[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] the 3:30 p.m. meeting of the Bakersfield City Council is now in session good afternoon it's my pleasure to call call to order the 3:30 regular city council meeting of February 26 2025 Madame clerk please call the rooll mayor go here vice mayor cor council member Adas here council member Gonzalez I'm here council member Weir council member Smith I am here council member Coman council member bashash here thank you for the record we have no members of the public in the audience and no media so we're going to dispense with the public statements right now Madam clerk next item please close session item 3A conference with labor negotiator right we are adjourned to close session [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] to [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] l [Music] the [Music] all [Music] e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] e [Music] e [Music] [Music] e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] m [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] can we just start and not take any action all right reconvening at 4:32 city manager CLE what close session action action mayor OH Close session action thank you um there was one item in Clos session tonight and there is no reportable action for the record thank you thank you city manager CLE thank you mayor and Council we have a report item uh this afternoon that's related to um priority setting for our city council initiatives and city council referrals and I'm going to just point to a couple of materials that Council has um available to them uh the first is of course this slide deck presentation that will serve as a list of these priorities um that are um categorized into sort of bunches but then the long and short of it I'm going to um I'm going to um get right to the punchline at the beginning is the shorter document that is this landscape document that's only four pages long that is what I'm recommending to council as the referrals that we as staff will be focusing on between now and the end of the fiscal year but I'll walk through this presentation that to provide a little more detail and rational as to why those are the priority referrals that we're going to be working on through the rest of the year um just to put it all into context of course we work around the priorities of the city council goals uh that is our Baseline and our framework um but those are broad statements and so of course we have initiatives that are you know more detailed underneath and uh within our Council uh strategic plan as I would refer to sort of the overall package of of different um documents those city council goals we have five we've created A Five-Year Plan that has 26 overarching objectives and within those 26 objectives there are 88 priority initiatives that we've identified as a council over the last two years we've been working on those priority initiatives we're going to have a workshop later this spring that um reviews our progress on those initiatives and many of those we've actually completed and we finished and done and others we're still working on because they're you know multi-year um challenges but even within those 88 initiatives to bring Focus we have 10 uh uh the top 10 high priority initiatives that Council identified as of highest priority and so that's again this is just to give a framework of of how uh we think through where we spend our time and effort uh those top 10 are these uh the ease of development process homelessness housing police response times was a very high priority of the council you know under as a specific element of Public Safety uh traffic safety and then annexation capital projects Charter review Economic Development and urban reinvestment were your top 10 priorities so as I looked at the referrals that are out there I was of course keeping a Keen Eye of those referrals that are connected to these highest priorities just to give a little bit of context about referrals overall um and 2020 don't assume that there were only 16 referrals this is sort of as we started a new tracking system that's how many we captured there um uh but uh over the years you know we're seeing uh a a fair busy clip of how many actions our Council asks us to take I would acknowledge that um a handful of referrals come through as you know we've got maybe a member of the public who comes to public comment and a council member will ask us to follow up with them those are the nice easy ones we we we take care of those quick but most referrals are to really review a policy aspect or to consider a large project and so referrals typically take a fair amount of time to complete and so it's a pretty big body of work to have 100 referrals that we work through in any given year 2023 good news is there are very few 2023 referrals that are still open we've got a handful that are open pending means that we actually haven't worked it and in process means we're working it there's sometimes there's a long-term uh goal that might be uh say connected to the general Plan update and that's still pending uh and others sometimes are maybe they aren't the highest priority and so they're still out there pending if you look at 2021 2022 they're similar we actually have one or two and 21 I just looked at it and one or two and 22 but overall our closure rate on prior year referrals is quite good but 2024 we're still early in 202 early enough that we have um um not quite half closed but many that we're still working on that's really the message there is that we're still working a lot of issues from 2024 it's interesting I've started tracking our referrals and are they based on those top 10 priorities and you can see there's a pretty big number of referrals that do come through that aren't necessarily connected to the items that Council has identified as highest priorities again that doesn't mean they're not worthy of work but we take that into account in deciding which ones we work on first so I'm going to be recommending what I said is you know the the short list this four-page list those are 29 referrals that we're going to work on over the next quarter through the end of the fiscal year um even 29 I would argue is a kind of a big number but some of those are packaged up so we have four referrals that are related to or actually five referrals that are related to tree canopy and four referrals that were related to uh um the traffic safety and so because we're able to work those in parallel um as you'll see in some of the upcoming slides I think we have the capacity to keep working on these 29 issues um and again as I noted we connected those referrals that are of highest priority to keep working on are those that are connected to our um priority initiatives and there are a handful that I'll highlight that work was already in progress whether that was at a council committee or or staff was already working on those topics and it makes sense to finish them out don't think I don't assume you're going to be able to read this this is just to communicate to you on this slide this is this is your Council priority initiative tracking sheet just so you know we have a very detailed log of these initiatives and the status updates and this is the referral tracking spreadsheet that the help team Michelle and polar keep updated for us just so you know we're tracking very close detail but this would make all of our heads swim to spend half an hour looking at that level of detail so I'm just showing you that we have it but I'm going to zoom back out to just focus on the big picture of these referrals so the number one priority of the council is the ease of the development process and we have two referrals that are out there uh still and and you'll note you might wonder about some of this formatting I chose to um just take the content right out of those tracking spreadsheets and that's why it's in the different boxes colors and and font but it's to reflect uh again those tracking sheets we have so we have two referrals that are related to the ease of development process and actually there's a lot of work going into the ease of development process even Beyond those two referrals but just highlighting that the reason we're going to work on those referrals is because we're working on the ease of development as one of our highest priority areas this item actually didn't have any referrals but I wanted to reflect that it isn't a priority initiative of the council that we're working because there's a lot of momentum with the developer and a study that the council approved so we're working on the megga site and we're going to have a presentation on the mega site in in sometime this spring for Council parking uh Enterprise we did complete the feasibility study and so we've got a referral out on that one and so we're going to keep working the parking Enterprise because we've got a little bit of momentum behind that and then the Mills Act is actually a referral all the way from 2021 that is um that is also a priority initiative of the council that we're going to keep working uh through this next quarter um we did have this referral that was not connected to a priority initiative but just acknowledging it here for the council that there's again enough energy here and this has been discussed that we're going to continue to you know look at what are the um options and viability for Crystal Palace and I probably should have said at the outset I've batched these into each of the council goals and so you'll see at the top of each slide these have been the economic development related priorities and referrals that we're going to work on I have two slides for each of the five goal sections just to show because you might ask yourself well why didn't that referral I made it's not on the list the city manager why isn't it on the list well there could be three different reasons one