I'd rather try and accomplish something great and fail than try to accomplish nothing and fully succeed. Heat. Heat. I'd rather try and accomplish something and fail than trying to accomplish nothing and slowly succeed. All right, I am For the final accomplishment fail, then try to accomplish something before you succeed. Thank you. See Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey hey. Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey hey. Heat. Heat. N. Hey, hey hey. What? Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. N. Oh, hey. Heat. Heat. The 3:30 p.m. meeting of the Bakersfield City Council is now in session. The 3:30 p.m. meeting of the Bakersfield City Council is now in session. Good evening. It's my pleasure to call to order the 3:30 regular city council meeting of February 11th, 2026. Madam clerk, please call the role. >> Mayor Go, >> here. >> Vice Mayor Core >> here. >> Council member Aas, Council Member Gonzalez, >> here. >> Council member Weir >> here. >> Council member Smith, >> I am here. >> Council member Commen >> here. and council member Basher >> here. >> Thank you. In keeping with council's resolution, public statements are received at different times depending on the item. I'll call on the city clerk to call for public statements at the appropriate time. If you wish to make a public statement, please fill out a public speaker card and place it in the tray next to the podium. We ask that you mark whether you're here to speak on an item listed on today's agenda or in a matter not on the agenda. Speakers who do not identify a specific agenda item will be presumed speakers for the non-aggenda public statements. If you're here to speak on an item not listed on the meeting agenda, you'll be called first to speak. Statements are given a two-minute time limit per speaker, 20 minutes total for all non-aggenda item public statements. If you're here to speak on an item listed on the agenda, I'll call for you at the appropriate time. If statements become disruptive and I've declared the chambers to regain order of the meeting, you'll be called in one at a time to provide your public statement when your item is called. Everyone in attendance is expected to adhere to the rules of decorum established by resolution of the city council. Failure to abide by the city's rules of decorum, including any disruptive behavior that interferes with our ability to have an orderly and efficient meeting prevents the city council from conducting the business of the city. Madam clerk, do we have any public speakers regarding items not listed on the agenda? >> Mayor Go, we have not received any speaker cards for items not listed on tonight's agenda, nor have we received speaker cards for items listed on tonight's agenda. >> Thank you. Next item, please. Close session item 4A, conference with legal counsel, existing litigation regarding the following two matters. one Anna Hernandez by and through her guardian guardian adlum rub Rudy Hernandez Yubani Lores Ro Lores Sylvia Les v city city of Bakersfield at L and two Ditrius Shears v City of Bakersfield at Led Motion to adjourn to close session. >> We'rejourned. So, if anybody's here for Bakersville College or CSUV to get school credit, you might want to come back because this is one of those meetings where we're not going to come out until we're finished with that. So, I don't think uh two and a half minutes will satisfy your professor's requirement. Can you go back and tell your professors to it's better to come to our 5:15 meeting because oftentimes we go in and we handle matters in close session so you won't be privy just be sitting out here. Uh who's your professor? >> Okay, we're going to tell him. All right, tell him that uh it's better to come to the other one. All right, and >> Okay. Uh yeah, we'll let him know. Okay, you'll get a a special point if you like a little star in heaven if you remember to tell them that. Okay, thanks a lot. Heat. Hey, Heat. Are you ready? You do. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Hey hey hey. Hey, hey hey. Hey hey hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N. Hey, hey hey. Hey hey hey. Hey, hey hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey, hey hey. Hey, hey hey. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. feel numb. Heat. Heat. N. Hey hey hey. Down. Ow. Boom. Hey, hey, hey. Hey. Hey, hey, hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey baby. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey hey. Hey, hey hey. Hey, come on. Hey, hey hey. Hey, hey hey. Now, hey, out. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey hey. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Do you? Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. N. Hey. Hey. Hey. Oh, ah. Let go. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey. Okay, back. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey. It goes. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Ah, I don't want Heat. Heat. Black. I could do a Yeah. feel. Feel Hey hey hey. feel happy. Hey hey hey. Heat. Heat. N. It's something Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Reconvening the 3:30 city council. meeting. Madame city attorney. >> Thank you, Mayor. We had two items on close session this evening, items 4A, 1 and two. And on both of those items, uh the city attorney was given direction in both cases unanimously 6 with council member Arius absent. Thank you. >> Thank you. And with that, we stand a journ at 503 and we will start the next meeting in a few minutes at 5:15. I'm happy. Happy. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Hey, Heat. Hey, hey, Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. Hey. Ah, hey. Heat. Heat. Welcome to the Bakersfield City Council meeting. This television broadcast is brought to you by the local cable companies, the county of Kerna, and the city of Bakersfield. You can watch the rebroadcast of this meeting Saturday at 700 p.m., Sunday at 10:00 a.m., and the following Wednesday at 7 p.m. You can download the agenda for this meeting at www.bakersfield city. us. Preciding over this evening's meeting, the Honorable Mayor Karen K. Go. >> Good evening. It's my pleasure to call to order the 5:15 regular city council meeting of February 11th, 2026. Madame Clerk, please call the role. >> Mayor Go, >> here. >> Vice Mayor Core >> here. >> Council member Arias. >> Council member Gonzalez >> here. >> Council member Weir >> here. Council member Smith, Council Member Coleman >> here, >> and Council Member Basher >> here. >> Thank you. We have the pleasure tonight of having Pastor Dr. Dwayne Canrell, who's the pastor of Living Victory Church. He'll offer the invocation. He serves also as vice president for student affairs and strategic enrollment management at CSUB. In this role, he serves both as chief student affairs officer and chief enrollment officer for the university. He also serves on the board at the mission of Kerna and more than 30 years in education. Pastor, thank you so much for the wonderful MCing at Gospel Fest. CSUB had a gospel fest where multiple choirs from our city sang and that was a wonderful celebration to kick off Black History Week. Following the invocation, Arlene Ramos, who's a senior at Golden Valley, will lead us in the pledge. Arlene is a fourdimension builder. She serves as ASB president. She's the chair of the school's advisory council and district advisory student board member. She's also a cheerleader and she works part-time as a sales associate and volunteer with the Jim Burke Ford Education Program. Arlene plans to major in political science at CSUB gounners and she plans to pursue a career as a news anchor to inform and engage the public later branching out to politics to advocate for community centered and education centered policies. So thank you to both of you for being here and at this time would you all please stand. Thank you, Mayor Go. And and let the record show for Arlene. I just offered her a job at CSUB. So, we're really excited to have you. Thank you for having me here. It's such an honor. 1 Timothy 2:1 and2 says, "I urge then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession, thanksgiving be made for all people, including leaders and those in authority, that we may live peaceful, quiet lives in godliness and holiness." Let us pray. Father, we do thank you for this time. We do thank you for this opportunity to gather together to do the work of the city, which is not just work. It's service to the people of the city, to the people of the community. So Lord, we lift up this community. We lift up this this this town, this county. And Lord, we lift up this effort. Thank you for the mayor, for the vice mayor, for all the city council, and all who are serving in this work. And Lord, we pray that you're glorified through this city through all that we say and do. We thank you for it all in Jesus name. Amen. >> Amen. Thank you. >> I just want to start off by saying it's a pleasure to be here tonight and I'm very grateful for this opportunity. I myself am born and raised in Bakersfield, so getting to do anything for my community is a pleasure. Salute. Pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Would you like to introduce your special guest? >> Yes. This is my mother. I'm very grateful that she got to accompany me tonight. Um she's been a big part of my life. She's been an impact and my biggest supporter and I'm very grateful that she's always by my side. >> Thank you so much. Thank you, Mom. And pastor, thank you so much. And you're welcome to stay or if you need to leave, this would be a fine time to do so. >> You might need to study tonight. 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 chambers or in the lobby. Applause is allowed during the presentations portion of the meeting, but not during other portions of the meeting. Everyone in attendance is expected to adhere to the rules of decorum established by resolution of the city council. Failure to abide by the city's rules of decorum, including any disruptive behavior that interferes with our ability to have an orderly and efficient meeting prevents the city council from conducting the business of the city. Consider this a first warning to everyone in attendance that conduct that disrupts the meeting may result in expulsion and/or the chambers being cleared. Behavior that disrupts the meeting includes repetitive statements, shouting, hate speech, interrupting staff presenters uh staff or presenters during the meeting and speaking out of turn outbursts from the audience. And now, Madame Clerk, next item, please. Presentations. Item 4, A, Proclamation to Christy Torres, human services program specialist for Kern County Human Services, declaring February 2026 as Safely Surrender Baby Awareness Month in Bakersfield. People come forward. >> Let's have the team come forward. I think there are several of you who are here today. Thank you officers and fire team. Colleagues, the safety safely surrender baby law was first enacted in 2001. This law helps to decrease the number of newborn infant deaths statewide due to abandonment in unsafe locations. And thank you to the coalition and all of our partners for their dedicated efforts to increase public awareness about the safely surrendered baby law and help give parents an option in surrendering their babies. And it's my honor to read this proclamation. The mayor of the city of Bakersville, California, has officially proclaims February 2026 as safely surrender baby awareness month in our city. In recognition of the Safely Surrendered Baby Coalition and its efforts to provide a safe alternative for newborn babies to be safely surrendered. In recognition of the partnership of government nonprofit organizations, private businesses, and residents that are committed to providing places of sanctuary for these babies. in recognition of the need to heighten public awareness regarding the issue and the need to provide a safe refuge for the innocent newborns involved and in recognition of the 105 precious infants safely surrendered since the program's inception in Kern County. And it's my honor to be able to present this to the team and thank you so much and invite you to offer comments and introduce your team. Thank you very much, Mayor Go. Um, hello council members. My name is Stephanie Love. I'm not Christy Torres. That um I'm in her place this evening. I'm with Department of Human Services and uh heading today's safely surrender baby coalition. On behalf of the coalition, thank you for recognizing and supporting this law with this proclamation. We are deeply grateful for your participation, your partnership in raising awareness about this life-saving law. Uh for most people, the birth of a child is a happy occasion celebrated with family and friends. But for some re women, child birth becomes a crisis and the decision made following an infant's birth can be a life or death matter for the child. The safely surrender baby law responds to the situation of newborn infant deaths due to abandonment in unsafe locations. First signed into law in January 2001, the law's intent is to save the lives of newborn infants at risk of abandonment by encouraging parents or persons with lawful custody to safely surrender the infant within 72 hours of birth to any hospital emergency room or fire station staff with no questions asked and no prosecution. uh 105 babies, I'm sorry, have been safely surrendered in Kern County since we began tracking those babies in 2006, including two in 2025. The Safely Surrender Baby Coalition of Kern County raises awareness of the law by means of advertisement, community presentations, city council proclamations, and an annual press conference. We would like to invite you all to the press conference on Wednesday, February 18th at 10:00 a.m. at Adventist Health located at 1524 27th Street in Bakersfield. Thank you again for standing with us and helping to ensure that every baby has the opportunity to grow up safe, healthy, and loved. Thank you. >> Yes, sorry. I have here my fellow coalition members, the Kern County, I'm sorry, the fire department, my mistake, and um Bakersville Police Department, Officer Ripple. Thank you so much. Let's take a photo. Let's come back here. Give it up for In keeping with council's resolution, public statements are received at different times. Depending on the item, I'll call on the city clerk to call for public statements. If you wish to make a public statement, please fill out a public speaker card and place it in the tray next to the speaker podium. We ask that you mark whether you're here to speak on an item listed on today's agenda or in a matter not on the agenda. Speakers who do not identify a specific agenda item will be presumed speakers for the non-aggenda public statements. If you're here to speak on an item not listed in the meeting agenda, you'll be called first to speak. statements are given a two-minute time limit per speaker 20 minutes total for the non-aggenda item public statements. If you're here to speak on an item listed on the agenda, I'll call for you at the appropriate time. If public statements become disruptive and I've cleared 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? Mayor Go, we've received nine speaker cards regarding items not listed on tonight's agenda. The first public speaker is Moira J. Wright, followed by Noie Garcia. And to all our speakers, please adjust the microphone this just to your level so we can hear you. >> Welcome, Right. Please introduce yourself. Um, I have a handout to hand out before to the um council. >> You can just uh put it right there on the tray and our clerk will get it. >> Good evening um mayor and council. My name is Mariah J. All right. Um, at the January 21st meeting, um, Summer Station was reviewed in context to its lease and long-term responsibility. While much of that discussion was used for maintenance and obligation, I'd like to focus on activation um, and share a brief community- centered proposal for the site for the record and for future consideration. Thunder Station is a historic site with a lot of potential, but right now it's largely inactive. My proposal is a low lowcost base activation model centered on permitted food trucks paired with a small community garden. Food trucks would provide immediate flexible activation, bringing consistent food traffic foot traffic, supporting local vendors, and creating regular use of the space without permanent construction. The community garden component would be a modest volunteerup supported focus on education, stewardship, and connection to to food access. Together, these elements create a people- centered use of the site that can grow gradually based on capacity and community interest. This approach allows the city to activate Sun Station while longerterm decisions are explored. It's scalable, reversible, and does not require new city staffing. Regular use helps deter neglect, increased safety through presence, and encourages community ownership, especially for um historical sites like Summer Station. I want to be clear, this is a conceptional phase proposal. I'm not asking for action tonight, only sharing a practical framework for how the site could be activated in a community forward way. Thank you for your time and for considering ideas that bring SER station back into active community use. >> Thank you, Miss