City Council - Regular Meeting

Mayor Anduri is now taking public comments. And Mayor, I have no hands raised in our virtual audience and I have no speaker slips for persons in the community hall. Be aware that items will come forward and as they come forward, you're allowed to speak on any item on the agenda. Please fill out a speaker slip in the back of the room. They're yellow. And if you're in our virtual audience, please raise your hand. Thank you. Okay, so we're on to the city manager's update.

Thank you. And uh good evening everyone. This is an update from the various city departments. The public art committee invites you to one last look, a closing reception for its spring exhibitions featuring hearing shapes, seeing sounds by John Pool and surface by Mary St Chabola. This event will be held here at the library just outside May 11th from 5 to 6:30 p.m. From engineering and public works, things are moving full steam ahead on infrastructure planning. Staff has drafted the proposed 2027 CIP along with a 5-year CIP road map, both of which will be presented to CPAC. this Thursday, April the 16th. And meanwhile, the 2026 pavement project is officially out to bid with bid openings scheduled for Thursday, April the 23rd. from planning. Planning staff will be releasing an RFP for pre-approved ADU or accessory dwelling unit plans very shortly thanks to the funding secure through Senator Glazer's office. This was a grant that was uh provided to all uh jurisdictions within his area and the monies will be used to uh prepare offtheshelf permitted um permit ready ADU plans so a homeowner does not have to invest in an architect or have someone prepare plans. And uh to be more efficient, we're partnering with the town of Moraga on this effort.

And finally, Congressman Mark Donier has advanced over 46.7 million in federal funding for 20 projects in Contraosta and Alama counties, including key investments in Lafayette. These include 2.8 8 million for the aqueduct pathway, 2 million for supportive housing at Sunflower Hill, and funding to upgrade Lamarinda's public safety communication systems and the county's emergency response in infrastructure. It's uh we just want to thank the congressman for his leadership in advancing these projects that directly benefit the residents of Lafayette, Lamarinda, and Contra Costa County. And that's it. Mayor,

are there questions for the city manager? Is there any public comment? No public comment.

All right, then we are on to item 10 A. Um, Lafayette's mission statement calls out our commitment to lifelong learning. And through the city's public art committee and its newly expanded focus, the city seeks to embed the arts in our civic life and in the fabric of our community. During 2026 and 2027, we will help strengthen these civic values through presentations at the beginning of the first council meeting of each month by an arts organization or an organization that offers lifelong learning opportunities. This month's featured organization is the Lafayette Community Garden and Outdoor Learning Center. Its mission is to provide space and opportunity for community members to learn about, care for, and connect to our local ecosystem and food grown within it, thereby promoting a healthier community and earth. Founder and co-director of the community garden, Janet Thomas, will tell us more about the role of the garden in promoting and facilitating lifelong learning. Welcome. Sorry, let me get um my screen up.

Okay, thank you so much for inviting me this evening um to share some information about the Lafayette Community Garden and Outdoor Learning Center. I'm Janet Thomas and I want to introduce to you all tonight um my co-directors. I'm a co-director um Lynn Jones and Regina McGrath and I'm so happy to have them join the leadership of the garden. Uh, the community garden and outdoor learning center was founded 15 years ago. It's hard to believe, by a small group of Lafayette community members. The mission was to provide, as as Carl just mentioned, a space for members and visitors to learn about our ecosystem and and the way we grow our food. The garden is located across from the reservoir um now across from the cancer support center more directly um on land owned by East Bay MUD. A rent of about $2,500 is paid annually by the garden to East Bay MUD. Uh to obtain our nonprofit status, we formed an agreement with Sustainable Lafayette, which acts as our 501c3 sponsor. In 2011, as we broke ground, we had about 30 member volunteers and we now have 111 families. Um they we have a list a waiting list of over 20. As many of us are aging up, we're very glad that younger individuals such as Regina and Lind um are joining us and we also have a number of younger families. Um we're a cooperative community garden and we do most of uh our work as teams as well as crop teams. We have an active construction team, native plant team, flower team, education team. We have monthly meetings, social gatherings, and regular newsletters. We partner with the Contra Custom Master Gardeners, the Mount Bee Association, Republic Services, and in fact on Thursday, May 14th, that's coming up at 10:00, John Taylor from that organization, Republic Services, is going to actually give a

