[Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] no e [Applause] [Music] to [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] a o [Music] [Music] w [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] the 3:30 p.m. meeting of the Bakersfield City Council is now in session good afternoon it's my pleasure to call to order the 3:30 regular city council meeting of May 22nd 2024 Madame clerk please call the role mayor go here Vice Mary Gonzalez here council member Aras here council member Weir here council member Smith I here council member Freeman council member gray here council member core thank you in keeping with council's new resolution public statements are now received at different times depending on the item I will 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 on the tray in the on the counter 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-agenda public statements if you're here to speak on an item not listed on the meeting agenda you will be called first to speak statements are given a two-minute time limit 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 the appropriate time so please listen carefully y 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 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 chamber being cleared behavior that disrupts the meeting includes repetitive statements shouting interrupting staff or presenters during the meeting speaking out of turn outbursts from the audience and surpassing the two-minute time limit Madame clerk do we have any speakers regarding items not listed on the agenda May mayor go we have not received any public public speaker cards for items not listed on tonight's agenda nor for items listed on today's agenda thank you and for the record we had council member Freeman and council member core enter at 3:32 Madame clerk next item please reports item 3A Highway Corridor enhancement presentation on future and current beautification plans thank you Mr C thank you mayor and councel we're going to have a presentation this afternoon from Greg stus and Greg G our friend from Parsons uh to go over some highle thoughts as well as some interesting images to help demonstrate some of the um forward thinking that we've been doing related to our Highway Corridor so I'll turn it over to Greg thank you City welcome good afternoon mayor go council members uh Greg stles for the record joined here by Greg GB and Jeff laurman from Parsons and also Luis Topete uh assistant Public Works director we've got a brief presentation on Highway beautification um the presentation will go over beautification approaches such as Hardscape landscape Monument art and recent Focus corridors being State Road 58 99 Westside Parkway also wble road we do have Partners in our efforts they include calr the Auto Mall bolt House properties and of course Parsons and other Consulting Engineers with Landscape Architects um recent freeway construction projects demonstrate some semblance of beautification uh and that's thanks in large part to the Thomas roads Improvement program uh trip has really enabled City staff to work with its its designers uh to really integrate some of these beautification Concepts into our freeway corridors that the city has constructed uh for example we see beautiful decorative street lights on our Bridge overpasses we see um either formed concrete rock or actual rock um enhancements giving it some uh vertical and visual relief uh across some of the the bridge enhancements um that's not to say we still don't use mulch you see in the lower left hand uh picture there's plenty of mulch that is still used um in terms of some of the texture and Medan separators uh those are being integrated as part of the the project as well so moving on to one of the most recent interchange projects that has integrated beautification enhancements the Hoskins Boulevard interchange here um calr had a project to improve The Interchange it had a um I'll call it a landscape component to it and during the design and construction Pro process the city was able to work with Parsons to redesign the beautification component of The Interchange um integrating a bit Rock uh integrating uh some variation in colors that you see here we had worked with calr to um coordinate before the contractor reached this level of uh Landscaping work at this particular interchange we coordinated with calr to ask for a change order to integrate these these Design Concepts uh to replace the calr Design Concepts and they were open to listening uh to us on that one uh there was an additional cost for this level of effort though it cost the city an additional $700,000 roughly to contribute to the calr um contractor operation to to build it this way but the long-term benefits of this are less irrigation water being used and also less Cal Trans maintenance which are selling points for these types of beautification efforts um another one that will actually go to City Council actually not this one it's a different one that we've got in the slide presentation but this is the monumentation welcome uh along the hosking bridge uh the this is two years plus in the making um because it is on a calr facility there are layers of review and approval at the calr headquarters in Sacramento and at district 6 they include structural components which makes sense artistic compliance standards copyright law checks color Imaging and messaging um do the notes are the notes placed in any particular pattern to represent lit uh letters or or words so so there's a lot of layers uh associated with uh getting calr approval for this um and at this point in time for this particular project we've gone through all those layers of calr approval we have applied for an encroachment uh permit a right away permit to actually build it uh that's where we stand now uh we will hopefully work those details out and get final approval to go out to bid uh to to build or at least get prices for what this is anticipated to cost and bring that back to council for consideration um at this point I'll turn it over to uh Jeff to talk about the landscape design plans for 99 and 58 okay hi my name is Jeff florman I Parson's lead landscape architect um so on the Westside Parkway we um we looked at what we had going in and um the the idea was to try to design something that was um simple but clean and aesthetic so we went with these uh bands um of uh rock or decomposed Granite um along the corridor U with the areas of planting associated with them particularly the particularly the to reinforce the banding um the the remaining areas are mulch um this was this is in part because of costs um but it also it it created a thematic approach for the corridor with the curving lines that's sort of the flow of the roadway and and and and that type of approach um right how do I make it all right so um this is another uh concept that we came up with for the one of the quadrants in Mohawk um with the again using that sort of rock and decomposed granite and reinforced with planting and and the um uh you know the the the curving flowing lines associated with it um to to create uh the aesthetic for this and it sort of keeps it consistent although in because it's a quadrant of of a and so it has more area say than uh the corridor itself it allows us to create a little bit more interest to it than than say just the corridor itself um just some ideas these are some of the the the plants that have been used used um you know trying to use drought tolerant native and um and and plants set that uh are are tough and will survive um some of these are not necessarily plants that Caltrans typically uses like the blue agave um because of the very very pointed ends of those plants um they they're with concern for the maintenance staff um and then that all sort of leads to the 5899 uh interchange which is a significant interchange in the city uh just based on size and the and the and the the crossing of the of the State uh freeways and all and and the the Westside Parkway Centennial Parkway that leads into this and so and then but we have this very special interchange so we looked at taking those Concepts that were developed and really playing them out for this interchange um the bands inter intertwine we have more bands um the bands are a uh stabilized decomposed Granite which is basically almost it's it's really mixed and poured like a concrete but it's a decomposed granite and looks like a decomposed Granite but it won't erode which is a maintenance uh savior um and then we have have we reinforced those things with planting um we have some Boulders we and then we have added um art pieces to The Interchange area and if I'm going too fast let me know I can I I I can I can slow down um so this is just an example of one of the the the loop ramp area you can sort of see those red areas are the uh decomposed Granite they're they are separ separated from the mulch areas which are the background um by a concrete band so it it's it provides definition and a clean and crispness to the to the uh interchange and then the areas in the in the hatched is a tan colored decomposed Granite so we have two colors of of on the ground plane plus the the um uh the The Mulch and then reinforced with the planting the blue dots you see are um what I'm what I call Art coins um not for any particular reason but that's what they sort of struck me as and then the um the asterisk the blue asterisk there towards the bottom is a monument and I'll show you those in just a sec these are some of the candidate species that we're using we're proposing to use um for the uh for the interchange area by no means this is a not a a set and hard list at this point we're at 65% we're still so there's still plenty of time if we need to to to do some tweaking with this um so these are the the artwork pieces these are the art coins there are 12ft diameter pre-cast concrete coin that goes onto the slopes of The Interchange area so they'll be visible from the by The Traveling public on these slopes as they drive by you may have seen in other locations where they have retaining walls with maybe artwork if you if you've driven if if you've driven the 405 in Costa Mesa and and all you've seen the the you may have seen those um the the retaining walls with the birds and the and and all the reason I bring those up is the the required the the minimum or the maximum depth texture in those is 1 inch which is exactly the same as the maximum depth of temp of texture in in these so although we're not vertical and we're on a slope they will be they should be very readable to the traveling public um and we pulled for them we pulled images um you know my one of my particular fancies when I when I put on my artist hat is to pull um images that from the from the natural environment animals and the natural environment because we've lost a lot of that in our cities and so it it it gives sort of a touchstone to and so that's where the inspiration for the artwork that you're seeing here comes from and then the Obelisk detail that goes at the heart of The Interchange um is we the ultimate height of it this this was I think when we when I did the the early plans it was like 20 feet tall I'm not sure calr will buy that or not we that's one of the areas once once the city is like yeah this is what this is the direction we want to go we'll we'll get with calr on it um and see um but it was about 20 fet tall and it and the the eagle is out of a corten steel so that Rusty steel and it the the the the body of the of the bird of the eagle is it's like in plates that are attached so it it it's it's this cool art piece and then then the wings spread out from there and then yeah Greg G for Parsons I just wanted to add a couple things one um as sort of The Beekeeper for trip and program and the program management for the Thomas roads you know we had to get the construction completed we had to get momentum from calr that you know we are going to be delivering and then this landscape piece is the secondary piece to to the program so minding our money minding