[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] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] St [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] n [Music] [Music] n [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] welcome to the Bakersfield City council meeting this television broadcast is brought to you by the local cable companies the county of karna and the City of Bakersfield you can watch the rebroadcast of this meeting Saturday at at 7:00 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 preci over this evening's meeting The Honorable mayor Karen K go well good evening everyone and happy New Year Welcome to our first lengthy council meeting no it's going to be a fast council meeting of the new year it's always good to see you tonight I uh get to offer the invocation and then following the invocation Madison ma who's a senior at bakersf Christian High School will lead us in the pledge Madison is the distinguished young woman of Bakersville class of 2025 she's president of the National Honors Society and medical Club member of the bchs Honors Academy and a recipient of the AP scholar with distinction recognition and US president award for educational excellence and if that is not enough she's a member of the Bakersville youth Symphony where she plays the French horn one of the most difficult instruments she's the first horn player for the Kern County honor bands and Orchestra and a member of the California All State honor Ensemble she aspires to work in the medical field doctor uh pursuing a premedical degree and plans to stay in California for college then she's coming back to Bakersville is that not right right yes uh thank you so much Carol file uh adviser of uh distinguished young women for being here and her mom and she'll get to introduce them when we're finished would you all please stand heavenly father thank you for this new year and we thank you that we can celebrate your goodness your goodness to our families your goodness to our community your goodness to our country and thank you that we can recognize after singing this many times during the holiday season that the government is not on our shoulders and so we look to you for that wisdom your word tells tells us that if we lack wisdom we ask of God who gives wisdom freely and so that is what we do this evening we ask you for that Divine wisdom give us insights into solutions for those problems that plague our city those things that we're not able to solve we just ask that that you would give us those Divine Solutions and we just pray that this year would be one of much economic prosperity for all would you give us insights into being able to stimulate our economy have Economic Development here in our community and may this be that community that it was destined to be tonight we remember our brothers and sisters who are impacted by fire and we just pray for their safety we pray for their protection and for all of those who are assisting our First Responders we just pray for their safety Also may you give great wisdom to all of those who are attempting to assist those impacted by fire and we just welcome our new council members we pray for G great wisdom for them and we thank you for their election and also the reelection of our council member Gonzalez thank you again for all that you are doing for this community and will continue to do and we ask this in the strong and precious name amen amen and now our flag salute thank you Mary I forgot roll call oh well that that was a bad start but we'll do the pledge and then we'll do roll call okay um salute pledge I pledge alleg to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stand one nation under God indivisible and liberty and justice for all thank you so much Madison and would you just like to introduce your mom and Carol and then we'll do R um first I want to say thank you for inviting me for this opportunity and thank you distinguished young woman as well um my mom is sitting right there her name is Christy and then this is the communications administrator for distinguish young woman Carol F thank you so much thank you so much and congratulations on your many many many accomplishments and now Madame clerk please call the role mayor go here vice mayor core here council member Aras here council member Gonzalez here council member Weir council member Smith I am here council member Coman here and council member Basher Tosh here thank you here a few guidelines to help our meeting run smoothly we request that you turn off your phones please be courteous in the use of cameras and videos for safety reasons and as courtesy to others no signs are allowed in the council chamber or in the lobby Applause is allowed during the presentations portion of the meeting but not during other portions of the meeting everyone in attendance is expected to adhere to the rules of decorum established by resolution of the city council failure to abide by the city's rules of deorum including any disruptive behavior that that interferes with our ability to have an orderly and efficient meeting prevents the city council from conducting the business of the city consider this a first warning to everyone in attendance that conduct that disrupts the meeting May result in your removal from the meeting and or the chambers being cleared behavior that disrupts the meeting includes repetitive statements shouting interrupting staff or presenters during the meeting speaking out of turn outbursts from the audience and surpassing the 2 minutes time limit public statements in keeping with the council's resolution public statements are now received at different times depending on the item I'll 