[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] welcome to the Bakersfield City council meeting this television broadcast is brought to you by by the local cable companies the county of karna and the City of Bakersfield you can watch the rebroadcast of this meeting Saturday at 700 p.m. Sunday at 10:00 a.m. and the following Wednesday at 700 p.m. you can download the agenda for this meeting at www. Bakersfield city. us preci over this evening's meeting The Honorable mayor Karen K go good evening and welcome to the 5:15 regular city council meeting of October 23rd 2024 Madam clerk please call the rooll mayor go here vice mayor Gonzalez here council member Aras council member Weir council member Smith I am here council member Freeman here council member gray and Council me member core here thank you well welcome tonight it's a wonder night of celebrating good things and I'm opening this meeting in celebration of a wonderful Milestone that we achieved yesterday Saturday marks our fourth anniversary of the city of Bakersville Brundage Lane navigation Center operated by our partner Mercy house and yesterday we had a special surprise as our 400th guest at the blnc moved into permanent Supportive Housing so we want to congratulate and thank Mercy house and blnc on this outstanding achievement I have a certificate that they will receive later on in this week but we want to celebrate tonight this wonderful Milestone tonight we have the pleasure of having Reverend Marcos Ortega who's the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Bakersville to offer the invocation we're just so thankful that you've uh joined this community now uh coming from Goodwill Church beacon in Upstate New York and langor Presbyterian Church uh welcome to Bakersville we're glad to have you in the city where we say this the sound of something better so welcome here Pastor first prese does wonderful things in our community following the invocation Grace AOA who's a junior at Centennial High will lead us in the pledge she is a recipient of the Congress of future medical leaders award and this is an honor that is a program for high school students who want to pursue careers in medicine or medical science but here's the big part of it Grace is one of two students chosen in California to participate in this program she's a three 4.1 GPA uh she's an honor student link crew member project Jesus Centennial Varsity Tennis Club volleyball and Club sand volleyball and she's always wanted to be in the medical field and decided Ed to pursue a career as an orthopedic doctor after a sports injury so at this point would you all please rise and Pastor come and lead us in prayer well thank you Madame mayor and distinguished council members uh let's pray God we thank you for the privilege of serving ing this city and Lord I pray for the work that will be done here the celebrating that will be done here and God we pray for the city of Bakersfield Lord it is uh the new home for me and my family and it has been home to so many for generations and we thank you that you guide this city and that you watch over the citizens of this city God you are light and in you there is no Darkness so God we pray for continued goodness throughout this city we pray that the good would be sought by each member of this Council by the mayor and her staff and God we pray that your goodness would shine throughout the city of Bakersfield you are truth and in you there is no falsehood so I pray for this Council as they do the work that you have set before them God would they be led by wisdom wisdom would they be Discerning knowing what is good and right and true for this city and God finally you are love and we pray that a love for the citizens of this city would burn within the hearts of each council member would you fill them with joy would you fill them with hope and would they lead with love as they serve this city that they have sacrificed so much for so God we pray would you guide this entire proceeding and God would you be honored above all I pray these things in Jesus name amen amen thank you Pastor Grace thank you for having me please stand for the national I mean no uh for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you and uh introduce your parents wouldn't be here without them and your sister um this is my mom Tuesday and uh that's my sister Gabby and behind them is my dad thank you so much and congratulations on your wonderful selection thank you thank you Pastor here a few guidelines to help our meeting run smoothly we' request that you turn off your phones please be courteous in the use of cameras and videos for safety reasons and as courtesy to others no signs are allowed in the council chamber or Lobby Applause is allowed during the presentations portion of the meeting but not during the other portions of the meeting everyone in attendance is expected to adhere to the rules for the Quorum 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 your removal from the meeting and or the chamber being cleared behavior that disrupts this meeting includes repetitive statements shouting interrupting staff or presenters during the meeting speaking out of turn surpassing the two-minute time limit and at this point before we move on to the next item I'm going to ask everyone who's standing to please find a seat for safety reasons and staff if we have um more guests if you would just move to the Overflow if you're able to do that so we we need to make sure and if you have a seat that's by you especially if it's in the middle can you just raise your hand and whoever is back there staff can you just help our guests to be seated please any staff who's there if you can just help guide our guests to a place we'll need everybody to sit down before we start you might not be able to sit next to each other so we're going to just need to find a seat where wherever there's an opening you're welcome to stay and you're welcome to go and study again for uh becoming a doctor thank you so much all right we'll need everybody to sit down there are three seats right here in the front there's one over there's mam clerk next item please presentations item 4A proclamation to Janessa Fischer peer support specialist for Kern County Superintendent of Schools and youth action board chair and Cynthia Lyra Martinez peer support specialist for current County Network for Children and Youth action board co-chair declaring homeless youth Awareness Month in Bakersfield during November 2024 colleagues it's hard to identify youth who are homeless despite how common it is youth experiencing homelessness could be standing next to you in line at a store a classmate or even a child just on the streets each year more than 4.2 million youth across the country experience at least one night of homelessness established in 1992 the kar County Network for children Works to protect and enrich the lives of our children in Kar County they identify the most critical issues of our children in Kern County including the prevention of child abuse neglect and homelessness thank you so much for all your efforts it's my honor to present this Proclamation whereas KR County Superintendent of Schools identified more than 6,440 children who lacked a fixed regular or adequate nighttime residents per the mckin vento act and whereas in addition to losing their homes many homeless youth will also lose family friends a sense of stability and safety