our budgets minding all the work that's going out uh we've got some great momentum with our partner calr and if you see out there you know finally the 99 is starting to take shape so all this is done in concert with us sort of sequencing the work from construction to to now what is the beautification so I just wanted to emphasize you know this was all sort of programmed and planned once we knew where the budgets were going to be and and how much money is going to be needed so I just wanted to get city uh City and Community input at this point because obviously we trying to get to that other stage which is which is making things looking pretty so appreciate okay jumping that's okay jumping to Lael Road and the Auto Mall we've been working uh for quite some time on details for an entry Gateway Monument um along wble Road in the median uh to represent the Automall district and in collaboration with some of the folks uh who represent the Auto Mall the the automotive dealers um this is the rendering of uh representation of the design so we are presenting this particular item to city council tonight for consideration uh this is approxim $637,000 project um that has a project number and a budget associated with it um in terms of public private Partnerships we've been working with bolt House properties on the Triangular area uh by Stockdale Highway and um the 58 where it's just open Bare space at this point and Bol House properties has taken the initiative to come up with a concept uh to consider and to talk about and um whether we could further this concept in terms of um working towards a another beautification project so there's potential public private partnership um in moving this one along which would help uh offset some some uh public dollars for sake of private dollars to design and and potentially construct this so in conclusion our gateways along major highways are of course the front window to our city and we do know that hardscaping reduces the water demand lowers those costs and uh lowers maintenance costs as well um also can increase the look and the appearance uh along these corridors um we do find that a clear and streamlined process is needed to get some of these projects through Caltrans U because some of the time that we've allocated towards these projects is wrapped up in that process um and also these public private Partnerships can definitely add value value and reduced time of implementation uh with that that concludes the presentation and we are all available for questions thank you Mr stalo vice mayor thank you mayor uh thank you Mr stalo and thank you to your team uh for all of this work and design it's exciting to see us moving forward on this project we've talked about it from this Das for the last I think seven years since since I've been up here um but certainly what what you said in your closing remarks is certainly true um our gateways along major highways certainly are the front window to our city it's how people judge us uh people who don't stop and visit um their impression is left with uh the maintenance and the the look and feel of of our corridors our major freeways and so that is um that is really right on point and something that I think we all need to consider when we when we move forward and certainly I visit lots of places up and down state and develop an impression of a community based on their corridor so I think it's important for us to keep that in mind as we progress so a couple questions related to that uh number one you know it's my hope that we can get to a place where we really have an elevated design standard uh for our gateways um and I I kind of listening to the remarks today heard that there were a lot of decisions being made based on budget constraints which I understand um I'm wondering what those constraints really are and as we proceed with future projects if we can um really bring to the council some options uh tied to particular um budgets is is my hope that we can invest in high quality um projects that really leave an impression uh and may you know serve us an extended period of time than for us to opt into a um Improvement project that may be a short-term maybe lesser quality inferior inferior product uh can you speak to that sure um in terms of the funding for some of these projects they they've been budgeted for a couple of years at least and so we've had the funding allocated um some of the process though has been very difficult to to get through and during this time laps we see cost of living and cons construction price index increases which increases the overall cost of the project so so um I I would say to a certain degree we we have plans and designs that we want to pursue and Implement and when they're on the State Freeway system there are processes that must be followed um and layers of process that have to take place and getting through that process can be challenging and sometimes that process is is unclear so um in pursuing that we're getting more clarity on the state process by which we Implement some of these or or request implementation of these beautification projects um I I think calr has a series of standards that they follow for um how things are done on the freeway system and we we must uh look at those standards and where we request to vary from them work with calr on any variances to that I think we're finally at a point where some of these plans that we've been working on for so long are coming to reality we're about to go out to bid for for some of them the husings interchange project became reality uh and I think we've learned from that project how we can even further enhance and and possibly reduce cost on some of these projects um but but um no doubt they are more costly than the typical standard but the longterm benefits for reducing irrigation cost and maintenance cost are are are definitely there okay thank you um and then a couple of just minor points I wanted to bring up number one is I love the the designs of the bridges I'm hoping that um we we can pursue this in some of our under Crossings in downtown as a Gateway which is part of our design for Chester Avenue and other other uh Improvement areas so that that's exciting to to see happen um I whispered to the mayor because she is a music Major uh and I know she's expertise I I just wondered if we have consulted with a a musician or someone who actually reads music uh because I'm not sure uh these particular uh this particular design works from uh from that perspective just a little piece of feedback uh and then finally and this is very controversial but the Bakersfield sign I love the Bakersfield sign I I I bring visitors all the time but I don't think that we have to replicate the bakers will sign in everything that we do um we we did it at the Marquee at The Visitors Center we're doing it at the auto mall I think it's wonderful that we do it it um but in future I think uh I I think maybe we can explore other other designs as well that would be my preference there there was a lot of collaboration on the autool sign where there were racetrack types of approaches to that but but in the end that collaboration and consensus came to this certainly and I it looks beautiful looks wonderful I'm just speaking for for the future yeah thank you great great work council member Smith thank you mayor yeah exciting to see some of this come to fruition finally uh actually went and looked at Hoskins a week or two ago and and it looks great and you know you don't need uh ground cover everywhere and you know some some trees and some different color variations and and it came out great so if we can kind of go forward with that it would be great and one of the the maps mentioned ground cover and I'm I don't believe it's really ground cover so it's bark or some color or something I think it had a lot of it filled in and it said ground cover also on the the coins I assume those are colored in or or they're just the engraved well I think that's yet to be determined okay my Approach would be so they're so they're just gray gray concrete so and yeah so um like like those retaining Wells I was talking about they're it's it's it's plain concrete um but the the image is reinforced by the shadow patterns created by the texture that are that that's in the in the concrete um if we were to paint them or go with a colored concrete or something like that um that would in the long run add to maintenance because that would have to be they would have to be repainted and all I think going with the the plain concrete it's clean cleaner and then like I said the sh allowing the shadow patterns to make the image to reinforce the image to read does that make does that make sense with the yeah I gotta it's just that you know they're on a slope so how how how steep of a slope I mean some slopes are flatter than other well these a lot of these are two to one slopes but some of them are on flatter slopes yes you're right you're right yeah okay okay yeah thank you no council member Gray well just falling behind that question that he had what how much additional cost does that add to add those coins just out of [Laughter] curiosity dep on the size why you come to the mic please it's dependent on the size of the medallions and so we're sort of playing with visually what is acceptable and what is not um rough estimates for the medallions are around 200 k 200,000 a piece or for all of them for all of them so if we did bring color to them because I I have seen on in other cities going up to 99 um like or well it's up towards Sacramento I can't remember where it was heading towards Mareno um that they do have some colored you know art and it's it's beautiful and many times I've driven up there and thinking I wish we could do something with Bakersfield our freeways are just so nothing you know here highways so but the color I was really impressed with this cuz I'm thinking color now it doesn't sound as as exciting when it's all gray we have a lot of brown here in the area um what how much additional cost does that add happy to come back with a report on exactly what the cost would be for a life a life we we were sort of Trying to minimize you know additional cost as and but uh we can come back since the council wants to see what that looks like so I appreciate that I'm not saying let's go spend a lot of money but it would be nice to know what the comparison was I would love to know which ones you're referring to that you've seen that would be I love to see I would love to see if I can find them on Google Earth and take a look and see what they've done and what I don't know if it's up nor towards Fresno or I I can't remember yeah we weren't doing this at the time or I would have made a better middle note um the other question or suggestion I have um is on talking about our historical Bakersfield sign I remember that on Union Avenue when I was a kid you know when that was a main thoroughfare it's got a particular font to it I don't care for the font that they've chosen for the new sign I mean if we're going to replicate we're going to keep that look throughout the city then we don't need signs that are different fonts everywhere I mean if we're going to do it then let's then let's do it but otherwise you know come up to something else but I'm I'm fine with that as long as we can match the font so it looks like the original sign okay um understood uh just a suggestion move the project forward we'll talk about the font with the contractor yeah I mean that's an easy thing to fix yeah understood um I I I do want to mention as far as the 9958 uh landscape or beautification project um it is at the 60% level so there's a lot of ability to change and modify some of the artistic pieces to this whether it's the medallions the coins or The Monuments so so there's good time to to come back maybe and talk a little bit more about some colorization or some different configurations okay sounds good thank you council member Freeman thank you mayor um a few question questions What's the timing of completing this uh landscape project at