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 heard to speak on an item listed on tonight agenda or in a matter not on the agenda speakers who do not identify a specific agenda item will be presumed speakers for the non-agenda public statements if you're here to speak on an item not listed on the meeting agenda you'll 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 here to speak on an item listed on the agenda I will call on you at a later time if public state statements become disruptive and I have to clear the chambers to regain order of the meeting you'll be called in one at a time to provide your public statement when your item is called Madam clerk do we have any public speakers regarding items not listed on the agenda America we've received four public speaker cards regarding items not listed on tonight's agenda the first public speaker is Zach Griffin followed by Julie Gutierrez followed by Al Alysa Reed followed by Terry Maxwell thank you and so Mr Griffin if you will come up and introduce yourself and to all of you if you just remember to adjust the level of the microphone please good evening mayor council members staff constituents uh my name is Zachary Griffin I'm a local Psy local cycling Advocate as well as a special education teacher uh I've come before the board we have new members uh just to remind ourselves and again me back up Happy New Year to everyone hope you had a great holiday season unfortunately uh in my job as a special education teacher we have to go through this process of of constantly reflecting and I want to remind our board uh our board our our uh Council uh as well as our staff that unfortunately this year we surpassed our previous record year of pedestrian fatalities according to kg's latest um conversation I spoke to them yesterday we had 57 fatalities um confirm with the mortuary uh or the morg excuse me and that beats our record of 56 last year and as a reminder in 2009 when myself and councilman Smith attended a California Public Health Symposium here in Kern County in regards to our outrageous combined cycling and pedestrian deaths of 26 we have far surpassed that and I know we've done good work and I want to praise and and congratulate the Council on doing the good work and the staff on putting the good work however I will be honest with you if I have 90% of my students failing in my class despite all of my good work I'm not doing my job with that I would like us to again reflect I know we have uh some pretty good um work done in our subcommittees and I would like us to continue to go forward and continue to look at improving that one of the thoughts that I have within my last 20 seconds here is that I understand making cultural change sometimes is policy driven but people don't people didn't come to rock and roll or they don't come to Fashion because somebody shows them a sign it's a culturally driven thing and we have to look at our young people and be able to engage them that six-year-old in 10 years is going to be a driver those that's how we're going to change this culture thank you for your time have a Wonder thank Mr griin next speaker please Julie Gutierrez I'm sorry Mary I wanted to comment on that I'm sorry I didn't see you uh go ahead council member Smith yeah I just I'm not seeing that at okay now I am yeah no I was slow I'm sorry I just wanted to follow up on that comment and I I think those numbers are countywide yeah but I do like to get updates and so if we could get the the annual numbers at the next council meeting from the police department that would be great thank you thank you welcome please introduce yourself hello city council members my name is Julia guz I'm a life resident of California born and raised in Bakersfield um and I'm I'm pursuing a master's degree in Fine Arts for 27 years I've watched Our Town grow and expand with new businesses homes and schools being built over Acres of what used to be dirt Independent high school was lonesome for a time but then but now the Career and Technical education center has brought not only new buildings but New Opportunities and Pathways for students to further their education and enhance their abilities with programs and Fields of um medicine business and much more however I've also seen what used to be busy areas become deserted lifeless empty buildings that have been the sights of many structured fires in recent times I'd like to share a project plan that I've put together to decrease the increasing number of vacant building fires burning bring economic stability back to local businesses and create a place for artists to rent for a reasonable fee where they can store their Works have plenty of space and be able to to work um to work with other local artists of all ages some buildings of Interest included in my PL in my plan are commercial buildings that have been vacant for at least one year While others have caught my eye when driving around town such as the old uh Tina Marie's Cafe at 1416 20th Street a commercial building at 2011 2001 Chester Avenue that is for sale with contact information and 19181 19 Street 1810 Chester Avenue and I've considered working with the owners of the Hopkins building to put to use the second and third floors for rent any apartment or motels like the Manila Inn would prove best as individuals and their for individuals and their Works they all have different techniques and the ability to control AC for an artist oh I'm sorry I didn't realize the time but yeah you can go ahead and just do a closing sentence if you would like um I have more for this project plan including blueprints cost estimates locations and other ideas some of which involve a program to help rehabilitate the kids and juvenile detention and improve the community I'd like the opportunity to discuss these matters with you in Greater detail within a timely manner thank you Miss Gutierrez council member Gonzalez thank you mayor Miss Gutierrez thank you so much for coming to council with some solutions uh and for identifying an important problem uh an issue that I actually care deeply about and some something that I've been working with my colleagues on for quite some time along with uh City staff um you're right there are a number of vacant buildings underutilized properties particularly in the downtown core uh and we have to do more and one of the pieces that we've already put in place is the um uh chronic nuisance property uh toolkit we've also created a registry requirement for any vacant buildings um and so those are steps in the right direction towards where you're headed but I share the same Vision as you and I would love to learn more about your plans uh so um after this uh I'm going to reach out to you and uh hopefully we can uh grab a cup of coffee and and have a conversation about where we can lead uh forward but I will tell you Tina Marie is coming back so that building will be occupied and will be in restaurant uh 2001 Chester we're still working on plans there uh 1918 19th Street will be uh a chiropractic office actually uh in the next couple of months so there's a lot of movement still in downtown Bakersfield and a lot of great Redevelopment uh work so we'd love to have you part of our part of our movement thank you so much for coming today thank you Miss Gutierrez next speaker please Alysa Reed welcome please introduce yourself good afternoon my name is Alyssa Reed and I'm the executive secretary of the current Ino and mono Cy's building and construction trades Council um what I'd like to share with you this afternoon is um some information about our apprenticeship Readiness program that our Council runs um our apprenticeship Readiness program is a is a 10-week program designed to introduce individuals to trade apprenticeships and um we run a 10-week program that shares with them what different trades do what apprenticeship is and how to get into an apprenticeship program and through that they're able to get connect Ed with a career path that provides good stable employment with living wages and good benefits and retirement plans and all those great things that we talk about when we talk about Workforce Development um our program has been extremely successful we've been running for three years our overall placement rate is 80% so everyone coming out of our program 80% of those folks are finding good high paid livable wage jobs and so I wanted to share with you a little bit bit about our program and um our state building and construction trades Council does a newsletter and in December their issue was focused on um MC3 apprenticeship Readiness program so I wanted to share the issue with you our program is in there um so I brought copies for everyone um the first page will give you a little bit of an overview about what apprenticeship Readiness really is and what the curriculum is and then then on page 25 you'll find information about the current program the the program that we run and that we're continuing to run and um it just connects people with a career path and that's what our goal is to do so thank you very much thank you Miss Reed we really do need uh more trades apprenticeships here so thank you very much is that new I'm trying to cancel okay all right uh vice mayor then we'll go to council member Gonzalez I it no I think it's stuck here can I sure go ahead thank you mayor M Reed thank you so much for coming I I want to say I've had an opportunity to um watch the MC3 program firsthand uh both during the training and also at some of the graduation celebrations and have been uh very inspired to see the opportunities given to so many people to advance in their lives not only just careers but really improve their e iomic well-being for themselves and for their for their families and so what you're doing is the right work in my in my opinion it's something that we at the city of Bakersfield ought to ought to support um but also brings me to um some thoughts about some of the Investments we're making in in some of our Public Works projects for example in southeast Bakersville through Southeast strong uh through uh several state and federal grants um and some local dollars over the next few years we'll be uh investing over $100 million in southeast Bakersfield uh which is obviously a historically disadvantaged neighborhood and this investment will be historic um but while the Public Works projects um are are welcome investment um we do have to ask ourselves the basic question of who will benefit economically from the actual work from the work of the projects um how will we work to ensure as a city that the local residents the people within the neighborhood uh will have the opportunity to benefit from that work um I I believe and I know many of my colleagues here believe that the residents should benefit from those contracts from the subcontracts um from many jobs that are generated uh from many vendor opportunities um and you know in in many places in many cities they have a local uh hiring ordinance for example in Cincinnati uh they have an ordinance that requires contractors on City projects to hire 30 to 40% of their Workforce from local residents with at least 20% of all those uh residents being from disadvantaged communities and so I want to make a referral tonight that to staff that we begin working on a local hire ordinance in the city of Bakersville to develop a uh a set of standards for the Outreach recruitment training and hiring of local residents especially those who live in disadvantaged communities and we include also a strategy for us to support the training similar to MC3 so that we can prepare our residents in southeast Bakersfield for these jobs uh not only today in these contracts but also in the future and then I'm also asking that we develop a strategy to build um and help build the capacity of locally owned minority owned women-owned um and veteran-owned uh businesses to become contractors subcontractors and vendors uh that submit competitive bids and are actually successful uh so we need to provide some some scaffolding for lack of better term for some of our uh locally owned businesses so that they can actually compete and have a fighting chance to win some of these contracts and awards um and and then finally my my ask is that we uh develop a um schedule that we come back and and through an annual report to this Council really analyze our progress in the in these areas so thank you again for all the work that you're doing I'm hoping that this city council and this city can be a partner in the years to come particularly given all this new investment that we're making uh uh in years ahead thank you so much thank you vice mayor thank you mayor uh thank you Alyssa for joining us today to share this good news uh I too had the honor with council member adius and council member Gonzalez to attend uh two of the graduations out of three so far and um one I just want to share how cool like out of the San Francisco area sisters with tools that is so neat um and just seeing the faces of some of the graduates I think is worth featuring as well when you listen to the stories of some of the individuals and the graduates um at the graduations uh it it's really uh such a diverse group of students that come through you have folks who have served their time uh in the Army uh I remember meeting someone who was in the Navy uh and quick story uh when I was getting my phone fixed at Verizon actually the employee who was helping me was getting ready to uh go through a a trading program as well and I told him about this program uh he might have gone to ibw but regardless I think that just goes to show you individuals who are already in the workforce see how livable jobs and uh jobs with dignity provide uh them the opportunity to access um a quality of life that we want all of our residents here in the city of Bakersville to have and so those were two recent encounters but it's just so lovely to come and join those families uh the graduates are children um and it's just really nice to see that there's folks from all walks of life intergenerational so thank you for the work that you all do in building our local Workforce thank you vice mayor next speaker please Terry Maxwell like overhead I I have these for the uh council members for the city manager and the City attorney I'm not I'm not started yet no started they're going to f they'll fix it hopefully I can get this done in two minutes um and uh the first thing I want to do is point out that uh I'm glad we've got some new city um council members uh we're still waiting on uh 24th Street to get some of the things were were promised done on 24th Street done there's only one real way to get into 24th Street if you're headed uh in the East Direction because they took out the roundabout that took you back to 23rd Street I'd like to know why over a year and a half later we we still have that blocked off but more importantly what I'm handing you is information uh which I'm not really going to go over uh I don't know who came up with the idea of making K or H Street one lane in both directions from the uh Golden State Freeway or Golden State all the way out to Brundage but that's an asine idea I just can't believe that you think that that's going to uh create less traffic and have less problems here's a solution to what you want to do and this is a uh circular pattern of one-way streets if you look at this F Street would become four lanes H Street 3 uh 17th and 18th would become four lanes uh L Street would become four lanes and M Street would become three lanes in One Direction uh and for you council member Smith uh you'd have enough room for bicycle Lanes on all those also you would eliminate the left-and turn Lanes at 24th and 23rd Street in F the dying the the uh triangle I have there is the um three-way stop light that you have at 21st and f that would be eliminated you have a left-hand turn lane at um H excuse me L Street uh coming from L trying to take a left-hand turn onto 24th this circular pattern solves a lot of your problems you'll have a lot less congestion which is of course for the air resources board would make them extremely happy extremely happy and uh I just think that uh this is something you should consider rather than doing something uh as ridiculous as making 8 Street which is a major thoroughfare from the D downtown area all the way to the south of Bakersfield it goes for a long ways and making it one lane would be not a very good idea so thank you very much thank you Mr Maxwell we'll now move to the public statements listed on the agenda if you're here to speak on appointments is this another one okay next uh we'll go back then to the non-agenda Madam clerk please call this speaker that we just uh received the card Jess Sanders welcome please introduce yourself uh Jesse Sanders I'm calling about the uh or talking about the street one lane I think that's going to be a massive congestion problem if you need more bike space create more bik space but don't make the cars more dangerous for the bikes by crowding it in there and putting bike lane in the other thing is um Bakersfield has not got the climate for biking everywhere I personally can't bike because of knee injuries but those people that have work I used to run a truck there's no way I could carry my tools on that truck on a bike so I think pushing for a bike lane for a few people that want to get out and exercise and do their thing at the expense of actual logical Transportation I think it's a silly move and a wasteful move and I'm wondering what happens when when skateboarders want more of the share of the road do they cut the bike lane out or another car Lane how far do we go in the interest of a few that might be on the board that push for bikes the other thing is how are you paying for that gas tax property tax people that want the more bike Lanes put a tax on the bike write more tickets because there's some of the biggest um violators of running stop signs using the crosswalk when they shouldn't be if they're a vehicle vehicle they shouldn't be in the crosswalk or they cut onto the sidewalk all of those could be violations and the ticket a portion of it could go for paying for these extra things so just would like some common sense in this thank you Mr Sanders Madam clerk do we have any others for non-agenda that was our final speaker regarding non agenda items thank you we'll now move to the public statements listed on the agenda if you're here to speak on appointments item 6 a through D or items listed under consent calendar item 7 your time to speak is now again each speaker will be 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 Madam clerk do we have any public speakers regarding items listed on appointments items 6 a through d may go we've received or calendar consent calendar item seven may go we've received one speaker card from Terry Maxwell regarding items 6B and 6 C thank you welcome thank you my name is Terry Maxwell and you're going to be appointing onto the Planning Commission as well as on to the safety commission uh a couple people that I think should be looked at a little bit closely um first of all one is Matthew Martin he is currently a chief of staff for Jeff Flores in the county I see a conflict of interest uh when somebody is so ingrained into what goes on over in the county uh that they would be on our Planning Commission for the city uh I think that's a very poor move uh in addition to that uh he is named in two fppc violation uh investigations uh one from 2022 the case number is 01054 uh and the most recent one is in 2024 in the primary election uh and that is uh the the case number that is 20 2 20 24- um three I didn't think I'd forget this three I think it's 53 um but those those violations are serious violations I don't think he is a very good pick to be putting on uh such a position is on the Planning Commission the second one is uh the first violation was also and the second violation also names Kathy abery who you're considering to put on to the safety board uh and I think that it's again not a a good look for the city to be taking people who have got those kind of violations that have been filed and and being investigated onto those type of boards thank you thank you Mr Maxwell Madam clerk do we have any others that was our final speaker mayor thank you next item please appointments item 6A appointment to the golden or one appointment at large to the Golden Empire transa District due to a term expiration on January 4 2025 two applications for appointment have been received from Fabian gardo and Carlos Bellow thank you I'd like to clarify the voting process for the council will vote electronically and then the city clerk will announce the results based on these results the council will then make the appropriate motion regarding the appointment mayor go uh Carlos Bellow received six votes and is the apparent winner thank you vice mayor motion to approve the all atlarge appointment of Carlos Bellow to the Golden Empire Transit Transit District you have a motion please cat your votes motion is approved with council member weer absent thank you and now Madam CL 6B item 6B two appointments Awards five and six to the Planning Commission um two applications for appointment were received from Allison Brandt Oliver and Matthew Martin thank you these appointments are by Ward therefore I will call on council members keman and bashirtash to share their Planning Commission nominations for award five and for award six council member Coman thank you madam mayor um it's uh really my pleasure to uh to to nominate Allison Brandt to the Planning Commission to succeed me uh she's fourth generation Bakersfield person uh she's a uh longtime family of developers uh we happen to have uh her father Bob Brandt back here in the back and and and her lovely mother Charlotte who also my mother's name so uh it was very nice to meet the two of you uh like I said Allison's a fourth generation Bakers field Bakers field in I can't say that word but uh her family's been very in instrumental in development in Bakersfield over the generations uh she currently uh runs the company that she acquired from her family since about 2013 they're local home builders and developers and so I think she'll add a lot of uh uh knowledge to the Planning Commission uh a woman owned business it just all fits for me so I'm going to nominate Alison Brandt thank you thank you council member com actually I gotta clarify it's all all Alison Brandt Oliver right okay and now council member Basher toos your nomination for award six um before I say my go over mind I would also like to say Allison I think is would is great fit and is going to do great things um I I chose Matthew Martin uh because when I was considering the the position myself on the Planning Commission before mine um he's actually the gentleman that I spoke to the most about what that responsibility looks like and and holding um developers accountable uh especially outside developers and and really looking out for the best interest of our our community uh and keeping business as local as possible and doing right by the constituents uh I think he's very common sense driven um and I think that he'll he'll be an asset when it comes to that um we we lined up very similarly on Planning Commission uh ideas uh and it's someone that I've worked uh pretty closely with during my time on the Planning Commission thank you vice mayor to so motion to approve the ward appointment to the Planning Commission the W five and W six appointments to the Planning Commission thank you you have a motion please cast your votes motion is approved with council member Weir absent thank you and now suceed please 6 C five appointments to the uh Public Safety and vital Services measure oversight committee forward 256 mayor's appointment and the atlarge appointment four applications for appointment have been received from Mary madin um Alan Avery Kathy abery and and Paul Matthew Harmon thank you these appointments are by W therefore I will call on each council member to share their psvs uh oversight committee nominations and I'll start with uh Paul Matthew Harmon for the mayor's psvs Committee Member he's an attorney with bigger and Harmon Uh current president of the kar County Bar Association and a youth pastor for Crossway Baptist Church and now council member Gonzalez I'm not prepared to make a nomination tonight thank you council member Coleman for the nomination of award five thank you Madame mayor uh I I propose uh nominating Allan Avery uh to psvs committee uh Allen is a chief operating officer at current health systems uh a gentleman I've known for a long time as a uh competent uh and intelligent business person I think he'll make a substantial contribution to the psvs committee thank you council member and now council member Bashir Tash uh Kathy abery is seeking um just a reappointment I think that she did a really good job U definitely wasn't in the majority and on voting uh through some of the issues and I think that um her her accountability and and dedication to really working hard um for our constituents and for a safer uh Community um I strongly support and recommend her and would like to see that happen thank you and now vice mayor core for the motion we're going to consider the atlarge appointments separately so we'll just do these first um motion to approve all mayor and Ward appointments to psvs thank you you have a motion please cast your votes motion is approved with council member we absent thank you and at this time we've only received one application for the at llarge appointment uh would any council member wish to make a motion I would like to make a motion uh council member Basher toos I would like to make a motion to reappoint Mary mland uh for the appointment at large and Council me and vice mayor um I will make a motion to uh also forward the at llarge appointment to take some time to gather and Gardener some more applicants since we've only received one so that's my motion so we always take the second motion first so we're going to vote on the vice mayor's motion to forward you have a motion to continue to continue yeah is there do we have anything I don't see any other requests uh Madam clerk you have a motion please please cash your votes motion is approved with council member we are absent and council members Coman and Bashir Tosh voting no thank you and now uh Madam clerk next item please and to all of you who uh chose and volunteered your service thank you so much and congratulations on your appointments next item please Madam clerk 2025 to 2027 vice mayor appointments vice mayor thank you mayor so um in the above presentation you will see the city council committee assignments for uh the next two years and we'll go ahead and start the first will be the finance Economic Development and jobs committee formerly called the Budget Finance and economic development committee uh with council member Larry Coman for w five chairing that committee council member Eric adius of w one will join him along with council member Andre Gonzales of War I next committee personnel and processes formally named Personnel council member Zach Bashir toos of Ward 6 will chair this committee along with uh council member Bob Smith from Ward four joining him and council member Ken Weir for Ward 3 for our laws and legislation committee formerly named legislation and litigation we have council member Eric Adias of Ward one chairing our committee serving alongside Eric is council member Andre Gonzalez for war two and council member Ken we for w 3 we have our Housing and Community Development Committee which is a new title for housing um formerly known as Planning and Development uh the purpose of this committee is to separate out our housing and homelessness committee uh I will be serving as chair of this committee alongside Bob Smith council member Bob Smith and council member Larry Coman we will have a new Standalone committee for homelessness uh chaired by council member Andre Gonzalez counc counc member Eric adius and council member Larry keman will serve alongside and our multimodal transportation and Traffic Safety Committee which was previously an ad hoc committee will be chaired by council member Bob Smith and uh serving alongside him our council member Eric adius and myself safe and healthy neighborhoods will be chaired by council member Eric adius uh council member Zach bhos and council member Larry Coman will serve alongside Eric and on our water board we have council member Bob Smith chairing this committee uh council member Andre Gonzalez and myself will serve alongside council member Smith we have additional agency uh Representatives uh the first being ker Cog uh council member Smith will serve as uh well as council member adius as his alternate for current EDC uh council member Larry keman will serve for lafco uh council member Gonzalez and our alternate will be council member adius for the sanen Valley air pollution and Control District I didn't even memorize that so thank you for everyone for the clues uh council member adius will be serving and our alternate is council member Gonzalez our Kern River groundwater sustainability agency uh will also uh continue be served by council member Smith Solid Waste Management advisory uh will be continued uh to be carried by council member Weir and here's a quick summary including uh the solid waste management advisory committee uh which the appointe is Ken Weir thank you and vice mayor uh just motion to ratify that I motion to approve the 2025 Council committee assignments you have a motion please catch your votes motion is approved with council member we absent thank you next item thank you to my fellow council member colleagues for uh serving on our committees thank you madam clerk next item please consent calendar items 7A through 7i for approval a staff memorandum has been provided for item 7 E4 transmitting correspondence and for site for item 7 E8 correcting a scrier error thank you colleagues uh do any of you wish to recuse yourself seeing none uh I've received two requests for consent calendar for separate consideration from council member Smith 7e 4 and from council member Gonzalez 7 E3 and 7 I2 is there anyone else on the council who wishes to pull an item for separate consideration see none vice mayor motion to approve items 7A through 7i excluding 7 E3 7 I2 and 7 E4 those items uh are being pulled for separate consideration and any cor Corrections noted by our city CL thank you you have a motion please cast your votes motion is approved with council member we absent thank you and now for separate consideration we'll just take this in order of the agenda so council member Gonzalez first for 7 E3 please thank you mayor 7 E3 tonight is an agreement with Golden Empire affordable housing Inc gei for the development of affordable housing at 1209m Street um this is in War I um I'm very excited about this particular project uh given that it helps Advance our affordable housing numbers and goals uh this funding uh is coming from home ARP which is a federal program uh we are actually allocating $738,000 just wanted to clarify uh that's the total amount of the project that is the total amount of the projects it's eight units and so because it is eight units it will not be subject to prevailing wage stff also felt it was a very good project from that housing authority wait wait it's so it's it's a it's two fourplexes then right eight units okay perfect so that is $92,200 triplexes are uh far cheaper to build uh and far more uh well far quicker to to actually construct uh than some of these larger projects and so especially when you when you take a look at the per unit cost and I think council member Smith in the past has made similar uh comments about you know focusing on the some of these uh smaller duplex Triplex for plexes and so uh I want to I want to thank staff for for moving on this project and I would just ask I would love to see more of these a lot more of these over the next year um so that we can continue to do things faster cheaper uh and and get these projects up and running um more quickly so we can help as many people as possible thank you so much with that I'll make the motion to adopt 73 you have a motion please cast your votes motion was approved with council member we absent thank you and now council member Smith 7 E4 thank you mayor this item is a down payment assistance program and my motion would be to continue this we continually raise the price of the home that we will provide down payment assistance for and now that price is rising to 385,000 and I recently seen a three-bedroom home for sale on the east side with a garage for 325,000 I think that it's important that we incentivize affordable housing which is a lower price as much as we can and so I'm not sure that number needs to continue to rise as fast and as much as it is so I would like staff to look at that and maybe we can have some more discussion about that and and would like to continue it so my motion is to continue that item you have a motion to continue please catch your votes motion is approved with council member we absent thank you and now we'll go back to council member Gonzalez for 7 I2 thank you uh 7 I2 is an amendment to an agreement with City guard which is a private security company that provides uh supplemental eyes and ears for um the baso Police Department in some of our um uh target areas throughout the city um and so I'm aware that big Police Department really is strategic as to where they assign this private security um and I have to tell you um over the last 6 months to a year I've been very impressed with the uh the services that have been delivered U by City guard uh in fact uh just a quick anecdote I'm in this text group with several Oleander residents uh who uh are also uh so concerned about some of the issues related to transients and some of the property crime issues along Oak Street um and uh the actual um head of City guard is also in that text group along with Lieutenant anderberg who is Amazing by the way Chief um and and they are on it all the time Christmas Day we got a text from an Oleander resident and Bob from City guard was out there on Christmas morning uh God bless them and and so they are really being proactive and they're being uh responsive and they're working in tandem with a lot of the service providers so you know I think sometimes you know the city we don't do a good good enough job telling people how much we're actually doing when it comes to Public Safety uh and many of many folks in the community often ask what are you doing what are you doing and I'm more than happy to share with them all of the Investments all of the different strategies that we're doing and and how willing we are to look at ourselves and and figure out new ways to get better and always try to improve and enhance our response times and responses to issues that are that are uh affecting all of our neighborhoods throughout the entire city so really happy about this amendment really happy that with City guard and want to continue to encourage us all to think about innovative ways in which we can enhance our Safety and Security uh throughout the city of Bakersville so with that I move to adopt 7 I2 you have a motion please cat your votes motion is approved with council member we absent thank you and Madam clerk next item please Council and mayor statements colleagues uh council member Gonzalez thank you mayor uh mayor council colleagues uh over the last few days um I'm sure we've all received calls and concerns related to um some action that has been taken by federal agents uh in um border patrol um many of my constituents are in fear um they're concerned about their safety um many of our undocumented residents many of those community members that I've worked with for years uh are uh important community members uh to the city of Bakersfield uh they get up go to work uh they uh put their kids into School uh they're raising bright talented beautiful children who are succeeding academically professionally economically uh many of our business Civic and Community leaders are uh products of undocumented uh individuals uh I myself am a grandson of an UND undocumented immigrant uh and so what's happening today and the terror that people are experiencing is just heartbreaking um but I want to just take a moment and uh share um that uh the Bersa Police Department uh is in uh from my understanding is in no way involved in any of these enforcement actions and I want to ask the Chief and I had a conversation with him earlier today but I want him to if if you would Chief Terry um in front of this Council and in front of the public uh clearly State uh what it is that the uh basille police department will do and will not do counc Gonzalez mayor council um the police the police department is certainly aware of the operations that are being conducted uh we are not involved in any way directly or in a supportive role in fact state law prohibits any local resources to be used for immigration enforcement and so we are not engaged um or participating in these operations in any way um my message to the community is um that we are focused on local issues and fulfilling our responsibilities to our community and so uh if you are a victim of a crime or in need of police services uh call us irrespective of an immigration status and we will provide service so I appreciate you saying that and because many of our uh community members um are victims of domestic violence of violent crime property crime in in all parts of the city and they're fearful of calling for help and that only furthers their um experience in terms of being a victim true and so uh what you're saying here today though is that uh they should feel safe and secure calling for help from Bakers so Police Department absolutely and that they they will not be asked from a police officer their citizenship status or their legal status within this country no okay I appreciate thank you so much Chief thank you may thank you councilman B Gonzalez I don't see any other requests to speak um our thoughts and prayers are with the residents of the families impacted by the Southern California fires and our First Responders who are currently fighting to stop the rapid spread while saving lives in property thank you to assistant uh city manager Anthony Valdez for reaching out to our colleagues in Southern California and just letting them know that we stand with them and we're ready to assist so thank you very much and to all of you again thank you for being here happy New Year we look forward to a positive oh uh we look forward to a positive 2025 and now city manager just mayor wanted to uh um provide some additional information to the council for your awareness we initially had sent three engines uh to help assist with the fires we we have now a fourth engine and and crew of course assisting with those fires uh we have been in direct communication with folks through their emergency Operation Center to ask what other needs that they have at this time they're not requesting other assistance but we do expect that there may be other um over time there may be other law enforcement or others you know um Mutual Aid assistance that they would require so we we're staying Vigilant and um being available to support them and we do have again four engines and teams supporting the the fires currently from Bakersfield thank you city manager kle and some people have asked about uh financial assistance I know I saw an email from City serve saying that they would be receiving and funneling assistance to people so thank you to all of you and with that we stand adjourn at 6:13 [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]