and increase their likelihood of substance abuse early Parenthood and vulnerability to being trafficked and whereas local organizations including the Kern County Network for children are working to promote youth well-being and educate the public on potential dangers youth experience while homeless now therefore I Karen go mayor of the city of Bakersville do hereby Proclaim November 2024 as National homeless youth Awareness Month in our city and urge all citizens to support organizations that provide services and resources to help our youth and it's my honor to be able to present this to K Network for children and you're welcome whatever order you choose to speak good evening and thank you for having us this evening um we are asking that November be proclaimed as homeless youth Awareness Month On Any Given month homeless youth on the by name list which is a list of Youth who are HUD defined homeless staying on the streets or in places not meant for habitation or shelter consistently at 200 to 300 youth here in Kern County my name is Cynthia Lara Martinez and I am the co-chair of the youth action board the youth action board is a committee under the Bakersville Kent Regional homeless collaborative it's a committee of 10 current or former homeless Youth and our goal is to bridge the gap between homeless Youth and supporting agencies by advocating the needs of homeless youth to raise awareness for homeless youth awareness month we are going to be doing a town hall on November 22nd from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Larry Ryder building and we're also bringing our purple Pi social media challenge um to social media also all November long we will be accepting donations that go directly to homeless youth um we will have Flyers sent out uh not only that but on November 1st we asked uh for you guys to wear purple and solidarity with our youth to show them that they have a community Ally here in our community uh for more information you can contact me at GE Fisher kern.org thank you thank you okay for thank you now Madam clerk next item please we have a celebration presentation item 4B excellent excellence in action cares Awards 2024 welcome good evening excuse me good evening honorable mayor go and members of the city Council my name is Shayla Collins I'm the human resource manager for the city of Bakersfield and I also serve as a co-administrator of the city's employee incentive team the Excellence and action cares award recognizes city employees and teams who embody one or more of the city of Bakersfield's guiding principles while making a positive contribution to overall workplace success by significantly contributing to Major projects or activities started by the city or or having an impact within the organization daily The Guiding principles known as care stands for collaboration accountability resourceful excellence and stewardship these guiding P principles Rec represent our organizational values and assist each of us in navigating how we interact with others and Carry Out City goals and objectives each year the employee incentive team seeks nominations from within the organization to recognize those individuals or teams who have distinguished themselves as a standout public servant in addition the car's extra mile award is presented by the city manager's office to an individual or team that has gone above and beyond the winners and their families were invited to attend the meeting this evening at this time I would ask if you're here if you can please stand should be on this side so the award winers if you can please stand and for those of you who standing in the back we'd ask you for fire safety please take a seat we won't be able to continue the meeting until you're seated okay we can give them a round of applause welcome congratulations thank you all you can be seated all award recipients will be recognized in a commemorative video that will be unveiled following this brief introduction a copy of the video as well as awards for recognition will be be provided to all winners following this today's ceremony before the video begins I would like to recognize the efforts and contributions of Staff who nominated their peers for these Awards to supervisors and department heads for some supporting those nominations the tech technology Services media team for creating the video and to the employee incentive team for their work in reviewing the nominees finally thank you to each City employee for your continued commitment in serving the public every day and exhibiting the sound of something better in Bakers so so and now I will present to you the 2024 excellence and action cares award video [Music] I'm thrilled to be here to celebrate the incredible contributions of our city employees who embody our guiding principles of collaboration accountability resourcefulness excellence and stewardship together known as cares these principles aren't just words they form the foundation of our commitment to one another in the community we serve every day we see individuals and teams going above and beyond making a positive impact in our workplace and Beyond Kevin trulson project management officer Kevin played an integral role in planning the ceremony for the opening of the long-awaited Centennial Corridor in February 2024 while deadlines moved a number of times Kevin kept everyone on task and helped to make sure all pieces involved were on the same page in order to get the Centennial corridor open Kevin's ability to work with multiple departments and a plethora of individuals and personalities played a crucial role in being able to execute a successful ceremony that was attended by nearly a thousand people Eric Ruiz Recreation specialist Eric was able to promote Community Pride and Foster a culture of customer service by implementing the mobile W program at city parks within every Council ward he was involved in the design and purchasing process ESS of the mobile wre trailer interviewing and staff selection staff training staff supervision outfitting mobile wre trailers with equipment selection of parks and sites vendor contracts and seeking out collaborative Partners John Kagel maintenance craft worker Mr Kagel was the lead on a project to improve infrastructure and beautify a corner monuments landscaped area demonstrated collaboration by identifying another Department's asset that needed restoration collaborated with said Department to obtain permission and access and facilitated the restoration process promotes Community Pride by beautifying and enhancing the community he works in Tiffany winsell administrative analyst due to staff turnover Tiffany was given the task of coordinating the fiscal year 2425 City budget book this process and book are not an easy task for season staff and she took this task on within her first six months with the city she has collaborated with all departments been resourceful in completing these tasks and has worked hard to move this project to the Finish Line Everett Rios park services coordinator the recreation and parks department specifically Park maintenance has been participating in a reimbursement program better known as the zero emission landscaping equipment Voucher Program offered through the sanwen valley Air Pollution Control District he has assisted in the program collabor ation by ensuring that all program qualified gas equipment has been retrieved from various areas for proper