the off you know at the off ramps so at The Interchange of 5899 uh the plan is again at 60% um we are we have $1.2 million from calr to allocate towards this effort um we are requesting additional funding in this year's 2425 budget to help um match that funding so we can complete a a quadrant along the 58 um next fiscal year so Our intention is to only build a piece of that along 58 we will be under construction on the seventh movement and then there's future construction on the eighth movement so there's going to be a lot of activity on um say the the west side of the 99 on the north and south of 58 and our our hope is that when we demon demonstrate the 58 Corridor and the beautification we've achieved there that calr will integrate the rest of the beautification puzzle as part of the eighth movement construction that that is what what our hope is okay I'm not sure I heard a timing there like exactly when a guess an estimate my apologies uh maybe what we need is since you seem to be describing sort of phases taking a piece and a piece um could you you know write us a memo saying maybe this little graphic here's the section we think we'll have done by the end of next fiscal year here's the following this year what our plan or Hope just so we can see how does this come together and the same might be true of the big sign for the auto deal just so we know when are these I know I'll use the word planned because I know there's things we don't have all the approvals and yes sir maybe we don't have the money to do them all in one year but it'd be nice to rather than have it be I know you can't gu guantee but but when it's just totally vague you know people will ask us and we say well we really can't tell you nobody knows that that's not a good answer um I think I got the answer to one of my other questions was uh who pays for this and what I'm hearing is Cal Trans gives us an allotment you know a budget that isn't adequate to do all the things we want to do so we're going to supplement that budget do we 1.2 million doesn't go very far on a huge area level the one you showed us so um is this something where we match it or we going to have to each time we can have to spend as much as calr to double it or triple it because uh um I know we're trying to you know using mulch and be as as as efficient as we can but I just kind of wonder what what do these things cost so the 60% cost estimate has this project running at about $8 to9 million right now for all of the work and with with the $1.2 million that's been allocated by Cal Trends our request next fiscal year is for $1.2 million to get us um to about 2.4 or a little bit above to to hopefully do that stretch along the 58 up to the 99 okay um and I was glad to see trees in this mix as opposed to just all desert I would request that if a road trees here Road trees that we use the same trees one of the things U parks and wreck has switched to and looks 500% better on our arterials is using the same tree when we go down a Boulevard it looks so much better when it's you know all one tree uh rather than this mixture it just looks like unot it just looks terrible so when you put those trees in it's really nice if you don't mix all the trees up if there's one themed tree at this off ramp maybe another if you want a different one but actually through the city having one themed tree if you can find one you really like and looks good in there would be beneficial people just like a sense of consistency uh and we've switched on our own arterials and the the new plannings look 100% better than the old plannings where it was just anything goes um and I I think I got an answer that the maintenance of these is calr once the landscaping and hard G do they maintain it or do we maintain it yeah for for for those uh freeway segments that they control yes they would maintain it yeah on their their land so to speak uh um that's always a challenge because we don't control it uh you know following up on what councilman Gonzalez said U and what even councilman parle and I said for the last seven years that every off-ramp all we have is weeds and an ugly entrance every single offramp to our city is an embarrassment you know Panama Lane's an embarrassment rosedale's an embarrassment everything you walk in and it's just weeds when we transition to our land as well as KRA and I was wondering would these would these designs uh fit if we EX on our own dime extended them up onto you know you can't really tell whose property what when it cuts off but all the way up to the end of the off-ramp as you come into the city um it seems to me rather than changing the theme and design bringing the same design up until you stopped at the stop sign at the bottom of the offramp would look really good and I'm wonder if we can explore that if someone make a note and make that into kind of a project because we've been asking every budget for seven years could we please put can we do one I mean Harley and I were like begging can we just do one so we're not so embarrassed when people drive into Bakers field try Panama Lane try Rosell Highway any place where you come up in it's land landscaped it isn't just weeds 5T high as you stop at the stop sign and turn into Baker field so I uh I hope we can get going on that this year maybe do one or two if we can do anything uh but I you know I've made this request to uh to Mr CLE every year he knows and and M Council parley made it every year and maybe councilman core will pick up the theme but you know when we talk about branding our city and like someone mentioned the first impression you drive into the City and you know it's just like you drive up to a house what's your first impression and it's like boy this place must just be hard up they can't even weed their off ramps when you come into the town so that to me that's a big deal I'd really like to see us start addressing it um and I think that's oh was there some when we talked about um median landscaping and we showed a picture I think of wall as you go down towards the autool is there any plan to put a landscape median in wble in that area or that just my imag my wishful imagination somewhere that if we're trying to make our autola area look nice that you know wble is a pretty bleak Street down there on the aotol area yeah there there would be the creation of the median at the sign the monument sign at the ENT and some landscaping around that but um because of the frequent driveways and the need to to keep crossing our we we don't have any plans to put a curved median down wable down in the middle you mean people have to turn left or right so many times into the establishments yes okay all right well those are my questions thanks council member core thank you mayor I am very encouraged to hear my colleagues and their um investment inward seven and uh to see it grow and improve and thank you for the presentation today um I feel particularly protective since there or to that uh kind of affect Ward seven um I'll start by saying that the just to Echo the sentiments of our City's corridors both that being um hosing Avenue being our Southern entrance our Gateway in into the city um and how important is and how much of a great or you know lukewarm first impression that can make and I've talked extensively with Christian um about this same thing and you know it's encouraging to know that we have some freeway adjacent projects coming that will also give sort of a facelift for this uh Gateway into our city and some of these kind of improvements will also of course add to that and then second our Auto Mall being a corridor as well being an economic Corridor and such a big economic base for us as a city and how we are investing dollars and kind of giving that love back into um something that we truly rely on in the city so um yeah just just wanted to Echo that point as well and um I'm encouraged to see kind of climate smart plants being used I also uh am joining the crowd wanting for more color uh I was encouraged to see kind flowers such as Bogen Vilas even Incorporated um that is a kind of for more like Aid climates uh that's something that is just a a low maintenance plant that just beautifies communities kind of immediately including my mom's front yard and backyard and all of our surrounding fences so um I am really encouraged to see that I'd love to know if there's opportunity to add that to kind of our freeway underpasses or even um of course I'm thinking about kind of our corridors on hosking Avenue just is it um you know some of these more like desert climate flowers are California poppy the buganvilia um Agave which a lot of them have been included is there room to add some of these to add some of that pop of color I of course take that hosking ramp every day to to work and wherever I'm going cuz I live right off of it so I get to enjoy enjoy that it is um it it looks great it does it's a it's a great Improvement I also am thinking about the summer and how much heat kind of is uh will retain in that you know in some of the more Browns um and also if you could share how some of the material that's been used um how kind of rain uh I guess resistant or absorbent it might be I'm curious about that as well we don't want it to kind of keep shifting and I I know you all have probably been thoughtful about that as well um let's see I think those are my primary questions and then I also just wanted to again emphasize and um really sh kind of share my appreciation for bringing the Auto Dealers Association um in and being a partner and and really valuing their feedback I know it's been a close collaboration um and I'm encouraging to see their ideas kind of come to fruition through this project I know this is something that they've also talked about and um some of my own Vision I I would say this is kind of the start of us improving that Auto Mall Corridor and um seeing more improvements to come some of the ideas like council member Freeman has with making wble look a little prettier as well as when we're welcoming either locals or folks from out of town who are purchasing a vehicle in Bakersfield what is the impression that they're getting what are they leaving with um are they able to walk through the Auto Mall is there um you know uh is it pedestrian friendly are they able to go from one Auto de auto dealer to the next um in a safe Manner and also thinking about kind of the heat island effect and how we can even improve some of the Landscaping in and around the Auto Mall um is it incorporating some of the trees that we've seen in this presentation uh so I I think this is a great and I also appreciate the use of some of our native species and plants in in the artwork I think that's a great touch so thank you thank you council member where sorry I've been away for a while so um I'm kind of following off of council member Freeman's um points um at at some point in some place of time I think it is uh incumbent upon us to actually measure what we've done particularly in a project like this so if we don't if we don't measure what we've done if we don't know what we've given up to have this asset um I think that's that's that's our shame if we do that we we can't let that go so I would like when we get close to the end of this I would like to know how much we have spent on bringing that to fruition all of it calr Grant that's fine all what it took to bring the to fruition and then how we are using that asset if if it's giving us what we needed or what we expected that's that's fine and if it's not then maybe in the next one we could maybe twist that down just a little bit and have um much better uh handle and on what's been going on there but um this is kind of um I mean it's just a little bit different kind of of uh venture or or U job and I think it's really U important to us to make sure that uh we know exactly when in there and what is coming out of it and what it's generating for us so is there a way that we can do that I I think so I think um if we look at The husking Interchange for example um we do know that calr had a project