Wright. Council member Gonzalez. >> Thank you, Mayor. Uh Miss Wright, thank you so much for your comments today and thank you for this proposal. Um, I I love the idea and I love the idea of some low lowbar activations and see how we can invite the community to participate. And as much as we can do something like this, I'd love to pursue it. And I'd ask staff that we look into it um and and see what might be available and reach out to Miss Ray. And thank you so much for caring enough about our historic uh train depot. uh a community asset that is cherished by thousands of people throughout Kern County and something worth preserving. So, thank you so much for taking your time out this evening and being here about and speaking about it. >> Thank you, Council Member Gonzalez. And I just saw that we have chairman of the board of supervisors, Philip Peters, joining us tonight and then also a representative from the office of assemblywoman, Dr. Jzme Baines, Juan Hernandez Garcia. So, thank you for joining us tonight, Madame Clerk. Next speaker please. >> Noi Garcia, followed by Carter Beardsley. >> Welcome. Please introduce yourself. >> Hi, good afternoon council members. My name is Noah Garcia. Proud to be serving as our vice president of the current county young Democrats. Um, here to really, you know, alongside some of our colleagues in the Young Dems group to share disappointment on some of the comments shared by council member Bashotach at the last city council meeting. uh regardless of homeless population, it's real easy for uh any one of us to go up on a mic or to go up in front of a crowd and criticize and attack and to, you know, degrade a person or degrade a community. Uh it's harder to come up with solutions, to represent a community, to be able to work with city staff, with your fellow council members, with community organizations to come up with a solution. And so what we're here today to say is uh look for the solutions. That's why you're elected. That's why voters trusted in you to make sure that you can represent your community and come up with long lasting sustainable solutions to the issues that we have here in the city of Bakersfield. Uh don't want to take up too much more of our time, but just want to share that disappointment uh to Council Member Bashach and I hope you can work with city staff, work with your council members to come up with long-lasting sustainable solutions. It's not enough to just lock them up and throw away the key. Uh we do have to, you know, put in the work, talk to stakeholders, bring folks together, and make sure that we can come up with something that benefits all of our city. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Garcia. Next speaker, please, Carter Beardsley, followed by Jackie Aguilar. >> Good evening, Mayor and Council. Uh my name is Carter Beardsley, and I am proud to serve as the secretary of the Kern County Young Democrats. Uh, Council Member Basher, we haven't met yet, so hello. My name is Carter. I don't like to talk about things unless I know someone. Um, I was very disappointed in hearing what you had to say. And I think a big part of that reason why is because as elected officials, I think that there's a higher standard to which professionalism has to be conducted. And I don't believe that calling a community of people degenerates is what is going to help us solve the problem. I I hear you and I understand that there is concern about what's happening with our homelessness crisis. But there's an analogy that I love. It's called the leaky pipe analogy and it says that if there's a leaky pipe and you just put a bucket underneath, it'll fill up and suddenly the water becomes a problem again. If you patch up the hole, it'll come through and it'll still be a problem. You have to fix the leaky pipe. And so if we're talking about these people being degenerates, we're degrading constituents of yours. We're talking about our neighbors. We're talking about people and we're not providing a solution. This council cut funding for affordable housing. And that's a real problem that we have. So, I don't think it's a homelessness crisis. I I don't think that these encampments are a homelessness crisis. I think that that's a housing crisis. I don't think that people who are finding their next meal out of a trash can, I don't think that's a homelessness crisis. I think that that's a problem that we can't afford food in our community. I don't think that the people who are panhandling on the street that people turn a blind eye to and pretend that they're not there. That's not a homelessness crisis. That's a job crisis. Why can't people get a job? And I don't think I think that we need to be conscious about the words that we're using because if we want to come to a legitimate solution to these problems, these real problems that we can all agree there is a problem. If we want to come to those solutions, we have to come together. And degrading people by calling them degenerates, that's not getting us anywhere. So, I wanted to share my disappointment. >> Thank you, Mr. Beersley. Next speaker, please, >> Jackie Aguilar. Followed by Jim Wheeler. Welcome. Please introduce yourself. >> Hi, good evening, council members and mayor. My name is Jacqueline Aguular, and I'm the president of the Kern County Young Democrats. I'm here tonight in uh to offer a public comment in response to remarks made during a recent council meeting and to bring awareness to realities that are often misunderstood. Uh my father was an immigrant from Chakan Mexico and after losing both of his parents at a young age uh he was left with no education, no financial support and was homeless. It was not a result of his choices but of loss and instability be beyond his control. What he needed then and what people need now was support not punishment. because he was given a good chance. He raised four children who are all college graduates and have good jobs. When an elected official immediately groups the entire unhoused population into one category and labels them as degenerates, it ignores the complexity of homelessness and the people experiencing it. Homelessness homelessness is not a single story. It includes veterans, seniors, families fleeing domestic violence situations or economic hardship. Just last year, it was recorded that over 400 people were turned away from shelters due to lack of resources and bed space. People do not choose to be on the street. Many simply have nowhere else to go. Criminalizing homelessness is costly, ineffective, and does not improve public safety. Jail is not always the solution. shelter services and long-term investment investments are. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Mr. Auilar. Madam clerk, next speaker please. >> Jim Wheeler, followed by Janessa Fischer. >> Welcome. Please introduce yourself. >> If it isn't obvious, I'm not a member of the Young Democrats. So, just in case anybody >> Yeah. So, I'm Jim Wheeler. I'm the executive director of of Flood Baker So Industries and I I did want to come just to address just not any specific comments but just the general tone that I see on um social media and stuff about this issue. It's very disappointing to hear people talk about those who are doing the work as poverty pimps and a part of the homeless industrial complex. Uh and yet I understand the frustration and the pain that members of the community and the business community are experiencing. We we have a business flood ministries downtown caddy corner from the police department and we experience all of the prop all of the quality of life issues that other businesses experience and it's frustrating and so I understand the frustration. Uh, I just want us to be able to think about the work that's being done and also thank the city and the city council, the city staff, and even the county for supporting um the work that we're doing. Uh, and I want to stand for those who are doing the work. Um, homelessness is a complex issue that requires a a variety of responses. And while it seems like, and it does seem like sometimes that nothing is being done and no progress is being made, I want to assure you that progress is being made. Just this last year, Flood was responsible for housing over 300 individuals. Uh we currently um case manage over 400 individuals that are in permanent supportive housing. We responded to over 10,000 community referrals regarding homelessness in 2025. We placed over 1,200 individuals in the shelters in 2025 and we also reconnected over 128 people with families in other communities. And so I just want you to know that progress is being made. And I would invite all of you um to come. Some of you have come and participated in a ride along. Uh come see what we're doing. Come see the work that's being done. Come see the people we're helping. And I think that'll give you a little bit of a different perspective. And again, uh thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Wheeler, and thank you for flood's efforts. Madame, uh, Council Member Basher, you'll wait. And Council Member Arus, >> thank you, Mayor. I just want to say thank you to Mr. Wheeler and to Janessa. Thank you so much for all of the hard work that you guys do at Flood Ministries. Um, a huge fan personally of all of the great work that you do. Uh, you when I think about boots on the ground, I think of Flood Ministries. um every single day, every single night out there making direct contact with some of the most hard-to-reach, most vulnerable community members uh with so many complex challenges um you know that they are living through each and every single day. And so I just want to say thank you so much for all of the great work that you do. Um I look forward to connecting with you. Jim, I owe you a call because I I need your support on a couple of issues that I'm working through in Ward One. Um, but I just want to say thank you so much because I think your voice is so important uh in this matter. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you. And madam clerk, next speaker please. >> Janessa Fischer followed by Harine Core. >> Welcome. Please introduce yourself. >> Hi, my name is Janessa Fischer. I am chair of the Youth Action Board. For those who don't know, the youth action board is a subcommittee under the B BKRC um council or whatever that is count whatever that is. Uh but what you youth action board does is it advocates for youth who are experiencing homelessness um 18 to 24 and um like all these young people up here. I want to express my disappointment cuz I am one of those homeless people on the street. I was one of those homeless people on the street and it wasn't because of my own my own fault. like there was nothing that I could do. And now as a mom, the moms you talked about going to the park, I am a mom. I take my kids to the park and we hand out gloves and we hand out beanies to people who are experiencing something hard. And I apologize if I get emotional, but that's my life. These are my people out there. Jim's my homie because we care about these people. We have a heart for these people and they are people at the end of the day. This is somebody's mother. This is somebody's daughter. This is somebody's son. Somebody loved this person so much and now they're going through something hard. and for you to call them horrible names and be so disrespectful as a person in power. There is a reason that we have a shame around homelessness, why people don't come forward. Why our youth are rather stay outside than say, "Hey, I need help." Because if people in power say this is disgusting, this is shameful. I wouldn't want to come forward either. I didn't want to come forward. I was sleeping outside when it was cold. I was I was living in park bathrooms. I lived out of a backpack. So no, these people are not degenerates. They need help. They need empathy. They need support. And I don't see you at the pit count. I don't see you out there with flood. I don't see you out there. So before you sit there and flaunt your privilege to have a house, to have food, to have clothes on your back, to be clean, go out there and talk to those people because at the end of the day, they're people. Somebody love them. I love them. Jim cares about them. Flood goes out there and talks to them. Go out there with Flood and talk to them because at the end of the day, they are people. I urge all of you to do this. I urge all of you to go out there and talk to them. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Mr. Fisher. Madam Clerk, next speaker please. >> Harveine Core, followed by Robert Hooks. >> Welcome. Please introduce yourself. >> Hi, my name is Haren Core. I am a resident of Bakersfield, California, and among many other hats, but above all, a resident. Um, I have to admit the first time I watched the count uh the video of council member Bashadras, I um spew out a long inaccurate diet tribe against our fellow brothers and sisters within the homeless population. I was horrified and perplexed. How could someone dehumanize and criminalize our community members? They're no less than us. They're no different than anybody in this room. After all, this country was founded on the belief that we're all created equal. And yet we hear Bashertosh demean severely marginalized groups. He claimed we need to stop spending the city's money so frivolously and to protect the children and the businesses. His solution to homelessness a deep systemic issue is to incarcerate them which is not only deeply flawed but also a costly issue approximately 127k per inmate according to the correction California department of corrections and rehabilitation. So let us be reminded that the prison industrial complex is a business and it's profiting off of each inmate using taxpayer dollars. The fear-mongering reminded me of this quote from Bell Hooks. Dominator culture has tried to keep us all afraid to make us choose safety instead of risk, sameness instead of diversity. Moving through that fear, finding out what connects us, reveling in our differences. This is the process that brings us closer, that gives us a world of shared values and meaningful communities. Hooks also goes on to say, "The moment we choose love, we begin to move against domination, against oppression, and the moment we choose to love, we begin to move towards freedom, to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others. That action is the testimony of love as the practice of freedom. So I urge you advocate for policies rooted in dignity, not fear. Choose solutions that uplift us, not punish. No one in this city is disposable. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Miss Cor. Madam Clerk. Next speaker please. >> Robert Hooks, followed by Mary Helen Barrow. >> Welcome. Please introduce yourself. >> Good evening, Mayor, council members and staff. Uh, I'm here to talk about the homeless debate also, and I'm actually a little worried that I'm not going to be as diplomatic as my predecessors. Um, everyone here wants safer neighborhoods, cleaner streets, and responsible use of public funds. But how we talk about people in crisis and policies we promote matters as much as our sense of urgency. Recent remarks by council member Basher frame homelessness through contempt and punishment rather than evidence-based solutions. Calling people degenerates and terrorists who belong in jail and suggesting an enforcement only posture does not reflect the values in public of public service and it does not match what research and local practitioners say actually reduces homelessness. Bakersfield and Ker County have been building systems around outreach, shelter, navigation centers, housing placement, mental health care, addiction treatment because cities around the country know that housing plus services works best, costs less over time, and improves public safety more than cycling people through citations in jail. Public officials have a responsibility to govern with restraint, accuracy, and respect for human dignity. When rhetoric starts to resemble national political crackdowns instead of local practical problem solving, all you do is make a complex situation worse. People living on the streets include veterans, seniors, families, people with disabilities, people who have suffered economic impacts or health crisis. They are part of a community. They are part of our community. Treating them as disposable is not a solution. And I just hit my wrong page. So, I just lost my speech. But anyway, I did want to close by talking to you, Zach, directly and saying that you're just astronomically wrong. And you have complained I've heard you complain before about your job. You've used terms like uh hard. Uh if you think this is fun, >> Mr. Hooks, your time is up. Can you bring your comments to a close one? Go ahead. >> Um there's a saying in leadership, lead, follow, or get out of the way. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Hooks. Next speaker, please, >> Mary Helen Barrow. Followed by Hannah Gabber Garber. >> Welcome. Please introduce yourself. >> Good evening everybody. I'm Mary Helen Borrow. I live at 2011 Jefferson Street. And um my greetings to everybody and Mayor Go. I I brought just some handouts. Uh I put this together really quick. It has to do with restoring. I'm here to fight for the for the railroad station in East Bakersfield. And the second half of this handout, USPS anchored buildings are changing. Here's what owners and investors need to know. The other part is investing in Southern California because this company is based there, but they do work all over the state. And what they do is they they restore old buildings and make them into various kinds of functioning buildings which improve the surrounding neighborhoods. That old railroad depot is a treasure. I'm old. I don't want to be thrown out. I don't want you to throw out the railroad depot either. We can do something with it. We can remake it into something. There are lots of options. I just did this in a maybe in half an hour. I was researching re resources that we could use to help this community restore that building and make it into something really incredible for East Bakersfield because that's where I live. I think if this building was located in the southwest or the northwest, maybe your opinion might be a little different, but it's in the old part of East Bakersfield. It's just as beautiful and just as worthwhile and just as important and worth saving. So please, please, and I'll volunteer my time. I'll do any research. If you need bilingual services, I'm here. But we need to save that railroad depot. And please, if you could give us an extension, I think you didn't give us enough time. Miss Borrow, your time is up. Can you bring your comments to a close please? >> Yes. Uh, I just want to say one thing and I want to direct it at you, sir. >> My father used to tell me something since I was 2 years old. Mita, always treat others the way you would like to be treated. >> Thank you, Miss Bah. >> Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hannah Garber. Welcome. Please introduce yourself. >> Good evening, Mayor Go. Uh, council members and staff. My name is Hannah Garber. Um, I'm a resident of Bakersfield, California, and I'm here on my free time not representing anything except for the homeless population in Bakersfield. I run a community behavioral health clinic. Um, in 2025, we served almost 500 unique clients, the vast majority of whom are experiencing homelessness. Just in January of last this year, we pl we made 109 placements for housing. This there's a big problem and we acknowledge it, but the solution is not putting people in jail or in prison. I do have some statistics I wanted to share. Some folks have already st shared them, but incarcerating a homeless individual can cost over uh somebody said $127,000 a year. My figure was $150,000. Um providing supportive housing to that same individual can cost as little as $35,000 and save up to $7,000 in crisis health care costs. So, the money talks. Um but obviously these are real people. These are real people who are living their lives who uh often are experiencing homelessness through no fault of their own. People have mentioned domestic violence. People have mentioned military service, economic hardship. There's a lot of things that go into homelessness, substance abuse, there's mental health problems, and there are solutions to this. And folks who work in the field like I do, we have solutions. We have ideas. Um, Councilman Gonzalez actually came out to my clinic last week and actually spoke to staff and uh, current clients about the issue and got some ideas. Um, I would invite the rest of you to reach out. Um, I would love to have you guys come out for a tour and uh, show you around, have you meet some folks. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Miss Garber. Madam Clerk, next speaker, please. We're down to 18 seconds. Thomas Winter. >> Good evening, Mayor and Council members. My name is Thomas Winter. Um, I wanted to come and bring um a little bit of insight. Um, I recently became a substance abuse counselor, went through Cal State, and I am now serving the same population of people with mental health disorders. For 32 years, I was highly addicted and I was 15 years a homeless degenerate as well. I just wanted to say that there is hope. I am now functioning very well thanks to the current county programs here, thanks to what I have been able to have given to me. What a great gift it is. And um I just don't think that we should be saying the things that we're saying about people's brothers, sisters, kids. These are people. and I want to just thank you for letting me come up here and speak and bring light to this. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Mr. Winter. And we have reached the end of our time for this section. Council member Basher Tash. >> Thank you. Thank you for all of your comments and coming out and speaking. I appreciate all of that. It takes courage to to stand up and and speak to what you're passionate about. Um, I knew that you were coming, a lot of you that were coming tonight because I I was told that a certain council member was inviting people to come and try and bash me at the the podium, which is unfortunate. But the the biggest issue that we're going to face as a as a society and as a culture is basing our reactions on a 30- secondond video that we see on social media instead of actually digging and showing ourselves approved of the actions that we we set forth in front of us. That being said, if anybody that had an issue with what I said had followed what I've been saying for the last year, I think that your tone would be different. In fact, my goal is not to just lock away homeless people and throw the away throw away the key. Um, you know, uh, I spent a large portion of my adult life working for a nonprofit actually and spent six years working with individuals on Skid Row, uh, and saw things that really broke my heart. What bothers me is that we'll continue to throw money at at creating what we think is is helpful and and it's not while while babies are being born behind grocery stores and discarded like trash because we allow that person to be on the street. Even though there is safe surrender that we just talked about, even though there are resources, when you are stuck in a drug addicted cycle or or struggling with mental health, you are not going to make a good decision for your life. That's why we have our homeless population. The solution that we've been trying to work on as a community, as some of us as a council, was was slowing individuals down long enough to where we could get them the resources they need so they could become functioning members of society, actually cared for, actually taken care of. That has been what I've been fighting for and trying to be a champion of. It is the best of both worlds. 30 years ago, we didn't have a homeless problem because we locked everybody up. That's what we did. And it was gone. Now, I see the problem in that. I absolutely see the problem in that. But what we have now is throwing millions of dollars at the homeless problem, hoping they'll come to the shelter and get the help that they need. It does not work that way. A degenerate, the definition is someone that is socially their behavior socially irresponsible. It blows me away at the amount of death threats and hatred I've gotten from a 30-se secondond video when no one will take the time to actually look and track what we've done. that a council member would would say, "Let me create a bigger divide instead of actually working toward the problem. Let me stop wasting money on my pet projects and actually focus on helping people in this community." In the last seven days, we had a homeless woman give birth to a child that died. Its first and last breast were homeless on the street. We had another individual burn in a building because of a homeless fire. It kills me inside to see people suffer. I ba I dug the grave for my homeless father-in-law in Northern California when he died getting hit by a car because he was homeless. So I don't sit lofty in a mansion like someone who has no idea what they're talking about. I've sacrificed thousands of my of my life hours on helping intervene in people's lives who didn't want intervention. And it wasn't until individuals were slowed down to the point where they could have a moment of clarity where they could have some some mental clarity to get the help that they need. So no, I don't want to lock homeless people away and throw away the key. That that's not my intention or my goal. I want to see people actually cared for. Someone that abuses drugs for five or six years in Bakersville son is going to become a zombie. Anybody that works with addict an in addiction or with drug drug abuse will know there is only so much that the human brain can take before you are no longer going to be restored back to health and and function in society. The proof in that is evident. I will walk with you and I can show you some people that have been on Skid Row for 20 years, living there for 20 years. So I I would encourage you to dig deep, to learn and to grow. Don't get it twisted on what my perspective is just because you watch a video on social media. It's easy for that kind of stuff to blow up. And that's the kind of stuff we don't need a divide. This is literally both teams coming to the table with a little bit of love, ingenuity, tough love, and moving forward. But the system we have right now is the worst that it's ever been in the history of this community. No, no one can argue that the facts are around you. And when I'm talking about protecting the kids and the business people, how do you think governments function? How do you think all the resources come to be? It's businesses paying taxes. If businesses are gone, they're not looked after. How do you think all of this works? How do you think the resources for people that are struggling get there? They don't exist anymore. It's gone. So I I would encourage you and to to dig deeper. Don't be bamboozled by emotional rhetoric that you may be getting off track and look deeper. You you want to sit down. I I I try and answer most of the emails I get aside from the death threats and the you know the the the wild stuff like that. But I I'm always open to sit. I'll buy you a cup of coffee and and and we'll have a conversation with you. But um you know, we got to learn to stop not take things out of context. We have to learn to to not be emotionally charged and actually work toward the solution. Uh truth is truth. It's not ambiguous. Um I have no more comments. I I I'm I'm sorry that I offended uh some people with my my words. Um I don't take back what I what I said. uh at all. >> Thank you, Council Member. Council member Gonzalez. >> Uh thank you, mayor. Yeah, I agree. We shouldn't be moved by emotions and emotional charge rhetoric. We should actually look at the data and actually look at the practice and look at all the work that's happening in the community to try to to address the issue one person at a time. And uh to Mr. Wheeler's Point with Flood Ministries. They're out there every single day working with people and we've seen people actually come off of the streets into shelter from the shelter into permanent housing. We've seen that work. You know, we we built the Brundish Lane Navigation Center now. Um we built in the 2020s. It's almost 6 years. When when we first built that thing, there were so many people who came in here yelling and screaming, saying we were wasting our money. Nobody was gonna ever gonna come to the BLNC. No one's ever going to come to low bear shelter. Since we opened, that shelter has been full. Every single bed. There are people trying to get into the shelter. We expanded it. We doubled the population. We doubled the beds completely full. Um, so there is a huge need out there. There is a huge problem and it is frustrating for somebody who's been working to revitalize downtown, someone who's been trying to work on revitalizing Oldtown Kern. Uh there's no secret that you know encampments um and all of these things that continue to grow uh only undermines uh the sense of public safety and and can be a threat to public health and and obviously we want to address the issue. Um and and and there's nobody who on this diet I don't think who wants to address it more than I do and have been trying to and so I understand the frustration. I understand the concern and the struggle, but there are larger systemic issues uh that that are at play. But what I want to do is encourage everyone to please visit two things. One is please visit and take a ride along with Flood Ministries and see what work they're actually doing every single day. take a look at how they reach out to those who are unsheltered, how they meet them where they're out, how they work tirelessly in the cold weather, in the wet weather, in the hot weather. Um, and they do it every single day. God bless them. And then I want you to please visit Lvida Nova. I had an opportunity to meet with many of the clients there last week and we had a little roundt conversation. They actually invited me in because of the last meeting. And what I saw there were men who were courageous, who were working hard, fighting for themselves and for them for their families to improve their lives, who had met their big obstacles, whether it be substance use addictions or whether it be some mental health or whatever. They were on the streets, many of them. uh but they pushed through and they are now living uh productive lives. They have big hopes. They have big dreams and it is exciting to see where they are today. It was amazing. Uh and so I I want everyone to please take a look at what they're doing. I think that's a really good model and I think that we ought to invest in those types of resources and double down on those efforts so we can get far more people off the streets because I think we all want the same thing up here on this dis. We all want the same thing. We all want safe, vibrant communities. Every single neighborhood should be safe for every single child, for every single mother, for every single family. Uh that's what we're all fighting for. That's what we're all working towards and we're going to continue to do that step by step by step. Thank you. >> Thank you. We'll now move on to the public statements listed on the agenda. If you're to speak on appointments A 6A to D or items listed under consent calendar item 7, your time to speak is now. Again, each speaker is given a two-minute time limit. 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 new business item 12A, now is not the time to speak. You'll be given an opportunity to speak when that item is called later in the meeting. Madame Clerk, do we have any public speakers regarding appointments item 6A or items listed under consent calendar item seven? >> Mayor Go, we have not received any speaker cards for agenda item public statements. >> Thank you. So, next item, please. Madam clerk, >> appointments item 6A, one appointment at large to the police civil service board due to a term expiration of Kathleen Thompson on December 31st, 2025. The new term will expire on December 31st, 2028. Applications for appointment have been received from Hovic Bedurian, Casey Cabazos, Johnny Escobido, Jerry Edwin Fernandez, Joe Lewis Gutierrez, Jacob M. Hall, Erica Kimmel, Jenny Annette Kurtie, Anthony Meeks, Valerie Pinto, Mitchell Lee Roland, Ender Singh, Regina Bernal Val Velasquez, and Ronald Wolf. >> Thank you. I'd like to clarify the voting process for you. The council will vote electronically and the city clerk will then announce the results. Based on these results, the council will make the appropriate motion regarding the appointment. Madam clerk, this is police. Are they having trouble with their equipment or all the votes cast? Mayor Hall. Oh, Mayor Go. Uh the uh the winning candidate is Jacob M. the hall with four votes. Jerry Edwin Fernandez received one vote. Joe Lewis uh Gutierrez received one vote and Indarj Singh received one vote. >> Thank you. And Mr. Hall um is the candidate. So Vice Mayor motion motion to appoint Jacob Hall to the police uh civil service board. >> Thank you. You have a motion. Please cast your votes. Motion is unanimously approved. >> Thank you. And thank you, Mr. Hall, for your willingness to serve. Madam clerk, the next appointment, please. Appointments item 6B, two appointments at large to the miscellaneous civil service board due to the term expiration of Patrick Bowers and James Haye on December 31st, 2025. Applications for appointment have been received from Hovic Bedurian, Patrick Bowers, the incumbent, Jerry Edwin Fernandez, Erica Kimmel, Michael King, Lindseay Parker, and Ronald Wolf. >> Thank you. The council will vote electronically and the city clerk will announce the results. Based on these results, the council will then make the appropriate motion regarding the appointment. So, we'd like the council now to make their first vote. You're just going to pick one right now? Yes. Yeah. Just one and then we'll go on to the next. and just confirming. Yes, Mayor Go. Uh, Patrick Bowers received the most votes for the first position um at five votes. Jerry Edwin Fernandez received one vote and Lindseay Parker received one vote. >> Thank you very much, Vice Mayor >> Patrick Powers. Oh, no. We'll do. Sorry. And now you Now would you please vote on your second Mayor Go, Jerry Edwin Fernandez received the most votes at three. Hovic Bedurian received one vote and council members Weir Kleman and Bashier abstained. >> Thank you. And so now, Vice Mayor, the motion please. >> Motion to appoint Patrick Bowers and Jerry Edwin Fernandez to the miscellaneous civil services board. Thank you. You have