we've already finished it two that it's still coming uh uh or uh three um because uh we we don't quite have the capacity and so it's you know it's still going to be a pending into you know the future once we can get to it so for reflection we've had referrals on all of these topics here that we've made a lot of progress on the entrepreneurship grants we're going to still continue that work but we're in good um motion there and we don't need to you know change course we did create the Downtown Development Fund and we've been funding it the Oldtown current visioning is well underway um we did help um the county and other partners acquire some grant funding to get at the air the direct air capture um we had some referrals around and large facade grants that we've been able to address and then uh the youth jobs uh did include um some trade apprenticeships which um knocked something out U from some referrals uh in the last year what what is still coming that is not going to be the highest priority in the next quarter is you know we've talked about our energy Innovation Center the advance manufacturing Park we've just got other work we need to finish up before we can get to these in the new fiscal year here we've also got some of our um Redevelopment agency replacement tools that we're going to do some early leg work with staff but I don't expect us to bring those forward to Council in the next three months but I do in the next year uh we we're working on Oldtown Kar uh but it's going to be a few more months until we come back to the downtown and Chester Redevelopment plans uh the downtown element is there's a referral around that but it's tied into the general Plan update so it's going to take some time and then um we had priority initiatives around an economic development ordinance some mixed use projects and a trade school that again we're just going to have to get to those after we knock out some of these other items Switching gears into uh safety and resilience and I did some quick numbers we had the most referrals related to safety and resilience that's Public Safety and homelessness and multimodal and so go figure we had a lot of activity in these areas number one priority is working on the jail bed Challenge and we have a referral and a priority initiative related to to that topic uh we didn't have followup referrals but it is worth Council knowing that our our technology and fire and police staff are working on the radio system we're we're heavy into that work we it's worth noting that the doj stipulated judgment does take a lot of Staff time and so I I put that there just to communicate to council that we can't assume um that that's not a part of the big body of work the staff has to deliver on um on the fire side there's um a specific um initiative around reducing number of arson so I just um reflecting also that the recent referral um by council member or vice mayor core about firem plan that is underway and we're going to be working that over the next few months these are a couple of referrals that didn't have priority initiatives but we are working them Union Avenue has actually been a challenging spot for law enforcement and so we've um taken some initiative to work um that area specifically and then um the police department was already working on a policy related to these automatic license plate reading cameras because it is important to have um some protocols around that and so we're going to you know continue to just complete that because PD was already working on it Switching gears into multimodal uh again uh we actually have if you look at the priority initiatives there a few sub bullets underneath there but would there wasn't space on the slide to to include all those sub bullets but uh we know there's a lot of work to be done with with several different multimodal projects and and and uh safety projects and just reflecting that there are also several referrals related to those it's a priority top five priority of the council and we're going to keep working that issue in this next quarter and I I'm sure Beyond but uh the main point for this one is uh we will be putting a good amount of work into that uh topic area in this uh coming quarter Switching gears a little bit more into that the homelessness space uh We've we had some referrals to look at the eviction Protection Program we're going to come back I'm actually going to not include it at midyear next week we're going to go over midyear but in April we'll have our six-month pilot update Workshop presentation to the council and uh then uh we've been working really hard on on proposition one and trying to get the county and other partners to submit applications the city participated in one of those applications and you've got an item on your agenda tonight that's related to that um and so we know one of the biggest impacts we can have on the shelter populations and sort of unsheltered populations is getting folks into treatment so we need more of these Behavioral Health residential options um and so we're working this the referral specifically from council member Gonzalez but also other projects to try and get more of those beds some of that will be sort of city pushed but we're also trying to get many of our partners to really step in there because it's not historically been our area of work and I wouldn't recommend the city try to do all this work on our own really Partners need to do that work but we're trying to step up and help make that happen quicker a couple of uh referrals related to just really the The Chronic homeless population and Care court that didn't have a direct uh Council priority initiative but these are again at the heart of you know trying to address homelessness and encampments and so we're working each of these three referrals related to the care Court Homeward Bound and just sort of our full service um Suite that's available to folks who are experiencing homelessness in our community housing is also a piece of this element and so um you will see some slides that have some yellow highlights that I'm just trying to point to the specific aspects of those Council initiatives that are going to be a priority in this coming quarter and so we're going to be working really closely on um affordable housing we've hired a new assistant to the city manager whose um priority assignments are going to be around housing um and uh we had one referral that was related to lean forgiveness program that connects to these priority initiatives that are also going to we're going to be working hard in the coming quarter uh this is a separate initiative that I would say is closely related to the prior one that our Adu incentive program uh needs to get launched and you know we've we've been ready to launch for a long time and that's going to be a priority in the next quarter to get that out the door some other recent accomplishments we had some specific initiatives and referrals related to the number of impact teams and police teams and so in this last year we we went up to our fourth impact team and we have um four Co response teams that are addressing encampments the mental health clinician Staffing and the Communication Center has been a huge benefit the utilization of private security um has actually made paid pretty big dividends uh the gun violence reduction strategy has been very successful and the security grant program to both Cycles were fully subscribed and and um have had very good feedback from businesses who've been recipients of those grants um also I broke these up into some subcategories because the list was long for Public Safety we had the complete streets ordinance and resolution and we've had numerous multimodal demonstration projects built in this last year and as it relates to homelessness we did create our community Vitality team they're doing very good work we did the expansion of the the shelter Community Land Trust has been formed and we've implemented several pieces of a neighborhood stabilization program but what's still coming is we have had some referrals on domestic violence strategy we're actually keenly interested in those and and propelling off of our gun violence reduction strategies but I think it's going to take us another quarter to knock out for me really that's about leaving myself and PD capacity to address the jailb issue and then in the new year really focus on domestic violence um and then um we've talked about some of our challenging Alleyways we want to get at that but again it just hasn't quite raised to the highest level and so we're going to probably have to get to that in the new year and then we've talked about a master eir for mixed use projects that's going to be lumped into the um General Plan update which we'll address that uh instead of trying to take it as a oneoff shifting gears into reliable infrastructure just want to point out that um we have had a council and you know priority to get as many project shovel ready as possible that's going to be continue to be a really big Focus for us in this coming um um quarter uh also uh the Community Choice aggregator is something that we're actively working on it was listed as an initial feasibility study we've done one feasibility study but we're actually just working beyond that initial feasibility study to be able to come back to council with what we would argue is you know um the business case for why it works we're going to be working that in the next quarter uh we've had several um solar Concepts and we've actually done a fair amount of work in the basic implementation of what I would kind of call Basic solar through the first phase of solar panels in many of our city facilities and parking lots but we just completed an RFP to hire folks on board to really look at some some more Creative Solutions around solar that would also be much bigger you know you know much um more acreage of solar that would really reduce