think is really important for this Council to know um we did meet with many of the service providers in the homelessness space um and uh Mr Mr du theod and Larry uh from Mercy house spoke very plainly and very clearly to us um and said that it would be a pretty significant task uh for them to expand their services there at the brundle navigation Center um and I respect Vice mayor's challenge uh to continue to press upon them that we need to look at ways to uh expand given the the challenge when it comes to homelessness um but I would argue that they've already been challenged they were challenged with the initial expansion up to 249 beds nearly 250 um and and they were very clear in stating that um there have been significant challenges internally on their operations and I know that uh some members on this Das know what knows what it means to run a business to run an organization and uh at certain points you need to understand uh what scaling means and if you don't have that ability ability to build capacity um we can uh we can hurt the Integrity of that organization um and the culture we had a good conversation about the culture of Mercy house and how supportive it is of all of the residents and really uh the question that they pose to us is do you want quality or do you want quantity and for me when dealing with a vulnerable population we want quality all day every single day and they have done an excellent job up until this point uh they continue to move uh folks out of the shelter uh into permanent support housing and to me that is the goal right we want to end homelessness for those individuals experiencing homelessness now part of that is getting folks off the street and into those emergency shelter beds however it's not the whole goal right that goal that we should be utilizing to drive our work on homelessness is to get them into stable permanent Supportive Housing and they're doing just that and I I share that because I think it's important to protect that pipeline to make sure that they feel supported that their staff feel supported that they can continue to work at the pace that they're working on even potentially improve and become more efficient um but it was very clear in that meeting that the answer may not lie at the bruners lake navigation Center so I would like to ask staff to additionally look at alternative sites that we could potentially invest in whether that be uh for safe camp in or an additional alternative um emergency shelter thank you thank you council member arus uh any other request to speak don't see any uh this evening I'd like to make a referral that the city take a position on three bills from state senator Shannon Grove the first one deals with commercial sex with the minor and as you may recall we supported her sb14 that made human trafficking of a minor a serious felony and and a strikable offense this one s sp1 1414 would make it a felony to solicit agree to engage in any Act of commercial sex with a minor currently perpetrators are only charged with the misdemeanor so that's the first one the second one deals with breast cancer and that's SP 1172 and it would add the California breast cancer research fund and the California cancer research fund to the list of voluntary income tax check off programs so you'll recall that during your income you have the option of checking if you want to donate to any so this is just it's an option and just expanding that to breast cancer and the third one deals with mental health SB 1063 would allow schools to put a QR code on student IDs that links to a County Mental Health Resource website of the school's District's Choice it's optional it's up to the school district but it gives that ability for them to put this QR code so students can access County Mental Health Resources and this would apply only to grade 7 through 12 so just referring those three items and those will come back for your consideration I don't see any other requests to speak and so with that we stand adjourn at [Music] 7:34 [Music]