City Council - Regular Meeting

Call the meeting to order. Let the record show that uh all council members are present except for council member Cvantes who has an excused absence. Move to adoption of the agenda. Can I have a motion for adoption? So moved. A second. All in favor say I.

I. The agenda is adopted and we're on to the main item of business for the next hour or 50 minutes. Uh be our Andy Conley and our um training Oh, how's that? That working? All right. Good. Well, thank you. So, uh I know we've had some conversations for a while about emergency services and how it all works and what your role is. So my objective tonight uh is to go through an overview of what emergency services is generally all about and particularly what your roles and responsibilities are in the process uh along the way. So welcome questions. We take them at the end or whatever works best for you. Um, so I think the basic thing to start out with is there's national standards of exactly how to respond to disasters and those all came out of the fact that 50 years ago they didn't exist and everybody found it was very difficult when everybody had different business structures and terminology and everything um to actually be able to work together and understand what was going on. Um so we all uh city of Lafayette and everybody else follow those national standards and uh I think most importantly the first key point with all of this is um sort of an overall concept and that is that responding to disasters and

preparing for them uh is actually takes the whole community. If you think about how many employees we've got in Lafayette, how many police officers we've got on duty, how many firemen we may have in town, maybe we've got 30 or 50 people to serve 25,000. Um, so we need to have everybody involved uh both in advance of any kind of disaster, during a disaster, and in a recovery phase afterwards as well too. Um, so it takes everybody to do it, citizens, businesses, other jurisdictions, everyone. Um, Oops. And the most important thing is again like I mentioned that we need some common terminology in organization uh that everybody understands and everybody works with. Um and so I'll dive into that in just a second here too. Um places like fire in particular use this standard every single time that they respond to an incident. Police are uh versed in it as well too. tends to be more a larger incident that they would be using a fair amount of this structure but everybody is is also used to the structure. So the overall concept is called the national incident management system. This is a framework. It's not specific roles and responsibilities and its intent is to uh have the structure uh nationwide, state level, local levels of how uh everything is organized in uh incident response. Um and within that is the actual incident response piece. There's also things about systems and uh documenting what kind of resources we have. But the incident response piece is really the piece that makes sense for us. the part we have to work with the most and that's that section is called the incident command system. Um, one of the things that we have to be able to do with this system is be highly scalable. Uh, so this system can work from basically you would without knowing it

be using it for something as small as uh a stop sign got run over in town um all the way up to something like the Palisades fire or hurricane Katrina. And it's designed to be able to scale in a variety of different directions uh in order to um work in any of those kinds of capacities. Um I'll get into the structure of what's inside each one of these boxes first or in a minute. But first off, the concept is that we start with one organization, incident command at the bottom of the slide here. That's the people that are out in the field, the boots on the ground who are responding to something. So, this tends to be police, fire, medical, public works, maybe a couple others, parking officers, um, to help respond. Um, and again, they follow the incident command concept as the bigger it gets, the more it's more important it is to follow that concept. It comes to a point where um there's too much going on for them. They need too much help and they can't do it. all of a sudden they need 10 bulldozers and they need uh a hundred other firefighters and that's not something they can do while they're fighting fire in the field. Um so that's a point where now we need to activate the next level above uh that organization and that's an emergency operations center. Okay. So an EOC as it's called their job in life is to support the field but not do the field work. Um, and it's everything from guiding policies, priorities of what they should be working on next, thinking ahead of what's happening, uh, the bigger these incidents get, particularly if they start spanning more than just one particular location, uh, resources start becoming scarce. So, um, we have limited things, uh, that work great for the normal time in public works, for example, but if all of a sudden we need,

uh, 20 front-end loaders, uh, we need to figure out a way to get those from somewhere else. Um, so that's something the EOCC can help with is basically orchestrating, finding all the stuff that the field needs to be successful, uh, keeping track of all of it, uh, working with other agencies. So, we may have many different parts of this whole community that are involved. PC can actually help make that happen while the people in the field are actually working on the the tactical things that need to be done. The other thing is situational aware awareness. There's a thing called SA COP. It's a situational aware awareness common operating picture. The concept is that the uh incident command has a view of what they're doing, but in a big system, there may be multiple incident commands going on and a bigger picture going on at the at the at the county level or other activities that they're not involved in. So the EOC is responsible for help gathering that all that information and providing it um to uh to the field and to everybody else. Once the EOC starts running on running out of resources and capabilities and they need help, then we go up to the next level and it's called the operational area. This basically is the county EOC. Uh it's called operational area because the county EOC does two things. One is it is the EOCC for the unincorporated areas in the county and the second is it's support for all the cities and towns that are inside the county as well. So they they've got kind of two aspects of what they have to support. Um similarly they would be allocating resources and providing support uh across all the cities and all the areas in the county. As things get bigger it works up uh through a regional and state level um operational centers and then eventually up to a national center that's run by FEMA. Um so that's part of the flexibility of the big picture of how it can grow and contract. Each one of these again structurally is

organized in the same way internally. Um, and so let me step into what that looks like on the inside. And can I ask a quick question? Sure. Okay. So, for example, the the buyers down in LA last year, how many levels of these things do you know? Uh, so I my understanding is they went all the way up to FEMA first when they got national support. So something at that that scale you would go certainly to the state right away and then up to probably up to the FEMA level.

Thank you. I just wanted to understand. Thanks. Okay, with within each one of these boxes, so here's our emergency operations center. At the highest level, there's these boxes. Uh operations are basically called the doers. These are the people that are actually um u handling actual things that need to be provided to the field um gathering information u working directly with what needs to be done. The planning department are the thinkers. So, they're kind of looking ahead saying, "Okay, well, we just uh we've got a Moraga sized sinkhole. That's something that's not going to be resolved in the next couple hours. What kind of things do we need to be thinking about for the next one, two, three days?" And even start thinking about 6 months, where are we going? Funding, what do we have to do for alternate routes? Those kinds of things. Uh logistics are the getters. Um they're the people that go find the resources that we need. They track the resources, they find the people, um, and they keep track of them as well, so we can, uh, return them to their rightful owners when everything is done. And finance and admin is, as you would expect, they're the payers. They both track finances and hours of people um, partly to pay them out, but also partly so we can recoup funds at a later time. Management are thought of as the deciders, as you would expect. So, the management team is making sure all of the pieces and parts are working correctly in EOC. And then the last piece is the policy, the guiders, which are you. Um, and the concept is you're not part of the EOC. You're not inside there, but you are the one that's helping it, helping us be successful, um, helping set the policies and procedures both in advance uh, and during a response uh, to any kind of disaster. Um, and I'll get into some more details on that as we go forward as well, too. Okay. Uh so what's it really look like within the Lafayette uh emergency operations center? Uh so think of these as the

roles that be need to be accomplished. We don't staff every single position with an individual or multiple individuals. Again, all of this organization that I just showed on the prior slide uh can scale up and down. Um so in my stop sign example, you only had one person in operations. Um but in a bigger example you could have thousands of people there uh many people in all the other sections as well. Okay. Um so operations uh basically it's law, fire, medical uh care and shelter and then engineering and public works types of activities. Care and shelter is one that we are required to provide in the event of a disaster. Um, if people uh do not have a place to go, they can't find a hotel or friends or somebody to take care of them. This may be something that's short-term, could be a couple hours just to um figure out where they're going to go next, but it could be some kind of overnight actions for people as well too. Um, associated with this is what uh is called access and uh functional needs people. These are basically people for one reason or another need some extra help either moving, getting around or whatever. that is something that we also need to provide uh in the event uh of a disaster. The plan section again uh is the ones that are really kind of thinking ahead of what's going on. So there's advanced planning in the middle which I describe. Situational an analysis documentation they keep track of everything that's going on u both for legal reasons and for uh um basically uh getting funding back at the end. So they're keeping track of those. They also can bring in technical experts. Typical thing at the county level would be to have the National Weather Service located there. So if the weather is uh something critical in terms of floods, those kinds of things, they would definitely be there. A GIS expert, they use all sorts of mapping things to keep track of

what's going on and uh that's what be done there. Um planning is also responsible for damage assessment. So they're not directly responding to the incident itself, but they are doing a headcount of what things are broken and a ballpark idea of what we need to do to actually fix them and get get uh going. And lastly, they start thinking about demobilization and we've got all this stuff spun up. What's it going to take to gracefully shut everything down, which then can be hard to do because nobody wants to start pulling people out of the field. Um and uh so they can think about that logistics service branch. This is things like communications networks uh and also personnel. Do we have the right staff both here in the EOC as well as personnel that we would need uh in terms of resources as well? And then support branch transportation. How are we going to move all these people around? What facilities do we need? Maybe for care and shelter, maybe for just our own use, storing resources. um tracking all those resources um supply getting uh goods that we need and also lastly uh there tends to be a lot of donations and volunteers that are involved. That's part of the whole community and there's a series of things we have to do with those to keep track of them particularly on the volunteers um on uh making sure we know where they go that they're safe and we've got them registered in an appropriate way. Finance again is cost and accounting. uh in the management section. Um couple of key pieces. Legal is basically one, are we doing what we're legally allowed to do? And two is what other legal options do we have to help progress our process forward. PIO, public information officer is our goeteenet from here to the community and the public. In a big event, uh there would be multiple PIOs for each agency and jurisdiction. So they would set up what's called a um a joint information center and they'd all