City costs um for utilities and potentially create some economic development opportunities and so we're going to be working that alongside with the Community Choice aggregator in next quarter um in reliable infrastructure that's an area where we've completed a lot of projects we got a lot of projects to still do but you know manag Street's done Centennial quar open we've got seventh movement underway eighth movement under design eighth movement will be an important um construction piece to get going in this um um probably in the next year but it's high on our list again we've done a lot of the shovel Readiness there's more to be done in those areas um complete streets projects for multiple um areas you know Niles Monteray MLK Boulevard 18th 19th 8 Street Chester Street and we've been able to get big grants for those we're not done with those projects so they're not listed here but we did a lot of the design for those projects there's actually a specific referral about repaving then we have changed how we're doing Paving and we're able to pave much faster and much more efficiently and we're we're making progress on our pavement condition index because of that we did finish our facility condition assessment and the turf turf replacement program is working we're going to continue it but kind of the the initial work of getting that going and figuring out how to do that is kind of uh under the belt now and we're just going to continue to have several projects every year we go out and and um get those maintenance savings and and water savings by uh replacing the turf with with other Landscaping uh what items that were listed as either priority initiatives or referrals that are still kind of out there is of course Hegman flyover that's you know pending and uh some strategy and funding uh We've have a solid waste facilities master plan that we still got to come back to council with some Broadband installation and our fueling and charging stations are some some fairly big ticket items that um we need to get at but it's not going to be in the next quarter two more goals to go I think we'll get us done here with a little break before our next meeting Community character and quality of life I've highlighted here we actually have completed our Municipal Services review residential zoning ordinance update and we've taken a different approach on the climate action plan but what's still ahead of us is habitat conservation plan finish the housing element we're very close we believe and then keep working on the general Plan update through next year uh clean City initiative uh we've actually accomplished everything on there that's not in yellow and so we're working on the illegal dumping we're going to shift gears to focus a little more on the illegal dumping in this next quarter um because we made progress in those other areas and we have um two different referrals that we're going to work related uh that are related to Illegal dumping the island annexation we've made a lot of progress we've actually adopted the four small islands and the four big islands are in process um council's approved those and laco's approved I think two of those and two are going to be soon and so really where we're turning our attention now is a bigger fiveyear strategy of where we're going to go after the the big annexation chunks now that we've taken care of those Island areas M Park uh is going to continue to be um a focus for recreation in parks and um I just reflected here even though it's not totally related it's the closest fit we have that referral from council member Freeman to look at the UN developed parks that are still remaining and you'll see one action at midyear to start to chip away at that these are just two uh referrals uh that weren't connected to Priority items but were already in the works one was the sign ordinance that's gone to committee a couple of times and we're we're close to wrapping that up we just want to you know finish that out and then the tobacco retail license we've had progress there but there's still some interest in looking at uh additional aspects but it's been in process and so we'll we'll carry that one through in this next quarter uh these are the tree U uh referrals that I noted and these are fairly recent so I'm not going to read through each one of these but just noting that um based on Council interest despite that there wasn't you know maybe a an an existing priority initiative back from you know a couple years ago's uh plan clearly a lot of council interest on this topic and so we you know we have been and will work uh these tree related referrals in this next quarter as well I noted the first one of these already our Parks master plan is done um we've completed many Park projects and underserved communities we had several referrals and initiatives around that we did receive the TCC and Community change grants if you look back at our original plan we hadn't gotten there yet and we've now got those done and uh we have made improvements to our community event and special events permit process I would point to that is on this list as well because we did kind of an initial phase but we know there's probably more to be done around special event permits but we're going to give some of these changes a little time to settle in and come back to that probably next year year uh we we've had on the list some of these Gateway and beautification projects for some time um just looking at the body of work we're trying to push through we're not going to get to those in this next quarter I think we'll come back to those in this coming year Water Management plan is something that water's working on but I don't see that coming back to this Council until next fiscal year there was a specific initiative on water conservation and enforcement again we're kind of prioritizing some other items and that'll come back to later and then the motel registry um there were actually four different referrals on motel and sort of Motel accountability but um we've taken some of that to committee we've sort of I think have some interim measures come out of committee but any bigger further actions probably going to come up in housing element General plan and so we're going to come back to that one we think in next year and our final goal around Innovative and efficient government we can't leave this one out and I just put a highlight here that we've we have created this performance audit program with our contract help we've done several projects over the last two and a half years and but we've got a whole slate of projects for this coming year uh that's on tap it's going to be around capital projects grants management some of our procurement policies and so we're going to you know I just wanted Council to know we're going to keep working that program because it pays big dividends in the long run also one of our initiatives is around vacancies and we just keep pushing hard we've got you know still 170 to 180 vacancies you know typically at any given point that's about a 10% vacancy rate you know so those numbers sound big but don't forget we're a large organization we' like to be at a 5% 5% is a fairly typical turnover rate vacancy rate but 10% is higher than we want to be we're going to keep pushing at that uh we are also we've we've created our um an internal process for Grant monitoring and we've been very successful at Grants the next step in that process is to actually have a piece of software that helps us to manage and track all of that uh and so that's going to be something we'll get done in this next quarter um just reflecting on some of the items that are again listed as either referrals or initiatives our reserves have been in very good shape we actually have created the fire service fee to try and collect some new revenues the Erp for finance is in uh um really the clean up of implementation uh we did start our Advanced metering infrastructure um uh pilot with some Grant funds class and comp has been a big lift we've established key performance indicators and this last bullet as highly summarized there's many aspects where we've hired our federal lobbyists and we've been very active in legislation and successful in Grants so we've we really have made progress in increasing our presence in Sacramento and Washington what still coming is there there was actually an item on council's list about the short-term rental revenue and that's you know been a topic of some conversation at committee and so it's been pushed off to the future we still have another piece of Erp a big piece is the HR piece um Charter review we actually completed the initial piece but then in this coming uh year we'll get at the specific piece that Council directed staff to follow up on um we have some dashboards that we need to build out around the kpis and and goals even though we've established the kpis we need to find a way to make them more Visual and then lastly I just we had several initiatives related to some of our just efficiencies in digital transformation and there's still lots more coming there but we're just picking the right projects because we've got other bigger priorities right now and some some more of that work is going to come down the road so I know I walked through that pretty quick I think the big you know question again for Council is you know what's on the list what's not on the list uh I would suggest to council that I try to be very thoughtful in which referrals we're going to focus on based on what I'm hearing is the highest priorities of council both listed as your priority initiatives as well as the you know feedback from the council in meetings and um uh identified what we think is the capacity in in each of the work areas that we think this is what we can tackle in the next um 3 to four months and some of those other items will will'll come back to in the next coming year with that I'm happy to take any