a motion. Please cast your votes. >> Motion is unanimously approved. >> Thank you. And now, madame clerk, the next appointment, please. Appointments item 6C, one appointment at large to the Historic Preservation Commission due to the resignation of Roger Mobly. The term is set to expire on March 31st, 2027. Applications for appointment have been received from Cornelio Gutierrez Lozano and Erica Kimmel. So, the council will vote electronically. Go ahead. Mayor Go Corelio Gutierrez Lozano received the most votes at three. Erica Kimmel received one vote with council members Weir Kleman and Basher uh abstaining. >> Thank you. And now vice mayor. Motion to appoint Cornelio Gutierrez Loausano to the Historic Preservation Commission. Thank you. You have a motion. Please cast your votes. Motion is approved with council members Kleman and Basher abstaining. >> Thank you. And now, madame clerk, next item please. Appointments item 6D. Two appointments to the youth commission for ward 3 regular and alternate members with terms set to expire July 2026. For ward three, >> thank you. This Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Applications for appointment have been received from Tanav Du Deeni Sasha Gulati Caitlyn Hen Henches Sa Seage Core Gonite Core Sravia A Pudipedi Jasine uh Fan Tran. >> Thank you. This appointment is by Ward. Therefore, I will call on council member Weir to share his regular and alternate youth commission nomination for W three. Council member, >> thank you, mayor. I would like to nominate Surveya Puda Patty if that. >> Okay, that would be for your regular >> and then you have an alternate also. >> Alternate would be Caitlyn Hedges. >> Okay. Caitlyn. Yeah. You have motion. Please cast your votes. Motion is unanimously approved. Thank you. Y. No. The No. And now, Madame Clerk, next item please. >> Consent calendar items 7A through 7J for approval. >> Thank you. I have not received any requests for items to be pulled. Madam clerk, uh, do you need to announce oral reports? SB707. >> Uh there is no oral report for this evening. Thank you, Mayor. >> All right. Thank you. Um and so now, Vice Mayor, motion to approve consent calendar items 7A through 7J for approval. You have a motion. Please cast your votes. Motion is unanimously approved. Thank you. And now, next item, please. New business item 12A, authorization to issue Proposition 218 notices for sewer user rates for fiscal year 2026 through 2027 through fiscal year 2030 2031. Thank you. If you're here to speak on this new business item 12A, the city clerk will call for public statements after staff's presentation. Each speaker will be limited to two minutes and there will be a 20-minut total per item on that report. Mr. Kle, >> thank you. Mayor and Council, just to provide a little bit of a context for this presentation as Miss Budok comes up to the podium, uh this is a topic of course that was in front of you a year ago, close to a year ago this time. Uh we have uh spent significant amount of time doing deeper analysis, uh double and triple checking. We've spent a lot of time in community Uh we have held multiple town hall meetings throughout uh all wards within the city. Uh we've reached out to many of our community stakeholder groups uh to share uh information related to this topic. Uh and uh it has been um very um significantly discussed both internally as well as with our community. Um and I'll allow Miss Budak to walk through that presentation for you. >> Welcome. >> Thank you. Good evening, may mayor go and council. Tonight, I would like to update the council and the public as to the efforts that occurred in 2025 and to date in 2026, including public outreach, rate scenario options, engineering, and financial evaluations that were prepared by consultants. In addition, the recommendation rates and next steps will be presented. In March of 2025, water department staff presented four sewer user rate increase options to the water board. The water board recommended that a single one-year increase from $239 to $950 annually would be the most fiscally conservative approach. This $950 user rate was originally approved by council but later rescended. Council requested financial and engineering support from consultants. More rate scenario considering bond options and implementation of an outreach plan. In May, HF&H consultants were hired to support the funding effort and prepare a cost of service analysis. In July, AECOM was hired to uh further evaluate the systems infrastructure based on age and growth. In October 1st, oh sorry, in October, the first round of presentations to the community began with a focus on educating the public on understanding the city's sewer system, deficiencies, and a need for rate increases. Staff also returned to council in October to present six new rate scenarios element and elements of the 2026 sewer rates and fees report which included the HF&H prepared 2026 cost of service analysis identifying the cost for the city to provide service. This report along with all community presentations were posted on the city's wastewater website for the public to review. In November, AECOM finalized its evaluation of all the plants and presented their findings to East Niles Community Services District, current sanitation authority, and the water department staff over multiple workshops. From the workshops, the group identified alternatives to studies based on infrastructure needs due to the age of the system, growth projections, and technology options. In December, the second round of community meetings with the intent to explain the rate de rate development and provide the community an opportunity to provide feedback to the various rate scenarios began. In addition to the 12 community meetings, staff also met with or presented to various uh professional affiliation groups and key stakeholders including water association of Kern County um American Society of Civil Engineers, Rotary Clubs, the S Plural, Chamber of Commerce, Kern Tax, and the County of Kern. As previously stated during the October 22nd uh council meeting, six rate scenarios were presented. Of those four scenarios or sorry of those four scenarios were selected based on comments and input from the from the council during the meeting. These four scenarios were then presented to the community in December 2025 and January 2026. These four scenarios considered various rate increase structures, pushing out and moving major infrastructure projects, evaluating various bond amounts, and extending the rate increase beyond the 5-year Proposition 218 limit. The rates included the original rate scenario as which was the $950 initial increase. A large bond scenario which would increase the current rate to $475 increasing it $125 a year over 5 years. Um a no bond scenario which would be to increase to $475 the first year and then increase $110 over seven years and a moderate bond scenario which was to increase the rate to $475. at $100 per year for seven years and bonding $270 million. Below each one of the uh bond large bond, no bond, moderate bond names, there is the uh rate scenario that was presented on October 22nd if anybody wants to reference that. Okay. In mid January, AECOM completed its alternatives evaluation. AECOM presented findings again to East Niles Community Services District, current sanitation authority, and the water department staff over multiple workshops. AECOM identified that by 2050, the city needed to be able to treat 70 million gallons of waste water per day based on projected growth determined by using the Kern County uh data, current council of government data, and tenative and active trackm data. The four alternatives evaluated are identified as alternative one, upgrade plant two and expand plant 3. This is the original proposal by the water department staff. Alternative two, eliminate plant two and send all flows to plant 3 having a centralized plant location. Alternative three, eliminate plant plant two and build a new plant 4 south of plant 3. and alternative four was eliminate plant 2 and plant three and build a new centralized plant 4. All options evaluated have pros and cons, but ultimately alternative two and four were eliminated due due to the excessive costs associated with installing large transmission lines uh to be able to move the waste water from the northeast of the town of city of the Bakersfield to the southwest or south. After in-depth conversations with city staff and ACOM engineering and estimating team, the group determined that a combination of alternative one and three would be most efficient and cost-effective approach to meet the 2050 projected flows. During ACOM's evaluation of plant 3, they identified that there was work that needed to be completed at plant 3 within the next 2 to 3 years. This project is referred to as plant 3 phase 0. Um, and it includes the replacement of aged electrical and mechanical equipment, the flare system, and the headworks, which will improve uh safety efficiencies and odor control. Plant 2 phase zero is the plant upgrade project. This will include replacement of the trickling filter media, electrical and mechanical equipment and admin shop warehouse and fac uh facilities. This effort is to ensure the city's sewer treatment will remain effective and efficient for 7 years while a new facility is being designed, permitted, uh environmentally cleared and constructed and operational. Plant 3 phase one will be to expand plant 3 from 32 MGD to 40 MGD to meet growth. And finally, it was determined that plant 2 needs to be replaced due to the outdated trickling filter infra uh technology. Um, treatment technology needs to be changed in order to meet compliance standard, everchanging regulations, and the ability to actually have a final product that we can use for other purposes other than farm fields or in addition to farm fields as part of the ACOM evaluation. Cost estimates for the projects just described were provided. The charts, the charts here show the estimate from the 2026 sewer rate and fees report um that were compared to the recommended projects and cost estimates that were provided by ECOM. Initially, you'll see that phase 3 under the original 2026 cost estimate isn't there. Phase zero is because we weren't aware that we had infrastructure needs at that facility currently to date other than the expansion. So that that project shows up in the right uh right table as um zero as $40 million. If you look and compare phase three phase zero um sorry if you look and compare uh wastewater treatment plant 3 expansion between the original cost estimates and the new cost estimates there is a increase in cost and that's really due to our evaluation was to expand the facility to 8 MGD but through the evaluation we also learned that we have we have to replace aged structural infrastructure that was constructed in 2010 or prior including uh digesttors and trickling and dewatering systems. Um by upgrading both of these it will also improve odor control. Plant two you'll see that there's savings between the two numbers. This is because we are choosing to upgrade at this time instead of in lie of a full replacement. We would need to upgrade the existing uh trickling filters again to ensure that the technology is good for seven years till we while we design and prepare to construct a new plant 4. You'll also notice that there are some savings in plant 4 and that's really because the initial plant 4 we were proposing to construct on the south side of town, but after evaluating it, it makes the most sense to construct plant 4 adjacent to or just south of plant 2. It re it reduces the need to have to install large uh transmission lines to move waste water to plant facilities. So there's significant cost when we start having to um underground sixoot pipelines to be able to move waste water amongst our different plant facilities. As you can see here, this is just a schedule outlining our our intended uh schedule. It does cover 15 years. Um the rate increase that we're looking at right now is for a five-year rate increase to cover the cost for a 10-year plan. So we do anticipate that at the end of this five years, we will come back. We will have more information about the design of the facilities, the cost of facilities, and we can then evaluate how we move forward into the rate increase for years 6 through 6 through 10. With all that, I'd like to now uh identify the recommended rate that we are bringing to council today. Um the recommended rate is to increase the year 1 to $475 and then over the next four years increase $100 a year until the end of the Prop 218 5-year period. the $475 will result in a $3960 per monthly cost and at the end of the or in the fifth year um the $875 annually would result in $72.90 per month. This option also includes anticipating $150 million bond um around year six. And just to remind everybody, the chart on the right, um the red line is the minimum reserves, uh the money we need to keep in the bank for operations and debt service. And the blue line is our target reserve to be able to have money in the bank for capital projects. And the green line is the fund balance. This uh chart that I just provided can be a little bit uh confusing, so we thought we'd break it down a little bit more. Um here's a chart that shows the revenue generation and the expenses over the next 10 years. Um the color columns identify all the expenses. Starting at the bottom, the light blue is a debt service payment. Um the current debt service we are paying on is from the 2010 um expansion that should be paid off by 2032. And at that time, the bond for the $150 million for plant two um would would take effect. And so we would continue to have a debt service payment um in this model. The brick red is the total O andM cost for both plants, sewer collection and storm drain. I guess it's not really brick red. I guess it's orange. Um which means the yellow would be uh the CIP for the sewer collection and storm storm drain systems and the blue is the CIP for plant 2 and plant 3 and this includes all the major infrastructure uh for plant two and plant three. So phase zero uh for plant two, phase 0 for plant three and also phase one for plant two. The peak the pink line is the revenue um including the proposed sewer user rate increase plus connection fee non-operating revenue. Any revenue that we collect is included in the pink line. Um the years in the the years where the column is above the pink line, we are anticipating spending our fund balance. The years where the column is below the pink line, we will be gen generating revenue. And that's really important. Um, and I'm going to go back. And the reason is if you look at this chart, over the next three years, we're barely above our minimum reserve. Then we start to climb in growing our revenue. And we're going to need that when we want to go and ask for a bond. If we don't have proof that we can pay for a bond, it's going to be really hard for us to get a bond. So, this enables us to generate revenue the two years before we request a bond. These two charts just basically show uh the original rate, the $950 uh one time plus the 3% a year uh for uh inflation or uh cost of construction index uh compared to the recommended rate. So at the request of the council, we have reduced the initial firstear impact. We've increased the rate uh gradually over multiple years and we've incorporated a significant bond option. Finally, I'd like to show a comparison between our current rate at $247.25 compared to um local um districts as well as cities and where our future rate will put us for 2026 2027. Next steps. Um today we are rece we are requesting uh council to give us direction to begin the prop 218 process moving forward with the recommended rate as presented. Um we will need to update our sewer rate and fee report and the cost of service analysis to reflect the recommended rate uh uh revenue generation and the updated costs for AECOM. So the 2026 sewer rate and fee report that was rep prepared in October will be updated to reflect uh the information provided today. Um the plan would be to mail the Prop 218 at the end of February um where our community would receive it the first week in March. We would have a 45day public review period and then meet back here on April 27th for a public hearing and direction uh or approval from the council to adopt rate. In closing, I would like to thank the water department team, specifically Avet Raldon, for taking the heavy lift of presenting information about the sewer system and rates in over 20 meetings and for the staff that attended those meetings in support of the department and the effort. Thank you, Miss Budc. Mr. Kle, would you like to add any comments before we go to the public? >> Thank you, Mayor. No. >> Thank you, Madam Clerk. Do we have any public speakers regarding new business item 12A? >> Mayor Go, I did want to share that we provided a staff memorandum transmitting uh correspondence received regarding this item and we have received uh five public speaker cards regarding this item. >> Thank you. Would you call on those please? First public speaker is Philip Peters. Thank you, >> Chairman Peters. Welcome. >> Good evening, Mayor Go and honorable council members. It's nice to be on this side of the podium. Uh thank you for the opportunity to uh be here this evening. Again, I'm K County Supervisor Philip Peters