share information that they've vetted to make sure is true. Uh so everybody's on the same page and make sure they've got the key messages that they want to get out uh through the PIO. Safety officer is focused on the EOCC level folks and the resources that come through. Incident command in the field is responsible for its own safety. liaison is basically sort of like the PIO, but it's for all those other agencies and businesses that are working on the on the response, not the general public. Um, and it's providing them information of what's going on, the common operating picture, and getting information back from them. Uh, lastly is the EOCC coordinator. So, you can think of the director and the coordinator kind of like a CEO and a president in a company. The CEO tends to be very outward focused. So in this case you can see the direct reports are legal uh PIO for the community liaison officers for the external areas could be working with a variety of other external people making sure that everything is working. The EOC coordinator is kind of inward focused and you can even draw this org chart with the EOC coordinator between the management team and the four areas below if some people draw it that way. And the concept is they're the ones that set up the EOC. They know where all the pieces and parts are. They can keep it running. And they know enough about these main pieces that are going on that if need be, they could step in to support and take over one of the section chief roles for a bit if the section chief's not available. They also work upward keeping the EOC director apprised of what's going on and how the EOC is functioning. Okay. Lots of details there. Um we have about 23 people trained up right now who have been through all of this. um if we need to do multiple shifts, you can imagine we could have somewhere between five and 10 or 12 people at any given time depending on the on the scale of what we're doing in the EOC. So all these

areas have to be covered, but there's very few people covering lots of different things. So we've got the rest of the staff has gotten the basics uh of what it's all about and we'll keep training everybody as we go forward on that. Okay. So a disaster is not just what you think of the the response aspect. It's the whole life cycle mitigation and reducing hazards before um prep preparedness both for the city as well as citizens and everyone else. Then the response which you normally think about and then recovery afterwards which can be a very long process in a major disaster. Um so that's the main life cycle from the city council responsibilities mitigation and preparedness. Basically, what you do is help make sure that disaster preparation and mitigation is a priority. Um, and you also provide the resources and authority now so the city and emergency management can do what they need to do to do that. Uh, so thank you. Uh, that's already ongoing. We all all the city and community every appreciate the fact that uh there's some significant priorities in the work we have to do based on emergency management. Um uh in the response and the recovery piece uh your job again is to support the EOCC director. Uh director is Narup, our city manager. Um as the default again we would be potentially rotating people through that in a multi-shift operation. Um uh but basically help them succeed more on the policies, priorities, authority aspects. Um so that's the high level view of what it's all about. So now uh we've done mitigation, we've done preparedness and uh something happens and it's time to activate all of this. So um the first step we have to do is activate the EOC

and that's a local emergency proclamation process. Um, and according to our municipal code, uh, the mayor can request that of city council. Um, if city council's, uh, in session at that point, then the city council can approve it at that moment. Um, the mayor, uh, EOCC director or vice mayor, if the city council is not in in session, uh, can also issue that proclamation themselves. Again, it's either an actual or a threatened existence of a local emergency. Um the only caveat is it has to be approved by city council within 7 days or that proclamation is no longer in effect. Um so it's important to keep that going that that's makes us available for support and money and most importantly it gives the legal right for the EOC to actually basically take control of the whole disaster operations uh on behalf of the city. Okay. Um mayor can also request uh typically would go up through the operational uh so the county EOC um to get the state to declare a state of emergency if it's something that's way beyond what we can support. Typical path is we'd go to this the county first and see what they can do to help us. If they've got two cities that are having problems or multiple things then they on their own may be going up uh to the state level already. But that is something we can also do. Okay. So that gets us in a place um where we're legally allowed to do the work as the emergency operations center. And the next piece is what happens once we're in the process of managing the disaster. So again, I've mentioned policy lots of times. Um that is really the main goal for you uh to support the director. So this could be a wide variety of things. creating municipal codes, waving municipal codes, creating or waving fees, uh allocating finances. Um if the disaster costs a lot more than

we generally have allocated, then somebody's got to say yes, it's okay to spend more money. Uh protective measures. So, do we need to uh close off a certain section of town to keep it secure and keep people safe? Um those kinds of things. Um prioritization uh is also something important. The basic prioritization is life over everything else. Uh getting the incident under control, property, uh kind of in that order, and then there's a variety of other things afterwards, too. But that that might end up being in a situation where there's some nuances and details that uh uh the EOC might need some direction from you on. Okay. um that priority in the policy aspect could affect things where you're having to go up to a state level as well in terms of getting their help. We've had some discussions about um environmental controls getting in the way of uh things that are urgent in terms of fire control in the past. So you can imagine there'd be some similar things where we need to go to our state- elected officials for help and that is something that you can also also help out with. Um the other piece is while we have a uh PIO structure and people that would be giving that information, you have been elected by the people of Lafayette. So part of your aspect at least as the mayor um would probably be to reach out uh to people to hear them to present to them what's going on. Most important thing is that we all speak with this one voice concept. So the PIO and this joint information center, whatever you say, you need to learn what is h what's true, what's been happening, and what's the what's the message that we'd like to make sure we're getting out both in terms of telling people what's going on, but also in terms of asking them what we want them to do. Um and uh so that's that's a piece that's also sorry um

important. uh is at a more administrative level. So proclamation is good for about 60 days. So you'll have to renew that on a regular basis for some long activity that we're going through. Uh and just like everybody else who's responding to the disaster, uh we'll need you to track your time and your activities that you're involved in. There's some standardized forms that help with that. Um partly for legal reasons, so we document what we did based on what information we knew at the time. Um, and also for funding reasons, we can't get reimbursement for people's time unless we've tracked it along the way. Okay. So, that is during the disaster. Oops, I went the wrong way. I'm sorry. Once the disaster is over, that basically means the the uh fire is out. the police have for the most part gone away and we're now in a rebuild get ourselves back to normal life perspective. Uh so your role continues to be very similar in terms of policies and priorities uh codes and regulations. I think there was some things in terms of waving uh development fees and uh plans approval fees that were done down in the in the Palisades fire to help expedite things to get people uh to the point, you know, quickly back to whatever they can for recovery. One of the key aspects is a thing called lifelines. So imagine that we lose our utilities in the process of a major fire or something. um we need to get those up and running uh to make sure that the citizens and the the whole city can actually function with people here before anybody can actually come in and start making changes and updates. So that would be one of the priorities um that uh we as a city would be working on and that's I'm sure something you could help with with uh working with the

utilities as well to get things scheduled to come in and uh help make that happen. Um, also recovery funds, uh, there's different buckets of where the money comes from. Um, so this is another bucket that we would have to be talking to state and federal level people and documenting what it is that we need. Okay. And then last, just like before, community outreach. Again, in in a major event like what we've seen in the major fires, this is something that could go on for a long time. and uh keeping uh keeping the community uh up to date with all the work that we're doing um is important. So, all right. So, that is actually pretty much what I had to cover a highlight. There's plenty more stuff. If you want to find some online courses and things, I'm happy to give you some links to it. um they don't cover actually quite as much in the detail of what you do, but they do go much more depth in terms of uh incident man in incident command systems and all the rest. So questions.

Yeah, thank you. Very comprehensive. You answer many of my questions as you're going through. I just was kind of curious, you know, you had in your stepwise kind of order of the pyramid of control. There's this regional I mean the kind of below the state. Yes. Above a county. Yes. Is that like an ad hoc thing or there's likewide thing or how does that work? It is a state function. the uh Cal OES office emergency services has broken broken the state up into five or six regions I believe and there's some level of support that they can do. I think they used to have operating centers. I'm not sure they do anymore but they definitely somebody we work with um can help with you know resources and those kinds of things. So yeah. Right. How then I'm curious kind of on the finances side. Let's assume there's some sort of significant disaster localized here. Mhm.

But we couldn't support, you know, we couldn't manage it because it requires more bulldozers and everything else that you might need. Are we do we pay for that or if you like escalate it up to the county or this regional level, do they kind of pay for it or do you have to go get funding? I just don't know how that that works. Yes. So, my understanding is that there is a point where you can start getting relief funding. My understanding is it used to be on the order of a week or two and then it's now more like a couple months worth of funding. Um but that's a fluid situation at this point. So I don't really know where it's at. But I believe we have to be financially on our own for a bit, right? And then there's a way to get some funds flowing our way.

I guess I was just thinking like if the county brings in a bunch of bulldozers or we get something from the bigger than county things, are we build for that or are they just going to handle it on their own or how? We've asked for it. So, uh, that's something we would have to pay for. If the countyy's doing something on behalf of the county, then that's that'd be them. But, uh, okay.

Um, things we have to do, we would have to pay for. So, and of course we're going to come to that later in the agenda when we talk about the reserve amount, but that's primarily why we have a policy for the 60% reserve because we're going to be on our own for a month if something happens if a bridge collapses and that we need to have somebody come in. I that was the um what's the street? Dolores Mountain View the Ridge and Mountain View. we had to cover that until we got reimbursement. So, other questions?

Yeah, thank you Andy. This is a great presentation. Um, just wondering kind of what what kind of an emergency meets threshold for activating the EOC. Is that a is there any kind of defined policy or is that between manager and e? Uh it's basically when it steps so far out of the norm of what we would do that we need to really start think about thinking about it differently at the when you get up to the county and the state level then there's dollar numbers associated with what it's going to cost. Um

so I don't I can't give you quite a specific answer on that at this point but basically if it's some big event that's going to take a lot. My understanding is we activated in 2023 for some of the floods if I'm correct on that and there's some past history doing that as well.