city co-sponsored talk at the garden addressing food waste and um appropriate use of our green bins. We invite anything in the comm community, anyone in the community to visit during our work hours. And the work hours are Tuesday 3:30 to 5:30, Thursday and Saturday 9 to 12. Uh we host many scout and school groups for tours at other times as well and activities and have been a lucky beneficiary of about now I think 16 eagle projects and gold award projects. Uh our garden and its history can really best be um uh described by looking at our or you can learn more about it by looking at our website. And what I'd like to do now is just to to look at just as some of the aspects of the garden that are highlighted in our aspect are our I'm sorry that are highlighted on our website. Our crops are seasonal and they're divided into three main crop groups uh each led by uh team leaders or crop leaders. And as I said, we're a cooperative garden. So, we don't have individual beds owned by individuals or or rented by individuals. We work together. Um, some of our favorite crops, as you can imagine, are tomatoes, lettuce, basil. Uh, we use biointensive gardening methods in 41 beds of vegetables and flowers. Uh, we start most of our crops from seed and we propagate in members homes and in our greenhouse. Excess seedlings are usually donated to community members, but occasionally we actually donate them to the entire community. Uh we have meetings, field trips and classes for members. Um we also offer the whole community uh our grand rounds which we highly recommend that you come um visit. They are on the third Saturday of each month 11 o'clock. And on um

during those ground rounds, we we walk around the ground garden with master gardeners and talk about what we're growing. Um it's learning opportunity for all. On May 17th this year, we'll again have an open house and we welcome all community members to that. It's free of charge. Our large compost area and active worm bins provide rich amendments for our crops. Uh in many of our beds over the winter, we plant a cover crop, usually a fava, which we compost for use in our beds during the next season. In addition to demonstrating organic farming practices, we've planted many drought tolerant and native plants uh sort of as a demonstration garden. Uh we have an efficient drip system that uses actually less water than many of the homes in Lafayette. Uh about 600 gallons a day. Uh we've recently been asked to be on East Bay Mud's drought tolerant garden tour on June 6th of this year. uh we understand the benefits of pollinators, especially flowers. So, over the last, if if you've noticed going um past the garden, we've planted almost every year more and more flowers. Um we've also partnered with the Mount Diablo Beekeepers Association. They now have 12 hives at the garden. Um and we actually were recipients of 120 pounds of honey last year. Each of our members got a pint. Um, our hens are a big draw, especially for kids who come. Um, we have a large chicken coupe and run that are now housing 15 young hens, which is our fourth brood of chickens. Each lays about an egg a day. So, we actually are able to share in those eggs. Um, the chicken coop, many of you may know, John Kefir, was designed by Papa John.

We have a very active construction team and the logs, believe it or not, have been donated. We've been getting logs the last three years from Excellent Construction. Brian Gates is the owner in Arinda. He's been donating us wood and we actually mill our own wood and build our own all of our own beds. Um construction team are really a model of of collaboration. um very proud of of what they've achieved there. And by the way, I might might mention again, we have to build all of our beds above ground because our site is located on what used to be Old Tunnel Road before Mount Diablo Boulevard was established. Um so back in the early 1900s, uh it was a roaded. If you dig down, you know, deep enough, you basically we we come up with construction and construction materials and asphalt. Um, artistic elements. Um, we've many talented folks at the garden. Uh, they've created beautiful signage beds. Uh, we've got a lot of ceramic work there done mainly by Susan Danenfeler who used to be on the art committee here. And of course, our beloved pizza oven is a I we think an artist artist artistic gem. It's shaped like a beehive. In 2019, we lost a large valley oak and we actually decided to use the oak to build a fivecircuit labyrinth that's similar to that at Chart. Uh the labyrinth is open to the community during our work hours. Takes about 10 minutes to walk it quietly. Um, and actually each year we celebrate World Labyrinth Day with music and um, many of us walk the the labyrinth that that's usually the the first weekend in May. Um, the creekide habitat, which one of

the reasons we chose this site is because of the beauty of the the riparian or native plants. Um so the creekide habitat upon which the garden sits was actually once home to about 200 Native Americans in a in a tribullet. Um the because of its access to the creeks um one of the our missions is to teach the community about our local um creek ecosystems. Um so we've built a nature trail and then at the back of the garden we have built from local tulies. Actually, our garden members have built um simulated Miwok dwellings and every October for the last this will be our fourth year, we've hosted all Lafayette school districts third graders um actually after they get a class from Mary McCoscer uh for a three-hour field trip and we do that over a course of two weeks and the the kids seem to love it and I think that's one of the reasons that we've had such an interest in people joining the garden because it's finally people realize that you know what's behind that fence. Okay, I'd like to end today with something kind of special and this was produced by I think a lot of you know Jennifer Russell who's one of our garden members.