dismantling according to project guidelines Everett has spent countless hours outside of his normal day-to-day schedule coordinating with the park superintendent and other area supervisors in managing the equipment exchanges and troubleshooting unforeseen challenges that may have occurred Matthew Williams police officer officer Williams has been a leading member of the use of force project team work working through the doj stipulated judgment and a member of the use of force working group which inspects monthly cases of officers involved in force incidents to improve best practices for Bakersfield Police Department officers during the past year officer Williams produced several highquality presentations for the community advisory panel which received great feedback from the community members for the clarity and informativeness of the presentations officer Williams work with the community advisory panel has shown his pride in our community community and has fostered a relationship with a variety of community members Michael brda police officer officer Brea has helped tremendously with the implementation of the new camera trailers assigned to the impact unit he has worked with technology Services verata as well as several community members to deploy these new camera trailers officer bre's eagerness and willingness to be a team player made this new program much easier to begin Lorraine Raza Deputy city clerk 2 this year 2023 2024 we have had numerous records requests that she is assisted our supervisor with that have required extensive research and she has really exemplified the true meaning of cares she does her daily job duties and has stepped in recently to fill in for our supervisor during a busy election season of 2023 2024 when needed she is an employee who loves her job and is always willing to assist when needed Michael Wood Light Equipment Operator due to the everpresent need for water conservation the department set a goal of removing the turf in specific streetscapes and medians and replacing it with drought tolerant plants and updated irrigation during the project he was the lead and oversaw the work of other staff who assisted him to complete the job and during the project he also provided equipment training to the staff that was assigned to him which they could use as a means of advancing in their careers within the city this project met the Department's goal of water conservation and savings of manh hours from the reduction of the amount of Maintenance to the upgraded areas Mark robas service maintenance worker one day a city complaint came in the month of October 2023 regarding an overgrown sump that was approximately 1.2 acres and had filled with 15 ft of water instead of waiting for the equipment operators to finish their current tasks Mark took the initiative to pump down and clean the sump using a 6-in pump weed eater and hand tools this proactive approach not only addressed the city complaint and mitigated the mosquito issue but also significantly reduced the risk of a fire hazard Noami Salazar crime analyst Noami was entrusted with conducting a staffing study the existing system for collecting the required information was inadequate for the needs of this report prompting Noemi to identify and utilize a more suitable program her report delivered the essential information necessary for directing departmental resources to better serve the community Jodi badesa program analyst performance analyst Jodi badesa has played an integral role in ensuring that members of the police department have the information needed to improve the quality of service provided to our community she has worked on important projects including the executive summary report and stipulated judgment dashboard it provides valuable information related to the key performance indicators for the police department including response times to calls for service 911 call answer times crime rate statistics and Community engagement events Mitchell Smith technology systems engineer Mitch has always been an amazing resource for support and knowledge but he was instrumental in assisting with his guidance and resources to create tools for deployment of special configuration for all police computers as the Bakersville Police Department moved to a new application for mug shots not only did he show great collaboration he pointed out the other team members needed to accomplish this goal provided them with the most universal Solutions and provided articles for support for step-by-step guidance Maria Zamora payroll technician Maria has consistently demonstrated a collaborative attitude in her work with internal staff and with the High Street project implementation team she attends meetings updates raid log items tests the system for completeness of processes and writes material for payroll processing Maria has worked diligently to ensure that training materials and testing processes for the new system are reviewed tested and working properly Jessica Lopez accounting specialist one Jessica collaborates with management and staff by always putting the needs of our department and Citizens First often times before she has even asked if she can assist the public downstairs she's already there assisting her co-workers and providing service to our citizens the treasury division has a lot of interactions with members of the public and she is the perfect example of what the city needs for our outward facing staff positions caring positive friendly and accountable the Star Award is also recognition from the city manager's office specific to a team effort that merits particular recognition in the Bakersville Police Department property room they recently started remodeling their warehouse to expand and better house all the property that has turned into them it has been a challenge to say the least staying available and open to the public other law enforcement agencies and for our BPD staff to continue their daily operations with minimal disruption in this critical service they provide they process hundreds of items every week and up to 20 to 30,000 items every year it is an impressive body of work and a really important upgrade to our property [Music] room the extra mile award is recognition from the city manager's office based on outstanding and exceptional job performance we've seen many go above and beyond but none more than a pivotal team that is being recognized with our extra mile award in October 2022 the city kicked off the Erp or enterprise resource planning project this project was initiated to modernize the existing Legacy system navaline that has been in use for nearly 30 years in processing a variety of budget fiscal payroll and business related transactions Citywide the five individuals being recognized have served as key Department pit crew members working with data vendors staff and learning features of a new system Oracle to create the most accurate and versatile operational system for our agency and Erp system is really the information backbone of an organization this modernization effort is a big undertaking as it's the first time in more than three decades but this will revolutionize our ability to be modernized have good use of data and this huge lift has been an incredible accomplishment by this really important [Music] team thank you so much to all the remarkable individuals whose hard work and dedication shine brightly in our organization thank you for being