We have activated the EOC a few times um primarily in the n 90s and early 2000s for floods or uh heavy rains. Last one was 2023. We didn't have a physical EOC per se, but we had daily uh meetings and at the mayor at that time, Mayor Anduri joined us and the departments would get together and just figure out where we were, what was the big issue, how do we prepare for the next day. We did open this room when we had the fire at the tennis club. Uh just for people had lost power so they came to charge their phones and uh that was it. No, we didn't house people here but because we did that Red Cross brought food uh for the people who were here. So they kind of they were activated. Somebody must have rectified them. You know, I can actually offer that. Uh I was at this Cal's event this week, which I'll talk about in a little bit, but they were there was they were talking about this kind of disaster preparedness, whatever, and people in um I forget uh it wasn't Palisades, it was some other fire where they were actually trying to get FEMA support, and the FEMA limit is like 72 million. Your disaster has to be above $72 million worth of of damage before they kind of activate. So, it's like that's a scale they're talking about. you can actually they were talking about having to combine with other cities to kind of like try to pull the damage together to hit that that limit to kind of start getting some reimbursements.

I'm sure there's a lot of logistics that happen. My understanding is that that's if something at that scale is probably going to be at the operational area or county level. Yeah. And so they will be asking for early damage assessments from us of where we think we're at. Uh and they'll be asking every other city and organization that's affected so they can round it up or pull it up together to one big number. Yeah, following up on on that with the changes at FEMA uh the lower federal allocation, are you seeing any change in how we have to regard FEMA as a possible source of help?

Uh yes. So, one is the the thing this is I haven't seen it specifically noticed from FEMA, but I've heard from people that it does take longer before we get this initial level of funding. the funding numbers went up to the 17 million. Um, uh, staffing is down. Uh, so for the day-to-day stuff that we're doing now, it's not such a big deal. Um, but, uh, it does affect other things in terms of, uh, people that are available to help out, uh, in that. um they are reworking all of their training materials to be in align with uh basically the approach that the um current government wants to take in terms of uh climate control and functional needs and all those kinds of things. So they are reworking documents uh to be in align with the current approach.

Oh was just a followup on the the 1990s 2000's activation. So was that primarily because of city infrastructure that was failing? Our uh roads and drains were not in the condition they are in today. And so we got uh calls about people's homes being flooded. And so we did actually activate the EOC at the city offices and all the various divisions as Andy had described showed up and we were it was uh we got lots of calls from people who were desperate and needed help. Yeah.

Okay. Thank you.

So just to like John said, you answered a lot of questions which was really great. Um, and so for example, I know the mayor is here. We have a big fire. Um, I guess, you know, do all of us like the first things that we should be doing is contacting the mayor and and going, "What do you need us to do? Where do we need to be?" And then, you know, are do we have to do all this stuff in meetings? I mean, do we have to when we make decisions, do we have to like go hold a whole bunch of emergency meetings and I don't know, could you walk make maybe walk through something?

Well, let me just say I would suggest that the first point of contact be the city manager rather than the mayor. That's a that's my question. Okay. One, who should we contact? I think officially it's going to start from the city manager of oh, I think we're at a point we need to open the EOC. Okay.

Right. And then the next step would be to go to the mayor or the vice mayor uh from there to say hey this is something we need. We need a proclamation. Again if neither of you are available for that then uh the city manager who would now be the EOCC director uh could make that proclamation. So your job would be you have to approve that within uh 7 days. Um all of the policies and thing questions that are going to come up will be coming to city council. I assume it'll go through the mayor first and then you may have to have some form of discussion or meeting uh around those policies to figure out how to do it. So,

do the normal noticing requirements apply to the meeting we have to do in the seven days? That probably does, but you can hold if we needed to do an emergency meeting because we had to take some other action that wasn't just confirming the e the emergency proclamation. We can do that with less time, right? Less than even 24 hours notice as need be. Yeah, but that was recall from previous times there was some expectation about city council members being present but I didn't hear anything about that in your presentation.

Correct. So you need to act as the city council the way you already do. Uh we will be building up the EOC and if the direct EOCC director needs your presence somewhere then that would be what it is. So, I don't know how it was done in the past, but my expectation is the city pretty much did the emergency services uh aspects uh with your guidance. Um is that a fair statement?

It is. Um the council the council doesn't come into the EOC because PE at some points it people it's just crazy there's so much intensity but there are roles that with uh that can be assigned to the council for example there may be citizens who show up um and assuming that you we all speak with one voice you can at least guide them to the right place outside just like that you have uh other like the emergency preparedness commission again they will be outside helping uh volunteers donations those kinds of things people we need people to help out and then we have the ham radio operators operating from another facility so it's like a nucleus with a lot of other uh jobs around it. Yeah.

Just I'll add just one piece on that too since Karen shelter is important. Um we did work with the Red Cross uh this past year and we have officially set up the uh community center to be a shelter that's on their list. They came out and inspected everything. Uh we've got a facilities agreement and it's the main uh building as well as a couple of the smaller rooms that we can use with the Red Cross's help and that they also can call us and say, "Hey, we've we have a need for a shelter." And clarification, is that just the Jennifer Russell building or saying the entire thing? It's uh Jennifer Russell building and I believe either two or three rooms in um the the old building the main building is

as we know the the old part of the building isn't that structurally I mean I don't know how stable it is but the Jennifer Russell would be a good place right right so both of them are there but Jennifer Russell's big if we need only space for like five people or something right so that that was I think the reasoning for having the smaller rooms too

well I just wanted ask I was going to ask about what had been designated as the shelter areas, but so that's the only official shelter area. So this this room would not be right. This this is designated as the primary EOCC location. Yeah. Um uh so that that's what the plan would be here. Obviously with you know 12 to 20 people were pretty flexible on where we can go. when we did our uh activity uh our exercise for the Great Shakeout, we went down to the Jennifer Russell building. This was actually reserved for something else. So, it was a good example of us having to go to an alternate location. Um but we probably could fit in the art and sciences room pretty easily for a good portion of it if need be as well too.

Okay. And then you showed the chart that just had functions. Yes.

You have a chart with names and alternates. uh we have names tied to each major section. Um and it depends on who's going to be there that day, right? So if we consider the fact that we have may have multiple shifts, EOCC in the beginning might be 24-hour. So multiple 12-hour shifts, um a lot of the stuff once things are settling in tend to be you need to work with businesses that are open during the day. So it might be 12-h hour day shifts and pretty much it shuts down overnight and starts up. So yes, when we've got a group of 20 22 or so people that have been through that and they're going through additional training both internally and externally any other question I have just curiosity I'm just I was just thinking of a different kinds of disasters and I can imagine something would happen along the Lafayette Maraga border or Lafayette Arinda border that would just affect us you know two cities or whatever maybe three but two but it's look the way the structure works like city or county so like it's Like there's because there wouldn't be like the Lafayette and Arinda EOCC's happening at the same time basically as soon as you kind of ramp up beyond a city. Does that the county team?

There actually would. So let's just take it for within Lafayette first. So something happens in one corner of Lafayette and we have a big incident going on. We've got the incident team there. They're overwhelmed. So the EOC has to open up. Meanwhile, something else is happening in another part of town. We may have public works is responding here. Fire is responding there. They don't know what's going on. So our EOCC is actually got two incidents reporting to them. Same model happens at the county level. Uh each city would have their own EOC set up. They would all report up to the operational area. And now the operational area's job is when we all ask for 50 bulldozers each, they have to figure out how to prioritize who gets the get them first based on the severity of the problems.

Got it. So it's an end. Does it add anything which you guys make sense if you think of a major earthquake that would affect all everywhere? So we all have EOCC's county has EOC Bay Area whatever. Exactly. Exactly. Right. And we're all neighbors so we would all work together as well too as need be if one's in more trouble than the other. But uh you would expect each uh city to open their own EOC.

I wanted to add a couple of points. First all city employees are disaster workers. So we take that pledge when we we sign up to or we're hired by local government or any form of government I would think. The second is uh last week for the first time uh every city in Contraosta County met at the county's emergency operations center and ran had had kind of a a drill. each section uh talked about their roles and how they approached their roles and big thanks goes to Andy because he was part of the group that organized it. It's never happened before but now we all know each other. We know how our EOCC's operate. So it's really uh it was a very effective exercise.

Can I ask when you're doing the exercises what events what type of events do you work on?

Yeah. So this one was what's called a tabletop exercise. So it was less of here's a scenario that we're trying to solve and it was more a let's get all cities up to the same base level. So we had 110 people or something in the in the emergency operations center um all all together and um what we did is we had an hour or two of training. This is a prior picture but this is exactly what it looked like uh up there. Um, we had an hour or two with everybody together of covering what an EOCC's does and why it's there. And then we broke out into different sections. We had an EOCC coordinator, we had a planning section chief, operations was focused on public works, so we had public works that was there. We had EOCC director as well too and PIO. Um, so we had I think seven or eight people from Lafayette. So, we had probably one of the largest representations of all the cities there, if not the largest. Um, obviously a lot smaller cities. There were some cities where it was just one person that was there, but it was a good chance for everybody to see how everybody else is working. And there are five of us in the different cities that played a different role in the main group. And so, they got a chance to also talk about how they did proclamations and how they activated their EOC and those kinds of things as well. And beyond fire, earthquake and flood, are there any other types of disasters that

Well, the county had to declare an emergency for a tsunami warning glass, right? We we didn't declare an emergency but not us but they did activate activate the

but in in the past our uh actually last year Andy's training to staff was a sinkhole at Pleasant Hill Road and Mount Diablo Boulevard and then that grew and grew and it affected the freeway and it affected Bart. So as as it grew, you know, you really start to feel the tension and you you want to do something and how do you do it? It's very effective. We've also done scenarios with uh floods and with fire and um it brings a whole uh things like evacuation. What about the senior facility? How are we going to move them out? When is that going to happen? How do we work with the schools? Uh those scenarios are very realistic.