and there was a cost to um doing their standard level of um landscaping and then we do know the cost of our design effort and our contribution effort to go into what it is today to to be make it what it is today um and we can break that down for for that particular instance but we can also carry that forward to other projects along other parts of the freeway a absolutely I I would appreciate it if we carried that on throughout these projects um I is there is there a way we can um well I'm sure there is you guys are great at this uh is there a way we can get some kind of return on investment or what do we expect from this as we move forward because we're putting about 8 to 10,000 8 to10 million up right right for for the 5899 it's a total project cost of about $8 to9 million um when you ask the question about what we can expect and we translate that to impressions of our community and putting a value to that um it's hard for any engineer or auditor to come up with a value to the impression of what they're receiving but um how that translates into tourism or more visits to the city um there there are probably ways to quantify that as time goes on in the future okay well I think that would be a great start thank you thank you council member Smith thank you mayor I was just following up on the medallions that it comes to mind the the Fresno monuments that use the tile out on 41 I you know they've looked great for number of years so that's an example of some spectacular color and and artwork I think so thank you council member Arius thank you mayor um than thank you Greg uh and team for your wonderful presentation I just want to commend you and uh lift up the fact that uh this was uh the hosking project in particular was already a project that was in motion um and fully funded and uh it was because of I'm sure Greg's leadership you know his team's um uh proa uh proactiveness uh to request a change order to uh make the change and uh we have a lot to be thankful for um it borders uh W one is in Ward 7 I oftentimes will cross the bridge uh while on my runs and I just want to say it is beautiful each and every time thank you that we're out there so uh well done to you and um thank thank you for moving so quickly on this um I just want to Echo um actually council member Freeman's comments um and council member uh Kors I think the more trees that we can get in there the better um and if we're doing less trees bigger trees would be great uh we do know and we see all the time that we do have transient folks uh finding themselves in those particular areas I think the more resilient that we can um make those trees that the better we'll be on um sustaining them um the other question that I had for you is actually let me back up um I also want to give credit to council member Freeman it's he gave some Sage advice the last time this item came forward uh which was for us to instead of trying to do the entire Corridor rather Let's uh choose particular interchanges to focus on you know we get enough of those uh put together we then fill in the rest of it so it sounds like we're taking that approach I really appreciate that but can you walk us through you know you know H how are we prioritizing these these projects in general throughout the city and particularly along the 99 well I guess start out we're working hard on every single project that that you've seen here right so in terms of priority they're they're pretty much all equal um and we give the same level of effort I I think it's the projects that we want to pursue beyond the ones that you've seen here um that haven't been prioritized yet uh which ones are they and how do they become part of this priority plan and what are their costs so um I don't know that I answered the question about what these priorities are but uh from a department perspective we're working really hard on all of them at the same time okay okay well I I would love to see down the road at at some point you know more uh maybe broad highlevel uh conceptual plan of what the entire Corridor is going to look like um yeah I would say that um with uh the governor and the state coming out with a 10-point plan for beautification efforts within the city it will be important to work with the state on identifying those additional locations and prioritizing continuing the momentum continuing to prioritize other locations fantastic um my my only other comment is a follow up on the vice mayor's point about Landscaping standards do we currently have Landscaping standards for our highways and and freeways so so we do have downtown Corridor standards that include Landscaping uh and hardscaping that matter um I would have to defer to wreck and parks to uh address standards on other corridors outside of the downtown area thanks council member and I could speak to that I think that the the absence of other plans for um Highway Corridor um uh because you know as Greg was mentioning we have the downtown design standards um Park Parks and recre Recreation and Parks has developed a simplified tree pallet for landscape medians that's trees and shrubs and as we're doing the turf replacement program you're starting starting to see throughout the city more of those medians take on a little bit of a different look and that does have a design standard to it but you asked about specifically the highway Corridor and we we do not have an established design standard for Landscaping on the highway corridors that would be a calr standard by the way and calr does have some design standards but um like a a specific landscape design standard for the Bakersfield corridors that does not exist okay yeah not even sure if it's possible um but I do know that we're going to be expecting some changes in leadership here soon um and who knows how long it might take us if we're you know doing one interchange at a time one stretch at a time you know we just want to make sure that the same standards that we're utilizing now are you know pretty similar to the ones that we'll be using in in 10 years when we continue to finish out this project so other than that great job if I may council member just to your point we actually had submitted a direct funding allocation request to the state not in this most recent cycle but two cycles ago to um allocate uh funding for the city to at least create a feasibility study and design standard uh that wasn't successful in our efforts to get that direct allocation from our our um State Assembly delegation but that's consistent with what you're en envisioning is that we see this you know the 99 quarter and the 58 quarter there a lot of interchanges and I think you have to also think about 178 is a a key um um Highway as well and so uh the number of interchanges the amount of both design dollars and construction dollars for all of those corridors just frankly it it weighs me down a little bit sometimes you you think about just the 5899 being $8 to9 million um you know these are these are very long-term VAR impactful improvements but um often when we're you know comparing those sort of costs against other projects those are tough choices also when we look at for Grants most grants want to see capacity building they want to see you know more movement of goods and people or they want to see more you know Lanes or more facilities and there there are less grants for the beautification pieces unfortunately it's it's just it's a challenge and so uh I do think we need to uh create a vision for the entire chord or yes U but also as just sort of my realistic estimation that that's a long range plan it's going to take us many many years to continue to chip away at this council member Freeman used the word branding and branding is that communication of the message the art throughout our city is going to communicate some kind of message and as our community grows I wonder whether there's Merit in looking at the broader vision and having as Mr CLE and I have spoken about maybe a an Art Expert who can keep an eye on the overall Gestalt of our community oftentimes people will defer to me and they'll ask me you know what do you think what color should this be that would be I I would impose my own personal preference in each of us probably would have a different thought just depending on our own personal taste I think it's really hard to ask non-artist to uh design an entire city but to have somebody just keep an eye overall on various projects that we might be doing as a city I think could be beneficial in communicating so the council then would set the direction in the message for the art or the artist to communicate but the council itself wouldn't be designing it because we're not the professionals nor would City staff that would be something that would be guided by the council's direction the staff's direction But ultimately somebody who is an Art Expert could offer an opinion on the overall Gestalt of the city as we grow and just kind of keep an eye on the overall message that we're communicating I know comments have been made about that Bakersville sign next to to visit Bakersville you have two different art styles together they're justos together and I think it's rub some people the wrong way likely a Prof a professional artist would not have done that and so would that be something worth considering just hiring maybe on a prium basis for consultation when we're expending a lot of funds uh maybe that could help us as our community Mr yeah thank you mayor a good suggestion and we actually just as a reminder when we um have gone through our um Parks master plan and taken a little bit of an early look at the public art fund there we haven't um moved forward with any um um specific actions on that although I would expect in the next six months to come back to this council with some recommendations from staff about how to start walking through that process um we did do an RFP for art uh consultancy and uh we did hire um Mig as well they were the most responsive bidder on that and uh so we we do actually have a art consultant to the city today it was actually a fairly affordable uh cost to us and um we've had some early conversations about how to address uh I think City facility capital projects and uh potential public art projects but very good suggestion mayor we have not I don't believe made that overlap and connection into some of our landscape design and other art on some of our roadways and so we'll connect with Rick and Public Works to make sure that that resource is available to also look at these same type of Highway Improvement projects at the same time it's just you know that consistent look and feel and theming would would make a lot of sense thank you and then just to the vice mayor's point on that uh musical artwork there are some musical issues that go beyond artistic uh flexibility and artistic license so maybe we should talk about that sort of like seeing California on the East Coast uh the counterpart but thank you so much for your investment and Mr CLE any final words uh I actually do have one question I want to belabor it too much and we're going to try and take some of this offline but um uh you know council member Freeman had noted some of the on-ramp off-ramp work and where sort of the the city work uh begins where the calrs work ends um my understanding is you know in large part except for maybe those projects that haven't been the route hasn't been fully adopted by calr the entire on-ramp off-ramp area is calr responsibility and so are you referring council member Freeman to City medians and City street landscaping or you talking about the on-ramps and off-ramps all the way down to a stop sign and there's always weeds 3 ft High and a homeless person sitting on a a barrel uh or rolls to Highway you come off and you look at the everything is weeds all over right as you stop I I I thought earlier it might have been you or someone else told me well that's the city's land and the city's job to find landscape calr is further down but you know I could be wrong I I'd like to get that clarified yeah we can do that