part of this incredible [Music] team thank you so much for your service to our great City and we just appreciate your dedicated efforts uh at this time we're going to take a quick break just so anyone who needs to leave unless Miss Collins has anything further to add uh this would be the time if you don't want to stay for the rest of the meeting uh we congratulate you and you're welcome to leave families friends who are here in support thank you so much for your support of our employees really appreciate it [Music] [Music] not a real break like [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for those of you who want to visit we just ask that you take it out to the lobby so we can continue our meeting please except for one more quick picture yeah that don't [Music] [Music] in keeping with council's resolution public statements are now received at different times depending on the item I'll call on the city clerk to call for public statements at the appropriate time so please listen carefully for the correct time to speak if you wish to make a public statement please fill out a public speaker card and place it in the tray on the counter next to the speaker Podium we ask that you mark whether you're here to speak on an item listed on tonight's agenda or in a matter not on the agenda speakers who do not identify a specific agenda item will be presumed speakers for non-agenda public statements if you're here to speak on an item not listen on the meeting agenda you will be called first to speak statements are given a 2-minute time limit per speaker 20 minutes total for all non agenda item public statements if you're here to speak on an item listed on the agenda I will call for you at a later time so please listen carefully if public statements become disruptive and I have to clear the chambers to regain order of the meeting you will be called in one at a time to provide your public statement when your item is called Madam clerk do we any public speakers regarding items not listed on the agenda mayor go we received five speaker cards regarding items not listed on tonight's agenda the first three speakers are Carmen followed by Jesse land followed by Justin feifer thank you and while they're coming up I just want to acknowledge our city management office management fellows we have uh with us for the first time Yari Nunes and Kayla hickey welcome and thank you for serving our community and being part of the city manager's office and now our first Speaker Madam clerk welcome please introduce yourself hello Karen it's been over a year and I'm wondering if you still stand resolutely with Israel if you support the genocide of over 186,000 Palestinians that's roughly 8% of gaza's population according to the British medical journal the Lancet the live stream genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians do you stand resolutely with Israel as they burn displace Palestinians alive in their tents people getting amputated with no anesthesia the kidnapped tortured and raped The People Under the rubble children picking up pieces of their loved ones and putting them in a bag children are being shot or blown to Pieces while in school skating or traveling with their families pieces of children's bodies hanging from blown up buildings childrens with bullets in their heads I feel like I have see in every possible way for a human to die in war but they are not part of the military there are babies toddlers children parents sisters brothers grandparents aunts and uncles over 900 entire family lineages martyred Israel has violated children's right to life Israel refusing to let humanitarian Aid into Gaza Israel is responsible for the Del liberate starvation of the people of Gaza the IDF also known as the Israeli occupation Force deliberate bombing of schools hospitals and universities showing us their War Crime After War crime the iof supervising Israeli settlers when they steal Palestinian homes and land in the West Bank the iof occupying Palestinian homes using Terror and psychological warfare the iof testing new weapons of war on the people of Gaza the iof kidnapping children and detaining them the iof rigging up homes with EXP exposive which itself is a war crime due to the fact that there is no active threat in that building the confessions of the iof bulldozer operators that have PTSD because they ran over hundreds of Palestinians both alive and dead and can no longer eat meat the billions of dollars sent to Israel so that people can keep profiting off a war do you still resolutely stand with supporting this genocide next speaker please Jesse land Justin feffer welcome please introduce yourself hi my name is Justin feifer um I want to start by thanking Andre for the the uh the words uh that he gave in regards to the 8-year-old that was killed on our streets in front of Franklin Elementary School um I want to say that motor vehicle crashes are the second leading cause of death in the United States and kill more than 100 people each day which we just had about a room full of 100 people um Bob your son was hit this week in one of the quote unquote gutter lanes that we consider bike Lanes in this town I know you've been working for a long time to make a change and I want to encourage you um to find the the passion that Andre had this week when he spoke and uh go out strong and go out fighting um we need that in this town and we need your guys leadership because nobody else few of you seem to care a little bit but nobody else seems to care uh Patty told me on the phone that convenience was more important than human life um Karen you showed up for uh a walk for domestic violence and gun violence and this problem is just as big it's we have more car deaths than gun deaths um Vision zero Kern needs to be adopted I know we're working towards that um and so I want to encourage the push for that and to try to see what we can do to make our streets safer we need to reinforce the laws and so I encourage us to to enfor to get the police on board and get the enforcement on board I know one of the officers was in an interview on the news not too long ago and he knows what needs to be done and they know what needs to be done and so we need that enforcement and uh yeah this Friday we'll be holding critical mass at 6:30 at beach park welcome everyone to join next speaker please Jesse land followed by Yolanda Heyman council member Smith thank you mayor I just wanted to comment a little bit on that and very tragic the 8-year-old boy and my adult son being hit by a car this week but I'm out there every day and um I would like to say we're making a lot of progress and then we have turned the corner at least we're we're changing the way our streets are made and and traffic calming and stuff but I I think you know there other steps there's the environment education and enforcement and I would like to and I've spoken with the city manager about this as as far as enforcement and if there are ways that we can uh beef up our our traffic enforce ment uh that is part of education for the community that would be I think a Next Step thank you vice mayor thank you mayor I want to thank Mr f for um for coming today and speaking out um Mr land my my comments will will be uh a few minutes so you might want to have a seat for just a second um Ricardo agular was an 8-year-old boy who was walking home from school was hit by a car his family called him Richie um his