Yeah. Well, I have to admit PBS had a segment three weeks ago on the uh glacier at in Antarctica that's melting 10 times faster than other glaciers. And if it goes and the glaciers behind it go, it'll raise sea level 40 feet. So, I have to admit, I did go on Google to see what the lowest elevation in Lafayette was. And we're safe. I think we're we're pretty good. I imagine Richmond or whatever. The county might be really pretty pretty Richmond or whatever. Oh my gosh. You know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So, yeah. So, just kind of a recap of where we're headed this year as well, too. So, we're uh um continuing on training. I did a lot of the training inhouse last year and I'm getting people to take the outside training now um to basically spread the workload, get people into the real professionals that that do this for a living to train it. And uh so we've had multiple people up in the office of emergency services at least twice already this year. And we'll be lining people up for other specified training, you know, just for planning or just for logistics as well too. Um, so we'll keep it up. Uh, emergency preparedness commissions, I think some of you know, we're we're doing a lot of changes there as well that are all very positive and, uh, we'll get them involved in various ways as well, too. So,

all right. Well, thank you very much and I hope you realize how fortunate we feel to have you involved in this. Great. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Public comment. Is there any public comment? Mayor Andur is taking public comments at this time. Is there anyone that wishes to make a comment? I do have people in our virtual audience, but there are no hands raised and I have no speakers slips for persons in the community hall.

Okay. Thank you. So, we will the council will take a break until uh 7 p.m. And we'll resume at that time.

We're ready to start, CJ. All right, 7 o'clock. We're back in session. Uh, please join in the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of

to the republic stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, we're on to public comments. This is an opportunity for anyone to address the council on an item that is not on the agenda but within our purview. And uh each commenter will have three minutes.

If you would at least fill out a yellow speaker slip when you're done so I have the spelling of your name. Thank you.

Thank you. Um my name is Tracy Frell. I'm with the Park Theater Trust. I'm joined tonight with by Kathy BS um president of the Park Theater Trust, as well as Jamie Bulker, Adam Berseron of Cinema SF Bay, our future operators of the Park Theater. I'm going to give them the opportunity to say a few words. um they're here for the next couple of days to meet um various leaders in our community including um the folks from the library um from the city and also a couple of teachers from the Okalani Union High School District who teach film and film production will be meeting with us and then other just get to know the Lafayette community a little bit better. I guess what I'm really excited to announce is that we received our building permit today. And I'm sorry to be emotional, but it's a pretty big deal. And I have to thank Narup and Greg Wolf and the planning department in particular for their incredible support in this process. Planning can be a challenge. the building department is meticulous in their efforts to support Contra Costa County and we're kind of a different, you know, different breed what they've worked with and everyone's been fantastic. So anyway, with that, I'd like to give the microphone over to Adam and Jamie and just let you know you can start looking for some real progress. We will plan to be opening as quickly as we can. So, thank you. Thank you, Tracy. I'm Adam Burggeron and this is Jamie Holter.

Jamie Hulker.

And uh so we're Cinema SF Bay and we're really excited to be a part of this community. Some of you we have met before. This has been a few years in the coming, but a few of you I can tell we we haven't met and and we look forward to meeting you and all and getting to know you and it's really exciting to be a part of this community. Everything that we've seen has been just so wonderful. It's almost unbelievable what a community you have here. It's it's it's really amazing and uh we're excited to spend time here and even though it's a little ways out, the construction still has to be completed and get started actually. But but uh the before we know it, we'll be there and there'll be a beautiful theater in your downtown here and it's going to be really exciting to be able to program it and and and just be a part of all this. and thank you for welcoming us as much as everyone has so far. It's truly been amazing.

Yeah, thank you. And I just want to say, you know, as we've just been here for today, there's so many talented people here. Um, and I think that us as running neighborhood theaters that we're really starting to see the community and the talent that we can pull and the the collaborations that we'll be able to do to really bring the theaters alive for the community and we're very excited about that. We're just Yeah, it's really kind of great meeting everybody. So, thank you. Thank you for inviting us to do this and we're excited. Yeah. Thanks for giving us this time. Thank you. Thank you.

I would be remiss since I'm on the park theater trust board just to say um it's just been delightful working with um Adam and Jamie over the years that I've been with them and uh because the park it's the building but it's also what goes in it that it's the combination and they're just it's going to be such a great a great thing for Lafayette and for downtown and for all the new housing we're gonna have downtown is terrific. And I think a special shout out because I knew we were we were almost on the precipice of the construction permit. I did not know it was happening today. But I mean, a special shout out, I mean, you know, obviously Kathy BS leading up the amazing fundraising effort, but Tracy has been babysitting this thing and going to the county and just being on it. I mean, I think more than any board member of any organization probably ever has. And so, a special thank you to Tracy for getting this thing over this, well, at least this part of it over this finish line. We're now the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning or something, but it's monumental. So, thank you.

Yeah. And and let me just say, Adam and Jimmy, thank you very much for coming out and spending time in the community and you're spending two full days nights here and really appreciate that. I also have to say um when the the theater comes up and you know people talk well who's going to operate the theater people who have moved here from San Francisco when we say you're doing it they say oh that's great you know so your your reputation precedes you. So, we're very fortunate that you're taking this on and really look forward to it. So, thank you. Thank you for coming this evening. Thank you. No additional speakers at this time, Mayor Andy.

Okay. All right. So, we're on to the city manager's update.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, we just came from the uh unveiling of the first mural. This is a request from the public art committee who is seeking a highly visible downtown wall. If anyone who's listening is interested in offering their wall in the downtown for the next beautiful piece of art, you can go to the public art committee's web page for more information. from parks, trails, and recreation. The youth commission tri city dance was a huge success. 275 middle school students enjoyed dancing and fun at the soldout event. The Lafayette Senior Services Commission is in the very early stages of developing an event that will pair nonprofits with residents of all ages who want to volunteer for those organizations. And if you're interested, you can um uh check out uh the city's web page uh or you can email seniors at loafat.org and um through a cooperative and collaborative process, staff has issued the tentative Springfield allocations for the Lafayette Community Park and Buckeye Fields. And uh we want to take a moment to thank Little League LMYA and their many volunteers for working together to maximize access for all Lafayette families. Uh from admin today the city issued an RFP for a comprehensive fee study and a cost allocation plan. This is fees for services like processing fees. uh they

have not been updated in a while and it's been on our to-do list. Uh also last week uh we launched a comprehensive impact fee nexus study uh and we've hired the consultant and uh they've started working on uh looking at our current development impact fees coming up with ideas for new fees if feasible. And um this is going again the study will ensure that the impact fee program aligns fees with the infrastructure and facilities costs generated by new development. Um and finally last week I attended a League of California cities policy committee meeting. I serve on housing commu housing community development and the league staff advised us that there are several uh issues that are of local interests that will be covered by this year's bills. Among them are uh our local development impact fees. We might see moves to reduce po uh the fees or uh postpone their collection, an SB79 cleanup bill, a housing bond, renter protections, and also bills to uh measures to reduce the cost of housing construction throughout the state. These are the things that are forefront in our legislators minds this year. And so as a result, our legislative committee will be quite active this year tracking the bills and offering their recommendations to you. And with that, I'd be happy to answer questions.

Any questions? Y

um so uh the HCD audit came out. Um was there any talk at the the league thing about RENA reform or you know based on recommendations by the auditor? Uh the there was not there was just an update from the ledge staff. The League of California Cities has done an analysis of the audit and I will share that link uh with all of you. Uh we also had a presentation and this was very surprising to me. The cities of Arcada and Eureka up in Humboldt have started their seventh cycle Reena work. Uh they have been allocated uh housing units uh which caught many of us by surprise because we thought they started in Southern California and worked their way up north. They did uh indicate that their arena allocations had gone up quite a bit. uh in one case it had doubled despite the fact that the DOF's projections are that there would be a population reduction in those areas. So more to come on that front.

What is their cycle? Seventh. Seven. No, but um what are the dates of their seventh cycle? I I am following up. Um I it was just a surprise that they had started work on the seventh cycle already meaning they had been given their numbers. But are they is are they moving out of the usual cycle? I need to follow up and get more information.

I did do exact because I talked in the group uh because I was at the the environmental quality one and we followed up a little bit afterwards. So I did do a little bit of research on it afterwards and yeah apparently they're what what according to my research whatever it is they're instead of doing these kind of right now before as we thought about it was very much like you do the cycle and then you kind of study and do the cycle they're going to more of a continuous kind of mode. So you really don't you never take your foot off the gas kind of thing. And so, yeah, basically you're right. Before they did south to north, now they're starting it early and they're starting with some of the rural counties and kind of like the smaller rural counties which will kind of let them kind of get some of the bugs out of the system and then they'll keep going. So, it's like no, this is the next cycle. They've just started early. No. So, it's mid cycle. They started with their next cycle.