There's the root.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Any questions from the council? Well, only I would just say thank you very much. Obviously, um I drive by it every day back and forth to work. Um and to see it just kind of grow throughout the seasons is just magical and you always know springtime we see all the activity there. So, it's terrific and uh it's just amazing. 111 families as members, 20 on the wait list. Um what a gem. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for your continued support and um you know, it just highlights what a special place Lafayette is. you know, being along the creek there. We're so lucky. Thank you. Public Don't go anywhere yet. Is there any public comment? There is no public comment on this item. Thank you. Thank you, Jan. Okay. Well, thank you very much.

Thank you, J. Talk about what it is now. You think

what it was 15 years ago and how it's developed and you go by and you see all the the new things and how it's evolving. It's just incredible. So, thank you very much to each of our co-directors. Thank you. Right, we're on to item 10B. Another anniversary, 15 years and now 20 years. Lafayette Spirit Van Ricky, welcome. Good evening, Mayor Andury, council members, staff. Um, this is going to be brief. My main intention was, um, with the support I've gotten from other establishments, I've acknowledged, I've thanked, and I think it's just high time that I finally acknowledge all of you and the massive support system that has been the city of Lafayette for the past 20 years. Um, so Lar Spirit Van, aka City of Lafayette Senior Transportation Program, which I'll admit took me a month or two to figure out. Uh, just not only benefited from the city's annual funding, but so much more. I just want to acknowledge that um for your support during the recent section 5310 grant application. The fact that you held a special unscheduled meeting so that a public hearing could take place made all the difference. And because of that, I wanted to give you an update. I'm very pleased to share that we were awarded funding for operating assistance along with two new replacement vehicles that will hopefully arrive in by 2027. Fingers crossed. Um,

I also wanted to update you that we do continue to receive $20,000 annually from the town of Moraga. Uh, it's also not lost on me how much we benefit from the city beyond the funding, the office space, the accounting support, and so many day-to-day resources that keep us running. And I would also like to give a shout out to Jonathan and the parks, trails, and recreation department who are consistently they consistently come to our aid at the drop of a hat. So this is we gave our first ride in on June 6, 2006, which means June will actually be our 20th anniversary. So the level of support is really what has sustained the spirit band for 20 years. and we're so proud to be celebrating this milestone. So, just thank you. Thank you for your support, your trust, and your commitment to this program and the people we serve. It just means more than I can act that I can express. That's it.

Thank you. I'll save my comments for later, but questions. Is there any public comment? Mayor Andury, no public comment. Go ahead, Susie. Susie PAC is coming to the podium.

Hi. I was mesmerized. I forgot to fill out the form, but I wanted to come and thank you all publicly and to thank Ricky and her team for all the work that the Spirit Van does for the city of Lafayette and for the people that live here, not just Lafayette, but Moraga and Arinda. Through my work as a volunteer with Spirit Van, uh I have seen firsthand the difference it makes in the lives of people who u may no longer drive, uh may choose not to drive. And it really, this service is incredible. It offers folks an opportunity to continue to remain independent, doing the things they like to do, uh with the with the support of of valuable transportation. I see in my work and our work with the village we have a great partnership with the spirit van and as a result of that we've probably pushed the limits of number of rides served and so we are always looking for um volunteers just three four hours a month would be terrific. Um it really makes a difference and it also makes this town even a smaller place. People form relationships with regular riders. Um we take a van full of people to Costco once a month. We run into people from Lamarinda in the Costco shopping center and they ask us we, you know, how do we get on this thing? And I say, you know, call the Spirit Van office. So, it's it's really amazing to see all the connections that can be made through a little van that travels through town, whether it's little league, whether it's the art and wine festival, whether it's providing transportation for the home tour. It's great to see the vans on the street. I know we have four. We're getting two new ones. We're super excited about that. And on behalf of Lamar Village, we're just grateful and thankful for the partnership. So, thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Other questions for the speaker? No. Thank you. I have one more public speaker in our virtual audience, Rick Sheldon. You may speak. Hi. Can everyone hear me? Yes. Welcome.