questions thank you Christian thank you for all of your efforts and staff's efforts you know 46% of the referrals fall outside the top 10 priorities and the top 10 priorities are very Broad in themselves so how are those 46% of the referrals impacting staff's ability and capacity I know you're trying to juggle but that seems like a lot that fall out of the top 10 priorities if indeed those are priorities and that's what the council stated as the top 10 priorities yeah thank you mayor and and um as I noted at the beginning you know typically there's a handful of referrals that are pretty quick you know to take care of but most referrals take a fair amount of time and so it does create uh some strain on staff and I think sometimes you know you might see even some of those priority initiatives go a little slower than we want because we're stretching out to try and catch excuse me all of the referrals and so that's why um we wanted to create this process for once a quarter we really come back Council and say hey we're going to focus in get progress and and um things done on this smaller list of items uh so that we can knock out the biggest ones first and then come back and focus on some of those other items because they do sometimes distract from the stuff that's the big stuff thanks Council Maris mayor I think you made my point is it it's just that I think it's so important that uh not only at the staff level and at you know at level but also as a council that we do what we can to ensure that we as we continue to make referrals um to make requests of staff that we do our absolute best to make sure that what we are requesting of staff is you know within not only uh what we're responsible for as a city uh but also falls within our our initiatives and priorities um that we've established um as a council um so Christian I just want to say C kudos to you for putting this together uh this was actually one of the recommendations that the consultant that we had worked with uh last summer um was that we have these regular updates on all of the different referrals um and Christian you're right um there are many requests that we get from constituents and I'm glad that this really excludes some of those uh requests and really focuses in on um the non-constituent referrals that are made um a question for you we do have two new council members um on the dis what is what is the plan in the works to uh redo our city council priorities to give them an opportunity thank thank you yeah thank you counc mayor and councel we um the last um concerted prioritization process was actually two years ago at this time and so it is time for a refresh we've got a a facilitator selected we've got a workshop date set aside for April the 10th and we'll spend U about a half day really really digging in and um that'll be an opportunity for the council new council members to you know talk about things that are important to you what you're hearing from your constituents reflect and review um some of the progress that we've made on other you know initiatives and I and I expect and and hope a little bit of a reshuffling you know we may say you we we still want to work on some of those things but these things have emerged as bigger priorities now so April 10th we'll have that workshop with Council to reset fantastic um I just have one other question for you um habitat conservation plan um what is the plan and timeline for that to come back to the council you will note that it was on the list for this next quarter uh we um do have what we believe is a revised approach that we think that the uh state cdfw department will support and we we've got a consultant um putting that on paper so that we can come back to council with a recommendation for how to um bring that forward we need to do some stakeholder Outreach we think still because that's um a topic that impacts some of our stakeholders pretty significantly um but um the last time we brought it forward you know we didn't really have a solution I think that was tenable um across the you know the board for folks and so we've had to rethink and but we do have a revised approach and we're we're um putting some of the details to it so we can bring it forward to council and stakeholders for consideration in before the end of the fiscal year fantastic thank you um my only other comment is that um I really appreciate you um keeping council member Freeman's uh referrals in this document although he's not on the Das I think these two particular referrals um around multimodal traffic caling um and the other around um the 11 unconstructed Parks um throughout the city of Bakers so they're really important even though he's not on the dice that we continue forward on on that work thank you thank you council member ARS we need a motion to receive and file council member BOS I'll make a motion motion uh you have a motion please cast your votes motion is approved with council members core and Weir absent thank you and with that we stand adjourn at 50:07 we'll start again at 5:15 with our next meeting and there [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] there [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] right [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] w [Music] [Music] welcome to the Bakersfield city council meeting this television broadcast is brought to you by the local cable companies the county of karna and the City of Bakersfield you can watch the rebr welcome to the Bakersfield City council meeting this television broadcast is brought to you by the local cable companies the county of karna and the City of Bakersfield you can watch the rebroadcast of this meeting Saturday at 700 p.m. Sunday at 10:00 a.m. and the following Wednesday at 700 p.m. you can download the agenda for this meeting at www. Bakersfield city. us Pres citing 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 26 2025 Madame clerk please call the rooll mayor go here vice mayor core council member Adas here council member Gonzalez here council member Weir council member Smith council member Coman here council member bash OS here thank you and welcome to all of you a special Welcome to our students from Professor Holmes class at Bakersville College it's always good to have you here we have the pleasure tonight of having pastor Joe Gomez of Victory Outreach Bakersville uh to offer our invocation Pastor thank you so much for your work in the community I've seen Victory Outreach at many food giveaways backpack giveaways toy drives and other types of outreaches following the invocation our 2025 Bakersfield pageant title holders will lead us in the pledge they recently were crowned uh I it's always such a joy to see this group because it's not a beauty pageant although they are beautiful they are chosen on their ability to serve our community I see them multiple times a week week in service for more than 30 years the Bakersville pageant has actively engaged with local nonprofits dedicating time dedicating resources and supporting initiatives thank you so much for your volunteerism your service and making a positive impact I know Saturday Sunday night after night you're out there so thank you very much and tonight we have with us Mrs Bakersville Erica Kimmel uh you can go ahead and stand up who actively contribut to the community through her church and local nonprofits she's been a teacher for 9 years and will graduate with her Masters in curriculum and instruction this summer thank you and then miss Bakersville Isabella Edwards studied human development at UC Davis she's a stay-at-home mom who is passionate about child development and aspires to work at a child care facility and then we have Miss Baker's phille Georgia Meadow a senior at Liberty High School and a sophomore at big bville college she aspires to become a family attorney and is currently working as a fitness instructor and volleyball coach and then lastly we have Miss Teen Bakersville Molly Molly McKinley a junior at North High and hopes to major in Neuroscience in college she's very passionate about education and health care and aspires to become a pediatric neurologist and with them also is Kimberly price who is more or less their mother and is with them uh every single day every night and every weekend Pastor would you all please now stand and we will have our invocation and pledge thank you so very much mayor I appreciate you guys and uh thank you for having us here mayor and the fellow councilmen and women on behalf of Pastor Berle and sister Arlene of Victory Outreach in our congregation not only thank you for the invitation to do this but thank you guys for all the work that you do you guys do a lot of work in this city I have known Miss May mayor go for many many years now I've seen the work that she's done and alongside of the rest of you that do so uh good work Andre we've done some things together in the community so thank you so much for having us here we count it a privilege let's go ahead and bow our heads as we pray father we come before you in the name Christ son your Jesus your son and we thank you for all that you've done in this great City and for all that you are about to do within this great City I pray for each and every person and household that calls bakersfi their home peace and prosperity not only in the typical sense of those words but peace and prosperity in their families peace and prosperity in their health wealth and let love peace and joy fill their homes businesses and the streets of Bakersville for those are much more valuable than financial gain and right now I ask that you be the heart mind and will of our mayor and city council as they make decisions that will better our city for us and for our children and our children's children Lord your word says in Proverbs 29 to pray for your city for if your city prospers we too will prosper thank you Lord Jesus for your mercy and Grace over our