and I just wanted to share a statement on behalf of the Kern County Board of Supervisors as well as some concerned citizens. I wanted to start by saying I appreciate the work you're doing and I I certainly don't take lightly how complex and costly wastewater infrastructure can be. Uh let me begin by saying that the county understands the investment in these systems is necessary. Uh we all want reliable service, regulatory compliance, and long-term sustainability. However, I am I'm sure that when significant rate increases are proposed, we also want to ensure the process is as transparent as possible, the analysis is clear, and that impacts on rateayers are fully understood. Our first concern is that this proposal represents a significant burden on rateayers, both city and county residents. Uh the second concern is timing. The engineers report that supports these proposed rates uh hasn't been fully available for public review or inter agency review. uh the county only received a copy today. If these rates move forward, the county may be required to initiate its own Prop 218 process to pass those costs to affected residents and uh we can't responsibly do that uh at this point without sufficient time to review and understand the analysis behind these numbers. Uh there are also important structural uh questions. We understand that two separate wastewater systems uh serving different geographic areas and different proportions of users are being combined into one for the uh purposes of this rate structure. Prop 218 requires that rates reflect the proportional benefit received. If residents in one system are being asked to absorb costs tied to another, I believe it deserves a more clear uh detailed explanation before the actions taken. Uh lastly, we are hearing that this proposal could impose tens of millions of dollars in additional costs on agencies such as the East Niles Community Services District as well as the current sanitation authority. These entities will likely struggle to absorb these increases and the financial ripple of which could impact thousands of households. Given the scale of the investment being discussed, the potential burden on everyday rateayers needs to be given serious consideration. Uh this isn't to intended to slow progress or create unnecessary obstacles. Uh we believe that uh when the financial impact could be this substantial however that a brief pause uh to allow full publication of the engineers report and uh meaningful review by affected agencies uh would be a reasonable prudent course of action. But the county stands ready to work with you and we just want to make sure that whatever decision is made is grounded in complete information to protect all the residents that we serve. So I thank you all and appreciate your service and for this opportunity to be heard. Thank you, Supervisor Peters. Madam Clerk, next speaker please. >> Kyle Perez, followed by Michael Turnupseed. >> Welcome. Please introduce yourself. >> Hello. My name is Kyle Perez. I work for Kern County Public Works. I'm uh the sewer engineer for current sanitation authority and CSA71. So I just want to give a little brief um statement which is so KSA sends a portion of our flow to plant number two as well. CSA71 sends a good portion of our flow to plant number three. I do appreciate city staff for acknowledging that the new information and costs received by the consultant uh will be updated to for the sewer rates because uh until today I was not aware of those happening. Um for the next portion I I want to say that uh I would hope that it become available to the county and the public the engineer study because uh per the sewer rate study it it's not due to be presented to you till the end of March. So that puts actually a quite a big burden on county staff to do an inind Prop 2018 if we have to do a sewer rate increase as well. Um I do notice in the sewer rate study even though it's not reflected maybe what was presented but the current rate or it shows upgrading plant number two on hundreds of millions of dollars and then it would appear that after the fact plant number four would be um completed after the fact. So, in closing, I just want to make sure that we get to where we get a point where we work together well and um yes and so I look forward to working with you guys' staff. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Perez. Madam Clerk, next speaker please. >> Michael Turnup Seed, followed by Eric Oriana. So, could you please give this to the council? >> Pardon me. >> Couldn't hear. >> They're operating equipment. They'll get it uh to us in just a minute. >> Okay. But I don't want to start talking until you can read it. I have charts and things I want to explain. >> Okay. >> So, whenever we make that happen, >> I don't want my two minutes starting until everybody gets it. >> You'll have your two minutes. Thank you, Madam Mayor. There's three for the staff, too. Thank you, Madame Mayor. >> I'm Michael Turnup Seed. I represent the Kar County Taxpayers Association, >> and I want to make some brief comments tonight. First of all, on the first page is we are not rookies when it comes to bonds. We have been working on bonding in this county since 2007 on billions of dollars of bonds. And if you look at the second handout, these are what we've been able to get working with school districts around the county since 2007. And if you look at the bottom right hand corner, our influence and advice for on the left side, you see the original proposals, and at the right, you see the actual results. We have saved taxpayers $1.545 billion dollar over 30 years and tax on bond rates payments with working with schools. Some school districts like to work and cooperate, some don't. Third page is a present presentation I put using 30-year bonds on rates. So you can I gave you last month. I then put because one thing you've been telling me, well, we have bonding capacity. On slide 11 of staff presentation in big green letters, it says we must build reserves for bond rating. That doesn't coordinate with what we've been publicly told by the city. So, I'd like somebody to answer that question because the city has told me we have we have plenty of bonding capacity. So please explain that to me and then the next slide that your comparison of rates to cities. When I look at data I look at things that a picture that is really important. The fact that you stuck the LA rates out there that were so distorted from everybody else by a lot. It distorted this whole graph and it didn't really show the actual relationships because everything was compacted for the other cities at a bottom in a short period of space. This is not a really a true visual representation of how the city goes just because of the the including LA in there. And finally, the last page, I took my our sheet that they presented the last time and I dotted your rates for the next 10 years above our rates. So, you see a black line with the city rates and you see what we projected to be if you go with our bonding program up front. But if you can't bond it, just tell us you can't bond and we'll get over this and I'll quit talking about it. I've been told you have bonding capacity. So, why would you pay up to have rate payers pay over $150 a year more than they need to than what our plan projects? And you can see the gap is fairly substantial here. And I I'm a county resident, so I'm probably going to be stuck with whatever the county gets. But the idea is this isn't the most cost your proposal is not the most efficient, coste effective people. And it's not like you're living in Beverly Hills where $1,000 means anything. Getting raising your rates substantially like that is going to be a burden on the 45 to 50%. Breakers shield is 45% medical >> and whether they rent or whether they own and pay taxes on their own property, >> it's a burden. >> Thank you very much for your time. >> Thank you, Mr. Turner seed. Madam clerk, next speaker, please. Eric Oriana, followed by Manuel Ramirez. >> All right. Good evening. >> Welcome. Please introduce yourself. >> Good evening, mayor and uh honorable council members. My name is Eric Orana. I'm a senior policy advocate uh with Leadership Council for Justice and Accountability. Uh I'm here to speak in um opposition to certain increases uh to um the wastewater uh rate that residents have. Uh right now across uh the city of Bakersfield and in Kern County, residents are facing uh record rates of inflation and affordability challenges. Uh and unfortunately uh last year the proposed rate did not consider uh the the life of residents here in Bakersville and how a proposed rate increase would impact the housing affordability and other affordability factors. Uh and I was disappointed to not see a discussion about how affordability and how uh rate increases will impact residents here in Bakersfield within this report. I think that's a a major uh gap in this report and something that you should all consider uh when proposing to increase these rates. Infrastructure investments to our wastewater uh services are vital and important. The state water board in a recent report announced that improvements uh to capital projects uh have the and inflation has caused them to go up nearly 50% or even higher. Uh and so the longer you wait uh to make investments uh the more costly it'll be. So it's important to make investments now uh rather than down the line. Uh but we need to consider how it's going to impact residents uh who are most impacted by affordability measures. Uh so one thing that you can do Prop 218 prohibits you from uh dis uh um from uh charging some uh residents more than others. Uh but you can take non-operating revenues and you can take general fund um uh funds uh and appro uh implement rate assistance program to offset impacts uh to lowest income residents. So we would recommend that you do that if you're going to uh implement uh rate increase and we oppose options uh one through three uh that was in a recent uh I think last week is the one report. I don't know if it's been updated uh but we oppose one through three. Um don't want to voice support for four but I think it's a little bit better. So, thank you for your time uh and for the opportunity to comment. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Oriana. Madam Clerk, next speaker please. >> Manuel Ramirez, followed by Darlene Den. >> All right. He is Mr. Ramirez is not here. So, would you call the next speaker please? >> Darlene Den. Welcome. Please introduce yourself. >> Good. Good evening. My name is Darling Den and I'm a resident of the city of Bakersfield. I have reviewed your technical reports, your um base costs, reserve reports, and a couple things um came up to me. I also re looked at your October city um council meeting. One is the base costs of reserves um and reserve deficit spending on the 475. I think that's really important to make it really clear that you're looking at a minimum number because without that you don't cover basic costs according to what staff um noted in your October meeting. I also am really concerned or wonder when this presentation is available to the public because I walked in here trying to figure out what was going on and what you were recommending because I could not find anything online what was actually being recommended and if it it wasn't clearly in the waste water presentation section. So it that should be updated because that makes it hard for the public to comment if they aren't sure what you're actually proposing as it re relates to one through three. The engineers report is really important to define according to what you're actually sending out on a 218 vote because your 218 vote cannot just be a notice that you want an increase. It has to be clearly what is determined that the costs will be done and those can be challenged very simply if you don't do them properly and the most important thing is it's really obvious we have a problem and there is a needs to be a solution and there is a challenge in our sewer treatment and I would hope that you would look at colas in the future because I believe some of this has happened by not managing our resources correctly in having a cola all along and having the cash flow and I think for you to do that on our behalf. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Den. Madame Clerk, do we have any other speakers on this item? >> Mayor Go, that was our final speaker. >> Thank you. And so now, Vice Mayor, >> thank you, Mayor. Sorry, I just have to get situated. Um, thanks to all who came out today to share. Um, I appreciate city staff responding to this council's request to pause, restart, re-evaluate. Um, and I remember when this sewer rate matter first came to our water committee and I too was shocked and my immediate response to staff was we need to immediately take this to our residents and we need to put ourselves in the shoes of our residents and what kind of response um they will have to hearing this um rate increase. So, I am I appreciate um all of city staff who just took a moment to do to conduct our due diligence so that we as a city council can give a proper response to our constituents who uh deserve to know what is being increased, why it's being increased, why now. And I'm even more in thankful to the residents who made time after really long work days to meet in libraries, in community centers across uh the city uh to share feedback so that we could have honest dialogue one-on-one. And in Ward 7, it was the opportunity to meet with constituents and and really break down um what's going on and and why this issue has presented itself uh to uh city staff, city council, and and why it must be addressed. Um we have to be thoughtful as as city leaders, as the stewards um of public services and to uh to our constituents as public servants. Um, especially we have to be especially thoughtful when we're addressing the aging infrastructure that we've inherited. And I think that's key. It's we've inherited it. And so now we have to be thoughtful with how we go forward with it as well. Um, a few of my questions um, come from feedback we received from our county partners, kind of what's emerged with some of the public dialogue we've just had. Um and and I want to make sure that in the course of time since we first started talking about our sewer rate increase um and the questions that continue to come up, you know, we talk about this in the most simplest of terms. So, um, you know, Chairman Peters just came forward and asked and and made, uh, aware and in the in the letter presented to us from county council, um, has an engineers's report been created and made public, have we met with the county? Have we been in dialogue with the county? Um, can we share a little bit more? And if I could have some clarity on that? >> Yeah, thanks, Vice Mayor. I'll take a first try at that and then Miss Budak can fill in anything that I miss. Uh so as early as last summer, we met with public works director Josh Champlain to talk about our approach to doing these additional studies. We shared with him our timeline for when the studies would be done and when essentially we didn't say February 11th last summer, but we said in the February, you know, timeline we would be bringing this back to your council. And the feedback that we had understood at that time was that that timeline would would be a reasonable timeline in which the county could conduct uh a Prop 218 um for their part as well. Uh and then I would just note that in October of this year while we were doing all of our town hall meetings, our cost of service analysis and that you know um report um our our full report on the cost of service analysis was made public to everyone in the community. Um and then we ensured we sent an email uh December 18th to our counterparts at the county uh highlighting the fact that we'd had uh all of these town halls. We sent a link to the video of our virtual town hall meeting which described our process and had um the information available uh of where to find our cost of service analysis. I would acknowledge that the AECOM engineers report has was only completed in January and so that has not been uh available up to this point. Uh but I would also just reflect to your council that the rates that were uh proposed in October and throughout all of uh the time since are are substantially the same as the recommended version that you see in front of you tonight. And so those those rates of 475 up to 875 have been publicly discussed at length since October. Um and and are based again on our cost of service analysis. And then lastly, in January 30th, um um I met um with uh Mr. Hen and members of the county administrator's office, and they actually saw the slides that you saw tonight on January 30th before you even did. Um uh just on our timeline and our rate structure, we understand that um individuals may want to dig into the details of the AECOM engineers report, dig into the details of our presentation tonight. Um but we have been very open in our process uh to date and sharing everything as soon as it's been available. >> Thank you. Um I am also thinking about and have been since this process first started been thinking about our fixed income families and um there was a point made about who you know who utilizes and and which parts of town are which parts of the cities are using these these plants especially the