They're they're just this is when HD has given them their their they have a this they give it to the county which I think then has to figure out how to do the allocation. But, um yes, it is it's the next cycle. It has started already. Okay. Well, it would be great to learn more about that because yeah, I'm just I haven't thought through. But actually, it might not be bad to have a short cycle and go into another cycle. Double up. No, no, not if you Well, talk later anyway. Okay. Any any public comment? No public comments at this time, Mayor Andury.

Okay. All right, we're on to the consent calendar. Would anyone like to remove any item from the consent calendar? Would any member of the public like to remove an item? No request to remove consent calendar items. Okay. I have a motion for approval of the consent calendar. So moved. Okay. Second. All in favor? I. It's unanimous. Boro. We're on to uh item 12A of the Lafayette Plaza holiday plaza holiday policy. Our city attorney.

Thank you, mayor. Back in 2015, you first adopted a winter holiday display policy. It allowed for winter displays in the month of December to occur in the plaza for that for that month. Um, we have recently been receiving requests for displays to be year round or in months other than December. So, what we have brought for your consideration is an update to the policy. It would be a year round policy um and it would allow for cultural displays of no more than 20 days um a period. There would be an application process. We would allow for no more than two displays in the plaza at any time. Similar to the current policy, we would have our department heads review displays to the extent there's any concerns related to safety or any conflicts or incompatibility with the existing use of the plaza. Um, and again, this would promote additional displays and cultural diversity within the city for your consideration. Uh the council can adopt this policy which if you did would again allow displays in the plaza year round. You can alternatively choose to not adopt the policy. The existing winter display policy would then continue which would then only allow displays in the month of December. Alternatively you could resend the winter display policy which would then not allow displays at any time in the plaza. Happy to answer any questions.

Okay. So, um, I'll just ask a question first. If we were to adopt a new policy, we would need to bring this back with a resolution. Is that correct? You don't have to. We did provide the policy. You could just adopt the policy in it of itself and it would supersede the winter the existing winter holiday policy. Even though we had a formal resolution the last time, doesn't matter. Correct. Okay. Any questions? Just had a question about uh power. I mean, know we talked about the um we talked about illumination or whatever. So we're we're saying that the displays can plug into this the our our power supply and the city will just pay for the power consumption. That's how it currently operates again only in the month of December. So this would expand it.

Um so I saw that we can only have two at a time and and so when we get applications um does the council vote on these applications? I thought it right. It wasn't. And and would these be handled first come first serve and just blindly you know without or what what's the proc is there any oversight is there any you know that that's a very good question. So an individual would need to apply to the city manager. They would need to demonstrate that it was a cultural holiday that it fit within the parameters um of the policy. Um it would then be reviewed again to make sure where the display was occurring to make sure size and and location was appropriate. Um and then it it would be in theory approved for for a period of no more than 20 days. And then we did put the limitation of two so that again we can have additional uses within the plaza so that the plaza isn't over encumbered. So applications would be received on a first come first serve. We we'd like to see the applications um at least 30 days in advance um and then no earlier than 2 months in advance. So we don't we don't want to have applications coming in a year in advance for instance.

Right. I just follow up then because I was just I was just thinking we we've we've approved the the manora lighting has has come in as a request to the council that we've approved in prior years but that is completely that is going away. Right. We don't the letter to the council is not going to do anything. It has to be go through the city manager and we don't really see it during

you would not see it. Correct. It would just be an application to the city manager that the city manager would handle. Obviously, if if you want if you did move forward with this updated policy and you wanted to reconsider it at any time, we could bring that back and you can reconsider it, which is another reason to have um a limited period of uh you know, two months, no earlier than two months in advance applications submitted so that if at some point you felt the policy wasn't serving the city's best interest, you could decide to resend it or modify it in any way. Okay, any other questions? Okay. Is there any public comment?

Mayor Anduri, I have no Oh, I have one hand raised in my virtual audience. Rob,

good evening. Can you hear me? Yes. Welcome.

Thank you. Um I Mala answered maybe some of the part of my question, but I was curious. Um, it seems like this popped up out of nowhere and I guess it um it was just because of some uh um request to have activities year round, but um the the discussion mentioned the Kennedy versus Breton school district case. Um and it seems like the comments indicate there's some kind of conflict with some of the California laws. So, I was just wondering if Muller could uh explain that. So, that's all I have. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Is there any other public comment? No additional public comments. Okay. Um city attorney, can you address question?

Sure. Mayor and Dury. Um in in terms there is not a conflict per se with state law. I think what we've tried to do is adopt a policy that does its best to comply with both US constitutional law and state constitutional law. So, we would be looking at these displays um to ensure that they weren't necessarily overtly religious. And so, there would be some review of displays um to make sure we we did not um run a foul of either the state constitution or federal constitution. And so, we'd work closely with the city manager should those displays come in. Okay. Thank you. All right. We'll bring it back to the council. Who would like to start the discussion?

Okay. So, um so I guess I've actually been thinking about this quite a bit over the last kind of last week since it's come up because you I do have I am just concerned generally I think of of of certainly religious kind of iconography or or symbols being in our um you know our public secular spaces and maybe it would be easier if we didn't have anything. That being said, because we've had the um Christmas tree manora up for many years and you know I think the request is certainly fair for kind of representation for other other communities that it I think it makes sense and I'm I like I will say I appreciate the way that the uh staff report and that that is written that we can just kind of resend it or update it as needed. Um so I look forward to kind of seeing how it goes this year and uh assuming we approve it and um making adjustments as needed. Sure. I I with the same opinion as John on this one is that it this seemed like a a sensible approach um to the kind of requests that we're getting and and the timelines that you put around it and it is, you know, no earlier, no later, all these all these things. um and complying with state law, complying with um a true cultural, you know, kind of um thing that is being represented um provides a framework that I think we can work with that that might work and and expands on our current policy, which I think I agree. I think it's a good thing. It's I think that would be a good thing for our city. Yeah, I I think the the draft policy makes sense um to include other cultural religious holidays. Um I do have one thought which is there's a a exhibit a continued um list of basically specifications on the existing policy and I think that it would be good to retain some of them um particular items

one two one sorry two three and four which define the areas in the plaza where the displays can be placed. So that's to not allow them on the lawn, on the plaza way, roadway or parking spaces or on the sidewalk fronting Mount Diablo. Um I think the question I guess is how the trelluses or wood pergolas as they're described would be handled. Certainly the walkways can't be obstructed, but I guess the question is could the structures be used?

Yeah, that's I guess I read it when I read it, I was thinking we know where they are now. kind of like you know there's kind of like you have this kind of one area um that's got a little bit of a platform where you can put displays that's not the trelluses I guess I was thinking that's where there would be I guess your question is do we need to like have a more does a policy need to have a more specificity there well if it's not an object say yeah well this is set up under displays that that's within the determination of the city manager and so I guess the question is whether the council feels that there should be a more specific determination I was happy with the paragraph that talked about the city manager is authorized to determine what portions of the plaza will be made available for display

and willing to to leave that and if there if the city manager then develops a sheet that could take part of this that has that that can be handed out. I'd leave that to the city manager. Yeah, that would be fine. Mhm. And I just wanted to add that um when I looked at item number four or sorry, yes, uh four, uh I look at it as not having anything that would block a pedestrian's path uh under the trellis, but not necessarily prohibit something hanging from the pergola. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Okay. Any other Oh, Council Member Withersman, anything else? Oh, no, nothing else. Okay. All right. Well, I I agree with my fellow council members. I think this is uh very well done. It's a good uh very good framework for uh trying this and seeing what happens. I think it's a move towards providing uh a wider variety of cultural u displays for the community. I think that's a good thing. So, um I I'm definitely open to trying it. So, we have a make a motion to adopt the updated uh Lafayette Plaza holiday party policy as documented in staff report.

I second. Okay. All in favor? I.

It's unanimous. 40. Thank you very much. Okay. We're on to item 12B1, review of city council adopted priorities for fiscal year 2526. Thank you, mayor. Uh, if you recall, every year early in the year, the council meets to discuss its goals and policies for the upcoming fiscal year, which runs from July 1 to June 30th. These goals and priorities guide how we identify and allocate funding, resources, and staffing. The tables attached to the staff report provide an update on the status of the tasks associated with this fiscal year's priorities and we are recommending that the council confirm its continued commitment to the priorities that were already adopted. Uh for the benefit of the community, on fe February the 20th, the city council will hold a special meeting to discuss priorities for the upcoming fiscal year. Both Heather Ward and I are available to answer any questions.

Okay. Questions? All right. Is there any public comment? No public comment at this time. Okay. So, um, comment from or well,

I do have actually I do have I do have a request actually um in light of what uh we heard from the city manager about the RENA cycle being accelerated and we can't really count on the timing. I would like um to us to look even here at task two under the wildfire prevention preparedness and uh safety that one about take steps to ensure that the effect the wildfire risk is considered during the 20 20 31 38 reena process explore collaboration with the rendea moraga our current status is not started and we are going to do it next fiscal year which you know would be next summer or beyond I actually think given what we heard what's going on in Humboldt County and how that the state is accelerating this and we can't count on a quiet period between the the cycles. I actually would like us to start exploring that sooner because I think if we I just don't think we can be early enough in trying to get um the fire the the fire hazards um situation um included in um uh in the arena and it sounds like given what they if they they doubled the numbers in Humboldt which is like you know you've got a lot of urban wildlife boundaries there. They're not considering that. So, I would like to um suggest if appropriate that we actually we we not wait until next fiscal year to start that process.