lives and continue to have grace and mercy on this beautiful city we all love and call Home Bakersfield in Jesus name amen and amen thank you so much salute pledge I pledge algi 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 you may be seated pastor we receed that peace and prosperity for our entire Community thank you very much you're welcome to uh leave at this point or uh stay and join us for the meeting same thing for the Bakersville pageant thank you very much here a few guidelines to help our meeting run smoothly we request that you turn off your phones please be courteous in the use of cameras and videos for safety reasons and as a courtesy to others no signs are allowed in the council chamber or in the lobby everyone in attendance is expected to adhere to the rules of theorum established by resolution of the city council failure to abide by the city's rules of Quorum 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 your removal from the meeting and or the chambers being cleared behavior that disrupts the meeting includes repetitive statements shouting interrupting staff or presenters during the meeting speaking out of turn Outburst from the audience and surpassing the two-minute time limit in keeping with the council's resolution public statements are now received at different times depending on the item I'll call on the city clerk to call for public statements at the appropriate time so please listen carefully if you wish to make a public statement please fill out a public speaker card and place it in the tray on the counter next to the speaker's Podium we ask that you mark whether you're here to speak on an item listed on tonight's agenda or in a matter not on the agenda speakers who do not identify a specific agenda item will be presumed speakers for non-agenda public statements if you're here to speak on an item not listed on the meeting agenda you will be called first to speak statements are given a two-minute time limit 20 minutes total for all non-agenda item public statements if you're here to speak on an item listed on the agenda I will call for you at a later time if public statements become disruptive and I've 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 Madam clerk do we have any public speakers regarding items not listed on the agenda mayor go we've received uh eight public speaker cards for items not listed on tonight's agenda the first public speaker is Lisa Smith St is there a staff member who can help her oh you have it I don't that's we'll pretend that's what we do in class when the technology doesn't work Miss Smith can you talk into the mic please and if you need any help is there a staff member who can just assist oh okay that would be it um Miss Smith go ahead so I wanted to come tonight to clear up some misconceptions from the last meeting and also to give you some background 35 years ago I was invited to volunteer as a residential adviser to the Planning Commission for the purpose of writing the Bakersfield oil code for the next several years I worked at chain younger for Robert tofoa before he was a judge and raised two children and worked on this community issue and began 16 years of excellent instruction at California's colleges and universities resulting in an adopted oil code and five College degrees as a result of that excellent education I learned how to read a map which is why I know that the county has no involvement in the trip areas annexed by the city the gray areas here cutting through the white is County and the gray is City and these are the areas where we are having issues the sheriff has no jurisdiction or responsibility for these lots and no reason to be involved in it on December 22nd 2023 I met with Gary Howen Greg stalo Renee Williams and two of your trip Engineers about problems on those lots that's how I know there are 14 of them in my neighborhood where they are and their potential for sale and also that it will take two to three years from now for them to be sold there are 14 here there are at least 20 going between Stockdale North to truckton you're beginning the seventh movement and you will have more and then following is the eighth movement so here we are with unhoused people camping and setting fires on the embankments with children running up the embankments to play near the traffic Lanes Mr Meyers doing an amazing job catching up addressing issues that are years old trying to put together a safety plan and actually get people to patrol these Lots Because by the time this is over I'm guessing you'll have about 60 I know that one of the largest Lots costing I'm just reading my last sentence can I okay yes please go ahead I know that one of the largest Lots causing most of the problems is being considered as a parking lot and would have a fence and a card lock I wish you could have done that for our children as well as your vehicles than next speaker please this is anybody want a map you don't need a map okay next speaker please Charlie find F Miss Smith you can just leave those in the box and we'll get those thank you welcome please introduce yourself good evening M mayor and council members my name is Charlie vard I am the executive director for be finally free I would like to bring a matter to your attention be finally free has an ESG street street Outreach Grant from the from the county occurring allowing us to engage with individuals experiencing homelessness connect them to services and provide and provide support however we when we attempt to refer individuals to the city uh to the city's BR Lane navigation Center we are consistently told we're consistently denied access we are told that only flood Ministries has a designated Street Outreach provider can place people into shelter yet when we reach out to flood to be good at Community Partners we are often often met with response that there are no beds available during Co it made sense to centralize shelter referrals due to the public health restrictions I knew that because I worked that for the time but those restrictions no longer exist and it's time to ensure that all organizations including be finally free can directly place people into shelter we are here to collaborate and maximize use of available resources not to be turned away while people remain on the streets I urge the city to to reconsider these policies and remove unnecessary barri barriers so we can better serve those in need thank you thank you mam cler next speaker council member Gonzalez uh thank you Charlie for being here and thank you for uh your nonprofits great work uh in the community uh I it's really appreciated um by this Council um I'm going to make a referral ask um Mr Valdez our assistant city manager if you would connect um and perhaps talk through some of these things as it comes to as it relates to a referral system at blnc there's a lot of thought that has been put into the referral system at blnc and other considerations that we've taken in order to make it uh efficient um and effective for for all parties involved and so U but but certainly would like to work with all other agencies and nonprofit so would would um love to see if Mr Valdez could have that conversation with you outside of this meeting thank you M cler next speaker please an l oh sorry uh council member Arius thank you mayor I also wanted to thank Mr Vander for uh coming tonight and uh echo my colleague sentiments that we really appreciate all the great work that you and your organization are doing um but I just wanted to I think this is a really important moment to um to to to to clarify and share that you know the homelessness problem is unfortunately continuing to grow not just in our city but throughout you know the state and and Nationwide um it's it's it's unfortunate but I think it's an important moment to um underscore the importance of creating and building capacity and helping uplift local organizations smaller nonprofits who are trying to get into the work uh it should be part of our role and our responsibility um working in collaboration with the homeless collaborative and those organizations that have done this for decades um but to really help uplift um organizations like be finally free to be able to help do their part um and help us solve the greater issue of homelessness so again just want to say thank you and uh hope that um Mr Valdez can work his magic uh to to make sure that we're able to uplift you in the work that you're doing thank you thank you C AR he's waiting for you right back there so thank you uh next speaker please anow welcome please introduce yourself good afternoon everybody so my name is Dr anawa I'm a faculty member in the department of biology at CSUB and I'm also member of the Sierra Club and I'm here to talk about the tree plan so a while ago the city of Bakersfield has published an official tree plan that should lead to the development of an urban Forest improving the tree canopy here in Bakersfield and also improving how we take care of our trees so when my faculty colleagues and I and also community members um were studying this tree plan we realized that there were some key points missing and that the whole plan was more a vision or Miss Mission but not really um a plan that contains protocols and how to do things so we also found a couple other flaws and we developed an addendum that was officially accepted by the city council that was accepted by Rick Antony and he said it will be on the website will be published but we have not seen it so I wonder why that is I'm a little confused so when something is officially accepted it should be also visible to the public and we had a lot of signes on this addendum we had a lot of people from the community and my faculty colleagues they all ask me what's going on is it now accepted or not so and the faculty and community members we also like to serve the city of Baker speed we like to we like to help with our