we can clarify that I think where you're at the the level where you're be at an intersection where you know where a sidewalk you know might be that right of way you start to get into city responsibility but for the most part the rest of those onramps off ramps are Cal Tran's responsibility but um duly noted I just wanted to get some of that Clarity they're not maintaining them they're totally neglecting even from fire standards and weeds you know we make we make our Builders clear the weeds off their Lots owners anywhere because of fire hazards calr just leaves it it could burn the city up and we did almost burn the autom all up a number of years ago because they weren't maintaining uh their stuff can we get an easement when they're not doing it can we at least weed eater the weeds down can we do anything if they just say hey we don't have time or the budget we're just you know they kind of control The Branding of our city and frustrating A again again a good comment I think consistent with what I've heard before and and my own personal views as well I would add to that um we've had frustration about the the level of Maintenance and and I will say you know we have regular interaction with our regional staff I do think that they they listen to us and um that they try to respond to the highest priorities but there are funding challenges with Caltrans that I don't believe that the maintenance funding that they have is sufficient to keep it at the standard that we would desire as a city we've had conversations with Caltrans about what would it take to do better there's a couple different options uh one option is to go into anou and take over the maintenance of those areas I think the cost implications for that are fairly significant for the city but uh and we haven't fully costed it out but just off of some of the early conversations those are those are major cost impacts for us to do that maintenance but we we asked the question because again of of I guess our own um the feedback and and our own frustration at at the the level of service there but but there are some cities that that do an as um an agreement with calr to take over the maintenance of those State routes and calr has provided some offsets to uh those costs what their own operating costs are but it's not usually the full cost of what we would pay for maintenance another option is to um we during the pandemic in particular as well as even currently we do have um and I'm forgetting now the name of um the the technical term but you can get basically authorization to go onto Cal Tran's property and do certain work we did get authorization to go and address certain encampment work um and we've talked about authorization to go and do graffiti abatements and also uh Landscaping so um that that is possible and we've been in conversations with calr about what that would take I would again just note um we would probably need to plan to budget more for our own staff if our staff are going to go and do that work or take over a maintenance agreement they are possible it's just a question of funding um yeah I understand we would have to whatever get an easement or something even if it was you know the last 100 ft or something where you felt like hey I'm coming into the city even if they leave that offramp for years I mean the major intersection bad for years and we can't do anything about it but at some point hey I'm coming into Baker field makes the last 50 ft but it just doesn't that we would have an ease M if we just took it down to dirt it wouldn't be that bad it looked like well it was waiting some plantings rather than just scruffy weeds um so I think you know we we could look at that and see well at what point you know minimize the part we have to maintain uh whether we planted it first or not it'd be great if we came up with something very simple uh but mainly just kind of cleaning it up and I guess calr when they built the off-ramps over the years they never had any obligation to landscape these big intersections or the areas as you come off they just left it and they is that the case is in every city they just when they built them they don't have any obligation to landscape the energes never did because it doesn't look like they did good question Council M Freeman I don't know uh the answer to that or if staff has the answer if there was an obligation to do so but I mean I know it was years ago I just wondered because in some cities they look a lot better than others so you wonder do they have easements over it where they just decide to pay or do they have better political connections with Caltrans to get them to maintain um just seems like we were kind of left out of the the discussion when they built the 99 it's just whatever they did they just left it and uh you know okay another said vce mayor thank you mayor uh motion to receive and file motion please cat your votes now the California's run out of money his broke thank you gentlemen great state has everybody voted somebody hasn't voted uh he's voting yeah motion is unanimously approved motion toj motion to adjourn to close session we're adjourn to close session 432 4 mayor may I please read the Clos session item yes please close session item 4 a conference with legal council existing litigation uh regarding Jane Doe versus city of Bakersfield at L thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] sh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] sh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] sh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] re adjourning the 3:30 city council meeting Madame City attorney thank you mayor we only had one item on close session this afternoon and by a 6 zero vote with council member we're absent the City attorney was given direction thank you thank you and we stand adjourn at 5:14 we'll start the meeting in just a few minutes [Music] sh [Music] [Music] [Music] okay e [Music] okay oh quiet [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] go ahead welcome to the Bakersfield City council meeting this television broadcast is brought to you by the local cable company the county of kar 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 PRD over this evening's meeting The Honorable mayor Karen K go good afternoon it's my pleasure to call to order the vi 15 regular city council meeting of May 22nd 2024 Madam clerk please call the role mayor go here vice mayor Gonzalez council member Aras here council member we council member Smith I am here council member Freeman here council member gray here and Council member core here thank you we have the pleasure tonight of having Sergeant Elizabeth Avila from the US Federal chaplain's agency to offer the invocation we now have a new office here of the US chaplain's branch and we're uh very glad to have you and then following the invocation council member arus will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance please stand Heavenly Father we thank you so much for this wonderful city that you have given us my Lord thank you for giving us father God just the strength to be here today my Lord I pray that every decision that is made father God is to honor you my Jesus thank you for so much father for everything that we are blessed with just to even have father God the moment to Stand Here strong father we pray right now for our military we pray for our Sheriff Department we pray father for our doctors father we pray in the name of Jesus Christ Lord for our Police Department we pray father God for every um member that is here to make a decision my Lord we pray that you give them the wisdom father we pray for uh everybody here that is just Anointed with you my Lord we pray father God we thank you so much for this opportunity we also are very grateful and thankful for allowing us to be here as a United States Federal chaplain agency Lord to be able to be a blessing to this community father we pray for every decision Lord that is made my Lord thank you so much my Lord we pray for everyone Lord that is just father God um able to be father um anointed In This Moment here in your presence we pray in the mighty name of Jesus Christ amen salute pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you and you may be seated thanks thanks falling apart here thank you thank you Sergeant thank you Council M barius here are a few guidelines to help our meeting run smoothly we'd 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 resolution of the city council fail to abide by the city's rules of deorum including any disruptive behavior that interferes with our ability to have an orderly and efficient meeting prevents the city council from conducting the business of the city consider this a first warning to everyone in attendance that conduct that disrupts the meeting May result in your removal from the meeting and or the chambers being cleared behavior that disrupts a meeting includes repetitive statements shouting interrupting staff or presenters during the meeting speaking out of turn Outburst from the audience and surpassing the two-minute time limit Madam clerk next item please public statements in keeping with council's new resolution public statements are now received at different times depending on the item I will 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's Podium we ask that you mark whether you're here to speak on an item listed on tonight's agenda or in a matter not on the agenda speakers who do not identify a specific agenda item will be presumed speakers for non-agenda public statements if you're here to speak on an item not listed on the meeting agenda you will be called first to speak statements are given a two-minute time limit 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 mam clerk do we have any public speakers regarding items not listed on the agenda Maro we've received eight public speaker cards regarding items not listed on uh tonight's agenda the first three public speakers will be Sharon Terrell Bill sandrini and Valeria Sharon welcome Tera and just a reminder to all of you if you adjust the mic so that we can hear you please okay hello my name is Sharon Terell and last week you were not open but the following Wednesday you were and I was here to address uh my car being towed after it was stolen and taken to a facility that the Kern County uh Sheriff's Department picked and them charging me almost $600 to go 2 miles you said that you would look into this I haven't heard anything you are the ones that call these people to come and pick up our cars and in return they use that to intimidate us overcharge and keep our facility if we can't get the car out so we become a victim twice once from the car being stolen and the other once it's towed now they say that you set the prices that they have any they don't have anything to do with this that the Kern County Sher Department sets the toll price where's that listed do you have that do is there such a a thing uh available that I can see where's the list that you know that you can charge that much to go two miles anybody look into it any is anybody interested in looking into that because they're getting away with this you know I looked at one of the most popular cars I have a hondai there was a Kia right next to mine and the to lady told me she says the lady came in to get a car she was crying cuz she couldn't there was a car seat in the back that woman could not get her car out can't get your car out you can't get the car seat therefore she couldn't even take her baby anywhere Mr trell thank you for speaking your time is up vice mayor thank you mayor U Mr Al thank you so much for coming back and bringing your comments to uh the council um I believe we had made a referral to staff to look into this uh Mr CLE do you have an update for us I know it's an non- agendized item I want to be careful that we don't um overstep but if you can just briefly provide an update yeah thank you vice mayor uh our finance department did take a look at this issue um and as uh reported uh at at the last meeting um the the the Baseline