ones that we're looking to address. Um, and in particular, well, my first question is, did our consultants look at options that were more tiered for fixed income families? Have when when we're going around and meeting in different parts of the city, what were those conversations like when we're having a different when we're having the same conversation in different zip codes? Um, was that something that we had asked for consultants to kind of develop as well? We we did not ask our consultants HF&H particularly on the rates to develop a tiered approach because under Prop 218 we're not allowed to charge different uh the different rate payers different rates. All rate payers are required to pay the same rate. It is within the purview of the city council if you wanted to adopt a program that uses other funding sources to offer discounts to community members that have um economic challenges. You can create a program from other funding sources that may help subsidize, but as a 218 rate, we're actually not allowed to have different rates for for the for different users. >> Okay. I'd like to make the referral tonight that we that staff look at um programs that allow for us to aid in this um increase that we are requiring of the city's residents and how we can alleviate that cost burden from the families who are on fixed incomes. Um they may be seniors, they may be single moms, but I feel it's our duty to do the research to see uh which programs we can create at the city. Thank you for that information on what's allowed within the prop within Prop 218. Um my next question is uh it was pointed out that um some some community service districts or authorities may be more burdened than others. Have we met with, for example, the East Niles Community Service District and the current sanitation authority about this as well and have had one-on-one meetings to kind of explain and they are um as privy to what we're doing within this rate increase as well. >> I'll defer to Miss Budak on that question. >> Okay. Um so in addition, there are there are two meetings every year for the uh technical advisory committee for uh current sanitation and for East Niles. And so during those meetings, this uh sewer increase is discussed. In addition, both those um organizations were invited to and and participated in the AECOM workshops. The one that identified the deficiencies in the plants and the one that identified the alternatives and discussed the alternatives. So they have been in uh involved with the process as far as realizing the deficiencies and how we're going to move forward to uh rectify that. And then also there's beside meetings um with the TAC that's twice a year to also discuss what's happening within our sewer system and how we impact their s or how our um improvements are going to impact their system. >> Okay. Um anything to add that >> the only additional piece of information good evening is that um our TAC members so east Niles and uh KSA they're impacted a little differently in the sense that they don't pay um a rate per user. they actually reimburse the city for costs that we incur to operate and maintain plant 2 only and their infrastructure. So um so it's a bit of a different uh arrangement compared to CSA71. For the CSA71 we receive summary of users. They pay a flat rate based on those users. Um our TAC members it's actually more of a reimbursement of expenses incurred during the fiscal year um that just you know concluded. >> Okay. Thank you. And just to put it as simply as we can, what is the proposed increase? What is that increase in the monthly cost for each resident? My bill is going from this to this. So, I didn't I didn't do every year, but for the 475 would be $39.60 a month. And at the end of year five or in year five at the87 $875 uh per annual it would be $72.90 per month. >> Okay. So in February I paid >> um $20. >> $20. >> $20. >> Yes. >> What am I paying when? And if the city council approves then I guess that's what I'm trying to make sure the public knows of. What are what am I paying now? Once this body votes for something, what could they be paying? >> Okay, so you pay approximately 20 $21 right now. Effective uh July 1 um after we send out the Prop 218, then we have our 45day review and we come back to have the council have a public hearing. If it gets approved, it would be uh $39.60. >> Okay. Thank you. And my last question is so the public can as simply understand and and so I can understand it actually. But what is the cost burden that the city is taking on versus what we're passing on to the resident? >> I think simply as I can put it is as an enterprise system the rateayers pay all the costs. It's designed that other tax dollars don't come into the rates of the system. We have not proposed and have not we don't have a history of spending any other tax revenues on this utility or or other utilities. So the rateayers pay the full rate. >> Yes, the rateayers pay the full rate and then in addition we also towards the um cost of uh providing uh the service and improving infrastructure. We also have connection fees. We also have nonoper non-operating fees. Um uh and we also have our septage hauler fees. So there's and all of our funds that are collected in the various pots all are used towards ensuring that we maintain this enterprise. >> Thank you. Um, I appreciate that and thank you so much to you and your staff and the water department, all the city staff, public works who's been working on this diligently so that we can communicate to our the residents of our city and those who rely on safe sanitation, which is infrastructure that we simply cannot live without. Without it, it is a public health hazard. Uh, it's infrastructure that's integral to our our city, our community, and the health of all residents. So, um, I I'm very appreciative of the due diligence that's been taken. um in in reaching a place where we can communicate this, especially in a in a moment in time when economically every single family within our city is feeling the burden of higher costs across the board. Um and so it's incredibly important that we communicate what a cost looks like in increasing monthtomonth because that's what folks are looking at at home. there, you know, a year-long projection may be too far for some families to look at. You know, they're looking at what costs they can meet this month and what cost they can meet next month. Um, so I appreciate you all communicating that. Um and and then it's just uh our duty to do that. And I'm appreciative of this council that joined uh the meetings within their own wards and wards outside including the mayor um to make sure that we could hear the constituents ourselves as well. Um and and I hope that this could be our practice going forward when when there is such a significant rate increase in in literally anything that we do. We have the city budget cycle coming up and um for you know the good of the public it's uh the city will be having the same types of meetings in in the community at our local libraries at our community centers so that we can explain this in the community um and meet our residents where they are. Uh so I'll conclude my questions with that. Thank you. Thank you vice mayor. Council member Gonzalez. >> Thank you mayor. Uh thank you staff for the presentation today. I I just wanted to make a few comments. Um, I think throughout the conversations I've had with community members and just hearing from from folks throughout the city, um, there really are three themes, uh, that have really emerged in all of those conversations. Number one, um, do we actually have a problem? Um, I mean, that was the first question when, uh, we first entertained this issue. Um, and uh I want to commend staff for all of their work on inviting the public to uh visit uh inviting the media to visit the plants. Uh uh really working on our um communications to the public via all of these community meetings. Um and the work with AECOM I think really illustrates the scope of the issue. Um and so I appreciate all of that. the the reality is we do have a problem with our with our sewer uh treatment system and we have to address it. Now that second question is how do we how do we address it? How do we address the problem? That's the real second theme and there's been a lot of talk about how do we actually solve this problem? How do we pay for it? Um and two two different levers, right? Uh one is increase the rates uh and one is bond. I mean, those are really the two options. We looked at everything from federal grants to state grants to, uh, other financing mechanisms, uh, deferring some projects in the future. I mean, I think we've spent a lot of time looking at all these different options, but basically the two levers really are, um, raise rates or bond. Um, and so the the question is what what do we do and and and how do we do it that's actually um uh that actually meets the problem uh and actually addresses the need uh but also is sensitive to um the rising costs of many of our families throughout the city of Bakersfield. um the fact that you know cost of living just continues to escalate and this is just another in cost increase that really is burdening will will burden many of our families. So we have to get through this. Um I I want to ask a question related to um related to bonding. Uh because it's not free money. uh we I think we assumed a 5% interest rate annually or am I reading current taxes report here? Um but if we make an assumption, I mean those are real dollars that we're paying on interest every single year. And so we have to recognize that while bonding a certain level may keep our rates low in the short term, over the long term we will have to continue to increase rates to service that debt and also meet the demands of the sewer treatment plant in the future uh because there will be invariably additional capital expenses in the future. For us to assume that everything remains equal over the next 30 years uh would be foolish. Uh and so we have to make sure that we allow future councils and future um city managers and and folks at the helm uh an capacity to address those needs in the future when they arise. And I think we have to be mindful of that as well. So we're going to have to balance the fees versus bonding. But I do want to ask a question because Mr. Turnup seed has been a good partner for the community and for with the city uh for for some time and he has he the his association current tax has pro provided a proposal. Uh I do want to ask his question about bonding capacity. What is our bonding capacity currently? Um what is the analysis of current taxes proposal? Can can we shed some light on that for me please? >> Yeah thank you council member Gonzalez mayor and council. I'll ask our finance director Randy McKean to help answer that question a bit. What I would say in preface is that um there's not a simple number like that is a static number. It depends on how much are our revenues, how much are in our reserves um and and there's several factors that affect how much our capacity is. But Randy will give us his best shot >> Randy Min finance director. So basically our our bonding capacity is fixed exactly to our rates. So if we needed to borrow $500 million, we needed we would need to set rates to cover the cost of annual service. And as well as that, the amount that we would need to build up our reserves to meet the requirements. So for example, $50 $500 million debt probably is $34 million a year. So you need to have reserves of at least $34 million set aside to cover that. So the rates have to just meet those uh future costs. So our bonding capac obviously if we wanted to go borrow a billion dollars obviously an underwriter would say what what are you going to do with that? But if it's it's it's if it's a understood need uh we would just set rates to cover the cost of that borrowing. >> Okay. And so today I mean we're currently servicing a bond. >> Yes. And so today's capacity, >> yeah, so today's capacity, we we have it's about $12 million a year of the current bond and it go ends in 2032. And so we have to have that $12 million as a required reserve currently. So if we were to borrow another $100 million, we would need $150 million. We would need about another 10 $15 million of reserve. So it just depends on what you're borrowing, but you your capacity changes based on what your current debt debt levels are. Got it. Okay. I mean reserve levels are >> Oh, great. Okay. Thank you, Mr. McKean. I appreciate that. Um I think the second thing I want to mention is that um I do believe we need a rate assistance program uh for seniors and for those low-income families who are struggling to make ends meet. uh currently um I think that uh we we we owe it to our community partic particularly those who are um like already strapped uh to uh develop a program uh so that we can help them and assist them in their rates. And then the third theme that's come up is how did we get here in the first place? Um how did this all of a sudden uh come up? I'm thankful for the staff for sounding the alarm and bringing this to the attention of the city council when they did. Um the question is how did this happen? I think that's a longer conversation. Uh clearly this has been uh decades in the making. Um, I I appreciate Miss Den's uh comments about tying this to um a COLA or CPI so that we can uh continue to manage this. But I do think that the council uh ought to develop a uh council policy that requires staff to bring back not only every 5 years but annually um an analysis on on our rates um and how we're keeping up and so that we can uh stay on top of this and it doesn't become something that we're trying to catch up on uh in the future. So future councils already have that mechanism that allows them to monitor this. Um, so I'm going to make that referral tonight that we begin um, you know, taking a closer look at how this happened in the first place, how we got here, and then developing a policy that allows us to, uh, safeguard future councils from making from from finding themselves in the same situation. Um, and then I do want to underscore the referral, uh, the need for that, um, rate assistance program. I think that's critical at this time. I'm going to also, uh, make that referral tonight. Thank you, >> Council Member Wear. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, I just want to bring up a few points here and part of it maybe somebody else has already covered in the past, but um, I look I look back to the beginning of this year fiscal year and we were all very excited about what what we're going to be able to do because fiscally it was very tight going into this year was really tight and we had it projected out and there weren't going to be much rate there weren't going to be raises period and other things were going to have to be forgotten. It just can't you just couldn't do it. And so we've we've gone from that to the point that uh well now what what have we done? Well, we've given raises, which we weren't going to give raises um for um is it all the all the all the units now have their raises? >> Council mayor, we're uh not all units. Our uh BPOA unit has not um we have not uh entered into a new contract with BPOA yet. >> Do we anticipate that soon? Uh we hope for it soon, but I do not have an estimated timeline for him. >> Okay. So anyway, that that that's a bill that's coming, >> correct? >> To the general fund, correct? >> Okay. Um so, so everybody's got their raises now and that'd be fine. That'll all be taken care of. Do we have any other fiscal requirements out there that we will need to um we will need to uh cash in on that a fiscal requirement that it it's going to require money. Do we have any big large fiscal uh project sitting out there right now that's going to require a large amount of money? Uh, Council Member Weir, um, I'll try not to answer it too broadly. I would say I'm not aware of any unknown projects that would cause a new budget requirement. I think you're aware that we've got some deferred maintenance in our streets still. We need to get out our streets that that we've been working to and have enough funding to for our consolidated maintenance districts with all of our um, also street scapes u maintenance. Uh but but no, I don't anticipate any other new large expenses. >> Maybe I didn't maybe I didn't say that properly. Are are we going to go out and buy new capital stuff? A lot of capital stuff that maybe we need, maybe we don't need. I'm I'm not fully sure how to answer that question, Council Member Weir, but I do think um we still have large projects we're going to do. Yes, there are large projects that have been, you know, budgeted or or have been received grant funding. We're going to do some of those large projects. Yes. >> Okay. I'm I'm still not being clear here. Are are we going to are we going do you foresee us going into a project that it might be difficult for us to um fund? >> Uh I >> I could tell you the answer to this and you would know it but I can't I I just I can't say it. I I think then the answer is uh are we are we anticipating financing some capital projects this coming year? Yes. >> A lot? I mean a lot. >> Uh probably >> I mean how much? >> $10 million. >> That's all. >> I think so. >> Okay. Do we have any other fiscal requirements that we need to meet right now? unbudgeted requirements not to my