family shared with me the other day that he wanted to be a chef because he would often help his mom in the kitchen making meals from all accounts he was a child who was full of life um happy go-lucky child on over the weekend there was a candalite vigil with over a hundred people family members residents neighbors friends who were celebrating his life and praying for him and consoling his family I had a chance myself to be there and participate and hear the pain of the family members of Richie's mother and the anger we're still under investigation this invest this incident is still under investigation and from what I understand distracted driving was a key piece um but I do have a few referrals tonight that I'd like to make in response to this tragedy um first and foremost last month I asked the m multimodal transportation and traffic safety ad hoc committee to prioritize school zones and their work for the remainder of this calendar year I want to underscore that request and formally also request that this committee uh become a standing committee of the Baker City Council and that we adopt that at our upcoming agenda uh number two there have been a number of requests related to problem intersections in our community throughout different neighborhoods that residents have expressed concern about um they have asked for traffic calming treatments um and I know that our public works department is trying to address those concerns as quickly as they can and that we have a long list I know even in War I we have a long list uh especially around various different schools but I do think that we need to establish some sort of uh public online database um of all neighborhood traffic Comming requests and the status of those requests so that the public can see their specific issues um uh see their specific issue on on the list and also understand the totality of the areas of concern uh I think this will not only um provide good information for the public but it's also a way for us to uh generate more transparency and accountability for what we do within the city uh number three uh we're often uh referred to the U manual on uniform traffic control devices mutcd standards and these are the standards for the for the public these are the standards set for Traffic Control devices in the in the United States they establish the essential requirements for signs signals markings and other devices used to regulate Warn and guide Road users all state and local governments must comply with these national standards I want to ask uh staff to confirm but it's my understanding and in not here and now but in uh the in the um multimodal transportation and Traffic Safety Committee to confirm for this Council that these standards are the baseline or minimum standards uh that cities are in fact allowed to adopt stricter and higher standards based on local needs and safety considerations and if that's the case um I'm calling on our multimodal transportation and Traffic Safety Committee in the full Council to look at enhancing our standards for streets and intersections adjacent to schools um number four I'm also asking City staff to establish a program to to provide additional crossing guard capacity in key intersections that go beyond what school districts normally provide where we have identified resident concerns and add that as a traffic caling treatment to our traffic cing toolkit I also like to ask that we that we utilize our lobbyist in Sacramento city of Bakers has hired a lobbyist to work on our behalf of different issues but let's use our lobbyists uh to work with the state legislature and let Bakersville become a leader in pressing the state legislator and increasing fines for drivers who are speeding or who are distracted on their phones in school zones um five I I joined council member Smith in his recommendation for enhanced uh education and I think the city ought to uh pursue a very uniform and uh aggressive media campaign to the community related to distracted driving but we must include enforcement currently we have roughly 40 officers who are assigned to traffic Patrol in the city of Bakersfield yet we have 3,300 Lane miles in the city of Bakersfield I'd like us to conduct some analysis as to um what uh should be our complement as it relates to other cities our size and uh let's work in in the next fiscal year to improving and increasing that number of traffic enforcement officers within bigil Police Department so we can enhance enforcement uh thank you so much and before I close I just want to say um this tragedy um has only strengthened my resolve to address these issues related to Traffic Safety and uh I think about I think about Richie every day and every night and his poor family and I just want to give my love and all of my prayers to you and entire family and know that as a community we will be there for you we will wrap our arms around you um and we will work to do better thank you Mr L please by a show of hands how many members Mr L we don't raise our hands during these meetings so assume none of you read my paper that I submitted on October 3rd titled the solution for affordable housing the paper outlined a product that would allow mankind to live comfortably in the desert the research and the design of the D maxium home took me four years to complete it outlines how to use Market forces to produce millions of affordable homes without any government assistance on October 18th on the fifth floor of one 1115 trucks and a woman finally came out from behind the curtain and told me that Jeff flores's staff didn't think this was a good idea finally someone tells the truth I found out what I wanted to know no one in this town has the capacity to understand the gravity of what I've done in September I'll be meeting with sonjet Mitra Chief Economist for the State of California that D maxium home mortgage company will offer low 30-year Home Loans preconstruction sales for model 206 start at 206,000 or $898 a month preconstruction sales for model16 starts at $16,000 or $450 a months but the maxium house minimizes the owner excuse me maximizes the owner's ability to acquire wealth it minimizes the total cost of ownership environmentally and friendly Cradle to grave air excuse me earth air heat exchangers maintain a cool interior electric baseb heaters photovoltaics low carbon footprint induction range tops no ilal passive solar projected sales over projected sales over 15 years is $1.5 billion I'm on Facebook affordable housing in California can I have a second for you all hang your heads in shame next speaker please Yolanda Heyman followed by Christina agular followed by aracelli Kelly welcome you're welcome to give it to the city clerk Madam clerk can you get those and would you raise the mic please welcome there that's much better thank you you my name is Yolanda heon I am a coach operator B at Golden Empire Transit a significant number of employees and passengers of Golden Empire Transit District are disappointed by the recent actions of the get board of directors the get board has had stated its intention to conduct a nationwide search to replace former CEO Michael tree who is removed from his position by the board in June how however the board appointed the existing maintenance manager instead of a nationwide search a nation a nationwide search could have given the district a Transit professional who already has had experience and knowledge in