Okay. Well, I think everyone's going to feel that way. But just so everyone's aware, on February 20th, what we're expecting is to get a a more in-depth report on what's going on with each of these priorities. So, maybe what we can ask is that when there's an update on this priority one wildfire that Yes. to the extent I understand the pressure that planning is under right now. To the extent that they can start thinking about it and maybe be more detailed in a report on what we could be doing at the time of our February 20th meeting, I think that would be very helpful.

Right. We talk this is really about reaching out working with Maraga Narinda which work at least kind of I think reaching out and starting the ball rolling would be kind of useful so we can hit you know I just I'm just concerned that the time is uh we're we're getting a they're trying to steal a march on us a little bit before we can

just so everyone's aware this has been raised with our the representative of our legislators. We've told them that most likely after our priorities meeting we'd be coming to them and telling them this is one of the things we'd like them to be aware of and concerned about. Okay. So, it sounds like what we're doing is confirming the priorities but asking for a little more work before our meeting on the 20th on that particular item. Okay. And we don't need a formal motion, do we? That would be good to have a formal motion. Just uh confirming the your continued commitment to the priority.

Okay. You want to uh Yes. So, I'd like to make a motion that we confirm the priorities um as as reviewed uh with potentially the um the thought of uh of moving ahead a little bit on the uh task item two under wildfire. A second. All in favor? I. It's unanimous 4. Okay. Thank you very much. And now we are on to 12B2 facilities assessment report. Assistant City Manager Robinson.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Uh, so this item is about how the city plans, funds, and manages long-term capital maintenance. For many years, the city has followed the sound budget practice of setting aside money each year into what we call the capital improvement syncing funds. Uh these are dedicated reserves that allow us to pay for major repairs, replacements, and facility upgrades over time. The benefit of this approach is that instead of facing large one-time budget hits or relying heavily on debt, we make smaller predictable contributions each year. This helps smooth smooth costs, reduce financial risk, and ensures that our infrastructure can be maintained or replaced when it's needed. Currently, the city has syncing funds in place for the library, the police offices, the courtyard, and the community center, as well as some for ball fields and playground equipment and recreation parking lots. And while that framework is solid, there were two important gaps. First, those contributions were not indexed for inflation, meaning that their purchasing power erodess over time. And second, several categories of infrastructure, particularly parks, trails, and other facilities were either underfunded or not included at all. Recognizing that existing balances and contribution levels were not sufficient, the council authorized a comprehensive facilities assessment to look at the city's capital needs over a 20-year horizon. That study produced several key findings. The first and most significant relates to the community center. The assessment concluded that the building has reached the end of its useful life. Addressing maintenance and repair needs over the next 20 years would exceed 16 million. To fully fund that approach,

the city would need annual syncing fund contributions starting at approximately $510,000 per year, growing by three and a half% annually for inflation. However, because more than $5 million in repairs would be required in just the next five years, this strategy would also require a very large front-loaded investment, about $4 million, along with an ongoing contribution of approximately $330,000 per year after that. And while the Jennifer Russell building itself remains in relatively good condition and is projected to need less than 400,000 in maintenance over the next 20 10 years, the broader issue is one of risk and return. Continuing to invest at this scale into a structure that is at the end of its life does not represent a strong return on investment. As buildings age, costs become less predictable, cost overruns are more likely, and service disruptions become more frequent. Over this 20-year horizon, the city would be assuming significant financial risk and still face the likelihood of eventual replacement. And given the high usage of the facility, a more comprehensive and sustainable solution will ultimately be needed. The second major finding is that the city's other facilities also require significantly higher annual contributions than we're currently making. Uh for buildings, parks, and trails combined, the assessment shows the syncing fund contribution should start at approximately $820,000 per year, increasing annually by three and a half%. The current contributions total about $320,000 a year, leaving the gap of about 500,000. That said, there are opportunities to

mitigate some of that costs because the community park and Buckeye Fields will both require major capital projects within the next 3 to six years. If the city seeds the park syncing fund with 2.25 25 million from excess reserves. The required annual contribution drops from 220,000 to about 130,000 per year, which is an annual savings of roughly 90,000. Similarly, community park trails will require more than 170,000 in capital work over the next 3 to 5 years, and because of the short time frame and higher costs, a funding shortfall would otherwise occur within the next 3 to 10 years. Staff therefore recommends seating the trail syncing fund with $75,000 to cover near-term needs while still meeting the full 20-year funding target. So based on these this assessment, staff is recommending the following actions. First, fund the library, police offices, corpyard, parks, and trails syncing funds at the identified levels with annual 3.5% inflationary adjustments. And consistent with the finance subcommittee direction, these amounts have been incorporated into the fisc year 2526 budget, which we will be discussing under the next item. Second, begin policy level discussions about options for potential replacement or reconstruction of the community center. And third, continue contributing 125,000 per year to the community center to address immediate health and safety needs and to fund necessary capital maintenance for the Jennifer Russell building. Fourth, uh inventory, roadway and pathway related infrastructure um has not been assessed. Uh so appropriate syncing fund contributions

have not currently been established. We suggest that um sort of assessment phase two be conducted so we can really understand the scope of what that may cost. And finally, uh, we suggest that we update this facility facilities assessment every 5 to seven years just to ensure that the funding levels remain aligned with the actual conditions and costs. That concludes my report and I can take questions. All right. Thank you. Uh, questions? Any questions? Oh, no questions. All right. Uh public comment.

I have no speaker sips for persons in the hall and I have no hands raised in our virtual audience.

Okay, we'll bring this back to the council for discussion. Uh let me just say thank you very much for carrying this out. I this is very valuable uh report and thank you for recommending that we do this uh last year uh because it's really I think opened our eyes to what we need to do in order to be able to maintain just what our our current uh assets are. So thank you. um well um of the I've got the the staff recommendations in a different order. You did you read them in a different order than in the uh written report? Okay. So what I'm going to suggest Okay. So I recommend the first four we can talk about those but defer a decision because if we adopt the budget we are saying yes to those recommendations because they're already reflected in the budget. That's the uh going to 730,000 seeding 2.25 for the um uh the the parks 75,000 for the trails and then contributing 125,000 the community center. So that group again will make a decision when we decide on the budget in effect. And then there's three more we should discuss you know separately and and and give direction. But just at this point are there any does anyone have any questions or comments about the first four that is what we're doing with the syncing funds and seeding the syncing funds. I will just point out and I don't know if Jonathan's available on the phone. I I I talked to him this afternoon. I just want to um confirm um with respect to the 2.25 million

seeding the sinking funds for parks capital maintenance. We have the two assessments, one for community fields and one for Buckeye Fields. I think it's 2.2 million 3.3 million. So we total of five million. We're seeding to bring that down so the annual contribution is less. But I want everyone to be aware that those assessments do not include um major ballfield improvements. Uh and I just want Jonathan to confirm that because he was going to look at it again that it doesn't include putting in a synthetic turf or a major overhaul of the fields. It covers the parking lots, the restrooms, the uh snack facilities, the uh all the other structure, the fences, but it doesn't cover that. So, I don't want anyone to think that we're putting money aside for that because that's another possible source or thing we'll need to spend on is

Do you want Jonathan? Yes. Yeah. Jonathan, but I agree that's how I remember it as well. Okay. These are just just to keep it going and in the current shape that it is and the Buckeye Field the pavement restructure and drainage and all that stuff too. Correct. Yeah. Yes. May Can you hear me council? Yes. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh you are correct, mayor. Uh in uh your assessment of the report, the capital assessment covers the facilities as they are today. Uh it looked at the existing facilities and even commented on the existing grass turf uh and our it did not identify any uh current need. It said that the grass turf is in fair condition but does not consider any improvements. Improvements that were suggested as part of our discussions regarding the the softball use including the introduction of synthetic turf uh and other amenities that provide parody between the two facilities. Any of those improvements beyond what we have now uh are not included in this assessment. This is really just to assess these are existing facilities now and this is what it's going to take to uh to keep them afloat.

Okay. Thank you very much. All right. So any any comments on the uh seeding the sinking funds if

the only comment I will say is I mean I think you know this this is the spirit of measure H and I mean the the good source the I mean we'll talk about this in the budget but think thank thank goodness for the the community passed measure H which just gives us the ability to this is getting our financial house in order. Um, I could also thank, you know, I guess assistant city manager for, you know, pushing this through because I mean, what a I mean, it's the numbers are a little scary, but what if we didn't have it, right? We're just kind of like reacting every year and, uh, you know, may spending money um that we shouldn't be doing for this. So, I think it's a long overdue and u, I will say I we can jump to the last one. The the recommendations on keeping this up to date is absolutely I'm assuming won't be nearly as big a deal if we can do it every five to seven years, but it's phenomenal.

Okay. All right. So, uh, the fifth recommendation was begin discussion on options for potential replacement or reconstruction of the community center. And uh what I'd recommend is that at least uh until February 20th, we keep that with the finance subcommittee, but that we ask uh that uh staff come prepared with a little more detail uh as to what the options might be for replacement of the community center. And again, we're talking about the one former classroom building, not the Jennifer Russell building. uh and and just rough estimates of what it might cost just so we get a sense of what options might be and what costs might be.

Um yeah, I would be interested in in some analysis about alternative locations perhaps, right? Yeah. And looking at maybe a more central location. Yeah. I mean that's when I mention this, the first thing is I wish we could do it in the center of town.