backgrounds we have political science Majors we have scientists in biology and chemistry so we can actually really help that this plan will turn into a success so we really hope to see that uh that aeno will be officially adopted and that we can get to work thank you thank you Mr L next speaker please Sharon brille welcome please welcome welcome um thank you for the opportunity to speak I'd like to share my um observations from the tree Advisory Group tag meeting that we had on February 10th uh we had a diverse group of people and they were all engaged it was very exciting to see so many different backgrounds coming to the meeting I think we had over 30 people but I did have concerns after the meeting and a part of what was discussed there was a real lack of guidance coming from the addendum you'll remember that you approved this addendum on November 20th which outlines protections for our Urban forest and it was not referenced at all in the meeting additionally when I checked the um the city website to see the um summary of the agendas that were decided on the 20th it was also lacking in that summary which made me feel very uncomfortable the tag is not a standing committee under the council's oversight and there's no indication the meeting notes will be made public for accountability I really believe tag has to be established as a formal City committee or within another committee that's already established and lastly I have a concern with a conflict of interest in the tree inventory process the park and Recreation director suggested that tree trimming vendors should be conducting the tree inventory with a contract now over a million dollars this presents a clear conflict of interest many trees remain untrimmed and allowing the vendor to assess his own work doesn't seem to be the right way to go we have many volunteers including myself that is willing to learn how to become a tree evaluator and give feedback back to tag so I thank you very much for your attention and I'm hoping that you're going to move forward in strengthening the tag group thank you m BR next speaker please Eddie Lane welcome please introduce yourself I'm I'm a little shorter than Miss real I'm Eddie lane from the S Club we've been here several times about these issues and we've met personally with two or three four members of the council maybe five about these issues these are the Tre issues we've made recommendations again and again we're and we're really delighted at the leadership that Cal State took on November 20th when we came before you and we were so pleased at the response that we got from this Council a very positive response and I remember I remember uh looking at the audience and say will you stand up if you're ready to go to work a lot of people stood up so we're still ready to go to work but something happened we had a misstep and when we went to that uh meeting talking about the formation of the tree advisory committee uh it was clear that it's to be a a committee led by City staff sta well we want to be a regular part of the city business as a direct with a connect direct connection with this elected officials that's what we ask for that's what our desire and that that is not going that was not the the plan when we got when we got later later we got what's called I don't know if you've seen it interest form and I could read it to you but uh the the committee is supposed to be chaired by the city's arborist well no the the staff are supposed to support the community not the other way around so we're asking that we be formally Incorporated at with one as one of your committee members and that the staff support us um and that all those folks who were here uh be allowed to to work for you that was that was our intent um and there's another problem too and that's that we can talk a lot about these issues but the rubber meets the road where where it's really happening or not happening uh councilman Gonzalez is aware that a few weeks ago um magnolia trees were planted in this little median there on Baker Street well magnolia trees and I'm not an expert magnolia trees are not native the California native plant society's made that clear so our groups uh Sarah Club the C state uh the foundation the native plant so we're ready to go to work but we need to be formally connected to the city thank you thank you Mr Lane next speaker please Empress non celo welcome please introduce yourself I am Empress no and to ziki Leo Zulu for blessed Visionary it is my great pleasure to come before you this evening and pay homage or appreciation to a consant city council person and that person is Andre Gonzalez who has probably the most challenging ward in the city but he has proven time and time again his hard work his genuine sincere efforts to uplift an area that has been so long neglected he doesn't mind getting into the trenches and or and arm with his constituents and working for that area and I I know he has sometimes we have been kind of friction but we've learned how to link arms and come together and work for a community that I grew up in and I'm still living in that Community that's the southeast East and Southeast and I am thankful for that last week I I'm I'm over I'm just overwhelmed at how I was able to get a new roof on my home through this council person and Brand Construction I'm not on Facebook right now but I did do a review for bran and I wanted to come publicly and speak for my city council person who is really working hard making a difference in an area that has been long disinvested him along with new Administration like um my city manager I can't even think of his name right now but he's there and his City staff and how it's a new day and you've heard me say that it's a new day it's not business as usual ual and we're thankful for that thank you city man uh city councilman Andre Gonzalez thank you council member Gonzalez Miss Empress thank you so much that was such a surprise and it warmed my heart and uh it's not often that we get folks coming to the dice to uh give us a compliment so uh I appreciate that and honestly I want to say uh you know the work that is being done on the city city side is really performed by all the hardworking men and women women with throughout the city and um I'm so proud of all of them and all the hard work that they've put in uh so thank you so much for the compliment to me but really I want to give it to all of the folks who are working at City Hall and I also want to recognize you because you've been a tremendous Community leader for several years now and really being a voice for uh the neighborhoods that have been long disinvested and it means so much to me that we have people like you in our community and I think we should all be thankful for it and finally uh you mentioned that that sometimes there's uh disagreement and some friction and I I agree but I think that's a good thing because that means that we both want uh the best for the city but we're coming at it from two different perspectives I often think about um something that one of my professors said was um thesis and antithesis leads to synthesis and that that by having different perspectives and by challenging one another and by having tough conversations that we can actually move to something even greater so uh thank you so much it was really really sweet of you to uh to come today and it means a lot to me thank you next speaker please Maria polite welcome please introduce yourself thank you I'm Maria polite and I'm here to speak about the trees and I ran across an article in The Nature Conservancy magazine and it talks about Louisville Kentucky where they cities and citizens got together and planted 8,000 mature trees and the amazing result was improved Health fewer heart attacks fewer Strokes so I went ahead and went to Office Max and had articles run off for each of you um it looks like this I had them done in color because I thought it was really worth it and I hope you'll be able to take the time to read it and get us going on this project we South Bakersville is going to open up and and Southeast Bakers field and we can plant trees we I can plant a tree and I can help so thank you and take the time to look through the article goodbye thank you Miss polite next speaker please mayor oh Robert [Music] hooks uh hi my name is Robert hooks um I was here for the last meeting and uh was speaking to the fact that I think the diversity of our population and our industry really allows us to set an example for the state and even the country and how we can all work together uh and then one of the couple big issues these days with the farmers right the farmers lost money uh from the USDA funds that were frozen and they recently had some climate data that was pulled down from websites that essential for their planning so I was really hoping that we can Advocate and support them uh on another topic uh Dei you know Dei has been subject to a lot of misinformation disinformation in my opinion uh diversity is all the ways that we differ right and inclusion is valuing those different differences uh and equality is equity is is being Equitable with people right which is really a merit-based proposal right and process and and so you can see that there are really literally major opportunities to implement Dei in a company in a um city council or in a city and in the county uh that really support all the people without all the rhetoric that's going on these days I still keep finishing early so I like to throw in something for the trees too I heard everything today and I think it's a good call thank you madam clerk do we have any other speakers in this category may go that was our final speaker thank you and how about uh public statement requests for agenda no public speaker cards have been received for agenda items thank you are you trying to council member arus thank you mayor um I just wanted to respond to some of the speakers