all the various components of the transit industry not just maintenance the city council and County Supervisors choose their appointees so that they can represent the transit needs and interests of their jurisdictions in the past when a g appointe conduct has not been in the best interest of the city or county they were removed and replaced however during the recent controversy relative to the firing of get CEO the city and county have not acted on appeals from get employees in the public to address the conduct of the current board members the County Board of supervisor stated that they were concerned and would definitely look into this issue but there was no response from them the city council has remained silent with no response the city council and County Supervisors as our elected officials have a duty to monitor the conduct of the people they have appointed to the get board we would like to know what the city council and County Supervisors expect from the get board members specifically we've listed five questions here we are requesting that you respond in writing so that response is available for the next get board meeting scheduled for November 12th respectfully concerned employees and patrons of Golden Empire Transit District thank you thank you council member Freeman yes um regarding the subject when the when this action happened we all read about it in the paper and really has the same we didn't really know what's going on it sounded odd uh and I asked city manager um Mr C still here oh Gary okay well I ask U Mr CLE do we have you know do we have any authority over this board is it under our offices and Direction and uh his response was no there was we don't have any authority over U the get board at all and so um I wondered if I was going to ask him to explain his answer to me he seemed to know more about it because I was saying if if someone appeals the board decision do you appeal it to that same board how does this work and I'm can can you answer that so for the audience and for edifying council members here so um I I don't know uh probably as much as city manager CLE but I can tell you we do have two appointees on the get board uh that are city of Bakersfield uh Representatives so um I think that's only where our Authority ends Madam City attorney do you have insights can I yeah that that that's correct mayor council member Freeman we do not have any authority over the get over the get um entity um all the council does is appoint uh two members and and that is the extent of it and they have a term of I don't know how many years do you know I believe it's three three years and then our power is who we appoint next time I mean and we don't have the we don't have the power toless I fire one I'm not saying we should I said we don't have the power to do that no I believe you do have the power to do that um but that is not the same thing as having an authority over the entity yeah no okay no we can't direct them we can either you're not if you're not happy with the appointee you have the ability to change the appointee is it because I had asked Mr Cay I said could someone just explain to us that board's thinking because it was controversial we all wondered what happened and uh well I would make that request again through Gary could we get an explanation of what was the reasoning I mean unless they saying they can't say anything because we could be in a lawsuit well that's kind of frustrating if they say that because if we're reporting people it would be nice to know because we're being asked all the time by consensuous well what happened here what was your reasoning if if that can be shared with us I'd certainly appreciate it we can we can make the request okay thanks next speaker [Music] please Christina agular followed by Arelli Kelly yes arella Ari areli yes uh good evening councilor this is my first time being here with you guys I'm coming from uh this uh the Southwest area and I have a lot of concerns uh regarding our transportation our our buses are always late they're picking up our children late and they're missing out on education and that is why I'm here uh not only that but I think that the uh the tap Highway and the Old River they need a stop light there our seems that our buses our school buses have been in accidents and I'm really concerned about our children's education and sa safety and that's all I have to say thank you and the buses that are late are those school buses yes school bus is from Lakeside Elementary uh Karen and I'm very concerned because uh we're getting very short notice uh to get kids to the uh to the school and I have a lot of working parents so I'm scrambling 10 kids 10 kids in my vehicle to take them to school because parents have to go to work it would be appropriate to follow up with that District I mean we'll be happy just to let them know that you spoke before very concerned Karen I'm very very concerned thank you guys thank you next speaker please Wendell Wesley Jr welcome welcome please introduce yourself my name is wendale Wesley Jr okay we kind of spoke on this already a lot so part won't be too long it it is about safety again and um I was unaware of this horrible accident to this um Young child and you know the two most vulnerable parts of our city are our children and our seniors and there's just too many people flying in residential areas um I live in a senior area but there's also a lot of children in that area as well I mean I live in a senior apartment complex three large units um we don't even have a sidewalk a crosswalk that goes straight across from building to the other and people will speed down there so I noticed they were counting vehicles but it's it really doesn't matter that much about how many vehicles are going down that street if they're not speeding because it's relatively safe but when they're speeding that's a problem so I really not really fully understand why they were counting cards we really need speed bumps um my street runs north south and we're asking for a crosswalk to go from one side to the other and speed bumps on both sides of that North and South in there's also a school just south at the corner of our building and uh it's my understanding that schools should be a four-way stop I know there's a lot of money I know there's a I'm not the only neighborhood in town but um they were just there and I would like to maybe see when we do these projects s if we could just do them one time and do them one time right and a complete job there's no real reasons to cut corners on anything or to start it stop and start over again and have to repaint because you have to repave over something thank you thank you Mr won uh staff Mr Wesley's referring to N Street at 11th uh and so there are are several U multi unit housing complexes there um and he is right many of the seniors are crossing the street often Crossing End Street um and so um I like to make a referral tonight that we look at um some traffic safety enhancements neighborhood traffic coming enhancements in that area for those seniors who are trying to cross the roadway thank you mam clerk do we have any other speakers for this section mayor go that was our final speaker for non- agenda items thank you we'll now move to public statements listed under the agenda if you're here to speak on items listed under consent calendar item seven your time to speak would be now again each speaker is given a two-minute time limit each agenda is item is limited to 20 minutes total the consent calendar as a whole constitutes one agenda item if you're here to speak on consent calendar hearing items 8 a through D now is is not the time to speak it'll be given an opportunity to speak when those items are called later in the meeting Madam clerk do we have any public speakers regarding items listed on consent calendar item seven mayor go we have not received any speaker cards for consent calendar item number seven thank you we have a lot of pages on that and so at this point um colleagues does anybody wish to recuse themselves from any of those items mayor go may I please uh announce oh please announce yes yes consent calendar items 7 I through 7A through 7 I for approval a staff memorandum was provided regarding items 7 D14 correcting the date of the public hearing to November 20th 2024 and transmitting a revised resolution of intention to reflect that correction public notice will be provided regarding this hearing thank you and seeing no requests for separate consideration vice mayor I move to approve the consent calendar you have a motion please cat your votes motion is approved with council member gray absent thank you and next item please consent calendar public hearings 8A through 8D for approval thank you it's time for the consent calendar hearings the purpose of this section is to vote on all of the items listed under consent calendar hearings in one motion without further comment if anyone would like to speak on any of the hearing items listed the item must be removed from this portion of the agenda If an item is removed it will be placed at the end of the regular public hearings portion of the meeting so at this time I'll open consent calendar public hearing items 8 a through D is there anyone in the audience who would like to request that a hearing item be removed from the consent calendar if so please come forward this isn't the time to take testimony only time the time to remove the matter from the consent calendar hearing seeing none does any council member wish to remove an item from this portion see none mayor I'd like to um move 8D for separate consideration I'll have to recuse myself from that item okay 8 D will be removed for separate consideration vice mayor motion on the others uh I move to approve 8 a through 8 C as a consent calendar of public hearings thank you you have a motion please cast your votes motion is approved with council member gray absent and yeah go ahead announce your reason for recusal mayor council I will be recusing myself from item 8D due to recently passed State legislation related to campaign Finance laws I received a campaign contribution um and so I will be stepping off from the dice at this moment thank you and council member Smith I would make the motion to approve item 8D you have a motion please cast your votes motion is approved with vice mayor Gonzalez abstaining and council member gray absent thank you next item please Council and mayor statements unless somebody has a council member Freeman thank you mayor um I just wanted to comment on two items uh we have a vade Improvement program we just approved three or four of the S and I'm I've I've been supportive of that from the get-go but I noticed that some of these were getting pretty expensive there was one for you know 500,000 another one for like 730 something so I wanted to ask staff how much money do we when we first started it way back when I thought it was a million dollars and maybe at some point we incested it to two but even at two two of these would have used up uh 58 of it or something so I just wondered could you Enlighten us on how much money do we have to spend on these um is it is any of it from Grants and then finally uh like you know two sentences or less what what's the criteria uh that we use to evaluate a request for a facade you know their business is it viable what sort of you know kind of underwriting do do we do so in this case we um we have different programs so we have the EA The Economic Opportunity area program we have seven areas Council just uh uh reapproved those areas because we had relocated some of them downtown competitive has an EA and actually that that portion is open right now but the ones that were approved tonight under public hearing those three that were quite large those were arpa programs only set aside for facade and so that's why they were of of that size and it was a requirement that they be at least um two stores or at least half a city block and so the ones that you saw tonight one of them was an entire city block one of them wrapped uh 19th Chester and the alley and the other one um was half a city block and so they were very large scale projects uh thank you that was my These arpa funds uh um I thought the new I looked at the renderings they look like they be nice if they were done I uh when they're done um I just wanted to find out you know what's the source of the funds and how I don't think we have from um our public vital Services act or general fund that much money each year I think we used you know is it a million that we sort of budget in our I'll answer so annual budget yeah so the annual budget does all go to your District allocate uh a downtown Redevelopment fund of roughly a million dollars um and and so we've utilized these dollars for some public infrastructure projects um in future years my hope and I've been advocating with City staff that we actually allocate these dollars for this this particular program that really gets at these larger buildings we have a we have buildings with massive square footage within downtown um that really require a lot of improvements and it's doesn't quite pencil uh for the for the business owner and so while it looks similar to our our traditional EA program it actually is a separate program that really addresses the need for these larger buildings and so uh this was a pilot program in my mind a pilot program utilized by arpa funds and my hope is and the hope of for many folks in downtown is that we can continue to fund it in future years I think this recent program was very interesting it will serve many tenants it it wasn't a single tenant it is multiple tenants served by each one of these programs okay thank you um my other comment was parking back to our earlier discussion about streets and I just wanted to say I don't know why I lost my voice but I'm I'm losing it um until we reduce the width of our streets locals especially locals collectors and Aros and significantly reduce them to what many other municipalities and States everywhere have done we're not going to have Safe Streets every traffic engineer every study every Everybody Knows the wider the street the fast they go and there's nothing you can do about it we can't have a policeman every corner people slow down naturally when the streets get narrow and California is sort of the worst model they thought calr thought they were the best by making giant streets that everybody could speed on it's a state model it's been for us we changed a lot of that with the westm master plans but it was a big battle and uh many times we're told well then we if we ever take a foot out of the width it won't be the calr standard and when we get sued the city will go broke over and over and over that's the fall back I have to talk about it well we need to as a result We are continuing to build streets locals that are way too wide collectors that are way too wide and our stals that are plus we have a housing crisis so for if those are 20% too wide uh infrastructure is now I mean Road sewers you know before you get to the house that's about a third of the cost of a house and it's spiraling up as fast the cost so making the streets this is and we do not have the money in this town to maintain them we will go broke maintaining streets that are so oversized from what their utility is already um it's probably too hard to retrofit whatever thousands of miles of school but at least we can change our traffic you know our I guess it's in the has to be in the general plan but and my colleagues going to have to carry this forward for me because I won't be here to get it done but the cost is prohibitive so we cannot keep doing it and the only way we'll make them safer is by reducing the width people will slow down there's other traffic cmings we can pinch into the end and you know we shouldn't we should do very few arterials that don't aren't roundabout people don't get in wrecks believe it or not I know the garca circle isn't very well done but when they're properly done nobody gets killed like they do at a stoplight do they not a little fend toin but no one ever gets killed 60 M hour arterials are dangerous it in every place they're built um stop and go just increases more and more pollution when you don't stop you don't just H you know you save gas you there's there's a thousand reasons to do it but in I guess it would be the general plan and someone asked correct me if I'm wrong we have to change and that will help our affordability the city's maintenance which we're not going to be able to afford to keep rebuilding these streets and maintaining them so there's really I'm I'm just asking that this gets studied seriously and that my colleague push this forward and make it happen because you are never going to slow traffic down if you don't narrow the streets can't be done and you will re significant reduce the cost of those streets which I think in of California being the worst housing crisis of the nation would be something we'd all be trying to do and it's easy to do because everybody else in the country is doing it but us I'm talking about California so uh that's my uh that's my advisor that's my plea that the city take that seriously and change the standards for new development we can't change the old but let's not do any more or as soon as possible I should say um that's all I have to say thanks thank you council member Freeman council member core thank you mayor um want to Echo council member Freeman sentiment um it is so unfortunate no matter if you you're uh the parent of an adult child or the parent of a young child when your child is in danger um for simply walking or riding their bike or just being I think it's very scary so I'm giving my love to everyone um I I had a question but then I was just so I just wanted to really Echo what council member frean was saying about our road safety so I wanted to share an example um that we're working on uh in South in South Bakersfield with uh the collaboration of uh some creative Folks at Public Works uh and our different department heads um this was a request I had made of the Panama Lane repaving that we're doing right now um and as we're repaving to council member Freeman's Point uh while it is challenging to kind of redo what's already been laid down whatever is new to come uh should be intentional thoughtful and safer than what we've experienced so far and we are repaving Panama Lane uh much to many folks's frustration um but I I promise it's temporary and it will be well worth it as we repave we are um at we're um we are narrowing the road and panal Lane is pretty much a freeway these days so uh that should make some significant improvements in how fast it's moving but I wanted to just share my appreciation for City staff in um being willing to explore the options of adding not only a sidewalk north of Panama Lane where it doesn't exist currently as well as a curbed bike lane um that will also be painted so there is a raised median uh that separates the roadway that the cars travel in uh from the bike lane and it's also um it's painted a different color so you can identify it and uh it's I think it's something new that we're trying and we're exploring and we're um going to see how that works and how that helps but this is what's helped in other municipalities so I hope it can become something of a standard in our city and to council member Freeman's Point how can we explore different standards um within our city and maybe this is the work of uh the multimodal committee that's going to be doing some important heavy liftings here soon um I know there were examples shared previously where even for example the amount of time that people have to cross an intersection um and that's a simple change just within our our traffic engineering department can we add seconds to that is there enough time for people who are um who have different Mobility uh are they able to cross within the sign the amount of time that's given so I think those are some examples of things that we can explore um I'm also curious to council member I'm just riding on uh my seniors here uh mentor heers to examples this evening but with the program Jenny that you were mentioning um I would be interested to also see just kind of since this was a pilot project who kind of came forward who applied um kind of was this specific to certain area maybe this is a presentation that can come forward I think it would be good to just see um what kind of Interest it uh we got at from our public and from our business owners and and just local Property Owners um I think that's a good measure as well and it documents how this pilot project kind of went and what it'll look like in the future as well so I'd be curious who who kind of Applied um you know what were what were things maybe that could be improved within their own applications what were kind of the limitations um what was kind of the area in which folks were encouraged to apply that sort of thing um I think it's a great model that can be replicated in other parts of the city and I'm sure that's our idea as well so I think it's a good effort um just curious a little more so maybe it proceeds my time so I uh want just want to learn a little bit more about it thank you thank you council member cor council member Smith thank you mayor I just wanted to jump on board I've been preaching narrower lanes for 12 years now and and fought staff for the first 10 years and the last couple years staff has finally come around and and we've begun to make efforts with the environmental design to slow traffic down but I I would still say even with those changes and those changes are very important we still need higher enforcement and more education in the community it's it's an all of the above approach uh distracted driving as Council vice mayor Gonzalez mentioned U the the speed was not the cause the person stopped at a stop sign and then kids walking across the street and ran you know it's just tragic but it's all of the above thank you thank you Council member Smith I don't see any other requests I had a conversation with superintendent luk a to uh he echoed exactly what you just said thank you very much and with that we stand a journ at 6:39 [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]