Oh yes. And I think there's also I'd be kind of curious also and this might be hard to do but you know by by allocating this 125 which I mean sounds like a lot but I know we're maintaining the facilities there. I mean we're basically saying the current building is not our long-term solution and we'll have an end of life. I mean what what clock are we running here? Like I mean how long just putting in $125,000 a year can we expect that building to last? I would I don't know if that might not be a difficult but it would be nice to at least know a kind of time frame because we are basically saying we are really only doing the most dire basic updates to that. So I'd be curious if we can get some some sort of idea on that and and how long we can reasonably expect to do that because I mean this is the big

that's right you look at the big picture well we'll get I'll make that comment when we get to the budget. This is obviously well yeah guess wait for the budget but would would this be also the time to um for the February 20th meeting to bring the concept of more fields? Yeah. Can we bring that as long as long as we're discussing the community center? Can we Yeah, we'll bring that as well. That makes sense. It's the plan. Yep.

Okay. So, we're okay with that as a way forward. Okay. Number six, inventory roadway and pathway related infrastructure. Determine appropriate annual syncing fund contributions. Guess my first question there is um what do you anticipate that would cost? I mean th this knowing the cost of this survey it was actually very very reasonable for what we got. I mean what would you estimate?

Um I would estimate less. I will talk to them because what we're talking about are not buildings per se. Those are complicated structures with a lot of things inside. At this point, we're talking about street lights, stop lights, um potential pathways, um retaining retaining walls. Those are not complicated structures. I think a lot of it would be um just inventorying them. um and just getting some basic information. So, I don't personally think it's going to be as complicated as what we just did.

Nor um let me I don't I don't know that's something we can do, you know, prior to if I can come back to you and we can do a budget adjustment or if it's not that much, it's possible we could absorb it into the current budget. Okay. That was actually my my question. I mean, it seemed like when we did this one, we kind of knew it was a big number and we had to wait for it. This the other one is really just kind of for completeness sake and to get our hands around it, but you're thinking it the order of magnitude not it's not near

two days and also it might take a while to get on their schedule. So maybe that's something we do budget for in the next fiscal year, but I can call them and I can talk to them and come back with a number. Okay. Yeah. I mean, if it would be nice. This one only cost 45,000 which I think was actually a pretty bargain if we did it you know per page I've got this many it was that that was it was that's that was

and we have access to their database ongoing. So I did want to mention that updating these every five to seven years will not be that magnitude either because they've already done a lot of the upfront work. So really, it's just an update. Um, okay. Well, I'd be in favor of of uh directing the assistant city manager to proceed with that with going ahead with that study whenever it can be scheduled. Absolutely. Because it would be nice to have it for the the information for the next fiscal year. So by June. Yeah.

Agreed. So do we need a motion on that or is that direction sufficient? you think you need a motion for or you need to do maybe come back to it after we do the sec do the budget so you can do it all in one fell swoop. Well, I'm I'm thinking that if if we adopt the budget, we're approving the first four items. And so, um, and we've talked about five. I think we just, you know, we know how we're going to approach that. I don't think we need a resolution for that, right? or a motion and for giving direction. Do you need a motion for giving direction to proceed?

Okay, I have a motion. Uh yeah, I guess I'll uh make a motion, I guess, for both things that we to begin the the process of inventorying the roadway and pathway related infrastructure to appropriate uh uh to determine appropriate annual syncing fund contributions. That's just the one, right? I guess right. Okay. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? I okay four nothing unanimous and then number seven I think yeah we definitely should do this and I would favor leaving it five to seven and we'll just see when it fits in uh and and just do it but no no more than seven years updated this is a a a good practice okay and do we need a motion for that or is that just our

I don't I can just take it as direction okay great all All right, we're on to the next uh item then. Well, B2, it's me again. I think it's the same presenter.

It's me again. Okay, so turning now to the final budget. Uh so the passage of measure H halfent sales tax has given the city much needed breathing room to continue providing services at current levels for at least the next six years. So overall, the city remains in very strong financial health with a general fund balance of 22.6 million as of uh the end of last fiscal year, June 30th, 2025. And that's equal to roughly 114% of the annual general fund expenditures. It is important to note, however, that this unusually high balance was driven largely by timing. Several large projects were carried forward uh from last year to this year and there were some savings from unfilled staff positions. In addition, the finance subcommittee has recommended significant investments in deferred maintenance which have now been incorporated into this fiscal year 2526 budget. So as a result, the general fund reserve projected at the end of fiscal 2526 uh is 17.5 million which is uh equivalent to 71% of annual expenditures. Um and that's still above the city's 60% reserve target by approximately 2.7 million. However, looking ahead, the 5-year forecast shows the city can maintain its 60% reserve target through fiscal year 2930. That said, small but gradually increasing deficits begin to appear starting in fiscal year 2627, which underscores the importance of continued fiscal discipline. And the manager's memo details all the changes that were made in the final budget. But I briefly want to highlight several

significant items. First, as we just discussed, the sinking funds related to deferred maintenance, that's all city-owned buildings, parks, and trails have been consolidated into fund 16, which is going to make it easier to track them together. Each of those funds has their own line item. So, we're not lumping them all into one pot, but they all are together there in fund 16. In addition, any capital expenditures for infrastructure will also be budgeted in fund 16. So, we have everything in one place. Second, I have uh created a new measure 8 fund, fund 10. Um, and to be clear, this fund still remains part of the general fund from an accounting perspective, but it allows me H revenues, expenditures, and transfers to be tracked explicitly, and any unspent balance will continue to count towards the general fund reserve. So, this change improves, I believe, the transparency and accountability for measure H funds. Uh third, in addition to the regular measure H transfers for roads, storm water, core area insurance, and police services, 1.25 million was transferred to public facilities fund 16 as part of the 2.25 million in seed funding for deferred maintenance and that is consistent with the finance subcommittee recommendations. Fourth, uh 1.425 425 million was transferred from the general fund reserves to fund 16 as part of that 2.25 seed funding. Um and that is um

inclusive of 427.5,000 for half the annual syncing fund contribution. Um the other half comes from measure H funds and the $75,000 for the trails maintenance seed fund. Um, and finally, while the city's currently in a strong financial position, this surplus reflects temporary conditions and is a deliberate fiscal restraint. It is not the absence of long-term challenges. As council considers future budgets, it should remain mindful of several issues. Many of the factors that contributed to the city's prior structural deficit will continue beyond the expiration of measure H in six years. And those include funding gaps for core area maintenance, and oh god, so sorry, storm water pollution, rising insurance costs, the increasing expense of maintaining roads at their current PCI, and as we just talked about, the ongoing costs for deferred maintenance. So, as discussed again, those costs are going to continually rise. Um, and it actually doesn't even include the ancillary infrastructure. And finally, not only where there'll need to be a significant investment into the community center, there um, as Mayor Anderry pointed out, continues to be strong community demand for additional recreation facilities, ball fields, downtown parks, and open space. um those needs will require both capital investment and ongoing operating resources. So there is a difference between building it and taking care of it which we need to be mindful. So that concludes my report. Happy to answer any questions.

Okay, questions. Public comment. No public comment at this time, Mayor Andory. Wow. Okay. Well, this is this is a pretty big thing, it seems. Yes.

All right. Okay. Um discussion, council discussion. Well, let let me just say um again, thank you for all the the work on this through you and everyone in your department and all the department heads and everyone who who worked with them. Um, I like to look at the five-year budget forecast to see where we're going to end up. And just echoing what Vice Mayor McCormack said, you know, again, thank you to the residents of Lafayette for passing measure H because what that means is that we can continue to provide the services we have been providing, but no more. um we can keep that level of services. But what we've learned now from the study that we've done is that um we'll if that were all we needed to do to provide the existing services, we would uh go through the five-year period, no new services, and we would be fine. But we're faced with a couple of things that we need to deal with. the most pressing and most substantial is what do we do about our community center. So that's going to be a big uh subject of discussion. But again, I just want to come back and say, you know, the the measure H got us where we don't have even bigger problems to face. I just can't imagine if we had to cut uh that much. I mean that we were prepared to cut 2.4 million from the budget. That would have just devastated the services that we're providing. and then we would have this on top of it. I mean, we're we're in a

in a in a good position, but um there are things we need to deal with. So, that's that's one we need to deal with. Second, we know that there's a big demand for uh recreational facilities, which includes the community center, but is also it's mainly playing fields, pickle ball courts, and the like. And we know that the capital assessments did not cover uh possible improvements to existing fields that might extend their lifetime and more importantly uh the season and the amount of time amount of uh time they can be used and it doesn't cover the possibility of additional fields. And we know that even if we were to improve our existing fields, we would still be under provided compared to our neighboring communities. And then, and I'm hoping this is a minor one. It doesn't include the ancillary infrastructure that we'll be inventorying, but I'm hoping that's not going to be a big number, but we still have these things. And then beyond that, uh we still have to think about are we going to be um wanting to budget for increased uh wildfire mitigation or other measures. So all these things are coming up and uh we're we're going to need to consider them. But I I you know I look forward to updating the budget passing this but we've got a lot of work ahead to figure out how we're going to u provide the recreational facilities that our community wants. So any further comment before we approve the budget?

I would say you I think you did a great I think that summarized nicely. I think it is a privilege to be able to worry about the things we're worrying about which is thinking about the future and how we make life better for our residents versus trying to keep the things that we have going. So, uh it is it is this is the kind of problem this is the kind of challenges that uh it's great it's great to be able to look at. So, uh no, I think it's great and I appreciate the I agree. I look at the five-year budget and you look at what other cities are are are struggling with and what they're doing, not to mention the unfunded liabilities that a lot of other cities have with PERS and all that kind of stuff. is just uh it's it is we it is we are uh just in such great shape and thank you very much to the whole staff for keeping us on the straight and narrow and I appreciate the the warning and the guidance that you gave us about you know making sure we don't get too crazy with the the budget and we'll uh we'll take that uh seriously.

Yeah. I just thank you for keeping us in line, keeping us in track and in our pledge to our community of how we spend our money and and really taking care of our city moving forward with as they expect us to. So, thank you guys. Yeah, echoing all of that, thank you very much for this comprehensive budget analysis and the plans for some of the facilities assessment needs. Um, and thank you to the voters, to 65% who brought us over the finish line. We appreciate your faith in the city. Thank you.

For approval of resolution 2026, adopting the final budget and work plan for fiscal year 2526. Uh, I move to we adopt a resolution 20 2606 adopting the final budget plan for fiscal year 2526. A second. All in favor? I.

It's unanimous. 40. Thank you very much for all your work on this. Okay, we're on to Council Commission reports uh 15A. Now, I'd like to break this down into two segments. first um items for future agendas. If anyone has anything, I'll just say uh we have received uh the council has received a communication from the chamber of commerce asking us to uh look into um uh food trucks and we've received uh communication from uh Maria Gasolundi uh asking us to look into food trucks. So, I suggest we put that on the agenda for the uh next meeting. Any other agenda items?

It might be an agenda item. I just want to report out on my the ebike thing and we can figure out Oh, why don't you go ahead?

Yeah. So um we'll say earlier this you you probably might have got the announcement also but I did attend there was Cal California League of Cities put out the round table for ebike safety um that happened ear last week and um I attended that and uh it was attended by 225 uh 225 attendees and these were council members police chiefs some city managers from throughout California and um just because and there there's a couple of themes I won't go into it was it was an hour long but it was very very dense but I just want to my key takeaways is that we currently are doing all the right things, right? Our schools are really stepping up and you know putting in the education. Everybody agrees education throughout the the state that the schools are really stepping up. Um some jurisdictions have really empowered police to confiscate ebikes at the like the the big the first sign of trouble. They confiscate the ebikes. And um and the police were saying that is effective to a point they find that the um the riders are out out riding somebody else's ebike the next day. Um or the parents could pick up the ebike from the courtyard and the kids the kids are out riding along. Plus there's this kind of the um notion of the police chasing after these bicyclists isn't great but it is somewhat effective. But overall there's a lot of frustration that uh for the cities that there's really that that the technology the kids are techsavvy these bikes are being sold um that you can easily through an app override how they're sold. They are there even the ones that are like the motorcycles they sell non-functioning pedals you can put on the bikes to make them look like they are um are uh are um are bicycles when in fact they're not. And the only cities that re that really reported any significant um significant impact and decrease in additional safety were some cities in San Diego County. And just very briefly, there's a a bill AB1224 that authorized a pilot project for um San Diego County and its cities that they could at their option um make

ebikes, motorized bicycles um illegal for children under 12. And that is the only thing so far out of the 200 people in this this thing that they've said is has made any difference at all. And almost every city, at least 10 out of 11 out of the 14 cities in San Diego County have went ahead have gone ahead and approved that um that ban and they are incredibly happy with that ban. They're they're thrilled what's going on because it just removes it just it just takes a lot of the guesswork. A lot of police have to identify if it's a class one, class two, class three bike and how fast are they going and whatever. basically if you are under 12 you ride a bicycle and it is just they just love it. Now um I am interested in that particular approach. Now what happened was this the the state did this as a pilot project San Diego County only and the war they did as a 5-year pilot pilot project from 2024 to 2029 and then they're supposed to report back and see how things are going. My concern is that a lot of kids are going to die between now and 2029 while we figure out this makes a whole lot of sense. And so, um, the mayor and I had a conversation just with Shereice, you know, our RBK's representative, and just kind of asking her to look at maybe this thing should we if it's if it's working well, maybe we should accelerate it earlier than 2029. Um, and see if or another county can do it. Anyway, I just want to bring that up. the ebike. I just the the takeaways were every single city in this state is is struggling with this thing and it kind of it's clear that it really should not be dealt with at a city by city level because it's just a lot of redundant work and um it's inconsistent and people are confused when there's different laws everywhere. So I just want to it was a it was meaningful conversation but it really opened my eyes to how um it's a big big problem.

Did they talk about the Marin pilot uh separate bill? They did the the the mayor of Marin actually present or Mil Valley presented what what Marin is doing which is it's it's a it's a restriction but it's not as drastic as the one in San Diego. Yeah. I can't remember what it is. I remember either he he shared he did at the end and he he shared they also have a countywide project. So counties apparently can sign up to be incubators for these kind of um more restrictions than we're allowed to put in right now. So, it might be something for us, maybe the legislative committee, can think about talking to our representatives a little more formally, uh, to figure out something else we we could do. I think it's great.

I wonder about the age 12 because I mean, the police have a hard time differentiating the different classes, but then how do you different a 12-year-old from a 13-year-old? That that's a whole that's that's a hard thing. I mean, I think there's it's never I mean, it's kind of like elementary school and middle school. I don't know. I mean, it's always going to be hard unless you make it illegal. The middle schoolers are are the ones I think probably writing these the most. Oh, I I think so, too. But you got to start someplace. Yeah. Yeah, we're talking. Thank you. Anyway, sorry. So, that that was it was a meaningful um uh thing and it's it's worth further um conversations I think with both of our representatives and so it's just more of a thought for the legislative committee to may maybe consider that.

Anything else on future agenda items? Okay. Now, uh report on activities and as I mentioned um in December, I'd like to broaden this a little bit. So council members think about you know what you may have participated in in terms of your commissions and committees that if you weren't involved in that if you if you you would want to know about just use that test as to and maybe broaden reports on what's happening. So with that in mind, any reports on activities and and bearing in mind that we won't discuss that item, but we'll just we'll hear and ask questions, but we won't discuss.

Sure,

Bella. Um yeah, so I attended the Creeks Committee meeting last Wednesday and um they have a new member who has brought forth um some plans and proposals for involving youth or youth outreach and engaging them in some of the creeks work, educational work, etc. It was uh it was great. I I did in uh the same uh the same day that Narup was uh our casino manager was attending the housing uh policy committee, I did attend the environmental quality uh policy committee at in Sacramento last week. And um you know, the three big um you know, one of the well actually the number one thing that um the the policy committee is working on is wildfire preparedness and whatever. And I did um ask that we add the notion of um adding RENA kind of uh um sensitivity when we um to wildfire. And so that was approved by the policy committee. So we'll see how that actually manifests there. But um that that that was uh was uh useful and helpful. And there there were lots of other cities that were in the same boat as we were.

Okay. Council member Kandell, anything? Okay. I just have two things. Uh we're still scheduled for Tuesday, February 3rd for our first uh welcome event here in the in the hall. We've got uh at least 18 or we'll have 18 tables. We've got more than 18 organizations that will be at those tables ready to meet with relatively new residents uh to Lafayette. So we still we don't have any indication about how many people will come. We'll see. But we're looking forward to it. And then I think we can mark our calendars for June 29th, the fifth Monday in June for um state of the city um presentation and recognition of uh commissioners, committee members. So that'll probably be very similar to

to last year. So probably six starting at six o'clock. All right, we're on to item 15B. Um, Vice Mayor McCormack.

Yeah, I think uh normally I think Council Member Cvantes would be doing this one since he's the lead on emergency preparedness, but um I'm happy to say that we had we have an opening on the Emergency Preparedness Commission. We did interviews a couple weeks ago. We had two excellent uh candidates that we interviewed, but uh the committee uh was unanimous in um recommending that Gene Fulmer be appointed to um a member of the Emergency Paradise Commission. It was uh delightful. Gan I think exemplifies everything we want for somebody who is aspiring to a commission. She goes to commission meetings now really understands what is going on unlike some other people that have applied and don't really know what the commission does and it was a uh it was delight to really talk to both of the candidates but uh we welcome uh Gan to the officially to the commission. So to that end I guess I'd like to uh make a motion to adopt resolution uh 2611 appointing Gene Fulmer to the Emergency Preparedness Commission.

Okay. Second there. Okay. Got a motion in a second. But before that, are there any questions of the committee? No. Are there any public comments? No. Okay. We have a motion in a second. All in favor say I. I. I. Or

welcome. Thank you. And thank you for apply. I have to say um just exemplary in terms of participating in the activities of the the commission before applying. I'm always surprised by people who apply for a committee or commission and they've never been to a meeting to see what's going on. But uh so thank you. Okay. Oh, and written communications. Yes. Um Nancy who has resigned from the environmental task force. Uh as this points out, she's been uh on it since 2017. She served as chair for a number of years and really again an exemplary volunteer for city of Lafayette. So we're going to miss her on the environmental task force. So we thank her for for her service. Okay. So at the suggestion of council member Kandell and I agree I I can't do it. I can't do it. Uh we wanted to um adjourn in honor of Alex Prey, Renee Good, and all the peaceful protesters in Minneapolis and beyond. Our thoughts go out to you and your families.