tonight um talking about some of the tree issues that we have in our city um I I'm in I'm in full agreement with a lot of what's been said tonight um and I think the overarching message that I heard was that we really need all of us to come together um to really drive this work forward um it's not just going to be you know the council or just staff or our contractors um or you know our community activists and organized folks who have been helping push us along the way it's really going to require all of us um to you know see this plan um you know become a reality for our city um so I just wanted to ask uh the city manager we've talked about this a number of times it's actually uh for those who are not at our 3:30 meeting we had a council referral priority list uh given to us by our city manager and on that Referral List is the item uh that I referred to the safe and healthy neighborhoods committee that we receive updates on this work so I just wanted to give the city manager an opportunity to respond to some of those comments Mr click yeah thank you Council mayor mayor and Council first I would reflect uh as Council marus noted the safe neighborhoods committee that was a referral that was made before we had had some adjustments to the committee names and committee Scopes and so in my conversations with um vice mayor or I think her intent was that now the the Housing and Community Development Community uh committee would probably take up topics of the heat island effect and we wanted to consider you know the tree canopy as a major aspect of that and so between the chair you know yourself you know chair as the safe um neighborhoods committee or the chair of the housing and commit development committee one of those two committees I think you know would be the the place where this connection to council policymaking would be made I would respectfully suggest that there's a lot of value to The Advisory Group being able to work you know down into details of thoughts and ideas and you know practices uh whereas at the the council committee level that's where typically policy gets adopted and so um we do want to create that connection to a council committee where the the work of the tree Advisory Group can come up to that committee to be reviewed to be discussed to be you to take policy action on um but with the you know pretty full schedules that those committees keep uh we would suggest that uh you know regular intervals be updated to one of those two committees uh but let the Advisory Group meet much more often and really get into the the details and and work out U many of those topics so it is in our work plan this year uh to have uh regular committee updates at the council level on policy issues related to the recommendations and suggestions coming out of the Advisory Group I think it is also respectfully again you know valuable for Council to consider you know um the role that Council plays and and sort of the parody that you have with other committees and commissions and the topics that you take up and that there's a lot of details that's you know that the our our good stakeholders want to talk about and and we appreciate the support we appreciate the energy we want to see many of those good things happen um but much of that work is happening at that staff level H especially you know some of the the details of operations and uh then shifting gears I I would also just reflect really quickly because you I want to be just transparent with everyone that my interpretation of the action that we took when we adopted the parks master plan is that we included as an addendum or as like an attachment the the recommendations or the the information that was shared by our partners I did not interpret that as the city council action approving and committing to doing all the things that were recommended um as to where that can be found 100% we can make sure that that gets publicly viewed put on you know uh our web page my assumption is that you know as an addendum to the parks master plan it will be visible anywhere we have a link to the parks master plan and again really good information that we have to work through but you know some of those budgetary decisions need to be made by the council year-over-year this city council adopts the budget for how much we commit to um implementing all of the thoughts and ideas and then I would argue again sort of at the operational level very interested in the good feedback and I've heard from Mr budak who's been meeting with folks that we getting good ideas that we didn't have a four that's that's wins you that's good uh but also have to you know give opportunity for uh Mr Buck Mr Anthony to determine um how we can Implement within the resources that we have and within the timelines that we have and then we'll come back and share those with committee fantastic thank thank you Mr CLE um I think that that's a fantastic solution for the benefit of the public each of our committees only meets once every other month um and has um many competing priority topics uh that we need to discuss so whether that's in safe and healthy neighborhoods or Housing and Community Development uh committee um I uh the message that I want to communicate to the group tonight and to the public uh is that you know the council wants to be involved uh but maybe some of those finer details can be hashed out in the uh tree advisory committee and uh we will continue to remain engaged um and ensure that we are uh implementing that plan thanks thank you Council M Arius Madam clerk next item please appointments item 6A one appointment at large to the miscellaneous Civil Service Board to a term to expire December December 31st 2026 due to the resignation of Ronald wolf two applications for appointment have been received from Frankie Sutton and Ronald wolf thank you the council will vote electronically and then the city clerk will announce the results based on those results the council will make the appropriate motion regarding the appointment request to speak here some requests um council member Gonzales just had a question regarding this item so the staff description states that Mr Ronald wolf has resigned but yet one of the applications is from Ronald wolf so can you help us understand what's happening here yeah thank you Council M gme and Council Mr Wolf had recently resigned uh to pursue another appointment uh on another civil service board um as that appointment didn't take place I think now Mr Wolf and I I don't mean to speak for him but has submitted an application since his resignation to be considered again to be on the Civil Service Commission the miscellaneous Civil Service Commission okay is is that the protocol I mean does one have to resign from one commission to apply for another Madam City attorney mayor council member Gonzalez yes uh when you are a member of a commission you cannot have any other position within the city and I'm not sure whether this was actually a resignation in order to seek another appointment or if it was a resignation in order to seek actual employment with so the city manager is confirming that it was an appointment with another commission right I understand that you can't serve on more than one commission um my question is whether or not he had to resign prior to actually being appointed on that second commission uh he had to resign before he actually applied for it yes he did okay interesting all right thank you thank you can member arus no longer wanting to speak I saw your name up there a minute ago I can uh go [Music] ahead if I could ask a question of our city manager um can just for to refresh my memory um how large how many members of this committee are there and what are the impacts if if the council were to not make a decision and take action on one of the two candidates tonight yeah I think it come member RS mayor and Council there are five members of this commission uh we currently have four other um appointments filled um at times you know this commission meets uh typically monthly um at times we may have a commissioner who's not available to make that meeting and so sometimes it could impact our our Quorum but we've been able to you know meet Quorum in recent months with the four members and so I don't think it's you know critical that we move forward tonight great thank you anything do you want to make a comment on that okay so right now uh we have the pro unless somebody makes a comment related to that you'll be casting your votes if uh council member bashash can I make a motion to table this council member a motion to continue would be would be better if you're so interested continue please yes you have a motion to continue uh please cast your votes motion was approved with council members core and Weir absent thank you madam clerk next item please eight appointments to the keep Bakersfield Beautiful Committee number one W two regular and Alternate members Ward three regular member Ward five regular and Alternate members Ward six regular and Alternate members Ward five or and mayor's appointment alternate member applications for appointment have been received from vicha E Selena Pena Sarah Houston Matthew Martin Jamie and Frankie Sutton thank you so I will call on each council member for their nomination council member Gonzalez for the nomination award to regular and Alternate it's my honor to uh nominate Miss Sarah Houston as the award to appointee for the keep bille Beautiful Committee uh I currently don't have an alternate nominee at this time thank you council member colan for a five regular and Alternate uh thank you mayor um I'd like to nominate vit e as the regular uh regular appointee for the keep Biggers field Beautiful Committee uh Miss e uh has gr grew up here in Bakersfield she's graduated college here she lived all of her life here she's been a very involved in uh very various Civic activities I think she's an exemplary uh