assumption uh We've uh demonstrated is accurate that this did not occur within City jurisdiction this is a county issue I've been um received a report from staff that they had reached out to the constituent and shared this fact that this is a county issue um and uh that we've tried to provide the resources for where to address this at the county level because it's not a city issue great thank you and um if we can um receive your contact information I'm not sure if it's on the card your your phone number m trell i I will personally call you tomorrow so that we can work through who the appropriate person is at the county to uh get this issue addressed thank you thank you Mr trell next speaker please Bill sandrini followed by Valeria followed by Carmen Enriquez welcome please introduce yourself yeah my name is Bill sandrini and my sister and I own a small shopping center called Plaza on Callaway at 1400 Callaway Drive um several small businesses in there and starting in I'm going to say the exact month December one of our tenants was flying a couple of the uh banners out in front I think they call them feather banners and code enforcement comes by and says you know we get a letter from him this is illegal you can't do this okay um why is it illegal is there something else we can do no you can't do it it's illegal you can't have feather banners you look all over this town There's feather banners all over the place I saw them on H Street coming in what are most of them most of them are for small businesses that can't afford to go out and have television advertising other kinds of advertising and stuff like that so let a little while go by put them back up month or two goes by come by again hey you got to take these down look on the corner over there earners has some up the 7-Eleven has some up you go all over you have big businesses and you have small businesses that have them all over this town what it's hurting is the small businesses but it also hurts the property owners that if their small businesses can't advertise in a way like that and and get people in it not only hurts that he goes out of business then the property owner has a vacancy that he has to try to fill you know so whatever that whatever that law is or whatever needs to really be looked at because it is against the small businesses in this town thank you Mr sandrini council member Smith thank you mayor I met with Mr sandrini this morning and Mr Bole you can connect with me tomorrow and and we can talk about this a little bit and see if there's Solutions and Direction appreciate it thank you next speaker please Valeria followed by Carmen Enriquez followed by Kev welcome please introduce yourself afternoon today marks 1 week since the 76th year anniversary of the nakba which translates to the catastrophe the nakba refers to the ethnic cleansing and mass displacement of the Palestinian people carried out by the state of Israel in 1948 Israeli violence against pales Ians both predates this event and continues to be carried out today last time I came and spoke at this meeting I was rebuttal and although I know this response was made in bad faith given the fact that I and others primarily brown people were compared to the KKK I would still like to respond in case it brought up questions for anyone who is sincerely torn on this matter this rebuttal conflated the recorded amount of deaths to be primarily Hamas clearly it is not given that 15,000 over 15,000 of those are deaths are literal children the masks that I wear are to protect myself and my loved ones from disease not to mask myself like the KKK especially when Co is still actively killing Americans it has killed over 20,000 Americans since the start of this year alone according to um our world in numbers I also wear it in solidarity with my amuno compromise folk who are facing um mask ban bills in North Carolina despite the fact that they need these to live their day-to-day life um a letter was shared from a Palestinian saying that our goal is not sincere because if it was we would be targeting Hamas I wonder how deep um our last speaker that rebutted me had to search to find this testimony or if it's even credible given that that I've seen many photos and videos of children in Gaza expressing solidarity with the students who are making encampments for Palestinians um um so I just wanted to respond to that free Palestine you guys still haven't done anything um glory to our Martyrs next speaker please Carmen and RZ followed by Kev followed by Rocky escobido welcome please introduce yourself hello I'm here to urge a thorough investigation into Patty Gray's family member Christian Gray the person who was harassing and assaulting people in front of City Hall despite heavy police presence he was allowed to assault the public assault the public two cops acknowledge what he was doing and chose not to intervene it is imperative that thorough measures be taken to address this issue and ensure all individuals are held accountable for their actions regardless of their affiliations or connections but I'm guessing you're all willing to look the other way because we all know that in this city in this County what happens when you know somebody like the district attorney Cynthia Zimmer who personally called Sheriff Youngblood because her nephew the current County Supervisor Zack scrier was allegedly brandishing a gun after allegedly sexually assaulting his daughter and allegedly getting stabbed by his son the treatment that he got compared to what an average citizen would have gotten is laced with so much privilege that his whereabouts are still a mystery so much of a mystery that his ex-wife cannot even serve the restraining order to protect herself and her children from this alleged Predator only if we all had the aunt like Cynthia Zimmer just think about the lives that could have been spared if the da had intervened during instances of mental health crisises for the community speaking of mental health last meeting there was a scile man trying to equate maske wearing to the KKK this incident serves as a stark reminder of the urge to the the urgent need for mental health services and education in our community rather than allocating funds towards arming cops and deploying biased AI programs that disproportionately Target marginalized groups we should prioritize investments in mental health resources and education if we invest in education the city council wouldn't need to have to pass agenda items that send substantial funds towards unnecessary grammar subscriptions for themselves we can alleviate the burden on taxpayers Who currently foot the bill for grammar subscriptions when there are free grammar tools readily available on every computer and every smartphone pre pilot sees fire now next speaker please Kev followed by Rocky escobido followed by Ian Journey welcome please introduce yourself hello again Council as you stare inhumanely at me today I want you to remember this as you leave that when you pull into your home I want you to get curious about what it would look like if your home personally had been bombed before you had arrived what would it look like pulling your family out of that reubel or pulling your pet out of that or maybe you'll forget to think about that one so maybe when you take a shower and a failing attempt to wash away your sins that that warm water hitting your skin may feel like blood flowing down it and question to yourself if that's really how it would feel because you wouldn't know you would never know that but the families in Gaza would and today over 40,000 people are dead Millions have their homes destroyed and are displaced most of them innocent women and children and now they're trapped but you've never cared about statistics or Events maybe you've never seen the images from guaza because maybe you don't even care about the kids because how is it that this Council elected an alleged gun owning insensual child rapist as the supervisor because it's not that hard to determine a judge of character or a person's character character especially if they're that bad however it could just show how horrible this city council is because either you're so negligent that you could let something like that slip or that this city council will associate with Predators I don't know what do you think Andre do you think that this city government should allege uh should associate with child Predators Karen go anyone else I wouldn't want my city government to be filled with people who associate or are child Predators who are willing to do that stuff to kids that's why I don't stand for many of your actions because you all make decisions that aren't for a good happy Community free Palestine next speaker please Rocky escobido followed by Ian Journey followed by Justin feffer welcome please introduce yourself hello I'm Rocky es Cabo I'm the owner of Northwest Barber Shop here in rosale and uh we were speaking about the banners and the flags and stuff like that Mr Smith you came and talked to us earlier in the morning this is great so the issue with me I've been the owner for about 12 years now and uh never had no problems with the flags up there or anything like that but since it happened I'm thinking maybe 40% of my business is you know it's not there where it was you know what I mean so I see a lot more like we were talking about earlier that there's a it's everywhere you know what I mean so the city and the the county is different I get that part but you know so my shop is here across the way that's uh the county so I'm like okay but what about the other parts of the city and there's everywhere you know what I mean so I've took pictures know where it's at and stuff like that so I mean you know why can't be across the board or something can happen you mean so I can have the flags out there you mean that that's a huge big thing for me you know what I mean you know as as a marine vet you know I have discounts for veterans and stuff like that but with them not seeing my shop without the flags you know I can't help them or a lot of people that come in for me so that's pretty much where I'm going to that's the problem for me thank you Mr ESO council member gray thank you mayor and thank you Rocky for coming and speaking with us and Mr sandrini I really appreciate it appreciate that you reached out to us Bakersfield is a quote business friendly city um I'm a small business owner myself I understand what it takes to first of all open a business manage a business make a profit on a business and then be able to send a check to the state of California in the federal government in the city of Bakersfield so it's the small businesses that are the foundation of this this city and we appreciate you so I would Echo um council member Smith's request U Mr Cay that we meet with Mr sandrini as a as a a landlord and uh with rocky rocky I'm sorry I'm not getting your last name correctly um so I'm not showing you disrespect there um to meet with them and see we can come up with a solution cuz clearly we have a double standard uh with businesses in this town uh we have inconsistency with code of Code Enforcement where some say oh no it's okay others say it it's not okay these are the things that need to be flushed out and when a gentleman standing here who's uh a hard worker trying to earn a living for his family and losing 40% of his business over an issue like this we're not that's not a good thing for our city um our business own owners need to be able to be profitable so um I would really appreciate that that meeting and and then uh if you could get back to me too on that so we hope we can help you mayor thank you mayor uh Mr ESO Mr s thank you so much for for being here today I hope that U we can through council member Smith uh find some solutions to your particular problem but I think um this issue raises a larger uh question uh for the council related to our sign ordinance I think that um there are uh issues related to the sign ordinance that may need to be Revisited and so I like to refer that to Planning and