knowledge. >> Okay. Um and where does this leave us now? If if we go in and we and we bond um we bond the the requirement the the bond what needs to be completed or repaired or built up or junked and redone. How how I mean what kind of bonding is that going to take? >> Thank you, Council Member Wear. That's a good question. And I I again as has been reflected that's one of the ways that you can affect the rates is bond more rates can be lower bond less maybe the rates are a little bit higher and so >> uh what we're recommending as staff is a moderate approach that does not bond too much >> so that it doesn't create a higher debt burden and that it doesn't uh and and that it leaves us more capacity if there are other needs that we need to bond against. there's still more of that capacity out there. So, what we're recommending is a a smaller bonding amount um than than others may have proposed so that uh we don't create too much of a debt burden >> and and we will be in a position where we it won't be a burden to us. >> That that is our belief. It is better to raise our rates and reset the rate baseline so that we have sufficient funds to pay down debt service for a bond that may be in 100 million 150 million as opposed to a bigger bond that would lock us into very large debt service payments. >> And another thing I wanted to talk and and I think you touched upon it. How how did we get into this situation? There are three different factors that I think that have uh impacted this. Uh one is that we genuinely have had much higher inflationary rates than I think anyone expected 5 years ago or 10 years ago. We also have seen significant changes in our regulatory environment that it's costing us more and more money to operate these plants. Then the third reason is that we did not create a capital improvement plan 30 years ago that contemplated setting aside rates increases that would save up against our future capital needs. That's that's the the the biggest answer is that last one is that we haven't been setting aside money over the last 20 or 30 years. Our rates have been the lowest in Kerna, which I think some have been pleased about, but now we're paying for having the lowest rates. Excuse me, not just Kerna. We have the lowest rates in Kern, but also lowest rates in the valley. But but now, um there the bill is due for having, you know, significantly lower rates for um even and the challenge is it wasn't just for one or two years, it's been for 10 and 20 years lower rates. um that now we have got to catch up. Okay. Um are are we putting oursel knowing how we started this year and now we're going through and we're going to bond and and try to I guess piece this together. Are are we getting in a position where this could really affect our our revenue? >> I I do not believe so, council member. We're because it's specific to this enterprise. This enterprise would, you know, the bonding would only be against this enterprise's revenues, not the rest of city's um budget and revenues. And also um again that's another reason to have uh a more you know modest bond that you know we we ensure that we can pay back those u debt service but it that answer assumes we do increase rates. If we do not increase rates we cannot take out a large bond. Are there other are there other situations in in the city that um that needs to be addressed at this time? >> That's a good question, Council Member Weir. First, I would reflect that in the water area, we have had uh rate baseline adjustments in the last two to three years. So, that has already been addressed. Uh we are in going to be in the process of revisiting our five-year rates for solid waste um in this same um you know going into next fiscal year. So in the next you know 3 to four months we're going to be looking at solid waste. Early numbers and I'm getting a little ahead of staff but early numbers are that we're going to have some adjustments that are of a very different order of magnitude meaning it's not going to be big like we're talking about with sewer. uh we know we will still need some rate adjustments. We have new regulatory requirements for garbage uh with the organic waste SP 1383 um and uh some other regulatory changes. Uh but it's not going to be the same scope and size of increase like this. Um and then the the only other thing I mentioned before was um you know our our consolidated maintenance districts really aren't self-funded. We're we're funding a lot of our maintenance from the general fund to that fund. Um but there aren't other areas that I'm aware of um that uh have those kind of major gaps. I would argue again the only other thing I've mentioned tonight is streets. We have multiple funding sources that help us pay for street repairs. Um but I would I would suggest outside of our utilities, it's our streets and our streetscapes are our biggest deferred maintenance issues. And I I haven't read through this, but what what type of bonding coma capacity are we going to need to to to get this thing up and going and to keep it up and going? >> We feel if we increase rates to this uh more measured and phased in approach, we'll only need to bond about 100 to $150 million. >> Could Could you just Okay. What does that mean? A measured >> It means that we start at 475 and increase every year a $100 increase instead of because last year we proposed the 950 by taking >> I was there for that >> by taking that lower number. That's what I mean by modest and measured means you start lower and you increase every year a little bit instead of going straight to the the high number. That's what I mean. And um let's see if that's that's what I had. I um I I I guess I just don't have um the I just don't have a sense that this is all going to go well because it I mean it's blown up once now and u um so if something does go wrong like that will we have the bonding capacity to do that? Will we how will we take care of that if it happens again? >> Thank you, Council Member Weir. I would just reiterate again one of the reasons we want to bond $150 million instead of let's say $400 or $500 million is to leave us that additional ability to bond more if something went wrong. I would just take the opportunity since you you know mentioned this is that we've done a lot of homework in the last year but we haven't gone to 100% design of these improvements and so as we go to 100% design we'll know much more about what the true costs are. We think our estimates are very good, but we'll know the true costs and this council um you know may be significantly different at the end of this 5-year rate scenario that uh you know the council at that time will have to look at those specific construction costs. What are our rates at that time? And that actually is going to be the time to determine uh the bonding amount. Um you know, you're not making a bonding decision today. No, I I I wasn't expecting that. So, um um I I I I'm a hesitant. Let's put it that way. I'm hesitant. I uh we we let this get away and it's still out there. And I I I'm I'm praying that uh all the everything goes well and it comes out and all that, but I'm very hesitant. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Weir. Council member Arius. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, I'll just start by sharing that I think we are incredibly blessed as a city uh to have Miss Budac and I bet um here with us uh conducting all of the community meetings, fielding all of the uh feedback that we got from the community um and responding in a professional way. Uh I just tip my cap off to the two of you uh for being being able to do that. I know it wasn't easy uh certainly wasn't easy in my ward. better know how it went in the other awards. Um, but I just want to say that certainly we appreciate you uh for the work that you've done to to do outreach in the community. Um, just a just a couple of quick thoughts on this. Um, one, I appreciate the additional research um that we've conducted working with the consultants. Um, I think it's been um well thought out. I think that we've considered um countless scenarios and have done our due diligence and research uh to find the very best option for our community. Um, I think one of the things that, um, I keyed in on during Vice Mayor Kors's comments is that, um, when you break it down monthto monthth or even daytoday, that the cost is not insignificant, but when you compare to other costs uh, that we all have to uh, incur on a daily basis, it it really pales in comparison. And so I just did a little bit of number crunching today at the rate of $247.13 over the year. Um that really equates to about 68 per day. Um and even when we increase to year five, which is fiscal year 30, uh 2030 2031 at $875 for the single family residents. That's about $243 a single day. Um, I don't know about most of you, but I can't even get lunch for less than $10 a day. Um, and so I think when we talk about um, just the comparison, I understand that it's an increase. Um, but I think it's fair to say that STA staff has done what they can to bring down these costs, get strategic, figure out ways that we can balance both financing capacity and also the increases with the rates um that will be passed on to residents uh to come to uh one of the better solutions that we've seen uh to to date. And so uh with that just want to say thank you to staff u for doing the additional work and uh look forward oh actually I had one additional question uh so say this passes today um what what is the public's opportunity what are those channels for them to provide feedback and comment um and you know is there is there a formal protest process that they should be following what what does that look like for them? >> Thank you Council Member Argus. With everything else we've discussed tonight, I'm glad we're um reiterating that process because that really is the next step. If your council approves tonight's motion to uh send out a Prop 218 notice, those notices would go out uh by the end of this month. There will be a 45day review period. When they get that notice, they uh it will explain to them the ways in which they can provide a protest. Um and then we would have a public hearing in April late the second council meeting in April is our target there. April 22nd that we would have a public hearing where they could also come and speak in the public hearing separate from sending in their protest. And then ultimately um there's a a city council adoption uh would be looked for at that evening. And then um uh I would just note while I'm kind of giving these timelines, we heard your council's feedback about quality 218 notices. We're we're preparing a 218 notice that we'll have more data, good pictures, good graphs that really help continue this process of better educating the community about what is the need and and you know what are our recommended solutions for it. So, there'll be a quality 218 notice that goes out. Um, and I would just add a third piece beyond the public hearing and beyond the 218 notice. You know, we've fielded many questions on this over the last year and and we welcome if there's a community group or neighborhood association who would ask us to help um, you know, further educate uh, on the same topics that we've covered in our town halls. Uh, we'd be happy to meet with them as well. >> Fantastic. Thank you. So um while today is a significant step um in this process, just want to be clear with the community that there are additional opportunities for you to provide feedback um throughout this process as we continue forward. Um one one last comment um that I want to make in regards to um how did we get here? Um I I think it's important to acknowledge the fact that um there were several junctures where sewer rate increases were considered uh over the past 20 and 30 years um where defer deferred maintenance was brought up um on a number of occasions. Um you know investments that needed to be made to ex existing treatment plants. um you know potentially saving some dollars on the side and reserves so that we can address those challenges in the future. Um and not to point you know fingers at anybody but previous councils have decided um not to adjust rates accordingly. And because of those decisions at that time uh we now find ourselves in a position a really difficult position where the bill has now come due. Um, and I want to address that head on because, you know, as I think about, you know, my future children and grandchildren, um, I would prefer not to leave them with liabilities um, which have been passed on to us. And so, I think it's important that we take this uh, with seriousness. Um, I think staff has certainly done their their job and I look forward to uh, working with the community to um, to see this move forward. Thanks. >> Thank you, Council Member Arius. Just in line with what the council member was saying about daily rates, can you just clarify what the increase in a monthly rate would be? So, is it approximately $18.98? It's less than $19 a month. Is that correct? >> Correct. For year one, Mayor. Yes. >> Yes. For year one. >> Correct. >> Correct. Okay. Thank you. And now, Council Member Smith. >> Thank you, Mayor. Uh question on plant two and then the future plant 4. We were going to put $247 million into plant two and then plant 4 was going to replace it. So does that $240 million not continue to be used? Is plant two with the 240 million no longer being used? what what's really happening there? >> I I'll take the first shot, council member, and I'll ask um and Chris if they can help me out. So, uh there's a portion of those improvements that will not um be used in the long run. That is correct. What it does do though is it buys us 15 years. There are portions and that was one of the things that AECOM brought to our attention with some of the phasing. There are portions of some of the the quick adjustments and then sort of the midterm adjustments that can be used in the future in the long run. Um, but there are large portions that that will really just get us that that 15-year timeline and and then they won't have a useful life after that. >> Well, 15 years is real time. So, >> right. And and just to um expand on that, we do still need to continue operating and maintaining plant 2 and be in compliance. So there are some um compliance issues that need to be addressed um the sooner rather than later. Uh we will be working with the state water resources control board to make sure that we are in um uh working together to make sure that we are uh in compliance with our current permit and uh adhering to all the requirements that they impose on us because they are the ones that kind of set our our limits and boundaries as to what we can and cannot do with in regards to operating the facility. Um, so they're not throwaway costs in the sense of we will be getting our money's worth in the sense because we're, you know, plant 4, we're looking at 2040. Um, for us to really start looking at construction and operation and then startup. Um, so it's not a throwaway cost. It's still going to be providing a very valuable service to the community for the foreseeable 15, if everything goes well, up to 20 years. >> Right. Okay. Thank you for that answer. Um the question was asked about the the cost of service analysis and is that's available prior to the February 27th and and how's all that actually work out? >> So um we have to update the report and the cost of service analysis based on the recommended rate. So, that will all be updated. Um, and the new report will be compiled as part of our Prop 218 uh brochure or mailer that will go out. There will be a link, whether it's a website or a QR code that will allow the public to go directly to that report. >> So, you couldn't really do it until we agreed what was going to go out. We have to update everything that we've done to date because uh even in uh the last update that we did was a true cost of service for one year and that's what HF&H did was they identified how much it does provide or how much it costs to provide service and that's where they came up with the $1,087 per connection cost to provide service based on infrastructure infrastructure improvements uh operational costs CIP debt service all those things. So now we have to take the report and say okay what is the revenue that we're going to generate and obviously we have to have to also incorporate the bonding amount as revenue generated. So we need to update the entire report and the cost to service will reflect the 147 or 100 sorry $475 for the first year. is going to uh outline the the cost to the different rateayers to collect the $475 per connection. >> You just mentioned the bonding amount and my understanding we're not making a decision on that now. That comes later. That could be >> it could be more >> 600 million. It could be the 150 million. So that's not really part of the decision we're making tonight. >> We No, it's not part of the decision. We just have to include all of this new information into our report. So, the report has to cover everything for the five years to justify the five-year rate. And then we also look at this report. It's a um it's a five-year rate or a 10-year plan, right? >> And I think this goes back to what council member Wear was mentioning is we need to have these long-term infrastructure plans so we can know how to budget accordingly. So, the 10-year