example of a a young person so I'd like to nominate her as my regular appointee and then I would like to also nominate Selena Peña uh as the alternate member Miss Peña uh also uh went to went to high school and college in Bakersfield and currently uh works for uh current County Public Health and so those are my two uh appointments thank you council member Coman council member Bashir Tash I would like to nominate Matthew Martin as my regular um and no alternate thank you and then at this time I am not appointing an alternate for the mayor's position uh do we have a motion on these nominations Gonzalez nominations you have a motion please cast your votes motion is approved with council members core and we are absent thank you and thank you to miss Houston e and paa for your willingness to serve and also to Mr Martin if you're here would you all please stand up and we will recog Rec niiz you thank you very much and now Madam clerk next item please consent calendar items 7A through 7 I for approval thank you I have not received any requests for recusals or for items to be pulled uh council member Gonzalez would you like to make a motion motion to adopt the consent calendar you have a motion please cast your vote motion is approved with council members core and we absent thank you next item please [Music] hearings item 9A appeal hearing to consider traffic impact fees imposed on Planet Fitness located at 11425 Stockdale Highway at The Village at River walks in Ward 5 the appellant attorney requested continuance of the hearing due to medical reasons thank you as stated by Madame clerk the appellant attorney requested the appeal hearing to be continued to a later date because of health reasons since this is not a traditional public hearing we will simply continue the item to a later date Madam clerk next item please deferred business item 11a continued discussion regarding amendment number three to agreement 2020-25 for the hope to home down payment assistance program thank you please note that if you're here to speak on deferred business item 11a the city clerk will call for public statements after staff's presentation each speaker is limited to a two-minute time limit and there's a 20 minute time limit per the report city manager click thank you mayor and Council uh this item was uh pulled and continued at the request of council member Smith prior uh to clarify uh some of the methodology for establishing the the amount or the threshold for firsttime you know home buyer eligibility as we went back with staff and clarified there are HUD requirements that we establish um a new uh price and there's really only two um options for that and we appreciated an opportunity to really reflect on how do we create more housing stock that is at a lower price that can help our first-time home buyers and it's not just that we can should continue to raise prices of our program just because housing stock is increasing in in median price but can we create other housing options and so we're working on that in many different aspects but per the HUD requirements we need to pick one of two options we picked the option that had the lower of the two pricing options one formula was um just based on you know uh basically you know inflation IND is and CPI the other uh uh is based off of uh median home price and so we just pick the lower of the two that we think is most consistent with Council um Direction and policy but still uh consistent with the the direction from HUD thank you uh is there anything further Mr CLE no thank you mayor thank you we'll go to staff for any comment and action uh council member Smith thank you mayor thank you for the clarification in the work on that and I would move for approval thank you I actually forgot to ask do we have any public speakers Madam clerk no public speaker cards have been received regarding this item thank you and now uh you have a motion please cat your [Music] votes motion was approved with council members core and we absent thank you madam clerk next item please Council and mayor statements council member Gonzalez thank you um couple things one is I I wanted to make a comment regarding the um community members who spoke about our tree plan and the action steps as we move forward um from what what I was hearing from uh the various different speakers is that there's a question about what really the role is of that Advisory Board and how it relates to the city council and communicates to the city council I know that staff has an idea in mind of how that might work out but um it Still Remains unclear uh to many community members and if I'm being honest to myself as well so I think what I'd like to do is make a referral that we work with that Advisory Board to to answer that question first and foremost what is the model here how are we going to establish um this uh this group um and what what model are we following just so that we can um better set expectations on how we're working together um moving forward um and I'm hoping that we can address those things and maybe look at other cities and how they've modeled uh various different committees that are similar to this um and see how we can better work with them because I think it's clear from from my from what I hear from the my colleagues on the Das is that we we share the same vision uh we want to address the tree canopy in in Bakersfield and we want to continue to pursue that but I think we need to work out a few things on what this what this actual Advisory Board will look like in the future um and then my second thing I just wanted to note that last Wednesday at 9:54 in the morning uh a young woman was crossing the street at Chester and 19th Street when she was hit by a vehicle uh she did have the rideway in the crosswalk um and it was reported to me by various different uh community members that it was uh it was a homeless individual that actually turned out not to be the case uh it's actually uh a woman who I know a friend of mine uh who actually works in the downtown area and was walking to work um and I think two things I want to point out today number one is that actually three things number one is you can't always believe what you read on social media uh because the report that it was an unhoused woman was not true number two is even if it was an unhoused person what difference would that that have made it was still a person it was still a person who was harmed and uh and hit by a vehicle um and so I don't think that that actually had any bearing on the actual situation and it's sad when we have to uh qualify uh a person's housing status when incidents like this happen uh somehow uh writing it off uh it's still a very serious matter uh regardless of the background regardless of the housing status of the victim and then finally I wanted to point out that um you know we still have a major issue with distracted drivers with people who just aren't paying attention to the roadway uh just today I was at the Valley Plaza and trying to cross the parking lot and a car just kept going right in front of me almost hit me and uh the man and the woman in the car they were looking at a phone they were maybe watching Tik Tok I don't know but they weren't paying attention to the to the roadway and they weren't paying attention to me um so thankfully I'm here tonight uh but I am so fed up with all of the distracted driving in this in the city and I want to continue to press us and urge us uh to find the means and the resources to launch a distracted driving campaign uh throughout uh greater Bakersville thank you council member arus thank you mayor just a quick uh comment and request of Staff um as we continue to get uh new information and guidance um from the federal government on uh some of the changes as it relates to grant funding um expenditures that have already been previously awarded in future phases of uh Federal funding um I'm sure that staff is actively tracking uh many of those changes um and I would just ask that uh the city manager provide an update to this Council um either by way of email or by presentation um so that we know what the um you know potential fiscal impact um could have um that could create for us here at the city of Bakers thank you thank you I don't see any other request and so we stand a journ at 6 council member Smith where are we having issues with our system tonight okay uh council member Smith thank you mayor yeah I was just wanting to follow up we talked about the city council priority initiatives and as council member Gonzalez mentioned traffic safety and multimodal is high on that list and I had made referral uh some time ago and and council member Freeman also reinforced it on uh Street West Lane West uh the speed that we encourage by the environmental design of our streets and you know taking a look at and changing our subdivision standards which are the standards how those new streets get built also you know involves the cost of maintaining them the the heat island effect a lot of things are affected by that and so I would ask that move forward on that referral and include all streets and and also we've approved higher density lot sizes and and I I know it's a problem I spoke with the development director and you know the residential streets and we we've got some standards for private streets out in West Ming and and somehow those are not acceptable for public streets and it seems like U you know we can work so I I would ask that that move forward it has been talked about for quite some time the other item was uh pedestrian I believe it was a fatality on Union Avenue uh in at last week's multimodal we talked about press release and how the conversation so I'd like a copy of the police press release on that and kind of see how that looked thank you thank you are there any other requests to speak I see none here and we stand a journ at 611 thank you all for participating [Music] he [Music]