Development um I I I think you know we we could have a long conversation about the flags and the fairy flags and you know some of the pros and cons to those things there there are some property owners who are good Steward or others who go way overboard and and really have um you know gone across the line when it comes to our our um ordinance on the books but the other piece I think is is related to um code enforcement and council member gray pointed it out um I'm not I don't necessarily believe that it's a double standard I just think that our um a policy or practice of uh being complaint driven has has had the effect of some uh feeling of being a double standard whereas some folks may not have received a complaint other properties have so I think we need to also in the same time that we talk about a policy we need to talk about the practice that we're going to employ in the future um because I don't think the complaint driven process for a city our size is going to uh suffice I think that we're going to uh look towards uh I think we need to have a conversation at the Council of what what the future enforcement really will look like so thank you again next speaker please Ian Journey followed by chus feffer followed by Irvin Pike welcome please introduce yourself um my name is Ian Journey I'm a citizen of Bakersfield and I'm here uh today in uh representing Team Action dad um at Team Action Dad we are dedicated to empowering fathers to become the best versions of themselves both as individuals and as loving involved parents our mission is to provide a supportive and dynamic Community where dads can Thrive grow and create lasting memories with their children and U my son Rory would like to make a quick statement and uh and really we're here uh uh representing bicycle enthusiasts and looking to get a bicycle uh track or bicycle um um uh infrastructure built within the city and uh I I I will come uh to uh the next city council with the more presentation but just wanted to come here with my my kid today and um if you want to make a statement hi I'm Roy Journey I'm 9 years old and when I'm at home I feel like I need more things to do so I want a pump track thank you very much thank you Mr Journey thank you Mr Rory Journey uh next speaker please council member Gonzalez thank you mayor sorry Mr CLE please get r a pump track come on let's get it done thank you uh welcome pretty much here to just Echo what was just said we just need more uh infrastructure and more things in our community to support our youth and uh not only that but the people who need to commute in this town that can't afford cars and car insurance and registration and all those things and we just need more to keep the public safe as I'm sure you all know we have uh a very high uh number of pedestrian and cycling deaths and accidents in this town and uh it's just something that's that we need here thank you next speaker please Irvin Pike followed by Max bunting followed by Olivia Snider uh good afternoon this I'm Irvin I would like to thank our mayor go council members and the Bakersfield Police Officers for serving our city I do appreciate it since October 7th 2023 the day that Hamas broke the existing ceasefire that it had with Israel where they had raped killed tortured mutilated and kidnapped innocent men women and children there's been a group of our Bearfield neighbors that have come to our Bearfield City Council meetings to demand that our s our local city council put a proclamation for a ceasefire to prevent Israel from defending ing herself they have called this a genocide definition of a genocide is the deliberate killing of people from a particular Nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that Nation or group our Bakersfield neighbors have it wrong dead wrong a genocide is what hamas's Charter States blatantly for the total Destruction of Israel and Jews if Israel wanted to genocide the Gaz and civilians after Hamas broke the ceasefire that was in place why would they send text messages phone calls and leaflets to all the civilians in Gaza and the residents to move to a safe place out of Harm's Way as they would fight a war against Hamas each Time spoiler alert the 40,000 they just said the 35,000 they have been saying in the newspaper the United Nations office for the coordination of humanitary Affairs on May 8th that's there a few weeks ago said that that 35,000 was not a correct number it has been coming from Hamas that it was half that much and that at least over half of that amount is Fighters for um Hamas as far as I'm concerned one child killed is too many and that we need to condemn Hamas atrocities Hamas must surrender to save innocent lives and Gaza thank you next speaker please Max bunting followed by Olivia Snider welcome please introduce yourself hello my name is Max bunting I'm 11 years old and I would like to be outside more and ride my bike so I would like a pump track here in Bakersfield thank you Mr benting next speaker please Olivia Snider followed by Roman Mata welcome please introduce yourself hi there um I'm Olivia Snyder and I'm here in support of Ian journey and the work that he's put in place for the pump track um it's a pretty cool idea and it looks like there is an empty lot that has availability and so he has a whole plan for it and it's great all right thank you thank you next speaker please Roman Mata followed by Asia Ren welcome please introduce yourself hi yes um I'm Roman Mata to be honest I uh didn't expect to get up here given that I arrived a little bit late um I'll try to make my points concisely um I've told you before that I've been a resident here for on and off about 20 years uh I'm 25 right now um I grew up on six Morrison Street I don't know if any of you know where that is by any chance um and um you know like uh my father would always uh take me to a nearby catalo pizza it was one of our favorite restaurants that we used to get together um sadly he's no longer with us but um you know I wanted to relay that and the reason I bring all this up is because my home was actually demolished in order to build the Westside Parkway I believe I have the highway right the suburb it was in is completely gone and I can't even look at it anymore on Google Maps because the map data just redirects to the highway the catalo pizza has since been demolished and even the liquor store that I used to go to as a kid has um I mean it's still operating um it's called the Stockdale liquor store but as a kid we used to just call it Chris's cuz that was the name of the owner um but um operating so close to a a freeway overpass and um you know um having a lot of its the nearby residential area like not um well you know being demolished combined with the fact that the traffic light there still hasn't been fixed and there are concrete barriers that have stood for months have introduced significant challenges to that area I'm talking to express some well I mean it hurts of course to know that my home was destroyed but more than that I just want to use this as a story or as a I guess a cautionary thing that every time you make some decision to build a highway or to build something I like I would I would say that it's very important that it's worthwhile and it keeps in mind the local community and it doesn't hurt them thank you Mr Mata no oh sorry council member Gonzalez thank you mayor uh Mr ter thank you so much for your uh comments and for sharing something that's so personal to you I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your father I too have lost my dad and I know the pain that um is still there and I I sympathize with you and you know I I will say thank you for bringing up the comments related to uh the demolition of of your home um that was I think a a sad part of our City's history and its development and I'm sorry that that had happened um uh I think it is important and it ises call to mind that sometimes when we call these projects Improvement projects it's not necessarily an improvement for the for the neighborhood um and I think your experience really articulates that well uh so thank you so much for bringing this uh so public uh your personal story to the table um I'd like to make a referral though that we addressed the issues that uh real and Stockdale related to the traffic lights I believe that's the intersection you're referring to okay thank you thank you madam clerk next speaker please Aisha Ren come on all the way up here and yeah go welcome can you hear me because I really need to be heard my name is Aisha Ren and me and my dog uh were traveling to Las Vegas to see my daughter and we had an issue to on Amtrak and they put me in my dog in jail I did nothing so I'm been a Transit process where I need to get home and be able to call my family so I've been reaching out to nonprofit organ sorry nonprofit organization and various business that are available because I don't know anyone here however 97% of the businesses and the nonprofit organizations in Bakersville have no access to you if you're homeless they have I have literally had humans eat my dog food like they stole my dog of everything like I'm literally like packing because uh flood Ministries have been saying that they're going to give me a ticket since last Friday I went to him to them and they said um come Monday I came Monday and it's been excuse after EXC use they put me into a mercy house and there it was chaotic I like I'm running over the place looking for staff and the ministers were there I'm like you know what I know this this prayer this is nothing that a human can fix this is going to take God how chaotic the situation is so now even today literally right now I have me and my dogs belonging to a trash can in front of your office I came to see the mayor last Friday he was not in his secretary was not in the technicians was like well let me go see if I take somebody now I'm like this is serious cuz me and my dog like held your uh like stand off in your lobby area because we're pushing buttons and he's walking back back and forth like what did you do they have Miss Ren your time is up but our vice mayor would like to offer some comments go ahead know how m m Ren your time is up but let's listen to the vice mayor m r i I'm so sorry to hear about your experience I think we all are um and certainly we want to see what we can do to help you I'm very thankful actually that you found your way here today uh to share with us your comments um I I I think it's uh remarkable frankly that you're that here and we're able to hear directly from you what your lived experience is being um experiencing homelessness um we have our um wonderful assistant city manager in the room uh who is actually our lead in homelessness efforts and I wouldn't um ask him if I didn't think that he was uh he would be ready but uh I think he is Mr Valdez if you would be willing to work with um our constituent here and uh see what resources we might be able to connect her with uh this evening thank you Mr Ren if you just make your way to the lobby Mr Valdez will meet you there thank you m mam clerk next item please agenda item public statements we'll now move to the public statements listed on the agenda if you're here to speak on appointments item six or items listed under consent calendar item 7 your time to speak is now each speaker is given a two-minute time limit and each agenda item is limited to 20 minutes total the consent calendar as a whole constitutes one agenda item if you're here to speak on consent calendar hearing items 8 a through b now is not the time to speak you'll be given an opportunity to speak when the item is called later in the meeting Madam clerk do we have any public speakers regarding items listed on appointments item six and consent calendar item seven mayor we have received one speaker card on items listed on tonight's agenda and what which item is that can you give me item s item 7e okay before we get to 7e we have no speakers on appointment item six so we'll take that I'd like to clarify um mam clerk would you read appointment item six appointments one appointment to the north of the River Recreation and Park District member to complete an unexpired term set to expire December 31st of 2025 to the north of the river recreation parks District I'd like to clarify the voting process for you the council will vote electronically and the city clerk will display and announce the results based on these results the council will then make the appropriate motion regarding the appointment Mayo we've received two applications for appointment one from Charles Howard and the second one from Steven roders I'm opening the vote now it appears Charles Howard received the most votes at four and rers received one vote thank you vice mayor motion to Appo Mr Howard to the north of the River Recreation and Parks District board you have a motion please catch your votes motion is approved with council member we absent and council member gray abstaining thank you Mr Howard for your service and now we'll hear public comment on item 7 E7 Mr mato all right um well I'm really glad I got here in time and got to make my earlier public comment because this is actually a pretty easy uh followup from that um when I was um you know like like when I found out the news about the Parkway and what it had done you know obviously I I mean it was sad but you know I could have accepted it um a lot easier if I known that it had been for a good cause now I've looked at the map for the Westside Parkway um and I mean I'm not like I don't have the City Zoning Maps I'm not exactly sure on all this stuff but um it looks as though the Westside Parkway was constructed mainly to facilitate a westward expansion of the city and right now I'm living on the west side of Bakersfield and it's mostly um single family very spread out suburbs um it actually takes a while for us to find a near nearby business or a place to eat I mean I live um a little bit ago I was living on Bel Terrace and there it was maybe a 10 20 minute walk where I am now it's it would take me an hour to walk somewhere in order to get something to eat and I suspect that's probably why the Westside Parkway was built is because rather than addressing like you know building the housing and the businesses in the places where people needed them instead we look to build transportation and highways in order to get them to the center of the city and it just so happened that my home was one of the uh casualties so to speak in that now I'm speaking about this agenda item because I looked over the HTML um the link and I saw where it was I saw what it's approving I think it's 86 I if I remember correctly affordable housing units and based off where it is I think that this is an amazing thing that you guys are doing um I think this is exactly the kind of development that this city needs and the only thing I would say is please do more of it and do it faster because I think the rest of the state is counting on us to build this housing thank you thank you vice mayor move to approve the consent calendar you have a motion please cast your votes motion is approved with council member we absent thank you it's now 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'll be placed at the end of the regular public public hearings portion of the meeting and at this time I'll open consent calendar public hearing items 8 a through b is there anyone in the audience who would like to request that ad hearing item be removed from the consent calendar if so please come forward this isn't the time to take testimony only to remove the matter from consent calendar hearing does any council member wish to remove an item from the consent calendar hearings seeing none at this time consent calendar public hearings items 8 a through b is closed vice mayor move to approve the consent calendar public hearing items 8 A and B you have a motion please cast your votes motion is approved with council member weer absent thank you and Madam clerk next item please Council and mayor statements Madam clerk I'm not seeing um any of the requests council member Smith I see that you attempted to council member Smith thank you mayor uh tonight we approved uh pavement Rehabilitation on Bo Vista Road uh for $3.3 million and and we had some constituents come up in and talk about bicycle safety and commuting in our pedestrian bicycle desks which we continue to try to address a question was asked the other day about you know how much is the green paint and so I had staff split that out from this particular project and of the $3.3 million about 2% of it is uh the green paint so $70,000 uh to hopefully save some lives thank you thank you council member core thank you mayor um tonight we approved some dollars going towards um a new sign that will uh Adorn our Auto Mall and I wanted to thank my fellow council members as well as staff for spending the time to collaborate not only with our Consultants but especially our constituents our Auto Dealers Association and Greg thank you to your staff as well um and everyone involved in the process I think this is an important first step in U making sure that we both beautify our um one of our largest kind of economic contributors to the money that helps run our city and so wanted to just give a quick shout out and and many thanks and appreciation for the efforts um going towards our Auto Mall um and the love going towards w 7 and and the work that's to come uh there as well and I wanted to thank the Auto Dealers Association for all their collaboration and always being um great partners with the city and um a second shout out goes definitely to our governor's office in um coming out with a 10-point plan in beautifying our Bakers field and that love feels very good coming down uh the southern Central Valley so again want to thank all of um you know folks on our Council our mayor as well as our city staff who have been great advocates for the city of Bakersfield um because this doesn't happen by accident it happens with very deliberate Partnerships and and being um just strong advocates for our city and our community and I think this is just the beginning of something very very strong very powerful and very beautiful thank you guys have a great uh rest of your week thank you council member core council member Freeman well since we were talking about green paint it triggered a thought uh the first one of the first projects we did of the bike Lanes was at Grand Lakes and Main Avenue where we went South maybe half a mile I'm not sure not not a long section and is great it looks good um however if we simply go north about a quarter mile it leads to the elementary school and I think if if we had to do over again we probably would have said let's do the one that takes the kids to the elementary school who ride their bikes and all of the homes that have the kids are north of Ming that feed into Grand Lakes there southam Ming is very very large homes with older people and very few young kids so I'm just wondering if we can find a few extra buckets of green paint at some point here it looks like a half a project it looks like we stopped halfway on this project when the north leads you to the elementary school which is where the bike lane really should be and all the kids feed into that north of Ming from all the homes that have the kids in them so my request is that um we put that on the list of one of the first next um projects I don't know if we're done with grants or how we're doing but it'd be nice to put that on the list of when we ought to do uh when funds become available to kind of complete the Grand Lakes project thank you thank you council member for vice mayor thank you mayor uh the city uh recently completed a baker sold parking study uh that the Planning and Development Committee reviewed and I had an opportunity to also review as it relates to downtown you know downtown is is experiencing a long-term revitalization and it's it's an iterative process right there's a lot of different pieces and components that are required for us to continue to propel uh the downtown core in the future and ongoing investment from the city is required along with of course private investment um but one of those Investments is our public uh parking structure on 18th and I and I think that there are ways in which we can improve the functionality and actually improve the um the number of uh folks who actually use that facility there are 502 slots available in the parking garage on 18th and I 171 are reserved for city fleet vehicles um and so the balance are used nights and weekends other times a day by um members of the public um but I I think there are ways in which we can improve um the the parking structure and also our on street parking and so I'd like to make a referral tonight that the city takes steps to create a parking Enterprise fund that we move the parking garage under the Enterprise fund and then begin looking at ways in which we can um better manage that parking structure even including hiring a private firm uh to manage the parking garage and looking at new technology I mean I give you one example uh the the gate the parking gate um serves us well but it's also been vandalized time and time and time again well there's plenty of new technology out there that doesn't even require a gate uh reads your license plate uh user can go in Pay um and won't even have to uh won't even have to fiddle around with a machine uh and so there are there are so many advancements when it comes to parking management that I think we need to take advantage of uh as it relates to this particular parking garage and then the second uh piece to all of this is that we work with existing parking structure owners the county current county superintendent schools even private uh private owners uh that we have a joint use agreement so that when they are no longer using their facility like you know nights and weekends that we have an agreement for the city uh to utilize that parking structure those parking structures uh for public use um that adds capacity right away so uh the more that we can do to think really innovatively and um sort of from a business lens uh think through how we can actually uh increase utilization of the parking structure the better off downtown is and so I I think the the first step though is to get this moving toward Wards an Enterprise fund thank you thank you council member Arius I'm not sure if the vice mayor read my mind but I also tonight want to make a referral about parking as well particularly as it relates to the Downtown parking structure um it's come to my attention um from a couple of actual co-workers and folks who occupy the bigv California building uh during the day that um our current electric vehicle infrastructure is actually rather cost prohibitive um so that if anybody's working you know a 6 Seven 8 hour shift um they may have to return back to the parking structure to remove the pump from their vehicle uh because it's my understanding that after four or 5 hours that it then becomes $5 each hour thereafter um so they could end up with a pretty sizable um bill by the end of the the working day so I I'm not sure what the cost comparison is so I just want want to ask um you know City staff to maybe take a look at that see if we can put together some cost comparisons to other cities and what they charge um obviously we continue to double down on our efforts to continue to build out electric vehicle infrastructure throughout the city so I just want to make sure that um so long as we're building them that they're being used so that's all thank you thank you we're approaching the Memorial Day Weekend a time when we remember those who have given the ultimate sacrifice so let's take time to honor them their ceremonies at National at Union at Green law and other places the Hillcrest ceremony will not be taking place this year but let's make sure that we express our gratitude to the families and remember all of those who have given everything for our country with that we stand adjourned at 612 [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]