plan identifies all the anticipated revenue, but this is a five-year rate. and then um with uh required $475 $100 um annually until we uh top out $875 and then we'll have to come back to this council for any future rate increases or bonding actions. >> Right. Thank you. And while I have you the the question about it being one system when it's two plants and serving different areas and stuff, could you I know you've walked through it a lot of times. >> Yeah. So um we have one sewer enterprise and within that sewer enterprise we have two treatment plants. We have 1,000 miles of sewer line. We have 1,000 miles of storm drain line. Uh we have sumps. We have all that as a system that deals with our storm and our wastewater. And so within one enterprise we collect revenue to pay for and ensure that the one enterprise is operational. We don't break up between plant two and plant three because there's uh there's flow from the east side of 99 that actually flows to treatment plant number three. So it's not an east side west side thing, >> right? >> And just to be clear, the 475 is really just the the baseline operation and maintenance. That's not putting any reserves away >> to to >> it covers our minimum reserve which is 9 months of operations and our debt service and we have to stay above our minimum reserve and you could see by that one chart with the red line and the green line that for the next three years we are basically just above the minimum reserves before we actually start generating revenue. I think that answers my questions and with that I will make the motion to direct staff to start the Prop 218 using the recommended rate. >> Thank you, Council Member Smith. Council member Coleman. >> Thank you, Mayor. Uh Council Member Aras kind of took the wind out of my sails on a couple items. So uh uh the question about the 218 notice because we had some dialogue about that last year. Uh, you know, last year uh personally I was new to council and uh uh this came up and we decided to approve the 218 process without any bonding and that rate was it was significantly high and we decided to go back and pause a little bit, take another look at everything and uh uh we wanted to really take a good look at what improvements really needed to be made and take another shot at these rates. But I think we at that time we said that, hey, we're going to be back and we're going to be asking for uh high rate and we really weren't sure it was going to be any less than what we originally asked for, but we wanted to give staff a chance to uh analyze this stuff. And so I wanted to thank uh uh Chris and I bet for always being there for us at all of our community meetings and wherever else we've been. uh you've never been stumped, agitated maybe, but not stumped. And uh we I I personally appreciate it because you have answers that I don't have. So I want to thank you uh very much. You're both very very competent uh uh engineers. So thank you. Um I think this year we did a much better job of managing this process. Uh we went out and got third party opinions uh and a lot more community outreach. There was meetings in every ward, a couple of them and some virtual meetings and and those kind of things. So I think we did a much better job at communicating to the public why we needed to what what we needed to do, why we needed to raise rates. And I think we successfully answered all the questions. Do we make everybody happy? No, I don't think so. But I think we we answered uh all the critical questions. Uh one thing I wanted to make a point about is that we did some analysis early on and it had a cost of living factor been included in the rates back a few years ago, we would be at this N 950 approximately number today and we wouldn't be having this conversation. So it is incumbent upon the councils to to really do good work uh to make sure that this is adequately this enterprise is adequately funded. Um the important thing I think is today we can't do nothing. We really need to move forward with a plan you know and this plan we've been out meeting with the community. We've met with all the major stakeholders. We met with the Chamber of Commerce, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a lot of the Rotaries. Uh we met with the Board of Realtors. We met with uh the board at Current Tax. And I wanted to uh address Michael Turnipsy directly because we really do appreciate uh your advice uh over time. Maybe we don't always listen to it, but we do appreciate it. And for me, I learned I learned a lot from you on this and and we did look at your proposal and I think that we took away some things from your proposal. Uh I think that the the staged uh bonding was uh an important uh tool that we that we learned from you. Um personally, I was a little uncomfortable with 500 million in bonding. uh it just sounds like a large number but uh you know I also don't want to leave this for future generations this debt to to serve um you know with with a large bond comes large debt service and I just struggle with that a little bit. So, uh, and you also mentioned, uh, uh, city manager Kle that using up all our bonding capacity wouldn't give room for future councils, uh, to to do various tasks. And I said, we're not deciding on bonding today, but I going forward, I just have some reservations about those bonds being uh, too large. In the end, I think this is a really wellthoughtout proposal. It's been vetted by uh our staff, two consultants, uh two consultants working independently of each other and came out with much the same conclusion. So I I'm satisfied that that we've vetted everything. Uh, oh, and I want to address the accountability issue because, uh, and I think that council member Aras addressed that as well is what are we going to do to, you know, make sure that we're account actually, I think it was council member Gonzalez, I'm sorry, that that asked for an annual report. Uh, I know that's built into your plan is uh, you know, plan CIPs and those kind of things. So, we're going to have that information. you're going to have that information, maybe a little bit better uh oversight managerially, but I liked council member Gonzalez asking for an annual report to council of where we're at so we avoid these uh problems in the future. So, uh that's all I have. Thank you Mayor. >> Thank you, Council Member Coleman. Vice Mayor, one last question. Um we have a motion. I do want to ask about um my referral that uh council member Gonzalez has also added just because I know each of our wards have folks that live on fixed incomes in creating that program for those who live on fixed incomes. It does that need to be added to this motion and will that be in the Prop 218? Can that be added? >> No. No. >> Or it won't be in the Prop 18. Does it need to be added to this motion? I I would I would think I would answer it a couple ways. One, it can be added to this motion. Um I think uh it doesn't it it it should not be in the Prop 218 um notice. Um I think you have actually two different options though. You know, if you're making a motion to include that program tonight, the motion because you know, we don't really have numbers that we can provide to you. Um I don't know uh how it may be a general motion to say you know uh let's bring that back. So it still functions somewhat as a referral because you don't have sort of the criteria and the and the um the tiers and the numbers you know to present to you to tonight. So, uh, you could include that in the motion and I think that, you know, solidifies that the referral will come back, but also we're still going to have to come back and like propose the specifics of that program and the appropriations for that program, whether the council wants to, you know, take general fund dollars or how much they would want to take general fund dollars to to create that program. We'd still have to come back and do that. Um, but with that understanding, it could be part of the motion or a referral. >> Can you remind me when this will all come back to us? So prop 18 is it 218 is issued. >> It will come back in the April 22nd. >> Okay. >> And then it will be also included again in the June um adoption of the budget. >> Okay. >> Um and so I I I think we could address that program at at potentially either time. I do think I would recommend that you consider how much you would appropriate for a program like that in the scope of the rest of the budget though. And so probably um taking that with the rest of the annual budget makes a lot of sense. >> Okay. um when this returns in April, uh I I'll stick to my referral and if that research can come back to us on how we create a program for those who lived live on fixed incomes and by then we can create criteria of senior citizens, veterans, um those with disabilities and so forth or um and kind of explore uh that category and and provide something concrete for us to reflect on. Um, but if that can come back together >> in April. >> Yeah, thank you, Vice Mayor. I'm thinking about it in the moment. I think that's a good sequence. I think that's wise because we can provide you some of that information prior to budget, but then probably formalize it with budget. So, we can bring that on April 22nd, that information. Yes. >> Great. Thank you. >> You have a motion. Please cast your votes. motion is approved with council member Weir voting no. Thank you. Next item, please. Council and mayor statements. At this point, I don't see any requests to speak. >> Right. Who is uh council member Arius. >> Thank you, mayor. I just got I have two items that I want to discuss today. Um one is going to be a request of our vice mayor. Um, as we've continued to make progress on streamlining our permitting process and development services, uh, we recognize that we simply have not gotten to where we need to be. Um, you know, we oftent times talk about how we want to be one of the most, uh, businessfriendly cities, uh, one of the easiest, you know, uh, cities to work with when it comes to projects coming to this particular area. And this is one of the real ways that we as a council can, you know, uh improve their experience um when they come to Bakersfield is is streamlining the process, giving them real timelines and holding ourselves to account um when we give them those timelines. And and so in that same vein, I would love to actually ask our vice mayor uh to consider the creation of an ad hoc committee uh specifically focused on streamlining development services processes. >> Thank you, Council Member Aius. Um when you first brought this up, I thought um I've bugged Phil enough times uh to kind of help what we can do uh here at the city council. So, uh, I'd like to go ahead and, um, move forward with Council Member Ary's suggestion to create an ad hoc committee to explore how we streamline those development services, um, with members to come, but volunteering council member AIS at the very least. >> Madam City Attorney, >> thank you, mayor. Um, we can put that on the next agenda and meet with the vice mayor to see what her selections are. >> Fantastic. Thank you, Jenny, and thank you, Vice Mayor. Uh the second item that I wanted to talk about is that um I continue to work with county supervisor Laticia Perez's office and several county departments um including our own city staff as well on a major issue with street vending um on the at the intersection of Castaloma and MLK Boulevard. Um it has continued to grow um and has continued to become a nuisance to that local community which is at the intersection of actually three different entities. uh the city of Bakersfield, the county of Kerna, and a local uh water district. Um and so um it's it's a tad bit complex. Um but one of the um long-term items that I think could be valuable to our city um particularly in the context that the state of California has for for the most part uh legalized street vending. Um, I would like for us to do some research and look into opportunities for us to establish a resolution or an ordinance um that would help create buffer zones uh for these street vendors um so that we can protect the brickandmortar stores and families that have invested so many dollars um of their own monies into their own businesses, into their own restaurants to ensure that we create space for both those who are street vending uh but also protect the bottom line for some of those folks who have invested in brick-andmortar stores. Thank you, >> Council Member Gonzalez. >> Thank you, Mayor. Uh, thank you, Council Member Audius, for your referral regarding permitting process. I cannot agree with you more. There have been many, many, many projects um in in W 2 that I've tried to assist on and uh frankly, our permitting process is way too slow. And um I I've made a referral uh several years ago now asking that we establish certain guarantees and timetables and be very transparent and upfront with um the community uh so that they can uh know what what to expect. Um because time is money and uh we need to also in in in addition to uh streamlining the process, we also need to establish certain uh time frames and timets that we can uh guarantee to our uh to our uh constituents in the community so we can continue to be um developer friendly, development friendly. Um I also want to make a referral tonight. Um you know, another vacant structure caught fire in downtown Bakersville at 2206 F Street. was um uh very very unfortunate. This is very frustrating because for years um I've been uh trying to sound the alarm regarding this particular site. I I think we all saw it coming that this was something that definitely could have been avoided. Um the vacant structure ordinance is a good thing in the sense that we are allowing uh property owners to register to notify code enforcement as to you know what structures are vacant and who's responsible 247. Um but uh it does not go far enough. And you know on June 12th, 2024, almost two years ago, I made a referral that we include in the vacant structure ordinance a requirement for v fire suppression and fire detection because we know that every second counts when it comes to a fire. Uh and and we just need it. There are far too many vacant structures throughout the city of Bakersfield um that are are liabilities. And I just dread I I dread to see the day when there's a large structure fire and uh and it it just becomes more of a a disaster for our surrounding community. So I'm again going to ask that we uh send this to committee and we uh bring back a revised ordinance for the consideration of the full council. Um but time is of the essence here. Um, and then the last thing, it's very light-hearted uh uh request. Um, but this year is our country's 250th anniversary, uh, and so I'm very excited that we as a community will have an opportunity to celebrate together. Um, and I'm looking forward to, of course, our traditional show at uh the park at Riverwalk. But I what I'd like to ask is that we consider a second show uh for the residents of East Bakersfield. You know, when I was growing up, we used to have a show at Bakersville College and it was it was the place that we all would go every year. Uh, and there's many memories and our city is so large, you know, 150 plus square miles. um that I think that if we're going to produce a show, we ought to produce two shows, one on the west side and one on the east side, uh to make sure that we're uh serving all of our residents throughout the community. Um I actually had an opportunity to speak with the chancellor of their current community college district today, uh Chancellor Bloomberg, who um was very excited at the idea. Uh so much so that they're willing to partner with the city of Bakersfield in helping produce that show. And so I'd like to make a referral tonight that staff uh work to see what might be possible to produce a second show in East Bakersville, the Bakersville College in partnership with the Kern Community College District. Let's uh celebrate 250 years of this country. Thank you, >> Council Member Coleman. >> Uh thank you, Mayor. Mine's a lot more light-hearted. I just want to congratulate Centennial High School's uh choir. They'll be uh performing at Carnegie Hall um this spring and they're the only school doing it. Uh so that's a real big honor for them and so they'll be uh uh going there and doing that. So I think we just need to celebrate them. So thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Basher. >> I just have a quick um add-on for uh Councilman Gonzalez's request for the second showing. If we could just get a cost analysis of what that would be, uh, I think that there might be some philanthropists in our community that might be willing to help do something additional like that in that area considering our city is not in the most financially prosperous time. But I I do like the idea. >> Vice Mayor, >> thank you, Mayor. Um, I want to close my remarks tonight by honoring that February is Black History Month and there are so many folks who uh have served our city, continue to serve our city at all levels of governance um who have been the first but never the last. And um I just wanted to take a moment to appreciate them as well as all of those um who have written history and who we honor uh this month and and every month. Thank you. Thank you. And that with that we stand adjourned at 8 p.m. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat.