Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Hey, Heat. Everybody want to be Hey hey hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Oh, down. Hey hey hey. Hey, Hey, hey hey. Hey, hey hey. Open. Yeah, back. Hey, hey hey. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Hey. Hey. Hey. The 3:30 p.m. meeting of the Bakersfield City Council is now in session. Good afternoon. It's my pleasure to call to order the 3:30 regular city council meeting of January 21st, 2026. Madam clerk, please call the role. >> Mayor Go, >> here. >> Council member core >> here. Council member Arias. Council member Gonzalez >> here. >> Council member Weir. Council member Smith. >> I am here. >> Council member Coleman >> here. and council member Basher Tosh >> here. >> Thank you. Welcome to all of you and thank you for being here. In keeping with the 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 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 on the meeting agenda, you'll be called first to speak. Statements are given a twominut 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 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 the 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. Consider this a first warning to everyone in attendance that conduct that disrupts this meeting may result in expulsion and/or the chambers being cleared. Madam clerk, do we have any public speakers regarding items not listed on the agenda? >> Marico, we've received one speaker card regarding items not listed on today's agenda. The speaker is Michael Turnup Seed. >> Welcome, >> Madam Mayor, members of the council. You see why I come at 3:30. There's no waiting line. Uh hopefully you've got a handout here that we put together. It's made up of two charts that I'm going to talk about and our plan that we'd like you to consider before February. So, next month, your council will be voting on a solution to your sewer dilemma. With rate increases starting July 1, your council has six scenarios in which to choose. We're going to give you another one today. Please, before you pick the seventh option, current tax option is prudent, sustainable, and fiscally responsible. Our proposals for 10 years is a 4060 pay as you go debt split. There are many misconceptions floating around concerning the solutions to this dilemma. The first chart shows that we put here. Page one is uh the 6040 pay as you go. But basically, it's 10% increases for the first seven years, 4% for the next three, $500 million uh bonding, which will eventually add up to be about $300 million a year. I mean, 300 million 30. It'll be $30 for each rate. $300 for each rate person. So, you say, "Oh, well, $300 is a lot." Well, you're getting $500 million for $25 a month. That's the way you have to look at it. Everybody lives by budgets or monthtomonth. So, don't scare them with big your annual numbers. Let's get down to what it's going to affect their pay periods and what it's really going to be and what the decisions they're going to have to make. And the second chart is a little different because we put in 600 uh million dollar bonding because we think it's going to be somewhere between the two. And uh detachment three is our layout of a plan. We have miles per repair. We have pumps. We have deadline. We have laid out schedule for the next 10 years that we'd like you to consider. Uh and in your deliberations, the current rate is $274, which is only $22 a month. It's less than a cell phone. And so if you double it, it's probably going to be the cost of your cell phone. Over the seven years, it will double to five 200 $548. So we think that's not a bad number, but over a 7-year period, but that is prudent for people on lower incomes. They can certainly budget for that. Our plan uh actually has annual increases when you look at and break it down per month at the 10% is like $3 a month. I mean, you we have to look at how we are looking at these things. And give me two more minutes and one two more seconds. When considering your next 10-year sewer plan, you need to look at all all plans out there and ask for second opinions. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Turnup Seat. Madam Clerk, do we have any other speakers? Mayor Go, that was the only speaker card we received this evening for non-aggenda items and we have not received any speaker cards for agenda items. >> Thank you, Council Member Gonzalez. >> Thank you, Mayor. Uh, Mr. Turnipsy, thank you so much for providing some uh solutions. You know, we often hear a lot of the concerns and and complaints from community members and various folks and um it's it's refreshing when we hear actual solutions and people thinking about how how we can tackle this problem. This is a challenge we all face collectively. Um, Mr. Mr. Kle, I just wanted to ask if I I know that we've um asked uh staff to bring back additional proposals and and considerations and options for us. Have we has staff seen this report? Have we evaluated it? And and have we sat down with Mr. Turnup and his team to discuss this in in detail? >> Yeah, I think thank you, Council Member Gonzalez. We received from uh current tax a 10, 20, and 30-year plan uh for infrastructure reinvestment that we have reviewed as staff. Mr. Turnips had shared this uh particular graph with me either late last week or early this week. And so uh we're looking at um how we present the information which we have all the same data. It's not packaged up this exact same way, but we're looking at um how we have packaged it up uh to see uh how that compares with this and if we can, you know, present it in a similar format that's, you know, kind of easy for the community to see uh how operations and maintenance is separate from capital improvements and and what the rates will be over time. Uh and then last week, we actually met with members of Kern Tax um board and Mr. turnup seed to walk through our um cost of service analysis, walk through our CIP planning process and the framework that we're approaching. And I think there's a lot of similarity between the key principles and in some of the ideas that they brought forward and in the plans that we've had and uh we'll continue to answer questions and and um you know show where there is alignment but also you know tease out you know some of the reasons that based on some like council feedback that we've um you know approached our rate setting uh that is not maybe quite as bond heavy as just one example. Um, but yes, we we've we've looked at several of the materials that they've shared with us. Uh, we're looking at this newer graph, which I think is pretty much the same information just in in a different format and and easier for us to digest. And, uh, we've made a commitment to continue to share our uh, analysis and proposals as we lead up to a council um, report and direction on this next month. >> Okay, great. And and one other comment, I I thought I heard uh incremental rate increase over seven years. Um it's my understanding that through prop 218, this council has authority to um increase rates uh incrementally in the period of no more than 5 years before we have to re-evaluate uh the rate structure. And so um I just wanted to add that caveat. I do not think though that that would preclude us from having a model that goes beyond that five years. We we can we can then in five years time the council can then reevaluate those additional rates in year six and seven. >> That's accurate, council member. And we have two different um scenarios that we've looked at. One that is about a sevenyear and one that's actually a 10year. And of course, you can only approve those first five years, but it's reasonable to still make an assumption about what would still be ahead in the second five years of a tenure, especially if that's communicated now today, that you know, down the road we're still going to have to come back and take another look at it. And I would also, we're getting a little into the topic for for next month, but I would also argue there is value in, you know, making a reassessment at the five-year mark because we'll know a lot more about the the specifics that we've evaluated for plant 2 and as we get, you know, a better sense of what our revenues, you know, truly are. All all of this is forecasted, but we'll know a lot more in five years. I think that the one thing we can't do is wait 5 years to make any in changes because we need to start saving up both to um meet our current obligations because we're are we don't have we're not collecting enough just for operations and maintenance, our ongoing capital improvements and then start putting money in the bank for those big improvements we know are going to come. Um, but I think we can re-evaluate the particular amount for that second five years when we get closer to the end of the first five years. >> Got it. Okay. Thank you so much for that. And uh, thank you again, Mr. Turnup Seed. >> Madam Clerk, next item, please. >> Reports item 3A, Clean City Initiative and Community Vitality Programs Update. >> Thank you, Mr. Clerk. >> Thank you, Mayor and Council. uh just uh we'll make a few introductory comments and then we'll turn uh time over to other team members to continue through with the slides. As that slide deck is pulled up, just want to um frame some of the history that um when we uh started the clean cities initiative just coming out of the pandemic, it was a number of years ago and uh we've provided some intermittent updates along the way. Um but oh thank you. We provided some intermittent updates along the way but it's actually been some time since we gave a more comprehensive report to your council about the clean cities initiative. And then while community vitality is a separate initiative they have a lot of crossover and and there's good reason to be well aligned and coordinated. So we wanted to provide an update on both of those items for you today. Um and so here is some of that background that uh you know it was recognized during the pandemic and that there was challenges around litter and debris in the community well beyond what might be you know a typical expectation and uh we we knew that we needed to attack this from multiple different angles. A big part of that is community education and community awareness that we all should take better care of our community. Uh but also we wanted to jumpstart uh that work uh with uh public safety vital services tax funding. Um and later we received significant revenues from a fee increase at um the landfill uh from the county to get at illegal dumping litter and debris um throughout the city in in a variety of different ways. And so we're going to walk through um many of those examples, but just just give a uh overview there. Um in addition to uh litter cleanup crews throughout town, we also implemented those bulky waste drop off events. Um they've been a very big success. Lots of folks come and use those. Um we're coordinating more closely how we're addressing, you know, debris that's left behind by encampments or or others who have maybe just left a mess. Um and uh we do have uh limited staff. It's one of the areas we're still trying to grow into more, but we've started getting at illegal uh dumping sites, some of our most chronic hotspots. And then again, um that education, you know, component is is I think really critical to a sustainable path on this topic. And then um from uh some referrals from council, we also have had a pilot related to uh how we manage enclosures and and dumpsters. On the community vitality side, uh was some somewhat similar, but a few years later, we just recognized that our level of coordination amongst city services and our urgency amongst staff for addressing encampments just wasn't meeting um really the critical mass of um quality of life issues that we needed to address at the time. And that's not to say that we've perfectly addressed that today either. We've recognized that because of our efforts to enhance our capacity to enforce and clean up those encampments, we've now recognized that there's an accountability challenge in the criminal justice system. And that'll be our next topic around jail beds. But in the meantime, uh we um prioritized doing the work of coordinating city services around encampments differently. We actually created a separate crossf functional team um prioritized this as a special project and said we we have to do this differently to maximize our resources and respond more quickly and more efficiently across the city. And uh so we'll walk through again some of the examples of what that looked like. But we put together essentially our call center, our triage uh center that helps to um assign out these resources, the many resources that we had created for this. We've got dedicated teams um of police and code enforcement. We've got a co-response model that we'll talk about uh to get at encampment resolution and then also trying to look at the individual level. How do we help those individuals get the services that they need or in some instances the the accountability that they need as well? Right. At this point, I will turn it over to Miss Jamie Octurberg to walk through a little bit more. Good afternoon, Madame Mayor, members of the city council. Like Mr. Kle mentioned initially we did set out to prepare an update focused on the clean city initiative but we realized really quickly as we were pulling this information together that the collaborative and overlapping nature of these teams warranted a tandem update and so here we are. Um the clean city initiative and community vitality are interconnected not only with one another but with other city departments field teams and contracted service providers. The efforts are intentionally designed to work together to address shared community challenges. Core city services include solid waste and water under the clean city initiative, animal control, arson and impact under the community vitality unit, and code enforcement, rapid response, and park rangers supporting both programs. Together, these coordinated efforts support encampment cleanup and resolution, enhanced litter and chronic legal dumping abatement, outreach, case management and housing placements, quality of life response and education programs and engagement opportunities for residents and businesses alike. Uh the work would not be possible without the support of our contracted community partners. They provide critical specialized services that complement our city operations with Flood Ministries, Mercy House, and Kern Behavioral Health supporting street outreach, behavioral health services, and connections to shelter and housing. Garden Pathways and Psychiatric Wellness Center providing intensive case management services to our chronically homeless and justice impacted individuals, Citygard and Trans West delivering private security services. and Jack Davenport sweeping services, the Open Door Network, and Valley Pressure Pros supporting waste and bow-waste removal downtown and throughout the city. Rather than functioning independently, these services are aligned to provide a more comprehensive and responsive approach to cleanliness, safety, and community well-being, maintain a consistent presence in the field, and ensure that individuals and neighborhoods are connected to appropriate services and resources while public spaces are restored and maintained. Taken together, these efforts truly do reflect the city's commitment to addressing community challenges in a coordinated, thoughtful, and responsive way. And with that overview, I'll turn it over to solid waste director James Leonard. Good afternoon, council. Uh Mayor Go, council members. Um I'm going to talk a little bit about solid waste and its involvement in CCI and how that intertwines and collaborates with all the other uh divisions here. Um, I did want to touch on the funding a little bit as this first started off with the public safety vital measure tax measures. It has now moved over to my portion of it has moved over to current county illegal dumping fund money that he talked about with the landfill tax and solid waste enterprise funds. So, we're transitioning from there to more solid waste funds to get this taken care of. So, I want to go over some of the key accomplishments. Uh, since 2021, CCI teams have collected over 11 million pounds of waste. A lot of waste out there, a lot of litter. Um, we provide cleaning services to the entire community, but we have a heavy focus downtown Oldtown Kern. These are the areas that are really heavily impacted by homeless uh issue waste. Uh from there, um also in April 21, as Christian talked about, we started these monthly popup bulky item drop off events. These give an opportunity to residents to drop off items that don't fit in their garbage cans and too far to go to the landfill, they can go to these spots around town. So, this will also deter the thinking of I don't want to go that far. I just want to go dump this on the road. So, it's been very successful and I'll go into more detail on that in the later slides. uh CCI teams are continuing to have a steady presence out there so that they can also engage with residents and community members and businesses and the homeless out there. So, they're doing their part. We're trying to do our part. This is a collaborated effort for the entire city and contractors to get this city cleaned up. Um some special services uh Christian touched on just a little bit. Uh dumpster security program. This was a pilot based off a council member's referral and this was initially focused on the ECD areas um when it first initially started. Uh and in that we had 62 commercial businesses who participated and in within those 62 we had about 70 bins in there and that cost was about 37 $38,000. Um we had a lot of feedback. Uh the business owners that are doing it really like it. Uh they enjoy it. It keeps the homeless from getting into it, spreading that debris, causing a mess, and then re-efforts to send teams back out there to get it cleaned up. So, one of the persons we had on there was the uh manager from the Roller Rink. Uh he provided a quote for us. You guys can read that. Um but they enjoy it. They really like what it's doing for their business. is keeping a more professional appearance to their business which brings in more business. Right. Um I'm going to slide over to water department. Um I'm going to give a little touchup on what they did for their uh theft that's been going on for their fencing. Um there's a lot of basins around Vickersfield. There's are 48 sumps, canel barriers, entrance gates, well sites, and there's been a lot of theft of the fencing. So there's a couple staff members in water that came up with an idea of tagging fences and this has been very positive effect for them. They've been able to recover over $800,000 worth of material and stop the theft within the last 6 months. They've only had two and they've got to recover that. I can't speak on the arrest. I think there was the rest too, but um that uh tagging of it has really worked out for them in the city. Uh last thing I want to touch on is community support. So, back to the uh bulky item drop off events. Um I want to touch a little bit more on that. As I said, we had about 14,000 residents that participated in that since we started this. Uh we've collected over 2,000 million pounds of waste, whether it's recycling, wood, metal, plastics, cardboard. Uh we take that, we take it to the proper disposing areas or proper processing areas so it doesn't wind out on the street. Uh we've collected another 16,000 items of mattresses, waste tires, e-waste, and things like that. And of course our efforts and other events that we do outside of that that we support bigger recycling day these community events where we have more people come out and participate in these events recycling day make a difference day and then of course we kind of culminate that with the city's own great American cleanup. So all of these community efforts really ties into what we really want to see Bakersfield become, cleaner community. And with that, I'm going to pass it off to Lieutenant Ann. Good. Good afternoon. I apologize. My voice is a little uh off today. So, I'm here to talk about community vitality and some of the accomplishments that we've had over the past uh two years since it's uh come to fruition. Um in January 20 uh 24, the Bakersville Police Department and uh development services um piloted a co-response model. Basically, that's a police officer and a code enforcement officer riding together and they would go out and they would handle encampment issues throughout the city of Bakersville. Also, in um conjunction with that, there was also a rapid response team that was assigned to these teams. And what this allowed us to do was it was it made us uh capable of handling encampments very quickly. So, a call for service would come in. We would have law enforcement there to enforce any uh criminal violations as well as um a code enforcement officer to help us um identify any private property issues and also seize any property from people that were uh living in an encampment. We also had that very key component of the rapid response team that was there to help us with cleanups right away. So, we didn't have to leave items out for days and days. So this collaboration helped streamline a lot of our efforts. Uh the call center went live officially in May of 2025 and it now handles about 15 to 18% of all homeless related and quality of life calls for service through community vitality. We've also improved our trespass for enforcement authorization form process. That process alone is it involves uh community members who are able to call in and provide authorization for a police officer to enforce trespassing violations without having to be present. That allows officers to quickly handle trespassing violations without having to call somebody in the middle of the night to come to their business and place somebody under a private person's arrest. We've streamlined that process. And since taking uh improving that, we've doubled the amount of trespass enforcement authorization forms. That's also helped build a very strong relationship with a lot of our community members here. They're they're more bought in. They take ownership. Um they're spreading the word that this that these uh that this program exists. And like I tell um many people that I talk to on a regular basis, uh one business that having a trespass letter is strong, but having an entire block of businesses that have trespass letters strengthens communities and strengthens business business uh areas. So seeing such a large increase in those enforcement letters has been great. We also oversee um an intensive case management program. Uh we were awarded in October 2024. We were awarded a grant um through BSC to provide intensive case management services to some of our most chronically um affected individuals here in Bakersfield. Our case managers uh we we partner with Garden Pathways and Psychiatric Wellness Center. and these case managers are able to go out and build rapports with the people that we have a very difficult time with sometimes trying to make that connection and trying to get them into services. So, we're really working on on, you know, across all different types of of ways to to come combat this problem and and improve our city. So this just allows us a proactive approach to educating the community on its operations and also all of the resources that we have. So like I mentioned, we've become very active in the community. We participate in numerous meetings um ranging from um meetings with the downtown business association, the Greater Bakersville Chamber. We also meet regularly with our um hotel motel to provide awareness on all of the programs that we have and um the types of ways that we can help them when they experience um issues related to homelessness. Um we work very closely with current behavioral health. There's actually a mental health professional that rides in each one of our uh on each one of our teams and so they can provide quick mental health services. We uh meet regularly with the Valley Plaza Mall so we can you know have a good uh idea of what's going on with with their um their property there and and help out in any way. And those those meetings uh typically are held monthly. So since January of 2024 to December uh 31st 2025, we've had approximately or almost 26,000 community responses with the city of Bakersville teams I mentioned. That includes code respon I'm excuse me co-response impact uh police officers. It also includes flood ministries. how they um how they assist us is if we get a call of an encampment, uh typically we'll send flood ministries out to try to offer services and get these individuals connected with people that can provide them true help and um hopefully a better a better way of living. And um we also partner very closely with uh arson park and the park rangers. We also uh do a lot of work with Valley Pressure Pros to help keep the the uh streets clean if we're notified of any anything that needs to be cleaned up. So, we go to a variety of different calls. Um we triage all sorts of different things, but mainly we get calls of loitering and uh transient activity. Uh a lot of encampment calls, uh trespassing, and then there's other calls that come in involving lewd conduct and trash as well. This uh map indicates the locations where we have um sent our resources and our teams. Um and so you can see that we go, you know, we're spread out. We have a lot uh currently in downtown Oldtown current. Um, and part of our community vitality teams, we have the downtown footbeat officers, so they're able to provide that uh close close care to our uh downtown businesses. Um, but there's our uh services throughout Bakersville. I'll turn it over to my partner, Jose Gonzalez from Code Enforcement. Good afternoon council. So this slide here uh is to show uh since the initial development of our uh co- rapid response how we've gradually throughout the years improved our our ability to handle more encampments and more trash sites. Uh so uh one thing that I would like to focus if you see on 2021 are trash sites that were going out there and these trash sites are typically what you call uh abandoned encampments, shopping carts full of debris, anything homeless related that our guys respond to and our ability when we initially started due to lack of equipment, we were unable to do a lot of work. So as you can see throughout the years that we started improving and each year we are improving and responding to more encampments, more trash sites and producing more tickets. So um that's what these numbers are showing. So our our goal for the following year is to continue uh um increasing these numbers and also increasing the response time. Uh if we go to slide two uh this uh we talk about a little bit about the uh co-response model. I know we touched bases on it but uh just to let you guys know what it's it's made up of a a BPD a BPD impact officer, a code officer, and we assign three uh staff members to assist with cleanups. And these uh individuals work throughout um 7 days a week, day and night. And they'll respond to uh uh encampments along with BPD. Uh they will try to do these cleanups as soon as possible. Uh um and do as much as they can with the limited resources that they have. Uh so uh we also partner up with the CCI team when we have major projects as well the water resources solid waste parks and the arson when we go out and deal with uh river cleanups uh railroads uh basically very large encampments. So, uh this collaboration amongst this team has been uh uh very positive in addressing the the uh not only the homeless issue but the trash issue that we have in our community. So, uh with that on uh I'll pass it over to Parks to talk about the park rangers. >> Hello, mayor, council members. My name is Keith How. the park superintendent and I'll be discussing with the park rangers and the collaboration we have with the community vitality and also the CCI teams. Um the slide shows right here is just with the park rangers they maintain a regular presence throughout the parks. Um uh that's also in addition to our park maintenance crews that we touch these parks. goal is to hit every park that we have daily with the ranger patrols and also with our park maintenance staff on to assisting is working with the CCI teams and and the community vitality is addressing illegal dumping along the bike paths and also within the city parks. Uh large cleanups, large bulky item stuff. We will work with the CCI teams in there and to do the removal on it. They also go down the bike path and make sure that they patrol the bike path and make sure the litter is cleaned up. On on top of that with the community vitality is that for the they respond to non-emergent homeless related calls for service within the city parks. Uh as you see the charge stating there, it's called for service uh from December to you know the past two years. Probably before that no we had no information or tracking. Um and so on this slide here with the we had five hot spots on the park will be Central Park, Low Park, MLK, Patriots, and Wilson. It shows that the P PD initiated calls for service. That is the calls that we get dispatched from uh the PD, the rangers. Um and then also the proactive patrols is the ones that are on the schedule for the rangers to patrol the parks and make contact and making sure that um you know reducing the vandalism and catching have more eyes in parks for us to make sure they're safe and the quality of life as you see right there as you know with the calls that's going in our proactive patrols are you know a thousand and of course more I know Patriots Park and stuff and we evaluate these yearly look at the hot spots and see what the trends are and then we adapt our schedules and to be proactive. Thank you. >> Thank you, city clerk. Just for the record, council member Arius has joined us. 405. >> How you guys doing? Uh Deputy Chief Bryce Patterson with the Bakes Fire Department. Uh it's honor to be able to speak before you guys. I was told that uh they're saving the best for last. So hopefully I can uh lead up to that. So u uh this slide provides a snapshot of the arson related fire activity and how we're responding through prevention, enforcement, and collaborative efforts. In 2025, the Beex Fire Department responded to approximately 43,000 calls. Um 8,800 of those calls were homeless related and uh about 3,700 were were fires. Um we have a mechanism in place where our company officers on scene will determine if an arson investigator needs to come out and uh they will respond out and do an investigation. Uh arson this year responded out to about 450 of those calls and 238 incidents showed suspected homeless involvement. So of those uh 238 incidents, 89% were either structure fires or outside fires. These fires represent the highest risk to their life and safety and property. From an enforcement standpoint, our arson unit made 30 arrests related to arson. Of those arrests, 23 involve homeless individuals, representing approximately 77%. That statistic reinforces that our approach must address risk behaviors and hazardous conditions, not just response after a fire occurs. We worked closely with our public safety partners to activate mitigate arson fire risk and improve community safety uh by collaborating directly with BPD's impact unit as said today our code enforcement and community vitality. Uh without that coordination we would not be able to achie achieve our goal which is real community impact through arson fire risk uh and mitigation. That work has been accomplished through coordinated targeted efforts including a focused approach to vacant structures, river bot river bottom areas and outside fires which we deem any fire outside of a structure and not in a vehicle. Uh we targeted these locations that hysterically generate repeat fires and calls for service. The objective is prevention, reducing repeat incidents, improving neighborhood safety, and limiting escalation to major fires or criminal events. So, I I conclude with uh these results show that that target enforcement combined with strong coordination among our public partners is the most effective way to reduce arson fire risk. This work shows that by focusing on repeat behaviors, hazardous conditions, and high-risisk locations, we are preventing fires before they occur, improving neighborhood safety, and delivering real measurable community safety. If you have any questions, I'm here to answer. >> Not now. >> All right, >> we'll come back to that. >> Mr. Kle, uh, concluding comments before we go to the public. >> Yes. Thank you, Mayor Go. just uh wanted to um underscore a couple of things that back in 2023 when we were looking at really an imminent issue. We thought about, you know, how do we get at this issue? Do we need to do we need to put different resources and meaning more more funds toward it? Do we need to reorganize? Do we need to create a separate department? And instead of just um you know sort of changing the the bureaucracy or the org chart, we said you know we can probably accomplish this in a better way if we just be more strategic and more intentional. And so creating a cross functional team as you can see very strong collaboration across multiple city teams and departments. Um major kudos to the police department for uh being a co-host. Thank you to also the city manager's office for you know team uh who has worked really closely with um the police department but to you know really lead out this coalition of many different partners but we chose to just work in a different way and that and that crossunctional approach has been you know seen in you know some other instances and in other cities to have really good results and I would argue the same here. Of course, we still have big challenges, a long way to go in, you know, addressing the underlying causes, but as far as responding to the impacts around this issue, we've gotten much more effective, uh, we've made really, you know, big impacts there. And uh in particular, again, I would thank Jamie Octurberg and Lieutenant Anderberg uh for finding ways to make this work by just working better and in closer collaboration and uh getting the work done, finding ways to get it done instead of waiting until we could sort of redesign. And so it is very reflective of our values that we've established as a team. And it really is a car's approach in many different aspects uh to the way that we're doing this work. Thank you, Mr. Kle, and thank you to all the presenters and to all of our departments that are collaborating and working together. Is there anything else before we go to the public? >> Thank you, Mayor. No, >> thank you. And at this time, uh, we'll go to the public for comments. Madame City Clerk, >> Mayor Go, we have not received any speaker cards regarding this item. >> Thank you. And before we go to council for comments, I'm just going to reach out to our media partners. Lieutenant Enderberg highlighted the trespass letter. It could be very helpful if you can all get that word out because those can be very very effective. So to all our media partners, if you can just let our public know that those are available and can really help us. Council member Basher. Oh, I have to take such a deep breath. I I I want to thank everybody for all of the effort that you put in to clean up and do your jobs well. Fantastic. Really, that's a lot of work and I appreciate that. Um, I have to take a deep breath because it's it's I mean, it's been almost a year. I remember sitting here and and asking you about our homeless crisis and issue and if it was worse, better, or the same. Uh, and it was better. But, you know, on the slide, we've got more encampments and trash places that we've cleaned up year-over-year and it's increasing ever. The the responses to these parks are right next to elementary schools. I'm thinking about Wilson Park, the park I grew up with when I went to Frank West and these little kids coming out of school dealing with this stuff. And I and I'm I'm I'm enraged that we've prioritize homeless degenerates uh over our children in our community. We've wasted millions of dollars on treating a problem that's not doing anything. All the while, our community is crumbling before us. And and we're happy with the effort that we put here. We're letting our kids down. We're letting our our community down by wasting another dollar on trying to clean up this mess when when they need to be in jail. When I went to Laredo facility today and I'm talking to them, they're saying 50 to 60% of the inmates they have are struggling with mental health. I I thought to myself, it's drug induced mental health crisis that they're dealing with. And the longer we let homeless people sit on the street and get abused, the closer they get to being completely a vegetable drug addict for the rest of their life, never being able to be restored competently back to being a functional member functional member of society. As we continue to ba baby them along the course and not hold them accountable for the crimes, the theft, the the trespassing, the destroying of our community, their brains get more and more destroyed by the 115 degree sun, the the the methamphetamine, whatever it is they're on and it's destroying our community. Then they get to Laro and there's nothing that can be done with them. There's a backlog. We need to prioritize holding these individuals that are terrorizing our community accountable. We don't need to waste any more money on on coddling them and putting a band-aid on the situation. And I and I challenge my colleagues. A you've heard me up here and you've heard my frustration and it was it was spelled out to me that it's better or it's maybe but we just saw that the the amount of camps the c they've gone up. It's increasing. And I love those pictures of the the train tracks next to the auto mall that we go and you you put so much work into cleaning it up and it looks so amazing and it's nice and then a week later they're back and it's 10 times worse. I don't even want to call and take pictures and report it anymore. We have to prioritize actually getting in front of this. And I'm so happy that the next item is a jailb task force. But as a council, we cannot continue to waste money on anything until this problem is dealt with. the right way. The right way. This isn't just a downtown, East Bakersville, West Bakersville, South. This is affecting our entire dang community. And our kids are they're going to grow up seeing this and they're going to get desensitized and they're not going to care about making Bakersville a better place anymore because we don't even care. We want to clean up the trash day in and day out. We want to hurry the homeless people down the street and we don't want to protect our kids, our business owners that are paying the salaries of half the people in this room. We want to just waste all of their time, our time. Enough is enough. We've got to take this serious, team. We've got to take it serious. I saw more camps coming to the city council meeting today than I ever have my entire life taking this route. It's a problem that affects all of us and we've got to take it serious when the agendas come up and there's items on here that don't that that that it would be a waste of money that it's not money we need to spend in light of what we've seen today, in light of what our community is going through. We have to take it. We got to fix it. The state isn't coming to help. They're shutting down the prisons. They have no more mental health facilities being opened up. And we're going to sit here and celebrate the fact that we're picking up thousands of pounds of trash while these degenerates are ruining our community. They're criminals. They're they're thieves. They're destroying our our town. Our kids deserve better. Our business owners deserve better. Our families deserve better. I think about the moms that are walking we care about them walking their kids past these parks dealing with all of this stuff they have to deal with. Like it's a third world darn country. Like we're not paying millions of dollars in taxes to make sure that our city is up. So ask ourselves, I I I'm done. I don't want to grandstand on this, but man, I don't want to repeat myself for four years on this term that I got three years left. We've got to take it serious. We cannot waste money on one more frivolous thing that is not going to change the trajectory of our city from becoming a rundown cesspool where we just codle homeless people anymore or thieves anymore where people think they can just take advantage of our community and not be held accountable. We have to be the team that brings accountability back into our community so that our community knows that we are actually fighting for them. Our business owners know that we're fighting for them. The kids that we we cheer on every time they come do something for a council meeting that we're actually fighting. We got to put our time and our effort and our money where where what we say. We It's got to match our words. >> I have nothing left to say. >> Thank you, Council Member Council Member Smith. >> Thank you, Mayor. >> I can't follow that drama. I appreciate it and I appreciate the passion and I have the same passion but I can't express it that way. U I agree that we need the jail beds and I started the jailb task force and we're we're making progress but that is does not mean that we've been wasting money doing this because we've been doing what cities do. We clean up. We arrest people. We take them to jail. And typically counties keep people in jail. But in Kern County, our jail releases them. And so we are moving towards a solution where the city then finds a way to keep them hopefully in conjunction with the county. But to say that this is a waste of money, I would not agree with. We pick up 11 million pounds of trash per year. Constituents don't want to see trash. And just because the county is not going to keep people in jail doesn't mean we shouldn't continue to pick up trash. We shouldn't continue to clean up encampments. 4,000 encampments we cleaned up. 5,000 6,000 trash sites, 8,800 homeless fires. We're We're not supposed to attack any of that because the county won't keep the people that we take to jail. Yes, we need to solve the jail problem. I'm on board and I'm with you 100%. But we also need to continue these other initiatives. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Smith. Council member Gonzalez. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, I I want to comment just quickly on my colleagues, but then I want to get into the actual presentation. Uh, I will just say my constituents do not think that this is a waste of money. Actually, most of my constituents are very thankful that the city is responding to many of these issues, particularly since the urban core historically uh has received the brunt of this problem uh for decades. And so it has been wellreceived to have many of these programs in place to help us revitalize downtown Bakersville, help us get a handle on some of these neighborhoods that for for too long have been neglected and and disadvantaged. And so um I I get it. There are still major issues out there, but I think everyone has taken it seriously. Uh I I personally work day in and day out trying to find some solutions to the systemic issues, but as we wait, you know, I know it was mentioned and it's often mentioned that these are just band-aids. Well, if you're bleeding, you need a band-aid to stop the hemorrhaging. I mean, and and that's, you know, many of the neighborhoods that I represent, we need to have a response. So, I I don't believe that this is a waste. But I I do I do believe though that the community deserves to know and to have a clear picture on how we're progressing in terms of outcomes. And I I heard a lot in this presentation. I appreciate all the work from staff. I hear a lot about what we've done, the number of calls we've we've responded to, the number of encampments we've cleaned up. But what I'm really interested in in in want to press staff on is to develop a framework so that we can we can actually uh analyze how we're actually uh reducing the problems related to homelessness, related to crime. Are we seeing reductions? And I I know we have some data out there. Um but I think it's important for us when we have these conversations to bring that in the upfront. I mean, anecdotally, I can tell you, um, you know, in certain neighborhoods, it feels like we're making a lot of progress one month and then a few weeks later it feels like we've gone backwards and it is very frustrating and I know staff feels that frustration. Um, so it's important for us to have these uh metrics. Um, and I get it. You know, for many agencies and departments, there's there's this inclination to and this sort of uh um uh mentality that they must sort of justify their existence, justify the work that they're doing, and they want to provide the the the output data, how many how many bags of trash we picked up. But what's I think more important and more compelling to my constituents is is that we see those vacant lots on Niles and and and Niles of Monterey uh that have become eyes and dumps that I complain about regularly that we finally get a handle on those dumps because to Zach's point, Council Member Basher Tash's point, you know, I have families have to walk through those neighborhoods and it does look like a third world country. It is unacceptable. Uh and and my heart goes out to those families particularly those who uh come from uh modest means and who who feel already like the city has left them behind. They feel neglected and only to see that uh those those encampments or th those uh those dump sites the vacant lots be have become dump sites. It's hard to take really hard to take. So, uh, I do share that passion that we we have a lot of more work to do. Um, and I want to kind of jump into some of the things that I think are some solutions. Um, number one, the dumpster referral program. Uh, I I appreciate staff responding to my referral and getting on the dumpster program. I think it's been a success. I've heard a lot of great feedback. I would like to move forward uh that we move on a city ordinance requiring all dumpsters at least within the urban core uh to require a locking mechanism so that we can clear uh secure those dumpsters and clean up those sites. Uh number two, we've uh installed trash receptacles throughout downtown and Oldtown Kern. This has been uh wellreceived within the downtown and Oldtown Kern community. Uh people have really appreciated them, but as of late, these receptacles really haven't been um properly maintained. In fact, I just got a text from a business owner with trash overflowing. Um my my question is what's going on there? What what what's the what's the issue regarding uh these trash receptacles and how can we how can we better maintain those in downtown? Council member, I'm not sure that we have that answer ready for us today, but if James has some information on that and otherwise, we'll follow up. >> Yeah, Council Gonzalez, uh, great question. So, we are transitioning from DSAs, the downtown street ambassadors to uh, wreck and park staff. So downtown ambassadors for the last wow five years have been taking care of those receptacles and when the budgeting and the finances came in and we're doing some more creative uh collaboration and trying to be proactive at realigning forces. Uh Rex and Parks are now taking over those. So we're getting the maps. So, some of those downtown recycles may have been not on the map yet. Um, I question you. Is this one of the newer ones? One of the older ones. >> 18th and 18th and Q. >> 18th and Q. Okay. >> Yeah. Thank you. And I didn't mean to put you on the spot. I just interested because I I noticed that this has been this isn't the first time. It's kind of a pattern. Um, my sec my third question is regarding the downtown street ambassadors. I know that we've we've ended that program. I I just kind of want to get a sense as to why because we know that downtown, Oldtown are the oldest areas. They have the they have the worst infrastructure. They um have many disadvantaged communities. They have the the highest concentration of homeless individuals. Uh if you take a look at the community vitality response location map, it shows right here with data. It has the highest impacts uh in terms of community uh vitality um uh responses. Uh so it's the highest concentration areas. Why on earth would we get rid of the downtown street ambassador program when we know that there's a higher need within those areas and it's been proven to be successful? So, Downtown Street Ambassadors, we can talk a little bit about it and then Christian can jump in. Uh, but they were assigned to clean out the wire trash cans and receptacles, do some pressure washing here and there, and then we would also have CCI teams overlapping in the same areas. So, we simply just took out the wire trash can part of it. The presence of the open door network and their teams are still downtown. They're still taking care of all those alleys. the sidewalks, Oldtown Kern are still there. The only change that we made was the receptacle maintenance which went to the Wreckham Park. Yeah, thanks James. And I would just add a couple other things. Um we actually did slightly change also the pressure washing service. Uh we we actually um included an additional um I guess team for Open Door Network to still do the pressure washing downtown, but there's just a slight change in the the days and hours that that they're available just as as an FYI, but that service is maintained there. I think bigger picture, um I think it's important to acknowledge that the downtown street ambassadors actually were in place before we ever had the clean cities teams. And so once we created the clean cities teams, it was additive and we found that there started to be some duplication there. And then you know we but we wrote out the contracts for both of those. And then as we looked at um the full um problem today versus you know um in the sort of incremental steps that we created it, it made more sense to create clear roles and responsibilities for one set of teams instead of two different sets of teams. Um, and also it is it is important to note that uh we a we were able to shift this away from public safety vital services tax dollars. I would argue that it is worthy of those dollars, but we were we were fortunate to have um solid waste dollars and the illegal dumping dollars that we can put towards this project. uh but also wanted to make sure that it was in a scope that was, you know, within our, you know, fiscal resources as we've made some of these adjustments this last year and this coming year, you know, to make sure that we've got a balanced budget. And so, uh, again, same service levels uh have been intended, but finding a different way that's more efficient to to deploy those. And as we transition, a few hiccups and we'll get those fixed. >> I appreciate that. Um, and then finally, it was mentioned by Lieutenant Anderberg that the no trespass letters was proving to be successful and very helpful. Um, I'd like to make a referral tonight that we um explore um how we might make this a requirement for all business owners perhaps when they pull a business permit to uh file a a no trespass lesser letter for their property. Um uh but uh you know I think we need to be more assertive when it comes to this particular piece uh so that we can um we can get a better handle on those properties when they're when they're closed. Um and then finally, I'd like to ask for a status on the um vacant structure ordinance and what are some of our outcomes related to that as well in a future meeting. Thank you, Mayor. >> Thank you, Council Member Common. Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you, mayor. >> This is uh all great stuff. I I wanted to commend the staff on your collaboration. I think it's really admirable that you have all these departments uh units working together to achieve uh some of these goals. Um, I wanted I'm always surprised about how much how many you know, however you present it, pounds or tons or volume that we talk about the volume of stuff that we pick up on the street and in the in the fields and the parks and all that kind of thing. And I'm just wondering if we're making any headway on penalizing people for illegal dumping. Are we doing anything to try to uh uh reduce that? And you know, getting to I think that kind of feeds to council member Basher Tash's point is, you know, what are we doing about holding people accountable for these things that they're doing to our community. Um, and I'm not going to ask you for an answer right now. I'm just asking generically the question uh if we're getting any results in that area. Um, and I but I am very concerned about the cost of all this. I see, you know, department heads and I see all these staff and I'm I'm like at a time when we're trying to uh curtail the budget, we have a lot of resources dedicated to this task and I just want to be sure that we're managing those cost and maybe you can comment on that part. >> Um, thanks Council Kman. I'll comment on on both pieces. I guess I could take the latter one first. Um it has been uh something really important to us especially uh as we are looking at our you know budget sustainability and you know making some of the adjustments we need we need to because revenues haven't you know um kept up as as much as our expenditures have. And so again, you know, the clean cities effort was a way to make sure that we're as as efficient with possible as the dollars that we do have. Um I think the good news is many of the individuals you see here today, this is you know one of their collaterals. They're doing a lot of other things. Um, and so this is not taking up, I would argue, in more inordinate amounts of time for folks, although for some more than others, like you know, Lieutenant Anderberg, you know, spends a lot of time in in this space, but others of the team, it's portions of the work that they do. But we're always looking at how can we be um a little more efficient. We're looking for grants. We actually have some grants that are in this space that we didn't highlight today. We have a Prop 47 grant that's helping us try and address some of those um high utilizers or chronic low low-level offenders um that we've talked about in addition to our other efforts. And uh so we are we're always, you know, taking a hard look at that. And I think one of the advantages of the way that we've approached this uh as a crossf functional um team is that it allows us to be pretty flexible and make changes and not not be really entrenched there. to your other uh question actually about illegal dumping. It reminded me of something I didn't mention earlier. So, thank you. Is that you know I think the two areas um that we need to probably um grow the most in this space, one is actually community outreach and community education. You know, when you think about what a few hundred people can do to clean up the city, it pales in comparison to thousands of residents just taking good care of the city. You know, tens of thousands of residents making sure they don't throw out their trash. they they pick up their street, they pick up, you know, trash at the at their park, you know, then when they go visit with their families, that can make a huge impact. And um respectfully, I don't I don't think that uh we've done as much as we can to try and create a culture of pride and ownership of our community and taking good care of it and cleaning up after ourselves as a community and and uh that's going to pay bigger dividends than any, you know, contracts that we create. In the meantime, we're not going to let things sit and be dirty, but we need to continue to push to create that culture. And then the second piece where we need to grow our efforts is around illegal dumping. So what we've done to date, we actually from that same funding source plus from the county landfill plus some grant funds, we basically have one and a half full-time equivalent uh employees that are dedicated to illegal dumping. But that's it. You know, for for our 2,000 employees and 400,000 people, we have one and a half people fully dedicated to illegal dumping. I think one of the challenges we have is uh prior one of prioritization when we look at you know um police and law enforcement it doesn't typically rise to the level of priority for them to address like some other topics uh even for code enforcement addressing sort of our complaintbased process um and our rapid response teams are trying to get out and address those you know encampments that are there present building um we we have not found a a to allocate more resources towards illegal dumping. It's also been a little bit frustrating because um the patterns don't tend to be um maybe quite as predictable as some of the other areas like the hotspot areas we have for encampments and those people that are there present. You know, we get those requests and and we go out and we address those encampments. uh for illegal dumping to sort of catch people in the act has proven to be very challenging. And there is actually some uh government code that limits our ability to uh prosecute individuals or find individuals unless they're actually caught in the act. And so one of the things we're looking at is, you know, what are other cities doing? Um how are they utilizing technology? If technology can still capture that someone is dumping, but that's, you know, it wasn't witnessed in person by a police officer as an example of one of our limitations, do we need to actually ask for some some legislation that might update our ability to still find individuals even if we didn't catch them in person in the act? And so, uh, illegal dumping is an area that, uh, we've we've, uh, done some enforcement actions on some hotspot areas that we know often get used. Uh, we've tried to put up signs, put up cameras, put up fake cameras. We don't want too many people to know there's some, you know, fake cameras out there, but as deterrence. And then also just uh putting up fencing to try and you know um you know protect these vacant lots that encouraging owners to put up fencing on their vacant lots so they stop becoming sites where you know people uh use. So we're doing some work around that but I have to say it's an area where we haven't seen a ton of results and we still haven't cracked that nut as the metaphor goes. >> Thank you. So, you're putting up fencing, then they're coming around and stealing the fencing. >> Exactly. >> I was shocked by how much how much of that material you were saying is getting >> and and also how much it costs. One of those fences was $40,000 that they stole and thank thankfully we caught them. Um you mentioned that um that a lot of these members are from different departments and that kind of thing and are we doing a a good job of tracking the amount of time they spend on this task from those departments or or not? >> That's a good question, council member. I don't actually have the answer top of mind, so that tells you, you know, a little bit right there. um depending on which project uh or which in you know um role uh we could um partition that out pretty readily. Like so our our code enforcement folks, they're pretty much all dedicated to that. Certain law enforcement folks on the impact team, we track their hours and time really well. If this is a collateral assignment for other folks, I don't think we're asking them to track their hours on a project code that tells us precisely how many hours and how much cost goes to that. So, we'll consider that and look into it. >> Okay. Um, well, again, thank you very much for this presentation. I think it's a it's a great presentation. I I I empathize with with Council Member Basher Tash and the frustration that, you know, we're continuing to spend money and and cleaning up this mess and we're not able to make headway on that. But I I I also agree with Council Member Gonzalez and that we can't not do it. We have to be out there doing it, being maybe even more aggressive. But my my concern is managing cost. So, uh thank you for the presentation. and thank you for the hard work that your people are doing. >> Thank you, council member. Council member Arius. >> Thank you, mayor. Um, I just want to make a couple comments and and really manage the the public's expectations as it relates to the next item that we're going to be hearing around the jail jailb task force. I uh for one agree that I think I think this is a really important next step for our city to continue to make progress on homelessness. Um and I'm looking forward to the presentation, looking forward to the next steps that uh we need to work through in order to to make that a real possibility so that we can hold many of these folks who are committing these small repeat misdemeanor crimes accountable uh and show that, you know, there is accountability in the city of Bakersville. I think that that's an important thing um that I don't want to get lost. Um but at the same time, I also want to recognize the fact that this this issue is incredibly complex. Um cities across the country are grappling with homelessness. And if there was a solution and someone had a solution, I think we would sit down and listen to them um and and try to make it work for the city of Bakersfield. But the reality is there is no one-size solution. Um and certainly um one thing that I want to make clear is that um you know you know some some homeless you know may commit criminal acts but not all homeless individuals are criminals. Um and so I think it's important to understand that there are so many different layers and levels of complexity to this issue. Um, I want to thank Council Member Gonzalez. Um, actually, excuse me, I think it might have been Council Member Weir who had started the ad hoc committee on homelessness, uh, several years ago. Um, um, but it's allowed for us as a council and as as a as a team to really better understand just how challenging this problem is. Uh, we understand that it's growing as we particularly as we continue to grow as a city. Um, and I'll agree that, you know, you we while we do need to make progress on on the jailbed task force, um, we we can't lose sight of all of the other work that we we must do as a city. And so, I just want to commend staff for the uh, presentation. I apologize for being a little late to to the party. Um, but just want to say thank you to all the different departments, the levels levels of coordination from fire, uh, to our rapid response teams, our clean city teams, our community based partners, um, and and everybody out there doing the great work. And also uh to our city attorney um as well um for stepping up in particular circumstances and and lending uh their support um as it relates to the legal components of u removing encampments and helping us navigate the laws as they continue to to change on a regular basis around homelessness and how um we can uh remove encampments and and um get them the help and the services that they need. One one point of clarification that I wanted to ask the city manager is that when we initially started um talking about community vitality um part of the discussion as I recall was that there was not going to be any added uh payroll costs to um to creating this this initiative. Is that still true today? >> That is still true today. We um really used existing resources and just moved some positions around to create really a a small core project team. We we do have some of our youth jobs fellows that are supporting the call center, but those are, you know, monies that are coming through, you know, state funding. Um uh and I'm trying to think if we've, you know, made any other incremental ads, but I I don't think so. It was really just a a reallocation of existing resources to work differently. >> Fantastic. Um I appreciate that clarity and I just think it goes to show that you know city hall city manager's office is doing what they can uh to be able to utilize existing staff, existing resources even during a challenging fiscal year. Um we continue to to meet the moment. We certainly can uh do more and do better. Um there will continue to be homeless encampments. um and and things that we need to clean up clean up throughout the city. Um I'm particularly excited about the ability for us to be able to uh better respond and hold accountable a lot of those folks who are dumping illegally throughout that city uh throughout the city. Um and just want to lift up um uh one particular challenging part of Ward One uh just next to Brook Street off of Cottonwood Road or MLK Boulevard. Um the I won't go into detail, but there's a lot of work that needs to be done. Uh I'm not asking to create another task force. However, I think we need to put our heads together and figure out how we can address that that issue. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Council Member Aras. Vice Mayor for receive and file. >> Thank you, Mayor. Uh motion to receive and file. You have a motion. Please cast your votes. Motion is unanimously approved. >> Thank you. Um, city clerk, next item, please. >> Reports item 3B, jailbed task force update. >> Thank you, city manager Kle. Mayor and council, I'll move quickly into this item looking at the clock and I'm sure there'll be some conversation and follow up on this one as well. Uh we've been meeting since September uh on the jailbed task force and I've actually had lots of conversations and so wanted to bring the full council just more up to speed on those conversations. Uh before we get too far down the road, just wanted to reflect that of course this is connected to uh one of our city council priority goals around safety and resilience and um I think it's important to know uh that uh we have enhanced our ability to enforce and uh but and that means police that means law enforcement um but unfortunately there's a persistent lack of accountability in the criminal justice system for a particular particularly those chronic low-level offenders. That referral came at the September 10th meeting. Um just really quickly will highlight that the task force membership has broad representation from, you know, community stakeholders institutions local business owners. Um and we've had good attendance at those three meetings that you'll see listed there. Also, we had other meetings outside of the task force. Meetings with the sheriff, the presiding judge, the district attorney, public defender, probation, Taft police, current health systems, current behavioral health, current medical, and we've taken a tour of the the Taft jail, and the county jail. So, we are in earnest in these conversations. Um we know that there have been major state legislative and regulatory ch uh changes. Uh the task force has sort of grappled with you know what really are the challenges and you know potential opportunities that are there. This is not an easy one as has been noted and uh we've been um working you know hard to do what we can but in a a challenging you know regulatory environment funding has been reduced that we don't have enough jail beds. uh we don't have enough treatment beds for those that have mental health and substance use. In fact, just as a quick comparison, we'll get into some of this later, but we have, you know, 1,700 jail beds for uh just for, you know, Kern County, let alone some of the other city community correction facilities. And we have less than 100 beds, all included for our acute mental health and substance use needs. Um we have challenges around recidivism and and repeat offenders. Many folks don't you know they might get a sight and release. They don't appear in court. Um also sight and release means that those individuals remain in our communities or remain around institutions where they're getting services like current medical. Um we there are not enough qualified employees to take some of these treatment or um criminal justice uh jobs. And uh there's also been changes in liability. liability is much higher in the space than it has been historically. Um the Kern County jail does have a federal um jail bed cap. Um people are staying much longer in county jail than they used to. Typically folks would be there for a short time frame and go out to state prisons or state mental hospitals or other areas. and just overall our systems have become much more complex uh with the regulatory sort of u layers that have been laid at top them. So tough area that we're working in particular since it's not our authority or jurisdiction either but we know we have to do something about it. Also, it's important for the council to know that there have been several conversations for some time about different ways to try and address this. And so, you know, at the county, you know, jail, there's been conversations for a number of years about how can we uh hire more um staff and how can they hire staff quicker and they've actually made progress in those areas. So, there's there is work in that space. Um but we still have the challenge that we have. As I noted, the detention deputies has been a big challenge for the county to be able to hire detention deputies, but they've raised their pay scales. They've had doublemies and they're making progress on the detention deputies, but they still have 40 vacancies. Um the booking process was moved to Larido. There were some um pluses and minuses I suppose with that but overall it was a newer facility that they were able to design a more efficient process and they continue to work on trying to you know move people more quickly quickly through the booking process. Uh and we are thankful for uh some beds that have been set aside for us for those chronic low-level offenders. Uh we have the ability to work with about 10 beds. They're increasing that up to about 15 right now and it's not uh going to solve the problem, but we're we're thankful for that. Um we also have seen an increase in substance use treatment beds. Uh the city uh went out on a limb and went after a multi-million dollar tens of millions of dollars grant to create a new sober living environment. Kerning County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services is going to operate that site. Um, but that was one of those examples where we said we just can't sit and wait for those projects to come and be built. We went and applied for a grant that we cities typically wouldn't uh get and got more than $20 million to create uh 65 more beds. When you when you have when you basically double the number of your um uh in facility, you know, um closed facility treatment beds for sober living, that's a big jump in our capacity. Unfortunately, it's still not quite enough. Um, also there have been major changes at the state level in medical and our MA managed care plans and the calam administrators. I don't think we've seen all the dividends of that yet. I'm not saying it was, you know, right or wrong move, but just, you know, it is our new ecosystem that has been um, built. Um and the folks here locally are getting up to speed for how those uh managed care plans and and calm dollars can both benefit individuals just on a regular basis and on a prevention basis, but also those who need intervention because they have committed offenses and and um and are doing jail time. And then uh Kern Medical has had uh planning in place for what they call a psychiatric emergency department for some time. The city actually used some of our um uh dollars to help pay for a feasibility study. Those are ARPA dollars to help pay for a feasibility study to help them get really grant ready or or sort of funding ready for um a new uh department that would include an emergency room and several other uh types of detox beds and treatment beds because we we we need more of that. Uh, also I'm not claiming major success here, but we just we've also taken into account Care Core, SB43, and now Prop 36 is probably the tool that's giving us uh the most uh teeth to make some progress. All all of these are things that have been in play, but we're trying to build off of those going forward. Um, we've been looking at what are some of the potential solutions that are going to, you know, pay bigger dividends. Diversion programs. We know that many individuals, the best place for them is not to be in jail, it's to be in treatment. But we need to create some accountability. Uh we have programs available. Folks don't volunteer for those programs. How do we help them um uh be guided into those programs uh to get the treatment that they need? Uh we've looked at uh the number of state prisoners and mental hospital patients that are at Laro jail that should be in those other facilities. How do we get more of those folks out to those facilities? continue to make more process improvements, get more efficient and all of the the um processes that are that are at the current institutions. We'll talk more about this, but having a minimum facility where we can um address um accountability for uh chronic offenders. Uh we've looked at whether a city could our city could have a community corrections facility, whether we could contract with another community corrections facility. um as well as city funding to support expediting county solutions as well. So the task force has been looking at I mean you can see it's a very complicated framework and so or or ecosystem and so we've tried to create a framework to break it up into buckets and so the buckets that we're looking at are the ones that are on your screen. We want to look at behavioral health and wraparound services collectively. The booking process itself, medical clearances, detention, sentencing, a minimum facility separately because it's you know one of the biggest potential solutions beyond just detention in general and then also we have to understand some of the issues around liability and ultimately you know what are some of the costs and how can we fund this. So, in our meetings of the task force, we've been, you know, cranking away at um a couple of these different buckets of the framework in each of our meetings. So, I know I'm going to, you know, keep going rapid fire on some of these. Uh the intent is to just kind of again bring council up to speed on some of the big topics that we're discussing in each of those buckets. I've already noted this, so I won't belabor it. There's a there's a critical need for these treatment services because a majority of our chronic low-level offenders, when I say chronic, that's important because it's an ongoing issue. It's not somebody who just made me made a little mistake once, twice. These are folks that have 9, 10, 12 offenses. That's a clear pattern. And um a vast majority of them have significant behavioral health and substance use treatment needs. Um again even in this space not just detention deputies but there's a challenge of our providers having enough qualified professionals to provide those services. I do think um that there's a lot of opportunity for better coordination amongst the different service providers. It's a very complicated system that as well and I think if uh we work better together in different ways we can get more for the same dollars that are currently out there available today. We need those diversion programs and we need more treatment in residential beds. The one that I referenced, the 65 new beds, we're calling that Calm Horizons and that's a a project uh that that the city got that grant funding for. Um in addition um the um Kern County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services is working to expand their um psychiatric evaluation center, their PE, Mary Kay Shell. They want to try and get another 5 to 10 beds there. And they're creating a youth uh center that would help the youth and the adults be evaluated in two separate facilities. That's good progress. When you go from 14 beds to maybe 25 to 30 beds, it's progress, but that's not a big number. That's a challenge we're still facing. Um we're also trying to create spaces within our courts and our jails where the providers can have office space or working space. Um in the courts today that does not exist. In the jails it does to a degree but many of these individuals you know for for example in the courts they may get handed a piece of paper and say you within 48 hours you need to report to this location. They never report and we're losing you know folks they're slipping through the cracks. If we can have on-site um clinicians meet with them, start building some rapport, make it clear that you know the the access to resources and incentives that they could have uh we may do better in uh keeping people um in um treatment case management. Uh but it's important to note that um and this was something we just learned last week. uh the county behavioral health does not have a legislative obligation to provide mental health services to county prisoners or city prisoners. And so that would there's no direct funding that's provided for that resource. Um and uh I uh we have many individuals re-entering the community and sometimes re-entering very quickly, but there's opportunities to improve services, you know, and connections at re-entry again so we don't lose folks. If you're even if you've done well for let's say 20 days 30 days and you come out but you're in a very different environment if you don't have help around you in that first 48 hours uh it's very easy to go back to some of the same patterns in the booking process again it was moved to Larido um unfortunately there's been some work to streamline uh but unfortunately still long wait times our average is you know typically 2 hours uh they can move individuals goes through there in 15 to 30 minutes, but if there's already people in queue, it backs us up. And so we have 2, three hour waits regularly with our officers who are going to book individuals and sometimes even longer than that. Uh we're working on our end to try and create some opportunities to, you know, for lack of a better word, sort of batch individuals um who are in the care of a police officer but dropped off to that officer there at Laro Booking. So then our officers can get back on the streets. But if you know sometimes if an officer is you know 2 three hours out later that means they're not on patrol. They're not taking other calls. Medical clearances can often take a long time as well and uh we understand the liabilities. You know you want to make sure people are fit to to be in an environment like that um and get the care that they need. But it's also an area where it's slowing down bookings significantly and trying to find ways working with Kern Medical and the sheriffs if if we can just be good thought partners as well as um on our end anything that we can do if PD bringing folks in to help those medical clearances move quicker. Uh, and I already meant this BPD staffing adjustments means we that we're contemplating actually, you know, having staff um at Laro at a minimum at peak times, maybe at all times so that they can um sort of hold individuals while they're in queue instead of having five or six officers each waiting, have two officers waiting and everybody else get back um on the streets. I've already spoken about medical clearances a couple of times. Just um you know a few other things to add. Many of those chronic offenders have not been taking good care of themselves and so their medical needs are significant. Um that's uh a challenge that we're facing and also you know theoretically if the city takes on some of those individuals in our responsibility um you know either through a a city or a contract community corrections facility we would be responsible for those medical needs. Um, also many individuals have co-occurring medical and behavioral health treatment needs and so finding ways to synergize those um, you know, two treatment services is another ongoing conversation. I noted this a little bit earlier. Current medical has many individuals who go there for medical clearance, but then there they there's not no longer capacity at the jail. they don't um um they're not going to, you know, be held there. They're released with a citation, but often they're released right there on site. And so it's a big challenge for Kern Medical. We're working with them on some alternatives. Uh so there's not that concentration of of individuals that have recently been cited cited and released. And uh thank you to Kern Medical. You know, we identified in in our first meeting with him two lowhanging fruit items where we could um bring together the individuals that are waiting for medical clearances to be um kind of in adjacent spaces within their emergency room so that it could help their staff with safety and and efficiencies. And also for our officers, we might have had similar to the booking, you could have five different police officers all in different spots of the emergency room waiting with that individual. Instead, now we can have one or two officers waiting with several individuals in that one waiting, you know, holding area and get our other officers back out on the streets. And uh we were able to between us and CRM just implement that immediately and we we didn't have to wait. Uh as detention goes, I'm not going to belver this one too much as a broad category. We just know again we have limited jail beds. Uh that's a question of funding, staffing, and regulatory challenges. Uh they make difficult release decisions every day. Uh we learned this morning that they book about 80 individuals plus or minus uh every day across the county. Um and uh they're having to release people uh nearly every day. Um and they have to make those decisions on a risk basis. Uh 80% of low-level offenders are released that we pick up from the impact team are released within 24 hours. That's a troubling number for us and we need additional time to make sure they can get treatment, sentencing and diversion to the places that are going to best serve them. From a sentencing standpoint, it's worth noting we've worked with the public defender, district attorney, and presiding judge. There is support for diversion programs. We have to still figure out some of the logistics, but as a concept, there's good support. uh there's been some interest in taking a look at bail schedules and whether that can have positive impacts on our challenges. And then for those that are familiar with the former drug court um uh program, they would on a weekly basis bring folks in in a streamlined format. We want to try and do that same thing for some of our chronic low-level offenders to keep folks moving through that process pretty quickly. Um, and this is an important point for council to know that misdemeanence can be booked and sentenced to community correction facilities. They do not have to always go through LRDO. They could go through just uh city uh community correction facility. A minimum facility means again a space where we can address some of the low-level offenders. Uh there's that lack of accountability. Again, we need we need that. We don't think people are going to go into diversion for treatment without that accountability. Um, one of the challenges there may be limitations for uh those that need significant behavioral health treatment at a minimum facility. Larido can provide certain mental health um support that uh a lower minimum facility cannot. Um some of the options that we've looked at for a minimum facility, the county has a space at at Laro County Jail called MaxME. Um it has uh pods of 30 um beds um that there's actually eight different pods and they could scale up to hold more folks there. There's also the mega barracks that are two 60erson dormitories and then the Taft jail has two 60 person dormitories as well. Um, from a liability standpoint, uh, it is just important to know that, you know, folks who are booked into county jail are county liability. If they are booked and held in a community correction facility, they would be city liability. We would own that liability. Um, we're working to address uh, you know, indemnification. If folks are transferred from county jail to a community correction facility, um that's something that we think has a lot of merit to addressing some of the chronic uh low-level issues. Uh but we need to work out that Mdemminification. Uh this last slide is just some some broad numbers uh that at the minimum facility in Larido is not currently open to reopen. and they're estimating about $2 million capital dollars and operating costs for 120 beds would be around $11 million. Taft Community Correction Facility probably needs about $250 to $500,000 to retrofit the two dorms that aren't haven't been used in, you know, in some time, but other portions of their jail have been in use, ongoing use. Um, but it's about 7.5 million for about 120 beds at Taft Community uh correction facility. However, there would be additional transportation, medical, and and probably insurance expenses that we would need to budget for outside of that Taft contract for services. So, here's where I will just um kind of indicate and not try to speak too much for the two council members that are on the the task force. Um, but there's been significant conversation about um the the city uh seriously considering um a a memorandum of understanding with Taft for additional beds. um that initiated out of some of the early conversations that it didn't feel like um it was really an option uh to uh for the county to fund their expansion back to you know either MaxME or the um mega barracks in the short run. Uh a need to do something you know sooner than later to address these challenging quality of life issues for our community members. Um and also just our ability to you know frankly dictate some of the conditions um and outcomes as the funer you know to a contract agency like Taft whereas you know we're we're you know really reliant upon the county and decision making related to their facilities. I think you can see some of those budget comparisons. Um, of course, um, those are big costs either way. Um, but, um, you know, some some are more expensive than others. Um, and, uh, but also we're trying to dig a little bit deeper into data because some of those individuals, you know, who are some of our most chronic offenders, they may have acute behavioral health needs. And so, how many of those would need to go to a separate facility? how many could go to a community correction facility. But also there are many individuals who u may be low or moderate or who may be um chronic retail uh theft um indiv individuals um not necessarily those who have some of those other um acute medical or or behavioral health needs. And so these are some of the options that that we're looking at. As far as how could the city fund this, I'm not assuming that we're adding $7 and a half million dollars in next year's budget of new monies. Some of what we need to do is rep prioritize, just like I mentioned on some other topics. Um if we're spending millions of dollars of staff time um cleaning up after and and moving along some of the same individuals and those individuals were able to help get them into treatment or get them into accountability in in jail, then we can reduce some of those other staff costs for those ongoing cleanups. So, I would propose if council wants to move forward with this, reallocating some of our dollars within our existing resources and some of the teams that you saw today. Uh, we also have set aside some funds in prior budgets actually for this purpose and it hasn't come to fruition yet and so those funds are still available. And then because we're doing a preventative service and there's many individuals that are paying big dollars to to care for those individuals. Some of those are hospitals, some of it's behavioral health, and some of it's the county themselves. We're going to approach those other entities and say, um, you know, if we're able to provide this service, it's going to save you dollars. Can we see some of those savings put back into this program to help uh fund this? And so I do think it's realistic on a pilot basis. again 120 beds for the 7.5 if the city moved forward with let's say half that number as a pilot 60 beds um I think that uh we could reallocate enough of our own resources and get other partners to participate to do a pilot again whether that's frankly even as a partner with the county or as a partner with Taft and so um we didn't we're not bringing a decision to council today the point was to really get you up to speed in all the work that we've been doing and and really what I wanted, you know, council to be aware of is some of these big challenges, the costs, the liabilities, uh what are some of the options, and then really um a go-ahehead to say continue working with county, continue working with Taft to find the best solution and bring that back to council, uh is really the the desired intent for bringing this update to you today. >> Thank you, Mr. Kle. We'll now go to the public for comment. Madame City Clerk, do we have any requests? >> Mayor Go, we've not received any speaker cards regarding this item. Thank you, Council Member Basher Tash. >> Um, I'm I'm happy with the progress that we've made. I We definitely need to reallocate resources that we've been uh spending on um uh cleaning up uh this. And the the thing that gives me hope in this entire situation or what we're trying to accomplish here is it's going to be something different and something new. Uh you you can't you can't expect someone that's tweaking out of their mind in a tent on the street to to accept your warm handoff into a treatment program. They they could care less about what you're trying to sell them. So, grabbing individuals and getting to the point where they can have some sobriety for a minute, uh, uh, be forced to to be held accountable for their actions and terrorizing their community, and then presenting them with an option with all of the wonderful partners that we do have in our community, all the different resources. You know, this this this is how you win both worlds. I mean, for the last decade, we've seen what soft on crime looks like. And let's empower all of these organizations to just make the mistake even bigger in our communities as we continue to see it terrorize and crime gets worse and there's zero accountability. And then we know what locking everybody looks like and how that can can can really hurt communities too with people uh being being spending their entire lives when they just needed some help. This is an opportunity for us to do something different. This is an opportunity for us to actually present real results to our community to give our taxpaying constituents what they deserve, which is public safety. And we're also looking out for people that maybe need some help. Maybe they're stuck in just a lifestyle of of addiction and they need to be locked up for a minute to get sober for the first time in 10 years so that we can get them in a program so that they can actually have an opportunity to be better. But but continuing to uh to clean up the mess is not going to fix it. And I didn't mean that what we're doing is a waste. I meant that the stuff that we see on our agenda at these council meetings that there and we all know that there are items that are a waste when we're trying to raise we're trying to be fiscally responsible. We this is going to be an expensive thing and um we just need to make sure that we're good stewards of our time and our resources. So I appreciate the effort. I look forward to getting more data uh that we've talked about and um you know getting this thing can some real momentum some real teeth and and and helping our community out. So, >> thank you, Council Member Asher Tosh. Council member Smith. >> Thank you, Mayor. And I really appreciate staff's focus on this for the last three or four months. We've I think made a lot of progress in and education to the city. As council member Basher Tash mentioned this, it's a new direction and it's something new for the city and and the county and and all the health providers. There is an obvious lack of accountability and it has been going on for quite some time. We back before city manager Klay came, uh, city manager Candy, we were in conversations with the county at that time and and we've seen the same problem and and you know those conversations have continued for multiple years now without any real movement and it in my mind it is time for movement, time for decisions. Uh so I think I will make a motion that staff continue these conversations and to move forward with a memorandum of understanding with Taft on u and I I think maybe there's two in our conversations with them. there's the the ongoing, you know, once we are up to speed and have prisoners and and I think that takes longer to put together, it's more complicated, but I think just helping them get the facility ready. And so maybe we we start with a a contract with uh you know, we're going to help you get the facility ready while we're working on a contract to house the inmates. I've had conversations with with different county supervisors and and I think they understand that it is their obligation and I think that you know there's opportunities to for them to help fund like you say a pilot program and and for something that helps the county and helps us move forward. So, I would also direct staff to to continue discussing with the county and and the health providers and stuff. So, we we have no choice but to do something different to move forward. And so, I will make that motion. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Smith. Council member Gonzalez. >> Thank you, Mayor. Uh just thank you to staff for all the work and and I I'm I'm cautiously optimistic that we're in this in a good direction. But I want to provide some context here, right? You know, we we we've been working at this for seven, eight years in terms of uh providing additional support to to make our community safer um through uh additional law enforcement. We first focused on getting that 100 additional police officers and we made it. Uh and we we had a full court press to to to get that net gain of 100 police officers. And as we as we've done that, we've recognized this shortfall with with the lack of jail beds. And so, um I was just looking at my phone. It was July 26, 2023 where when Council Member Smith and I met with Sheriff Young Bloodood in his office for the first time to to initiate these conversations. And I think that's important for the community to realize that this isn't some new idea that just came about this last couple months. Like we've we've identified this need for several years, but it's been a struggle. And it's important for us to continue to push on this. This is really important. It's part of our public safety plan. and um I I am hopeful that we will get a resolution sooner than later. So, thank you so much. I I concur with my colleagues. We need to find the dollars to make this happen. U and it's part part of a whole complete um comprehensive approach to public safety in our community. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Arius. >> Thank you, Mayor. I too am cautiously optimistic uh about this um moving forward. Uh, but I just wanted to commend my colleagues, Council Member Smith and Council Member Basher Tash for, uh, spearheading the the task force. Um, uh, I'm grateful for the speed at which it's moving. Uh, the the initial referral was made on September 10th of 2025, and here we are just a couple months later um, with some some significant progress and some some real uh, options. And, uh, just want to say thank you uh, for the motion. I I absolutely support that uh direction uh from Council Member Smith. Uh but but I also uh too want to put uh this effort into context um and be particularly sensitive to the fact that um there are horrific interactions that are taking place across the country uh between ICE and and Border Patrol agents in local communities. And I I for one as a council member have been reached out to by several members of the community uh who are concerned that this particular effort is in some way, shape or form um an effort to create some form of ICE detention facility. And so I just wanted to put that to bed uh today here and now and and and confirm that that is in fact the case >> or in fact not the case. >> Thank thank you. In fact not the case. >> Yeah. Thank you, council member. that is not the case. Um and in fact as we toured you know Laro today you know folks could argue uh the points of state law but under state law uh our law enforcement and county um jail Taft jail uh they are not even allowed to ask of someone's documentation status as part of their interactions with law enforcement in the state of California. >> Thank you. I appreciate that clarification. And I think the the second thing that I wanted to clarify for the benefit of the public is I know we're having these conversations all the time. Uh but for the benefit of the public, I think it'd be helpful to define what or who is a chronic low lever low low-level offender that we are really looking to um provide support to. >> Thank you, council member. And I I think we can I I heard that as both a now and a follow-up, you know, suggestion. But really quickly, uh let me be clear to you know, some of the state policy efforts to reduce mass incarceration, to reduce uh individuals becoming system involved and then being, you know, um disadvantaged for the rest of their lives. I think that those were well-intentioned. We're not looking for somebody who, you know, a young person who makes one mistake. It doesn't make sense for them to have the, you know, a lack of opportunity for the rest of their lives. That's not what this is about. But when you have an individual who has committed the same offense 12 times, 15 times, uh, that's clearly a pattern. That's not a that's not a whoops any longer. We also have individuals who have been arrested more than 15 times over a two-year period, a one-year period, a two-year period. And it's just a chronic pattern. That's why we say chronic. We say lowle because again, I think our our and I failed to mention this earlier. Our accountability system for the most part is working for individuals who have committed serious offenses. they they get time, they get uh their day in court, they you know the process plays out for them. But for these lower level offenses where there's not really the capacity to you know even in the courts and the jails to to you know hold those individuals um that they're they're when we say lowle it's it's misdemeanors for the most part. Um these are misdemeanors that though significantly impact quality of life of our community members. It's when somebody's house gets broken into. It's when a business's window gets smashed. It's when your air conditioning gets stripped of copper wire for the nth time. It's when a vehicle gets, you know, uh, stolen. Again, you know, that's very frustrating for our community members. And uh, unfortunately, many individuals will go and they'll steal a car and be arrested and they'll go and steal a car the next day because they've already been released. That doesn't make I don't think that anybody intended for that to be what the system outcomes were. And so when we say chronic low-level offenders, it's creating accountability for misdemeanor crimes that are repeat chronic offenses that there's a clear pattern that somebody knows they can get away with it or that or someone who may not have the the mental capacity to make better choices on their own behalf, but they continue to repeat over and over again. something needs to change and that's what this is intended to address. >> Thank you so much. And just the one, you know, statistic that really sticks out from your presentation is that 80% of low-level offenders are released within 24 hours. Uh that is alarming. Um I think it's consistent with what our community feels. Um and I appreciate the fact that staff is taking this so seriously and I'm looking forward to a potential solution here soon. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Vargas. Mr. Mayor, >> are we receiving and filing? But we do have a motion. >> We have a motion on the table. >> Okay, got it. Um, well, I just wanted to join my colleagues in thanking Council Member Basher and Council Member Smith for the efforts. Uh, it's a challenging um issue that affects community safety on so many different levels. And I know while we are discussing and seeking solutions for the enforcement end of it, my hope is that we can also um be creative and additionally resourceful in the treatment end of it that we see a huge gap in. Um I was just chatting with a couple of my former students who are now nurses that work uh at Laro through Kern Medical and through Kern Health Systems. I'm I'm hopeful that maybe there are uh ways in which the city can support efforts to either employ social workers that can be specifically at um linked to these um efforts that we are joining uh in in furthering how we commun keep our communities safe um for the longevity and um that that would be my one recommendation and addition to this. Thank you. >> Thank you, Vice Mayor. The challenges before us are extremely complex. Mr. Kle, you mentioned substance abuse and the challenge there. 110 individuals are diagnosed every month with a severe substance use issue that requires residential treatment and just our ability to add more uh and only 109 beds were available in the summer when I had inquired about this. So, our ability to add more helps in this extremely complex challenge. We need to address both the mental health and the substance abuse issues as we move forward with these solutions. Thank you to all. You have a motion uh by Council Member Smith. Would you please cast your votes? Motion is approved with council member Weir absent. Thank you. And now uh that is the end of this session. We're just completing our 3:30 meeting. Sorry to keep so many of you waiting. Uh council is going to need need to take just a little break. It's 5:23. If you can take 10 minutes. I know that we're going to need a little health break. Uh thank you for your patience out there. And then we'll resume at 5:33. And with that, we stand adjourn at 5:23. Hey, hey hey. Welcome. 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.bakersfieldcity. 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 January 21st, 2026. Welcome to all of you. Thank you so much for participating this evening. Madame Clerk, please call the role. >> Mayor Go, >> here. >> Vice Mayor Core >> here. >> Council member Arias >> here. >> Council member Gonzalez >> here. Council member Weir, >> Council Member Smith, >> I'm here. >> Council member Coleman >> here, >> and Council Member Basher >> here. >> Thank you. Tonight, we have the pleasure of having Pastor To Matthews, who's the pastor of the Church of God, Bakersfield, to offer the invitation. He really needs no introduction. He is everywhere at all times and uh also part of Kern Health Systems. Thank you so much, pastor, for hosting the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. service this year. We appreciate your very, very dedicated service on so many, many uh committees and in so many varied aspects of our community. And thank you on your pastoral anniversary. Following the invocation, Benjamin PCEL, who's a senior at Bakersville Christian High School, will lead us in the pledge. Benjamin is a fourdimension dream builder and that's a really big thing. Only select people are chosen there. He serves as the ASB commissioner of spiritual life. He's first chair clarinet in school and he also is a pole var's track and field team. He hopes to attend Calpali and study agra business. And then we need you to come back, Benjamin, and uh come back to our community. Pastor, would you all please stand now? >> As a pastor, I'll take the liberty of sharing a couple of scriptures before we pray. Psalm 33:12. It says, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord." And then, of course, you know this one. It's one of MLK's favorites from Micah 6:8. It says, "He has shown you, I'll make it plural, humans, what is good, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God." We're grateful for council members who embody uh the spirit of that, doing righteous, just work, but also demonstrating compassion and empathy for every resident in this community. Let's pray. Almighty God, maker of heaven and earth, the one who reigns over the universe, this world, over kings and kingdoms, princes and presidents, mayors and managers. To you, we come this evening acknowledging our gratitude for your provision for this beautiful city, for your favor and your blessings we've already experienced in 2026. Lord, we ask for your wisdom for those who are governing, making decisions. May they trust in your wisdom and not their own understanding. We pray that you would give them hearts of compassion, of love for every single person that you love. And Lord, we also pray that you will give them courage to do what is righteous and just for every person that lives in this beautiful city. We ask these things in your righteous and holy name. And all God's people said, "Amen." Amen. >> Thank you, pastor. >> Salute. Pledge. I pledge of 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. >> Thank you, Benjamin. Would you like to introduce your family? >> Of course. So, I have my dad right here and um he's the only one here right now, but thank you for this. >> Thank you so much for being here and all the best in school >> for sure. Thank you, pastor. Also, and if any of you need to leave at this time, this would be the appropriate time. Thank you. Here are a few guidelines to help our meeting run smoothly. We request that you turn off your phones. Please be courteous in the use of cameras and videos. For safety reasons and as a courtesy to others, no signs are allowed in the council chamber or in the lobby. Applause is allowed during the presentations portion of the meeting, but not during other portions of the meeting. Everyone in attendance is expected to adhere to the rules of decorum established by the city council by resolution. 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 this meeting may result in expulsion and/or the chambers being cleared. Behavior that disrupts the meeting includes repetitive statements, shouting, hate speech, interrupting staff or presenters during the meeting, speaking out of turn, and outbursts from the audience. In keeping with the 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'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 item will be presumed speakers for the non-aggenda portion of the meeting. 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 20 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 public statements become disruptive and I have to clear the chambers to regain order of the meeting, you'll be called in one at a time to provide your public statement when your item is called. Madam clerk, do we have any public speakers regarding items not listed on the agenda? >> Mayor Go, we've received six speaker cards regarding items not listed on tonight's agenda. The first public speaker is Rich O'Neal. Mr. O'Neal. And if you just announce the next just so that person's prepared. >> Van Crawford. Thanks. And as you come up, you if you would just adjust the mic according to your height. >> Welcome, please introduce yourself. >> Good evening, honorable mayor and city council and staff. My name is Rich O'Neal. I'm with the Kerver Parkway Foundation, and I'm here to support other speakers tonight who be talking about increasing the tree ca tree canopy in Bakersfield. Um, I think uh I think the city can do a better job. Uh, I know we're trying and uh we got a model in Fresno is a very similar community than ours and uh take a look at what they're doing up there and uh we can learn something from Fresno in regard to tree canopy. Uh I do have a bright spot. Uh last year and a half uh you know we had some problems out at the trucks and lake some trees torn down by mistake. Uh but the city parks and uh water department came through and planted over 100 trees to replace those that were lost. And I hope we can do more of that kind of thing uh in other areas in the city. Thank you very much. >> Thank you Mr. O'Neal. Next speaker please, Van Crawford, followed by Dennis M McClean. >> Welcome. Please introduce yourself. >> Uh my name is Ivan Crawford. Uh good evening everyone. I'd like to kind of bring to attention the bike path between um Olive Drive and Seventh Standard. I am the resident on Isaac Lane. Uh I would like to know um how this part of the bike path has been opened already. Uh when there's not a connector between I believe it's uh the river and past uh would be on the north west side of uh the Riverlakes golf course. Uh you guys are still working on that part of it. But the bike path behind my house, which is about probably 50 ft from my fence, is open to uh everybody. When I mean everybody, uh we've had delivery vans from uh Amazon Prime uh come down the bike path because you guys have not put ballards in and the fences have been taken off and it's completely open. We have uh motorcycles quads, folks walking their dogs. I understand they're walking the dog. That's what the bike path's for and that's great. However, they're not on their leash and they come into my yard before to threaten my family and my animals. I have sheep. I have chickens. I'm a 4 acres farm, right? So, uh it it's kind of a nuisance that for my and my dogs. My dogs are on their own property. Uh, I don't have to have a leash on my dogs. People that walk on that bike path do. Uh, there's no signs posted that they should have a leash. Uh, no signs posted for no motorized vehicles. Obviously, there's no signs posted for the delivery vans that told me that GPS sent them down there and I told them they were wrong. Anyway, um if this part of the bike path is not open yet, I would like to know how come there's no uh fences up, right? If it is open, how come the ballards haven't been put up and the signs posted? >> Mr. Crawford, your time is up, but thank you. Mr. Cle, is it possible to have somebody on staff follow up with Mr. Crawford? Uh is there somebody here maybe who can just go in the back just to start the conversation? And then I know Council Member Smith, you uh also uh would like to make a comment. Absolutely Mayor. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Council Member Smith. >> Yeah, I was going to make the same comment, just have staff follow up. Exactly where what's the location again? >> Uh we're between Snow Road and Seventh Standard. There's a The Rock Harbor Church is on Snow Road. Um we are two lots behind the um church. Isaac Lane is a dirt road that's um a access road for the Etchevar's farm that's on that. It's an equipment road. Uh that's the access to our house is that dirt road. Um but the bike path is just to the east of us about I'm saying 50 ft. That's pretty conservative. I'm giving you guys some. I'm going to say it's probably less than that. Uh and it's very uh high so it actually looks over. Thank you. So, you're closer to snow road or closer to seven standard. >> I'm probably right in the middle between Snow and Seven Standard, right off that bike path. >> Okay, great. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Crawford. We'll have somebody on staff follow up with you. >> Dennis Mlan. >> Thank you. >> Good evening, council. I'm here in uh to uh support Ivan. I'm a home own home and property owner on Snow Road for 48 years. I oppose these bicycle paths being put throughout the county. Most recently, the city put a bike path along the current Fryant Canal going north from Snow to 7 Standard Road. This path runs adjacent to property owners who before the path was installed had the canal security fence under lock and key which provided privacy. Now the path is wide open to unwanted traffic, homeless individuals and riff raft. When did the taxpaying homeowners when the taxpaying homeowners asked the city to provide a security fence to isolate their property? City planning officials responded with lack of funds. Yet, the city provided Dolores Huertto Foundation hundreds of thousands of dollars for infrastructure improvements for her downtown government funded project. Go figure. I also oppose the narrowing of 8 Street from four driving lanes to allow for two driving lanes and two bicycle lanes. just what our town needs, more bike lanes for the 99% of the public who do not own a bike or use that type of transportation. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Martin Clean. Next speaker please followed by Eddie Lane. Welcome. Please introduce yourself. >> So, good afternoon council. So, my name is Anilawa. I'm a member of the Kronavia chapter of the Sierra Club and a professor at CSUB. And before I start, I have a handout for you, a letter or follow up to a letter that we sent last year with some key points that address the tree plan, the tree plan of our city and how we want to improve the tree canopy coverage in our city. So the city of Bakersfield has developed a central city and citywide tree plan as well as a document named soore Bakersfield which means sustainable opportunities advancing resilience with funding from the EPA and an outside consulting firm. Awesome. Really? I read it. It's good. So one of its goals is to enhance quality of life investments in green spaces, trees, and public amenities. Several nature-based solutions are described among them planting more trees. So on page 39 in our tree plan chapter three actually under measure description it is stated that Bakersfield trees cover approximately only 0.65% of its land area. So the tree plan advises the city of Bakersfield to increase the canopy by 50 to 200% which only adds up to being 1 to 2% then which sounds small but it would be a significant increase for our city. So other proposed measures in that plan include establish a citywide uh free tree program that provides residents with free trees to plant on their properties and a tree ordinance should be updated in partnership with the city's tree advisory group of which I am a member for about one year. So, what progress has been made to increase the tree canopy in Bakersfield within that year that I'm on the um on the yeah on the committee zero and I see my time is up. I have one more sentence. Can I say >> go ahead with that sentence? >> So, very important. So, right now Bakersfield is spending $1 million on tree maintenance and removal with zero reinvestment creating a tree deficit cycle. So, um, I give my voice to Eddie Lane. Who can continue then? Okay. Thanks, >> Madam City Clerk. Next speaker, please. >> Eddie Lane, followed by Rob Parsons. Welcome. Please introduce yourself. >> I'm Eddie Lane with the Sarah Club. Um, many of us supported the additions to the tree plan well over a year ago. We were greatly pleased when those additions were added uh based upon a California Public Records Act request, actually a series of them which are here. Um what we can say now is that whole portions of that plan have been virtually ignored. I'm sorry to say that Fresno's plan was adopted as a model. Fresno trims trees every six years, not Bakersfield. We're asking for a written six-year plan on the city's website so as to avoid unnecessary trimming such as occurred during November and December on Chester Avenue and 17th Street. Uh those are only two examples. Timing is also important. We were assured by staff there would be no trimming during bird breeding season, which is July, August, September. Yet over 2,000 trees were trimmed in July, August, and September. cost over $225,000. And these were not dormant trees. Tree trimming is harmful for trees when when they're have full leaves on them. Uh primarily again based upon the California Public Records Act request, our earlier detailed six-page letter of December 8, we requested answers about the direction of the tree work by the city. I passed out that letter. Example, re research indicates that 17 that 24in box trees are more rootbound than 15-in trees. Yet, the city's bid is basically for the 24-in trees. So, we're asking for answers to those questions that we we sent submitted before. Uh, and I remember some months ago that some of these issues were asked by Councilman Coleman for answers. So, we would like those answers. Uh, and they're detailed, we know, but that's important to get into the details. Our goal is, as a healthy city of Bakersfield canopy, our goal is to increase and improve the quality of life in the city of Bakersville. Thank you for this opportunity. >> Thank you, Mr. Lane. Next speaker, please. Rob Parsons. Yes, I'm Rob Parsons. I'm a citizen of Bakersfield since 1948. I'm a retired uh bigger sealed college STEM instructor and uh or professor and I'm just here in support of the tree uh document that's been presented to you and the additions of to be implemented to the tree plan for Bakersfield. And I don't think I need to say any more than what's already been said. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Parsons. Madam clerk, are there any other requests to speak at this point? >> Mayor Go, that was our final non-aggenda speaker. >> Thank you, Council Member Smith. >> Thank you, Mayor. I wasn't sure if you seen my notice. I just wanted to ask staff, we are going to get an update on where that committee has been going and and what staff's response is to it. >> That's right, Council Member Smith. In addition to a memo I provided to your council in this last month, we're going to have a presentation at one of our workshops in February at one of these council meetings. >> Okay, great. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Smith, Council Member Arius. >> Thank you, Mayor. I just want to say thank you to the speakers who uh continue to bring this issue to the council. I think it's a very important one. I can't remember the statistics, but I know that southeast Bakersfield in Ward 1 um is uh home to the least amount of tree coverage uh throughout the entire city of Bakersfield. And so I just want to say thank you on behalf of the 60,000 residents that I represent. Um and I think it's really important that we start to make progress on this issue. Um want to thank those members of the tree advisory uh committee uh for your work over the past year. Um I think that um this council was wise to uh be very conservative and frugal uh when crafting this most recent budget. Uh but as we look to the midyear if there are dollars available, uh I would like to ask that staff bring back a recommendation on um a a somewhat significant allocation so that we can begin uh purchasing additional trees and begin planting those throughout the city of Bakersville. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Arius. I'm going to take the chair's prerogative at this point and change up the order of our meeting again uh a bit. Our community deeply mourns the loss of former council member Irma Carson who championed opportunity for all, served our city with relentless dedication. I know we have some family members here. She was a strong, courageous, and fierce advocate for the city of Bakersfield's Ward One and beyond. Miss Carson gave voice and brought action to under reppresented communities. Her deep faith, her indomitable heart for the citizens of Bakersville and the myriad contributions inspire us to emulate her trailblazing service. Miss Carson leaves a lasting legacy that will impact generations to come. Would you join us in viewing this video of photo memories? There is not enough that we can say or do that would adequately pay tribute to Miss Carson. I know that many of us will be involved in the upcoming services on Friday and Saturday. And I'll have the privilege of speaking there. Um, after our community pays tribute to Miss Carson at the upcoming memorial services, at the appropriate time, certainly our city will seek input from our family, from our community members to consider how we can create a fitting naming tribute in honor of the council member. Uh, we just so appreciate her and uh, thank her for her dedicated service to our community family. We mourn with you. We thank you for the gift of your mom, Karen. Thank you so much for sharing the gift of your mom with us. And to all of the other family members, thank you very much. And I'd like to turn it over right now to our vice mayor for comments. And then I'll invite any other colleagues who wish to make comments to speak. Vice Mayor, >> thank you, Mayor. First and foremost, to the family of Councilwoman Dr. Irma Carson, thank you so much for taking the time to join us today while you mourn, while you plan uh a funeral. You've joined us today so that uh we could be in the same space as you before the services and honor her from the dis. And I know you all have shared that you were you've sat in the same room so many times watching your matriarch on this dis. And um I am so grateful that T uh introduced me to Dr. Carson when she was honored at Cal State Bakersfield and I had the opportunity to personally thank her um thank her for being the first for being the first black woman on this dis because simply put I would not be up here in this chair if it wasn't for Dr. Carson coming before me and without council member Dr. Dr. Irma Carson um you know places of decisionm they don't get reshaped until they are changed by forces like Dr. Carson. So I too live within her legacy. And in the words of Pastor Mike Jenkins, um this is a community matriarch that so many of our community leaders have been shaped by T has shared and um so many others through the Ebony Counseling Center and our neighborhoods uh that were invested in beyond uh creating institutions where that shaped our community leaders that get that lead today. And so those are seeds that are planted by those who see into the future uh beyond further than we can even. Um and as the mayor shared um on behalf of the city council uh we will very diligently make sure that in the coming months the city council and and the city work with the family as well as our community uh so that we can create a beloved legacy whether it's in the form of naming a center for Dr. McCaren, uh, one of the roads maybe that it was in the ward that she represented, um, or a building that is, uh, one of our city buildings so folks can see her name across uh, those boards for for time to come. And, uh, we just thank her for being the first so that so many of us could follow in her footsteps. And, uh, we commit to bringing this back uh, in the spring of 2026. So, uh, thank you so much to the family for letting us join in honoring her her enormous legacy. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor, and, uh, other colleagues, anyone who would wish to offer comment. Uh, Council Member Gonzalez. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, I join my colleagues in just expressing, uh, deep condolences to the Carson family and want to thank you for being here and allowing us the opportunity and the privilege to honor Dr. Carson's legacy. Um it it is it is moving to think about her history and her contributions and leadership to our city. Um I had an opportunity ve fairly recently in July uh to sit down thanks to Pastor Jenkins um to sit down with Dr. Carson and have a a long conversation and reminisce and also receive uh some words of wisdom. And that meant so much to me. Um many parts of WI now uh are uh were part of W one. Um MLK Park uh lots of parts of Union uh down to Brundage. And I reflect on my own life as a young man, as a high school student, watching the city council and watching all of the council members up here. And I just remember being in awe of uh Councilwoman Carson and how much she advocated and fought for her community, fought for Southeast Bakersville with passion, oftentimes with many council members opposed to her. This idea of revitalization of some of our most disadvantaged neighborhoods. She was doing that work early on, 30 years ago. and we have a lot to thank her for. There are many projects today uh that our community enjoys and without even thinking about have benefited from uh because of Dr. Carson's work. Practical things like grocery stores and neighborhoods that were food deserts, parks that were falling apart, new apartment complexes when housing was limited, affordable housing. She fought for additional street lighting. She fought uh for economic development and jobs within the neighborhood when so many people uh were looking towards the west and and thinking about what they could build new. She was the advocate for the historic parts of our community, those areas that have had been forgotten forever. And I always remember that. That means a lot. She inspired and shaped the way I choose to lead as a council member. So, uh, God bless Councilwoman Carson. Thank you for her. I know she's up in heaven looking down on us tonight. And I just want to thank her for her contributions of leadership to our city. She has made an impact uh that will echo through Southeast Bakersfield and throughout our city for decades to come. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Gonzalez. Um anyone else at this point? Offer them later. I'm going to reserve my comments for Saturday. Uh, what I will say is that in 2007, Garden Pathways had the opportunity to honor Miss Irma as a woman with a heart for Bakersville. And I think that description really is it. Woman with a heart for Bakersville and beyond. She had a big, big heart. Family, thank you so much for being here. I know that you're not able to stay through the whole service, but I do plan to close the council meeting this evening in her memory and we'll have a moment of silence at that point. God bless you all and our hearts go out to you. Thank you so much for being here, Madam Clerk. Next item, please. Mayor, we've received one speaker card regarding agenda item 7H1, Seth Huitt. Madame Mayor and Council, good evening. My name is Seth Huitt and during our last city council meeting, we are voting on whether or not to uh allocate more resources to street repairs and road maintenance and additional resources to related uh equipment. And that's a great thing. I'm very grateful y'all pass that with no problems. Our city de definitely appreciates public administrators who care about our roads. And it appears uh today as well we're going to be likely accepting a bid of about $600,000 for street improvements on Stein Road and McKe Road. Again, I really hope this passes. This is going to be great. And last last uh meeting, I wanted to capitalize on that opportunity to pitch a municipal transport authority. Um, I'm a public administration student, so this is something that I've been looking into on how do we generate external revenues uh that can kind of offset that burden that our city as well as our taxpayers face when it comes to something like street improvements, but I was a little naive and a little too excited and I made a a terrible slip when I pitched this originally. Now, the way that a municipal transport authority generates revenues is to charge, and I I gave a little spitball of about 8 cents per mile on these heavy freighters that are using our designated freight corridors. And even with that very modest tax, we could generate several million dollar. Now, a couple weeks ago when I pitched this, I said 8 cents per gallon. What does that even mean? 8 cents per gallon of gas. It was terrible. And so I wanted to clear the record today and again since we are talking about more road maintenance really uh just pitch this idea to you of a municipal transport authority. It's totally feasible. It's doable. They already have their own existing telematic systems to where they know how much their freighters are carrying, where they're going, how far they're traveling in our city. It's just a great way for us to be able to collect those revenues again without without really having to dip into either the general fund, and I know there's a fund uh associated with uh transportation in our city, but uh again, I don't think it's the residents that are driving their Kia Optimas that are doing this damage. It's a lot of these heavy freighters, and that's an industry that we love here in our city, these uh distribution networks. But it'd be great if they can pay their fair share and uh help us take care of the city we love. Thank you very much, >> Mr. Hewitt. >> Thank you. And madame clerk, um we'll also have public statements now listed on the agenda. If you're here to speak on appointments item 6A or items listed under consent calendar item seven, your time to speak is now. Again, each speaker will be given a two-minute time limit and each agenda item is list limited to 20 minutes total. The consent calendar as a whole constitutes one agenda item. If you're here to speak on reports item 10A, now is not the time to speak. You'll be given an opportunity to speak when that item is called later in the meeting. Madam 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 additional speaker cards. >> Thank you, Madam Clerk. Next item, please. >> Appointments. Uh item 6A, appointments to the keep Bakersfield beautiful committee, multiple wards. Applications for appointment have been received from Hovic Bedurian, Jesse Dalywall, Nielli Franco, Harvard Singh Greywall, Albert Eugene Johnson III, Jenny Annette Kurie, Daniel C. Nolan, Lindseay Parker, Sandy Turner, and James Howard Wheeler. Thank you. These appointments are by council member. Therefore, I'm going to call on Vice Mayor Core and then Vice Mayor Arus to share their alternate keep Bakersville Beautiful committee member nominations. Vice Mayor Core. Thank you, Mayor. Uh today I'm honored to appoint to the Keep Baker Sold Beautiful Committee uh Harvin Singh forward 7. Thank you. Thank you. And then council member Arius your nominee. >> Thank you mayor. Uh per many recommendations of this individual, it's my honor to uh nominate uh Mr. Albert Eugene Johnson III uh to be the ward one alternate on the KB KBB committee. >> Thank you. Council member Arius, Vice Mayor, the motion, please. >> Motion to appoint Harvin Singer and Albert Eugene Johnson III to the Keat Bakers Beautiful Committee. >> Thank you. You have a motion. Please cast your votes. motion is approved with council member Gonzalez and we're absent. Thank you. And to Harvin and Al, thank you so much for your willingness to serve. This is a work committee. It requires a lot of effort early early on Saturday sometimes in the rain picking up keeping our community beautiful. So thank you for your willingness to serve. And now colleagues I haven't received any requests for recusals or for items to be pulled from the consent calendar. So vice mayor motion to approve consent calendar. >> Oh thank you. Can we read the consent calendar please? particularly 7E >> consent calendar items 7A through 7J for approval. A staff memorandum was provided correcting the title of 7C2 to indicate that it is the first reading of an ordinance and not the adoption. Also, please note that item 7E1 contains a staff recommendation to adopt resolutions approving salaries and benefits for specified units. >> Thank you. And thank you, madame city attorney, for keeping us on the straight and narrow. We really appreciate you. You don't know how much this woman has done for us. Thank you so much, Jenny. Appreciate it. All right. Uh, back to you, Vice Mayor. >> Motion to approve consent calendar items 7A through 7J. You have a motion. Please cast your votes. Motion is approved with council member Weir absent. Thank you. And now next item, please. Madame city clerk. Reports. Item 10A. report on agreement 2021-142 with Union Pacific Railroad Company to lease Sumar Station. >> Thank you, city manager Kle. >> Yeah, I think a mayor and councel, a couple different staff members will walk through some slides on this topic. This is a referral made at our last meeting to bring this topic uh up for an update and today big picture going back several years we um had a referral from council to look at this uh property to work with uh Union Pacific Railroad uh to establish a maintenance agreement with them to preserve the building and to explore you know redevelopment opportunities um into the future. And uh so to to go through just some of the you know property information and details as well as kind of where we're at and where we've been headed, I'll ask uh Jason Kater to first speak to this and Gary Helen will also help us with the presentation. >> Welcome Mr. Kater. >> Perfect. >> Good evening Mayor, members of city council as city manager Klay mentioned Jason Kedar uh work in the economic and community development department as uh one of the department managers and happy to be here tonight and provide tonight's update. So, as city manager Clay kind of teed up, we'll start with high level tonight kind of why we're here. We're here for an update on the uh lease maintenance agreement for the Sumar Station Depot that is in Oldtown Kern. Just some background for for context setting. This property is currently owned by the Union Pacific Railroad. It was constructed in 1889 as a passenger rail. in recent years was used for offices and in 2021 uh was slated for demolition as the UP um office administration had moved sort of east to a new facility. Um, as part of that, we heard from the community and from the council, um, that your council at the time wanted to preserve the structure in exchange for that, working with Union Pacific in June of 2021 to authorize a lease for the property that the city would maintain the property in exchange for for looking for opportunities to explore adaptive reuse options on that site. The current property we have under lease is about 24 and a half thousand square feet of a historic structure. You can see here it's a two-story building about two different wings that function as uh historic parts of the structure. In general, we're looking at an area under lease about an acre uh with an interest in about a two and a half acre section that could be used for the the structure as well as some area to the the east that's currently underutilized. So since that time, you know, it's 2021, we're coming back here for a report. What has staff been focusing on? So just a few of the items that we've been working on. first security and stabilization of the structure. So part of the agreement with UP was the city would work on maintenance and security to ensure the property stayed in good condition. Um our staff has telte services providing 247 coverage through um through a series of cameras, sensors, um different uh perimeter gates. If there's a a service on site, we get a call for notification. We have camera access. If there's something that looks like a break-in, we can call for PPD services to respond. In addition to that, we also have a code officer who works in the region who provides about one to two drivebys a week to ensure that there's nothing that our systems have missed in terms of potential break-ins. And then once a month, we have an on-site inspection to walk through the actual property to to check the interior condition. During this time, we have engaged uh the lab, which is code for little American business. So, they are the group who invested in the orange uh in the Anaheim packing house, excuse me. It was a readaption of an old orange packing grouse in Anaheim. If you know Anaheim's history, a big orange grove community. This was a facility that that community had a real connection and commitment to. Uh they preserved it. They kind of converted it into this public market space multi-use tenant. More recently, they've also completed a project in Riverside looking at an old motel uh conversion there, the farmhouse, I believe, is the name of it, where they took an old 1950s roadside motel, and converted it into uh same thing, a mixed multi-tenant facility. So, they've done some some renderings and some concept work for the site. We've also prepared a prospectus looking at some of the markets and some of the opportunities for advertisement. We've engaged three developers on the prospects of redeveloping the site. again the lab being one of them. Two other investor groups who have had interest. We've continued to evaluate some of the site constraints and market conditions. I believe uh assistant city manager will talk a little more to some of those analysis. In addition to that, as a part of the council's referral in fiscal year 23-24, we leveraged the Oldtown Kern community visioning plan process to kind of look at what the area around this the site could be. Uh using this as sort of a platform for investment in Oldtown Kern. So we mentioned the Oldtown current vision plan. That process began in uh 2024 and wrapped up this last fall uh which is basically a high level assessment about a half a square mile area founded by Trxton Beal 178 and Union to kind of look at different ways to kind of bring back uh one of our historic neighborhoods that has a lot of history and character and seeing where the the this site among others could play in that area's reinvestment. A lot of the members of the community were involved in this process and what we've seen through that is that there was a lot of interest in historic reinvestment in assets for this area. So Oldtown Kern specifically has a lot of old restaurants character feel and people felt like this was something they wanted to see investments in in this area. A focus on walkability placemaking again kind of building that unique sense of place in Oldtown was a focus of the plan. We saw calls for support for local businesses as well as leveraging arts and creative spaces that kind of create a unique feature and assets in Oldtown Kern. Uh we looked at public rail improvements along Sar Street and Baker as part of how do we mix this into the community. Looking at adaptive reuse as catalytic opportunities for private investment. Again, the Ser being one of those options and looked at a series of ways we can try to bring in improvements around the Baker Street crossing and alternatives for what that could look like. When we looked at the Sumar Station as part of that plan, really what we saw was that Sumar Depot was really envisioned as sort of an anchor an anchor for Oldtown Current. It really sits at the the center of this planning area and really has a focal point of connecting sort of the north side of the tracks with the south side of the tracks. And so we really saw this as something that was sort of integral to that planning process. Uh we looked at the potential to activate the street with pedestrian oriented uses. As you can see here, some of the rendering concepts from the labs, showing some of the landscaping processes. Also looking at some of the treatment options we could use for Baker uh as it approaches that crossing there. Uh we looked at opportunities for outdoor gathering, art, and smallcale programming as well as ways to strengthen neighborhood identity. Looking at the the site constraints. So a lot of this identity really came down from the community's perspective, looking at Simar Depot and what it meant for rural town. I think with that, I'm going to pass the mic to our assistant city manager to talk about where we are today. >> Thank you, Jason. Thanks, council. Um, just really quickly, uh, this is a redevelopment site as city manager Kle talked about. I'm a student of redevelopment. I love redevelopment projects. What you need in redevelopment is three solid legs of the stool. You have to have a good site, and if you're not the property owner, you have to have an agreeable, workable property owner. that's the property owner and and the market conditions have to be right. That's how redevelopment occurs. So, because this is a great site as Jason talked about, it's right in the heart of of uh Oldtown Kern, do we have those other two set of conditions? Is the property owner who is UP are they agreeable? Are they workable? And what I'll share is it's been difficult. Uh just to say a real brief uh comment there. Um, we have tried to work with UP on what does that uh redevelopment look like. Um, we've tried to work on a long-term plan. Can we get into a long-term ground lease? Um, part of the leverage that UP has is they are the property owner. They own this site and they also would like to see something happen to that the treatment along Baker and Sumar that crossing. So, some of our efforts have been along those lines of what what could we do at that crossing? Um, that crossing is um a concern for UP. It's a concern for us. Um, so some of the other concerns that we're trying to work through uh on this project is it is there's a lot of maintenance on that site in in the admin report talked about there's been $140,000 of maintenance. That's fencing, that's security cameras. Um this just trying to make the site um more sustainable so that there's less damage long term. Uh does take a lot of staff time. Jason talked about there's code staff time, there's PD staff time, but that's what you do on a on a site that you're trying to protect. Um we've provided some of the plans to UP to try to encourage them to come along with us. um and we've given them traffic studies, other crossing treatments to help ease some of those those concerns. We've not again not been able to make great progress. We've recently brought on a consultant that has UP history. So, they've been uh employees at UP to help us be what we call our UP whisperer to to see if we can we can make some progress there. Uh it's slowgoing, but they have been able to get into spaces we've not been able to get to. They've been able to talk to UP's uh real estate division to help us get to the table there. That's our next uh play on this project is to try to get in and talk to the real estate division at UP. Uh so with that, um leads us to the the options that are before you today and we're available to answer any questions. >> Thank you, Mr. Helen. Uh, city manager click. Any further comments before we go to the public? >> Thank you, Mayor. No. >> Thank you, madame city clerk. Uh, any requests to speak? I believe we do have some. Would you call them, please? Mayor Go, I did want to announce that we did provide a staff memorandum transmitting correspondence from the Historic Preservation Commission. The first speaker is Steven Montgomery, followed by Jonathan Yates. Thank you. >> Good evening, >> Mayor Go, members of council. I'm Steven Montgomery, the um chair of the uh historic preservation commission. years ago u when discussing a preservation matter with a state state officer I recall his uh comment says we don't hear much from Bakersfield very often this is telling about how many of our in our community view our historic built heritage as it is we've lost much of our what should have been kept this partly because of two earthquakes of 1952 and perhaps just plain lack of appreciation for a serious serious period uh design in the day. These buildings were built with consideration for heavy um rail and rail equipment uh passing nearby such uh as large steam locomotives which weigh up to about 400 tons. Today, diesel to electric units typically weigh between 150 to 200 tons, but uh the obvious means that they pass by there's more opportunity for vibration. And but a retired uh building and bridges engineer told me that when they uh could continue to uh draw and do their drafting while trains passed by without any disturbance to their work. That was how stable the building was. Here we are considering an ongoing maintenance lease uh that protects and uh this uh solid building. It's a serious work of architecture that does need uh have uncovering of that ill-considered 1941 facade improvement that was done. This leaves the uh uh this that lease that protects that the protection it offers that is in keeping uh badly behaving people at bay is critical. Not that long ago, the monitored security system revealed on camera some miscreant setting a gasoline-fed fire in the breezeway. Firefighters given prompt notice were able to quickly respond before it destroyed anything beyond the baggage room door. Unfortunately, we're faced with a number of challenges, particularly the Union Pacific Railroad that hasn't been very cooperative in this. >> Mr. Montgomery, your time is up. Would you bring your comments to a close? Go ahead and >> So, yes. Protecting the building while looking for productive occupants to make a good use of it takes time, but considering the outcome, we recommend leaving the contract in place. It's well worth it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Montgomery. Next speaker, please, Madam Clerk. Jonathan Yates, followed by Catalina Maldonado. >> Welcome, Mr. Yates. Mayor and council members, I want to speak today about the Summer Depot, not just as a historic building, but as part of a much bigger picture about Bakersville's economic future and identity. Strong cities have strong downtowns. When the urban core thrives, it benefits the entire region. Not one ward or over another, not one neighborhood at the expense of others. A healthy downtown creates jobs, attracts investment, supports small businesses, and gives the whole city a sense of pride and identity that you can never replicate with sprawl alone. Oldtown Kern is part of our historic urban core and is essentially Bakersfield's second main street. Investing in Oldtown Kern and preserving the Sumar Depo is not about favoring one part of Bakersfield. It's about investing in the shared heart of the city. When people visit Bakersfield or when young people decide whether to stay or move away, they don't judge us by our culde-sacs. They judge us by whether we have a place that feels distinctly Bakersfield. The Sumar Depo is one of very few remaining buildings that tells our story, our railroad history, our growth as a city, and the roots of Oldtown Kern. Because of the 1952 earthquake, we've already lost so much of our historic fabric. Continuing to erase what remains weakens our identity at a time when cities are competing for talent, tourism, and economic relevance. This building is not a liability. It's an opportunity. Across California, historic depots have been adaptively reused into cafes, event spaces, visitor centers, and small business hubs that activate downtowns and catalyze reinvestment. That kind of activation doesn't just help downtown. It lifts the city's brand as a whole. Even if it takes 10 more years of this Union Pacific lease and paying for securing the dep depot in order to find the right partner to bring the station to life, that would be a worthwhile investment, even in the world of constrained budgets and difficult financial trade-offs. If if Bakersfield's urban corps can thrive again, it rebrands the entire city. It tells the story that we are proud of who we are, where we came from, and where where we are going. Distinctly Bakersfield, not anywhere else. I urge you to keep the lease in place and pursue adaptive reuse. This is an investment in our shared future, not just a building. >> Thank you, Mr. Dates. Next speaker, please. >> Catalina Maldonado, followed by Empress Nicole. Welcome. Please introduce yourself. >> Good evening, Mayor and Council. So, I'm here to speak on tonight's agenda item regarding the uh the lease and future of the Sumar Street train station. I want to be clear from the start. The Sumar Street station should remain standing and should not be delom uh I'm sorry, demolished or lose its historic character. As you consider the lease, I urge you to protect this landmark and ensure its future use honors its history and elevates the surrounding neighborhood. Sumner, now known as Oldtown Kern, is where Bakersfield began. Fun uh founded in late 1880s around the railroad. This was the city's original urban core built by working families, dust bowl migrants from Oklahoma, Mexican families, uh Chinese railroad uh workers, and small business owners. This was a place people came to build lives. You can still see the history today in landmarks like the Granada Theater. Uh here is the reality that me we must be honest about. People do not want to invest here because it does not feel safe or stable. We cannot restore buildings while allowing while allowing people to deteriorate on the streets and we cannot revive this area without clear standards for the businesses that we allow to operate here. Allowing untreated mental illness and open drug use in public spaces is not compassion. Many individuals cannot self- advocate and need treatment, structure, and whenever appropriate, conservatorship, not permanent life on the street. Oldtown Kern deserves business standards. Businesses that elevate the area, not contribute to its decline. We already know what works. Luigi's has stood the test of time. Narduchi is gone now, but it represents the kind of restaurant that belonged there um and should return as we revive Sumar and Baker. I hope the city will consider targeted grants or incentives to support that kind of investment. Here is the vision for the uh Sumar Street station, at least mine. Uh >> Miss Maldonado, your time is up. Can you bring your comments to a close do another sentence or two? Um well I don't want uh for the future of Oldtown Current to continue uh in the trajectory that it has gone down. I'd like to see it elevated. >> Thank you Miss Maldonado. Next speaker please. >> Empress Nicole followed by Mike McCoy. >> Please introduce yourself. Good evening, council members and mayor. I am Empress No and Taziki Lelo. Preserving a legacy landmark. On Friday, we will celebrate the legacy of Irma Carson, the first black city council woman for her tireless work in Ward One, aka the Southeast, one of the most underserved, underfunded, and neglected areas of our city. In the early 90s, Miss Carson would ask me to make presentations before the council to support sorely needed work and changes. She was often successful. But alas, the needs were many and the resources were not freely given to an area with the population of people of color and relegated to the lower lower socioeconomic level. Today, due to city administrative changes and the valiant efforts of city manager Christian Kle and first black assistant manager Rick Anthony, Jason Kedar, city staff, and city councilman Andre Gonzalez, the Southeast continues to have sincere, strong representation, those who truly believe that all areas of the city should have services and amenities that promote a sense of pride. in its residents. Areas like Oldtown Kern, home of the Santa Fe Train Depot, an area that was once a thriving hub with shops, restaurants, businesses, and homes. The Santa Fe Train Depot provided jobs for many, like my uncle Leroy, a Southeast resident who walked for more than 30 years to this place, all the while suffering from acute asthma, a job that produced income for purchasing a new home in the area. City Councilman Gonzalez has been working diligently to bring the area back to its former days of glory and more with a plan to revitalize the depot with shops, businesses restaurants jobs. >> Your time is up. Would you bring your comments to a close? Go ahead and uh add a couple more sentences if you'd like. >> Don't demolish the site. Demolish res mindsets that think it is easier to keep building new areas and not fix the old. Don't demolish the site. Demolish mindsets that can early only measure how well they are doing by how poorly others are fairing. Don't demolish just one let's just this this last one. Don't demolish the site. Demolish mindsets that destroy hope for equality of services for all of the city's residents. Let's keep hope alive stated Jack Jesse Jackson. And in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. the time is always right to do what's right. >> Thank you. A next speaker, please. >> Mike McCoy. >> Thank you. >> We got a >> welcome. Please introduce yourself. >> Okay. Thank you. I'm Mike McCoy. I serve on the historic preservation commission for the city. I'm a resident of the city and I also have the great honor of being the executive director of the Kern County Museum. Um, obviously just because of my background and my interests, everybody thinks I'm just a hardboiled preservationist. I am not. I'm a pragmatist. I was a public school superintendent, a state director in state government for a number of years in Sacramento. So, I know how money works and how things get supported or not supported. Uh, I want to say right now, I want to thank city staff and thank city council for keeping this project at least breathing and on the operating table. City staff especially. Um, but I do think that it's misguided to look at private investment in that site. Uh, I've done similar uh what I call white elephant projects in other communities and what I found was co-working situations with nonprofits is a better way to go. You have better opportunities for grant receptions of grants and also funding. Uh, at our museum, for example, I've been there eight years. Uh, we've done 60 restoration projects, $7 million in private funding over the last eight years. So it is possible for models and the uh proposal I sent out that the city of Ogden, Utah has a union station and they have done that project and it's beautiful. Uh the one thing I would invite you to do is you leave tonight, drive two blocks to the west. There's a beautiful parking lot there and 40 years ago that was a beautiful train depot called the Santa Fe Station. There was a Harvey House restaurant in there and now it is a vacant lot. And that will show you what happens when you demolish historic structures. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. McCoy. Madame Clerk, are there any other speakers on this topic? >> Margo, that was our final speaker. >> Thank you. We'll now go to council. Council member Basher Tash, >> thank you so much. Um, I I appreciate you bringing this back to us for uh uh comment and action. Um, I I uh it doesn't really matter if I say I love history because my people aren't going to agree with my vote and what I'm going to do anyway. But I I love history and I love Bakersville that was born here. I I appreciate that. Uh we're we're 5 years into this lease. The city is not demolishing that. Union Pacific owns the property. We just have had a lease for 5 years. It's it's an extreme liability from a business owner, a business person. It puts our city in a really tough spot. Um uh it's going to be very expensive to see it to come to fruition. Um and and and I just uh our city has a lot of more pressing issues that affect our entire community to allocate money and resources too, like infrastructure, sewage, roads, that kind of stuff. Uh and so with that, I would like to make a motion um uh to cancel terminate the lease with Union Pacific. >> Thank you, Council Member Basher. Council member Gonzalez. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um I appreciate uh all the speakers tonight and u making a lot of the points that I was prepared to make tonight, but thank you so much for being here and showing up. It means so much to all of East Bakersfield. I also want to thank staff uh for their work throughout the years in maintaining the site. Um it they have done a tremendous job preserving this structure. Um and I just want to thank you for that. U I want to share with you just a little bit. This this project is really close to home to me because I was, you know, born and raised in East Bakersfield. I went to I was an alter boy at St. Joseph's Parish, actually 1515 Baker Street. And every Sunday after church, 11 am mass, we would uh go drive down Baker Street and go to my grandmother's house at 606 Dolores. Uh and so we would pass the Sar Depot every Sunday. Uh and oftentimes just throughout the week, we'd see that depot and I was always imagined what this site could be. But my story is not unique. There are tens of thousands of people throughout the our community throughout the decades who have an experience with this building and that's what built environments do. They have they they create uh experiences for us as human beings. Uh they give us hope. They inspire. They um uh and they create a sense of a place of distinction of uniqueness. Uh there's nowhere else in America that has a Sumar Depot. 1898 built in 1898. Richardsonian Richardsonian Romanesque architecture. It's a very unique structure and once we lose it, it's gone forever. And Mr. McGomery mentioned that we've lost many historic structures over the years. He's right. 1952 earthquake, we lost several structures. And ever since then, it's been it's been decisions that have been made uh uh that that that have destroyed many of our historic sites. It doesn't have to be that way. I I've visited so many other cities even in the Central Valley where communities have taken a different route where they saw these old historic structures not as a liability. They saw it as they saw them as assets as assets. as places to invest in. And it is so frustrating because since I was a little boy, uh I've only witnessed a steady decline of East Bakersfield of Oldtown Kern, you know, in the '9s that got they got rid of International Park right there adjacent to uh the rail line. uh and and for what uh it did not address the homelessness problem that they were trying to resolve, but they got rid of it. And ever since then, there's been a steady disinvestment of the neighborhood. It's been a pattern, a constant pattern of neglect and dismissiveness of East Bakersville. And it's decisions that have been made at this council that have contributed to that. And so we talk about the pressing concerns. And I get it. Homelessness is the number one issue. There's safety concerns. I get it. I was out there last night, 11:30 p.m. at night, by the way. And because of a lot of the work that we're doing uh regarding uh outreach work, those streets were vacant. I I was out there for an hour um at 11:30 to around 12:30 taking photos and just experiencing the um the neighborhood. We still have a lot more work to do, don't get me wrong. Uh but we can't simply and easily just write off the best opportunity that we have to revitalize Oldtown Kern to reinvest in Oldtown Kern. We're talking about an asset, a historic asset, but it's not just about preserving history. It's also about creating an economic catalyst, an anchor so that we can spur future economic growth throughout Baker Street. That's what the Oldtown Kern vision plan had concluded, a communitywide effort that we spend over a year developing. And so, you know, a vision idea and and a book that has a bunch of pretty pictures is one thing, but the hard work comes when it's about making a commitment and doing the work day in and day out to make that vision a reality. And that I I I hope is what this council will see our charge is to do. East Bakersfield is suffering. We we've we've had a lot of disinvestment. We've we've seen a decline and many of us have been working and fighting to see some some uh improvements and investment over the years and there are things happening. Um but we cannot let go of this depot. Cannot let go of this depot. Uh it is our it is it is our asset and it is our opportunity to see uh future development and and we have to remain cleareyed. We have to have um the vision. We have to have the commitment. We have to have the the faith and the will uh to see it through. So my hope is that we can uh continue the lease agreement. Uh I do understand it's a fair question to ask uh ourselves about how long should we continue that agreement. Um and I get it that that is a fair question uh to ask. Um and I I respect my colleagues for asking it. It is it's a responsible question to ask. Um, but I I think that uh given my interactions with Union Pacific and knowing where we are in negotiations and how long it's taken, uh I I feel like we we just need a little bit more time so that we can find a solution uh so that we can preserve the depot uh and we can limit or eliminate the liability on the city uh and and then we can we can move forward for the betterment of Oldtown Kern and the east side. Thank you, Council Member Gonzalez. Vice Mayor, >> thank you, Mayor. Thank you to all the speakers um who bring forward uh their concerns for uh this item and their passion towards seeing revitalization and and the preservation of uh a transportation hub for so many residents throughout the generations of Kern County and the city of Bakersfield. Um, as a student of urban planning, I of course love revitalization and um, exploring this was exciting. Uh, and I thank you also Mike McCoy for mentioning Harvey House. I very much adore the Harvey House in Madison, Wisconsin, and would go often and it's very treasured in the community and also has my favorite Pavlov. So, if you ever find yourself in Madison, go to Harvey House there as well. Uh just because this uh decision for the lease was made before I was on the city council, I have a few questions probably for Gary, Jason, and or Christian, whoever can help with these. Um in your presentation, Jason, you said that there have been efforts that have mostly gone into securing and stabilizing the structure. What specific efforts um have gone into stabilizing this building? I'll answer that. So the fencing project was probably the the largest project that and that's more defensive not necessarily stabilizing in terms of like seismic is let me ask you a question. Is that seismic stabilizing? Is that what you're asking? >> Yeah. Like the like integrity of the building itself. When we say stabilizing or when you say stabilizing what do you mean? um what have we done so far and what do we hope to do next or is that something we're hoping the developer to do? >> Yeah, vice mayor court. So in that term I really the stabilization is more about security obviously as was mentioned uh you know this is an area that has some challenges with breakins. Um, so really what we've done, we when we acquired the property, we secured the doors, the windows, we contracted with Telltex Services to provide 247 coverage. Uh, if there I can tell you as one of the the few staff that get the calls, if there is someone that knocks out a window at whatever hour it is, we get the call. Uh, and if it's suspicious, we call PD. Um, we've also, as uh, assistant city manager Howland mentioned, we did secure uh an area that was being a challenge early on in the lease with the rod iron fencing. So that kind of stop the flow of people from the street side into the property. Um so we've invested over time in in security and well as some security and and staff to make sure that the site is um secure. Someone does get in that we have an immediate response to get out and and clear the the trespassing. >> Okay. Just having seen uh the types of trains and what kind of moves through this area and it mostly being cargo and oil tankers. When do we know specifically like at what point in history did it switch from being passenger tain trains to being oil tankers and cargo? >> 1975 I believe. >> 1975. Okay. So for like within contemporary history, it's been mostly that. Um I'm curious with when we when you all had the conversation with the consultants who created these renderings, was was there a discussion on um the proximity of the the actual tracks and those oil tankers moving so closely to the building itself? And I what I'm trying to get at is I'm trying to imagine um the site the build where the building is where the rail how close the rail actually is and if an oil tanker is coming through how we would secure and make sure folks feel safe on the site itself if there's like outdoor patio and that sort of thing. Is that part of the renderings and design and is that available to see? Yeah, we we for sure can send you uh the lab's more indepth uh drawings of what they're contemplating, what they're proposing. Um they have built and Jason referred to a little bit, they have built sites that are close to rail that have rail adjacencies. So some of their treatments they have that are adjacent to the rail, it tries to do more buffer. Um I But you've been out there. You're right next to the tracks. Like it's very very very close. Um I want to say within 10 ft like Yeah. 10 15 feet within the rail. So you can only do so much with some of those screenings and buffers um to try to uh prevent some of that noise um you know rustling from occurring. But they do have some drawings that uh try to address that. We can send those to you. Is there experience in working with revitalizing spaces that are close to passenger train tracks or is it like us where we're in a predicament of it being cargo and oil? >> I I mean we uh we could ask them that question on uh where their because I think their um Riverside location was closest to rail, but I also want to say that some of their other the Costa Mesa might also have some rail adjacencies. So we can ask them what what was that rail load? Was it passenger? Was it freight? And how did they deal with that? >> Okay. Uh yeah, I'd be curious to see what that would look like. Um the there was a mention of the thei Union Pacific consultants for this predicament that we're in. could you um share a little bit more about what they are recommending or I mean even in kind of the previous example of the integrity of the structure in proximity to the type of rail um or even just working with Union Pacific and could you share a little bit with the community how challenging that relationship may be? Um, we don't have that much time, but I'll I'll it's it's been I mean, you could you can tell we've been working on this for a number of years. Um, and I the maybe to make a differential of we've actually hired engineers to do traffic studies and and to work with the UP engineers. So, we're trying to like segment this to say, okay, some of these concerns that UP is bringing up are traffic related because of the treatment at the rail crossing. So, we're going to hire some consultants to help us on the engineering side. This latest round of consultants is how do we get through I mean UP is a much larger larger organization than any anything I've ever I mean it's like the federal government basically. Um, so there's so many different departments and signoffs that need to occur. We just needed help kind of getting through all of those hoops. Um, and so that's the latest round of UP consultants that are helping us target. Okay, we've we've talked to the UP engineers, we've talked to some others that are in the local Central Valley UP offices. uh we now need to talk to the real estate folks and kind of make some progress there on the real estate side. So, it's it's trying to make a collective uh approach to um address some of UP's concerns. So, it's more of how do we get uh make pro make better progress with UP. That's our latest up um consultants. >> What? Okay. Um, and with the concern with specifically closing the railroad crossing, do we have an estimate as to what that costs those who are developing this project or is that something we do as a city or is it how are we suggesting that if this is if that is that like absolutely a part of this project revitalization? Could could you clarify that? >> Sure. Um, so I I'll I'll approach that question in a different way. Um, we don't like to dis disconnect communities, right? I think there are grants that people that cities go after where either a rail or a highway or a freeway has disconnected parts of a community and you can enter into a grant that actually removes that uh barrier that disconnects the community. So a closure in our mind disconnects these two sides of Oldtown Kern. So our our proposal is to try to not have a closure. UP's proposal is they want to close it. So this is this has been kind of our what how do we thread that needle to um overcome that issue if we don't want to have a disconnected community on both sides on the north side and the south side of the track. How do we um work through that with them? That's why additional traffic studies were done. Additional data was provided to them on um the number of trips that people would be making to this potentially improved site. Um and so some of the treatments that we uh which were very conceptual that were worked on during the visioning process and were presented to the community um we also sent those to you P to have them you know what do you think give us your your ideas um on this and so we we've not made any progress with them on that topic. So within kind of revitalizing this building and developing Summer Station, the Union Pacific has asked that there be a closure of that railroad crossing. Correct. Correct. >> And that is usually in the form of like a pedestrian pathway to cross over to keep that those two communities connected. >> That is one option is to build a pedestrian bridge. Yeah. >> What is there a different option as well? But you could you could uh build an undercrossing >> in so you could close it at grade and then have an undercrossing. >> How do those um do we have estimates as to the cost of either one of those? And back to my original question related to costs, is that something the city incurs or is that something we are um asking the investor developer to take on? I think that would make that would make this in project infeasible to be honest with you. I think that makes this project go from you know just to redevelop the site somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 million based on the set of plans that we have to an undercrossing that brings it up to an additional $30 million. So it's a $40 million project and um I don't think a developer would take that on. Um are there grants you could go after? Yes. But there's also matching that's required. So there's still a high level of investment that would need to happen. And it's grants that only a city would would be able to go after. >> And that's a condition Union Pacific has for us revitalizing. That's their current position. >> That's correct. >> Okay. >> Um thank you for the clarification on that. Um there within the information that um Mike McCoy provided us, there's one idea that I was curious about, which is a long-term lease idea. A long-term lease or gift of building of or the gift of building to a local nonprofit or city of Bakersfield by by Union Pacific with a minimum of a 45-year lease. Have we had any conversation that's that mirrors something like this? Uh we we would love a long-term 45-year lease uh if Union Pacific would grant it. Uh one of our first talking points with UP is if this was a $10 million investment from either investor, the city, or a combination thereof, we would want a 50-year lease. That was our that was our starting point. And and we got laughed at. UP was like, "How about five?" you know, that was that was their counter to our our 50-year lease. And so, um, this is part of that struggle of where, uh, we need them to kind of meet us in the middle somewhere because if you're investing that much, we we need a much longer longer term, um, ground lease. And we like the idea of having local nonprofits be in some of these offices. We think a mixed juice is what works there. You know, having some restaurants, some art galleries, some some office, some nonprofits. We think that would be a great mix of uses in that space. >> Yeah, I agree. Is that something that can be taken back to these UP consultants you've referenced? >> For sure. >> And I would say my final question, well, actually, I have one more before my final question. the there's a lot next to this property that's owned by Union Pacific. Correct. >> Correct. >> If so, in the in the scenario that we do revitalize Sumar Station, what does Union Pacific plan to do with that lot? Is that is is that a part of this? Is it separate? Could you help me understand if there's been conversation about that lot next to the Sumar Station itself? So there yeah there's on the east side of Sumar they own that uh parcel which we're actually including as part of this footprint because >> as a planner you know where are you going to park people uh that want to flock to this site. So we would propose to also ground lease that area to the west to park it. I believe your question though is what is UP's plans if nothing occurs on Sumner? uh we've not had those discussions, but we certainly can add that to the list of uh talking points that we have with UP. If this doesn't move forward, what what are your intended I think that was your question, right? >> Yeah, my question was if we build or if they demolish what happens with the entire land, does it if it's if this building is demolished, does it also become what the next door lot looks like currently? And that's concerning. if we build, you know, what happens with that lot and are they receptive to the are they receptive to that um lot being incorporated into whatever the developer has in mind? >> Yeah. So, Vice Mayor, I I would say and I think council, I think you're you'd like to comment on this, but so back to 2021 when they were going to demolish the property, the the station was their offices at the time. >> They've now moved about 3/4 of a mile east, >> right? So they still own that property, but I think to what you see today again with we can have the conversation, but this sort of uh the challenges that are happening on that property in terms of some of the encampments and the litter uh you know their focus for office and and maintenance is really now a half mile to the east. And so um I don't think we've heard of any specific plans for that site for development. So I would hypothesize at this point it would probably stay vacant similar to what you see there. And the staff's focus is really down where the loading is about a quarter half mile east of the property. >> Okay. I have one last question and you had mentioned that uh there's conversations with lab regarding investing and there's three potential investors. Is there what does that look like today that we're able to communicate to the community as to like if there's a timeline, what do conversations look like in this moment that can really communicate some sort of hope or um some sort of vision, some something to expect from this? If there are conversations with three potential investors, what are those conversations like? How far are those? Is there a timeline that can be expected? And um and if there's challenges, what are those? >> Um I'll just say in our our work with the lab, uh we've not talked about what their investment level would be. uh in in our talks with other investors, it was more um they they had some general interest but they never really gave us um kind of a financing plan of hey if you if you can get this resolved with UP we will invest X Y and Z in this time frame. So, um I think in our mind we needed to get the up concerns resolved before we could really generate a good timeline. Um and I know that's very linear, right? Normally you just do everything all at once, but in our conversations with lab on how some of their other projects have worked, they're like, "Yes, you need to get some certainty because investors want certainty, right? They don't want to know well okay is it or isn't it? What's what's UP's decision? And so that's we want to get that certainty so the investor can then have that firm commitment on timeline. If I may, Vice Mayor, I just want to make a little bit of a finer point on on that that last uh response, which is accurate, but uh I want to make sure it's clear that, you know, we reported that we had, you know, in the in the total efforts, we've talked to two potential investors, but currently we're not in ongoing conversations with any investors. sort of those conversations ran their course and absent you know again a more clear path uh you know we don't really have um investors sort of waiting in the wings on this project right now to be clear >> okay thank you so much >> thank you before we go to council member Coleman council member Gonzalez if you want to answer the one question about the lot and then we'll come back to you after council member Coleman >> thank you so much mayor I appreciate that and vice mayor thank you so much for that question because that was a really um that was a really keen question you know the the property from I've been in a lot of these conversations myself and the initial conversation from Union Pacific uh was that uh once the property is demolished their only intent is to keep that uh property clear uh and not to not to develop it but just to keep it clear. their their main focus is just to move freight uh through through Oldtown Kern. Uh and so, you know, I just want to make one other point. The there was a mention of encampments. The encampments actually uh have all formed and the problems have all formed on the property, the vacant property that's actually the responsibility of Union Pacific, not the area that is the responsibility of the city. I think that's an important point. If we see this lot demolished or this property demolished, I think we're only inviting more encampments. Thanks. >> Thank you, Council Member Gonzalez. Council member Coleman. >> Uh, thank you, Mayor. So, I I I want to first say that I think it's important that we support council members uh on projects they're uh trying to do in their award. And I appreciate the efforts made by council member Gonzalez on this project. Uh but we have supported this project for the last five years and let's be clear there are no investor developers at after five years there's no investor developers waiting to spend money on this project. Uh there's no agreement for a long-term lease. We've been working on it for five years. Uh Mike McCoy mentioned the Union Pacific in Ogden, Utah. Well, this I looked into that Union Pacific uh gave the city of Ogden, Utah that building in the 1970s and gave him a 50-year lease and in 2024 the lease expired or is getting it expired in 27. So the so the city's like, "What are we going to do now?" The lease expires in a couple years, actually next year. And so they just last year 2024 spent $6 million uh to acquire that land. So here 50 years later, the the current council is faced with what do we do now and wind up spend another $6 million? And uh so we need to be thinking about what these long-term leases mean to us. Um, I wanted to say that the staff, well, since 2021, we spent the 140,000 what the staff report says. But the staff report does not uh list all of the uh staff time expenses associated with this building. Uh, code enforcement going out there, uh, uh, staff going out there for various things. Uh BPD is out there on an average of 10 times a month for the last five years, probably more than that. Uh so it's not the $140,000. There's a lot of other costs associated with that. That staff report also talks about uh5 to eight million dollar renovation, but really this thing's we've we've had estimates as much as 20,000 $20 million rather to renovate this building. And it's probably by the time we get around to it, it's going to be $30 million. and the city has no has don't have those resources and we're going to have to try to find invest resources in trying to find somebody else to invest resources in this. Um so I'm concerned about that. I'm concerned about the condition of this building. I mean uh we took a lease that uh inherited basically all the liability for this building. We totally indemnified the Union Pacific Railway. So if if somebody gets hurt there or if we uh if that building burns down or whatever, we could be liable to Union Pacific for this building. And so that concerns me. In addition to the condition of this building, you know, I think we all imagine there's some grand hall in here that we're going to be able to renovate. It's going to be this great thing. And that doesn't exist in this building. And these are two buildings that were put up strictly to move people in, move people out. And so there was no uh uh uh you talk about architectural significance. One building was has one architectural style and the other building has a different architectural style. So uh there are a lot of things going on here that are things that an ordinary investor wouldn't want to take on and I don't know why the city should should take it on. There's been some mention of uh the Oldtown current vision plan. Uh that that plan uh I've seen that plan. I I'm not I'm not not 100% certain that it's been totally vetted yet and that it's been adopted by uh the council. I I don't recall, but um there are some good things in that vision plan and there's some bad things in that vision plan. Uh, you know, the plan is really unclear about the Sumar Depot. It's been said that, oh, the Sumar Depot is an anchor for that re that development plan. And and let me back up to say that I I've been involved in redevelopment in the city for a long time. I I served on the redevelopment agency back in the early 2000s and so I am passionate about redevelopment. I'm just concerned that uh under today's uh times uh this is a very bad deal for the city. Um getting back to the visioning plan uh it doesn't really talk about what role Sum's depot's role is in that. Uh they do talk about uh you know a gateway or entry district that would be Truckton Baker area. They talk about the restaurant row, an arts district, an entertainment district. You know, I really believe that the future for that area is the restaurant district. You already have Luigi's that's thriving. You have Wool Growers that's thriving. You have uh Nardish will come back. We'll get Nardish back. Uh Pyrenees has done a total turnaround. It's thriving. Uh got the Arizona Cafe. Yeah, I think we can get back at some point, too. So, I I don't know that that the depot really uh is the anchor for that area. Uh I think we have kind of a build it and they will come kind of attitude to this and uh I I'm I'm struggling with that. Um one of the things we don't talk about is the highspeed rail, if that ever gets fully done, they got a vioaduct coming right down Sumar Street. And so what does that do to the uh to the uh the depot? Does that obscure it? Uh you know, I know some of the renderings kind of showed them all working together, but you know, I'm I'm really concerned about about all those kind of things. U and there's so much else the city needs to focus on. uh you know we have a we have a budget that is strained and so I'm very very concerned about us continuing to invest in something that's just going to be a financial albatross for us for a long time to come. You know the uh the visioning the oldtown current vision plan has got an eight or 10 year horizon and we know how those things go. So, it's really more of a 10 or 20 year plan. And so, I'd really hate to be in this project 20 years from now. Um, we've lost a lot of other historical pro properties. I know that was said in a negative term, but a lot of those things were uh decisions that the community made at the time. And you know, you think about the southern southern hotel that was downtown and and some other projects. Uh you know, the uh the old courthouse that was where Bank of America building was that was that was removed and and now we have a big Bank of America building. And do we miss that building? No, I don't miss it. Uh and so I I I don't I don't know that that uh that we have to preserve it to remember it. uh we could very easily do some kind of memorial, some kind of monument uh in that area to recognize the depot and how it uh how it played in uh uh the growth of the city. And so I don't know that we need to have this building for that purpose. And uh I think that uh yeah, I think that in includes my notes. So, uh, I'm not in favor of continuing this lease, and I will support, uh, Council Member Basher Dash's motion. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Coleman. Uh, I'm going to do some follow-up questions before we go to Council Member Gonzalez. Chief, would you come up here? Uh, Council Member Coleman, you mentioned BPD. Uh, Chief Terry, we might have Fire Chief in here also. Uh, Council Member Coleman, you mentioned, uh, the the number of, uh, responses needed by BPD. Chief, would you be able to just describe the condition of the building, the responses that have been needed, the amount of officers that are required for that? I know sometimes the K9 I've visited been inside the building and it's large and has lots of nooks and crannies. If you could just talk about that. You know, these decisions are never simple. So for us to have all the information needed as council makes these decisions is so important. So Chief, if you could just speak to that, please. Sure. As it's already been described, it is a very large facility uh a large building and we're going about 10 times uh a month uh for trespassing or alarm or some other type of offense. Um, and because of the nature of how large it is and the way it's constructed with so many different rooms, it takes a number of officers to be able to clear it every single time. Uh, sometimes that is the use of a K9 is what will be used to do that. Um, that canine may need to be summoned from other some other part of the city. Uh, and so officers are waiting to do that. All of it will obviously takes time for a number of officers depending on the nature of what the report was. If it was a burglar alarm, we would send more officers than if it was a broken in window where it didn't appear that entry was made. If we have to go in and search and clear the building, it takes a number of officers uh quite a bit of time to methodically work through and safely be able to do that. Um and obviously they would not be available for other types of calls. Um so every time we get a call there depending on the nature of it uh the amount of resources necessary to safely clear the building uh depends on the nature of the call. >> You mentioned sorry you mentioned safely clear the building because of the conditions of the building. The arcing doesn't even allow the lights to be turned on. So when when officers go in, how much time are they having to spend? Are vagrants still entering that building and what are we diverting in terms of our resources when we have to call upon our officers to check out the building and to ensure this their safety and safety of any vagrants maybe that would have entered. >> Sure. um and all of that. The number of resources that we send depends on the nature of the call. Um if it appears that entry has been made and then we're going to send a larger number of officers. Um that's probably in the realm of four to six uh perhaps with a K-9 at times. Uh but again, just depends on the nature of the call. If it doesn't appear that entry has been made and we're just having to secure the property and check it out, then it's still a number of officers to do that because it is so large. So all of that depends on the nature of the call. But if we have to send officers in to clear the building, it is a large number of officers that are certainly not available for other types of calls for service and that happens, you know, 8 to 10 times a month. >> We've secured the building, but are vagrants still able to enter? And have they entered? Yes. >> Right. Thank you, Chief. Uh, Council Member Gonzalez. >> Um, and thank you, Chief, and thank you, uh, to the department for all the work that you do, um, protecting this site and a lot lot of the vacant buildings that we have in downtown and Oldtown. That's part of the problem is that again there's been a steady decline of many of our historic neighborhoods, a disinvestment and uh it doesn't turn around overnight and it requires a catalyst. It requires the city to invest in its communities uh and and to make those uh to make those uh properties uh not only safer in the short term but uh find new uses. So, it's actually productive and it's actually an asset and and they're they're resources for all community members and that's what we're trying to work towards. We're trying to work towards this longer term uh use of this property. Uh and Council Member Coleman, I appreciate all of your concerns and certainly I have a list of concerns as well and um but I also have a lot of um ideas of how we can actually work towards a solution. And the reason I know that is because there's plenty of examples throughout the country uh and and throughout uh actually the throughout the city uh where we have found uh many of our historic structures in decline and we've had investors who've had the heart to invest. Um the Woolworth building is a good example of private investment where it would have been far cheaper far far uh easier to go out into the west side of town and build a build a brand new building. But it was because of their heart. It was because of their vision. The other thing I want to mention is that in any commercial development, I'm not a developer and I'm not a I'm not in this work, but I've worked with lots of developers over the years, particularly in downtown as it relates to revitalization. Commercial development takes a long time. It takes some time. And so we have to be able to be in this for the long term. PQ is a good example. We have a property that was that was purchased during the old redevelopment days uh on California and Q Street. This property is still vacant over 20 plus years. Um and we've had problems on that side as well. Um but I think that you know you know Bible says uh without vision people perish. And it's important for us as leaders in the community uh to have a vision for our community and for all neighborhoods in the future. and and and I think that Sar Depot and this particular structure really provides a lot of um uh not only unique character and history and and serves as a cultural asset but it also can be a catalyst for future growth and that's not just me surmising that comes from the recommendations of professionals who have done these projects uh in other parts of the state lab is well respected uh throughout the country uh and they have seen the potential in this property. Um we have had an investor who is willing to fund the whole project. Uh but because of the length of time it's taken uh with Union Pacific uh they have stepped back from it and that was a real step in the back step backwards. But I believe that we can find others with the same heart and vision and resources to make that investment. And finally, there is this issue regarding the safety and and and and the crossing at Baker, but this rail crossing will still be a safety issue even when we demolish Sar Depot. It will still be an issue and and Union Pacific will still uh be pressing the city. We'll still have to address it uh at some level. and they'll they are using they are using this depot as leverage uh to to get the city to move and it's wrong. And so I I I think we need to continue to negotiate. We need to push back and um and my hope is that we can get this deal done. Um but I do understand on the other other hand I do understand that at some point we do have to say look we we've we've tried our best. We've made our best effort in this negotiation and it can't go on uh can't go on forever. So, um I'm I'm interested in hearing from the rest of my colleagues, but I would just encourage us to kind of give us a bit more time so that we can see where we go with Union Pacific. >> Thank you, Council Member Gonzalez. Council member Arius. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um I don't want to belabor this issue. I think there have been many uh good comments and questions on both sides of the argument. Um what what I will say is that u it's my it's my perspective that the city of Bakersfield has done its part. Uh the city of Bakersfield has you know entertained this lease for nearly 5 years now. Um that is quite quite a good length of time particularly when the initial intention of the council was only for it to be 12 months to go negotiate with UP uh to find some private investment to make this project work. Um I would argue that fi five years is a good amount of time. Secondly, um you know, to Council Member Gonzalez's credit, um and and the community leaders, um some of whom are here tonight, um have done incredible work working with city staff to reinvision what could be in Oldtown Kern. Um and I think that at the same time, this this opportunity to redevelop uh Sar Depot, Sar Station, uh is an incredible one. Um, so I'm torn admittedly. Um, on one hand I think that there's uh an opportunity uh for us to reinvision what this site could look like. On the other side, I understand that there um are liabilities associated with the current agreement. Um, but at the end of the day, I think this ultimately is a a business decision. Um, and I think our assistant city manager pointed it out. you need a cooperating property owner in order to get the deal done. Um, and I would make the argument tonight that uh sometimes uh the best form you the best thing you can do in a negotiation is hang up the phone or close the door and leave the meeting. And so I think we need to put a deadline on on this particular lease agreement. Um and the other thing I think that is important is also that you know we as council members represent our districts nearly 60,000 individuals uh many businesses in each of our districts and I think it's important to respect um the wishes of um that representative who was duly elected to represent uh that district and so um I think all that said um I am most in favor of allowing for us to continue with this lease um until the end date of June 24th, 2026 of this year uh with the expectation that staff um bring back um an update on where we are with negotiations with UP um and if things move in the right direction that we would then at that point have the ability to entertain an extension of the lease um if things progress address in a positive way and I'll make that a motion. >> Thank you, council member Arius. Vice Mayor, >> thank you. If so, we have two options and a third one being providing additional or or alternatives if the option of the least remaining valid. Does staff feel that another one-year term is adequate amount of time or how much time do we need on this project? >> Madam City Attorney, >> mayor, um vice mayor, I think that staff can answer your question, but from a legal perspective, the lease that is currently executed, it is an automatic renewal. Um and it is set um that date is June 24th. So, if council member Arius's motion goes first, if that's the last motion on the table, I'll need you to clarify that because there isn't there isn't an extension. It's just it it's automatic. But, um, to the vice mayor's point, um, I'll now defer to the city manager, >> Mr. Click. >> Yeah, Vice Mayor, I think, uh, you said an additional year. Did you mean up through June 24th? >> Right. >> Yeah, I think through June 24th. I would I don't think we're going to have a fully executed long-term ground lease with UP by June. However, we could continue through June, come back and give an update to see how much progress we have made. I think that's enough time to execute our current strategy of getting to the right people at UP and be able to come back and tell council where we're at with them. Uh but I anticipate, you know, just giving, you know, respect to city attorney and others, we would need time to review, you know, any type of an agreement like that. And so I don't think we would have that, you know, ready for council to vote on by June. But I think we could uh come back and and give a a better update on whether we think that that's going to be likely or we've given it our best effort. I think council member Audis, do you want to amend your motion? >> Well, I just wanted to clarify that um whether we renew for an additional year or not, we still retain the ability to terminate the least at any point with a notice of 30 days in advance. Is that correct, >> Council Member Arus? You do. So, in other words, your term of your use of the word extension to me um uh is not is not accurate because the the lease is continuing. So, if you want to come back in June and get an update, great. And then if you decide at that point that you want to terminate it, you'd give your 30 days in June and it would presumably terminate in July. There wouldn't be any need to do an extension is what I'm telling Yeah, I I hear you. So, I I'll make the amendment to my motion um to allow for the lease to remain valid and request that staff bring an updated presentation on this project on an or around June 24th, 2026 uh for further council action and um consideration. Thank you. >> I had a follow-up question. Sorry, I wasn't done. Um, alternative alternatively, um, have we re-engaged in conversation with Union Pacific in letting them know that today the council is having discussions to potentially terminate the lease and if they are still interesting interested in demolishing this building? >> Do we know yes to your first question? We let them know that this is a big decision and asked them to tune in. I don't know about the second question. Uh I there was not discussion or questions or confirmation on do they plan to demolish. Uh that that did not occur. That's what your question was, >> right? Okay. So that's not something we asked them. >> No. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Smith. >> Thank you, Mayor. I I like what council member Aras stated is that sometimes in negotiations the best thing is to hang up or you know put a deadline on it because this thing's been floating for a long time and and I think not a high priority for staff. We've got a lot of other stuff that is higher priorities and obviously not a high priority for Union Pacific. So I think you know given another four or five months whatever it is with a little time pressure on both sides and perhaps some pressure from the community on Union Pacific uh to let them know what the real community fallout might be if they demolish the building in August. So, I'm in favor of I guess it's not an extension. It's a continuation of the lease until June or so. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Basher. >> I just want to get some clarification from city attorney. >> It's a 12-month lease. Yeah. Auto. So, it would have to be May 24th. >> You're reading my mind, Council Member Basher Tosh. uh city manager and I were just looking at that lease very quickly. Um I again I think that UP could probably take that position and so I would encourage the city manager and staff to come back well before the 30 days of June 24th. >> So we're talking about having a decision being made in May. I if if u Councilman Aras's uh motion passes, we're hopefully he would amend it to be in May so that we're not on the hook for another year in the event that that does pass. But uh I just wanted to make sure that we're >> you may want to ask Councilman um Aras to repeat his motion, but as I understand it, it would be a motion to simply allow the lease to continue uh continue in its current form and for staff to return um I'll say uh substantially before 30 days before June 24th in order to allow the council to terminate the lease at that meeting if substantial progress has not been made to the council's determination. >> Yeah. Can we get that clarification? Councilman Arius, >> I suppose now I'm even more confused. I It was It was my understanding that whether we continued with the lease or terminated the lease at the on June 24th, 2026, that we would still retain the ability to terminate at any point with a 30-day written notice. >> I think it depends on how you read the lease. Um, as I indicated earlier, there are two leases that the council executed and again that is a fault of my office. There is the original lease and then there is an exhibit B which is the UP lease. Um, so I don't know I haven't had any discussions with UP, but I would tell you as your city attorney in the abundance of caution um I would have the discussion and the update 30 days prior to to June 24th. Okay. Um, I'm immunable to that. Um, I would ask that, uh, staff bring back this item for an update uh, well before the that 30-day window. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Ares. Uh, Council Member Basher, back to you, >> Council Member Gonzalez. >> Uh, yes. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, thank you, colleagues, and and thank you, Council Member Audius, for for this motion. I I'm very happy with this. I think this works. I think the community will be very appreciative. The reason I I love this is for three reasons. Number one is gives staff a little bit more time to negotiate with Union Pacific. Number two, though, I think it does provide us a little bit of leverage and put Union Pacific on notice that we're about to walk away. They've used this as leverage for them uh for us to do some pedestrian bridge and and add $20 million to the project for for far too long. and we need to communicate to them that we're we're serious now and this is the end. Um but the third thing is I think it really sends a message to the rest of the community. We all have to look for solutions for this site if we want to preserve it and um and the city has done what it can and I appreciate all of the investment over the years and I sincerely appreciate the investment of the council. Um but we all have to recognize as community members that we have to figure out a solution together. Uh so thank you for the motion. I think it helps a lot and thank you for the extension uh of a little bit more time so that we can work through this with Union Pacific. >> Thank you. We have a motion audience. The way this works is we take the second motion first. So we're going to be voting on Council Member Aras's amended amended amended motion at this point. You have a motion. Please cast your votes. Motion is approved with council member Weir absent. Thank you. Next item, please. Council and mayor statements. >> Thank you. Can you just clear that so I can see? There we go. Just going to wait for a minute for any names to come up. Vice Mayor, >> I usually don't take this much mic time, but um yesterday was Council Member Eric Audius's birthday. So, please joining join me in wishing him a very happy birthday. >> Happy birthday. >> We can sing to you right now. >> Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. >> Happy birthday, dear Council Member Eric Aras representing Ward One. Happy birthday to >> to you. >> Thank you. I I I will admit that my my staff has embarrassed me. My family embarrassed me yesterday. Uh but I think this takes the icing on the cake. So uh thank you. Thank you very much for the for the well wishes. Thank you. >> Happy birthday. I don't see other requests to speak. We spoke earlier about that council member Basher push to speak. Well, we're not going to be here next week for the other the other birthday that's at the das. So, we should say early happy birthday to Vice Mayor Carr. Uh, next week is her birthday. So, happy birthday. >> Happy birthday to you. >> Happy birthday, dear Mor. Happy birthday to you. We have two Aquariuses on the board. And now after all of that joy, we come back again and remember our dear former council member Irma Carson, a trailblazer, a lover of our community, a public servant, and as she's been described, a consumate elected official. So, let's take a moment now just to honor her with a moment of silence. Thank you. There are services on Friday and also on Saturday. The main one is Saturday at St. John Missionary Baptist Church. And with that, I will adjourn the meeting in honor of former council member Dr. Irma Carson. 7:37. Hey, hey hey. Hey, hey hey.