Oh, terrific. Thank you. Well, I wasn't going to say anything, but I I saw Susie who inspired me along with Ricky at a Lafayette Community Foundation event. Uh I was very inspired and I signed up to be a driver. And so I went through the process. Uh it was very rigorous, but I made it through and I can't tell you enough how prime of the community uh of the people that it serves. And as as Susie kind of alluded to, the realization that when you pull up and you're helping others or you're going grocery shopping, but then you see others in the community responding to that or, you know, recognizing that, you know, it's really special and it really epitomizes what a lovely place we have here um that's truly community based. So, I know it's a 20th anniversary. I'm proud to be part of the organization helping out where I can, but I just wanted to state that, you know, it really helps everyone in the community uh more so than just those getting the rides.

Hey, thank you very much. Are there questions, the speaker? No. Thank you very much. Is there any other public comment? No additional public comment at this time, Mayor Ender.

Okay. Well, I'll just say that um 20 years ago, a great deal of effort went into creating this program. Um u a lot of planning, a lot of effort, and it's great to see where the program is now. Um I just want to thank you for your leadership in the last few years. I want to thank the volunteer drivers who are just really the the core of the the program. And I think it's fair to say that um this program is going to become even more important in the next few years and we need to think about how we can expand it because we are demonstrabably an aging uh community. We will be a larger community and we're going to need more means of getting people around uh without getting in their own cars. So this is just going to be uh the heart of what we do to be remain or become an even more uh age friendly city. So thank you for all you're doing. And I do want to thank the uh town of Moraga uh for their support in the in in recent years. It's been it's really really great of them to become part of the effort. So thank you very much. I also want to say thank you Lafayette staff for helping get this grant and obviously your work, but thank you again to our fabulous staff. This is important. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so now these are the uh the institutions that make a community work. We've heard from the community garden and outdoor learning center. We've heard from the spirit van and now the Lafayette library. So Rob, welcome.

I have some things to give to you all as well. These are our strategic plan updates and I'll bring those up to you all. Thank you.

All right. So, what I just handed you all are the strategic plan updates for the library for the past fiscal year. And I will be going through a presentation here which details a lot of that information um and then highlights some uh Lafayette specific um let's see what's Oh hey it's up there. Perfect. Okay. Oh, so sorry. So go second screen only. Okay. Thank you all for your patience. I assure you I have a thrilling presentation for you.

While we're waiting, I'll greet you all. It's good to see you, council. Good to see you, Mayor Andy. Good to see you, city staff. Maybe I'll duplicate. Hey Yay. Awesome. Okay, there we go. Okay, so next week is National Library Week and each year uh we like to come before the council and give information that is as I was mentioning a moment ago part of our uh updated annual progress report. And so this presentation today will be walking through some of that information and again highlighting some Lafayette specifics. So let's go ahead and jump into our presentation. Uh first of all our total circulation. Um we are on the rise for our total circulation. This includes physical and digital materials together seeing about a 9% increase in the last fiscal year. Our digital circulation is where we're seeing the largest jump. Uh the jump is up 39% over last year. Um you all may be familiar with our ebook collections which is from Libby. Um we use Hoopla which is our movies, music, audiobooks. Um and then as we have some others as well like Canopy which offers film. Um these all together make up a large number of our checkouts and as we see they're continuing to grow year after year. Our library visits are also up. So this means people who are physically coming into our buildings. We're up 10% this fiscal year over last year. Virtual, we're strangely down about 2%. virtual meaning visits to our actual our website. Not necessarily usage of our digital products, but the actual visits to the website. For our most popular books in 2025, some

of you all may see some familiar titles here from last year. Um, so we had a different title but similar author Mo Williams for our early reader book last year. different Dogman title for our middle reader book, but again, Dog Man, a very popular series among that age group. Um, the teen reader book is a new title and a new author compared to last year, Holly Jackson's A Good Girls Guide to Murder. And then for our adult read, Kristen Hannah's The Women, again, it was the most checked out adult title for Contraosta County Library. Uh, the Rolling Reader, which is our all electric early literacy van. What that does is it goes into underserved neighborhoods to provide access to reading materials. It served approximately 12,000 people with about 7,700 books distributed, issued about 150 new library cards, and covered 6675 miles. We always are looking to add new digital services to the library. As you saw from our collection usage and the increase that we see year after year, we know that people are engaging digitally in other ways as well. So we have Pebble Go, which is a new steam learning uh experience for those aimed kindergarten through 2 grade. Um we have extended expanded access to New York Times which includes new modules like cooking and games and wire cutter. And then we also have message B which is the new service for those of you who are placing holds on library materials. You'll notice that you're now getting emails that have inline pictures of the materials which you've requested. Same for if you have items which go overdue. I'm sure no one's had overdue library books here. Um but if you had you would get an email notification with images showing uh what those titles were. So summer uh summer is always a big time for the library. We do lunch at the library which is a program that works to

serve um meals to those in underserved neighborhoods. Last year we had about 14,000 meals and afterchool snacks distributed among the libraries listed there. And then summer reading is always a big effort for um practically every library. This is a a libraryto library consistent program um and Contraosta is no different. Um we saw about 14% increase last year. I'll give some more specific Lafayette information here shortly that spoiler alert we're higher than 14% increase at Lafayette. Good news. And then uh new registrations around 2000 in Beanstack, which is our online uh program that allows for people who are not interested in doing our old school paper forms, but instead wanting to do online registrations for summer reading. Um and in Beanstack, we had about 1.6 6 million minutes of reading recorded. So new things in 2025 um we have started uh developing more community languages collections. So what that means is languages that are in or materials in other languages throughout our libraries and branding it as community languages because we do know that those are languages which are spoken within our communities. Um read contraosta which is our annual read event. Last year we had James uh procedural everitz James um as our our title and then tech exchange which is a um one- on-one tech help type program that's offered um beyond the assistance that librarians can provide um and oneoff instances. So it's for deeper more um assisted um technology needs. All right, now we're here to Lafayette Library. Lots of information on one slide. So, let's walk through it together. We'll go through some of the uh statistics from Lafayette and compare them to where we were this time last

year. So, annual visitors to Lafayette Library fiscal year 2425, we had approximately or on average 221,000 people coming into the library. Now, when I say it's an average, that's because we we implemented a new people counting uh metric and software uh that went into place in September. Our fiscal year starts in July. So, the first couple months were averages based on this year's statistics. So, it is a bit of a projection. Um and then the last year was uh even more of a projection because we didn't have that people counting software and hardware in place yet. Um so from going this point going forward we will have very uh accurate statistics on the number of people who are entering our library each year and uh I would say this number here is actually rather accurate with about 10 months worth of hard data and then twoish two and a half months of uh estimated data. So um in last year we were looking at 204,000. So, we are continuing to see more people coming into our branches. Um, which does align with the previous data countywide where we're seeing an increase of people entering our buildings. Uh, programming and outreach. Uh, here at Lafayette Library, we had 390 total instances serving approximately 7,700 patrons. That looked like providing 18 out outreach visits both in school and at the library to Lafayette schools, reaching over a thousand students. and that increased from serving 700 students in fiscal year 2324. Uh Lafayette had 834 summer reading finishers with a 16% total increase over last year. As we saw in the previous slide, it was 14% across the county. So we are outperforming our um our other branches. Lafayette finished third overall. And when we look at that on a per capita basis, I do think that's

important because Lafayette is a uh it's a smaller community but a very mighty community in terms of its library uses and and also just the resources that we have here and what we've heard from our other presentations this evening. So when we look at a per capita calculation, Lafayette is ranking second after Pleasant Hill Library, which um it's hard to complete compete with Pleasant Hill. They have a fantastic brand new amazing library and it it receives a tremendous amount of usage. So, I was very happy to see that we're coming in just after Pleasant Hill. Um, we offered year-round programs that included diverse cultural celebrations, music performances and history, hands-on crafts, homework and technology help, genealogy workshops, and essential medical and legal information. You'll see some of those things in our images over here like we had our scams and fraud essential info for seniors. Um crafting program, the macra hearts class. Um tax help in the bottom right. That's a service that we provide every year where we partner with AARP. And then the photo in between the craft and AARP taxhelp is a workshop for 3D printing um where we have that is a high schooler who is teaching that class and he has been taking 3D printing workshops and working at our library for the past several years and is now starting to lead his own workshops and lead his peers. Um, and then on the bottom left we have a El Dia de los Muertos uh day of the dead altar that goes up every year where we honor that uh that cultural tradition and allow the community to bring in um items of significance for the people who have passed in their lives. Um so equipment updates. Um oh I'm sorry I missed one. Pro um we provided programming support to the Lafayette Library Learning Center Foundation on their successful day at the library event which was held in October of 2024. As far as up uh updates and equipment,

uh we did purchase a new 3D printer in the past fiscal year that supports multiple filaments, meaning that patrons are now able to combine colors for 3D printed items. Lafayette Library ranked fifth in ebook and e audio book circulation. And again, looking at that on a per capita basis, Lafayette has the highest circulation of all libraries in the system. And lastly, Friends of the Lafayette Library donated approximately $40,000 for the purchase of ebooks and physical books in addition to supporting the programming and equipment purchases made throughout the year. So, lots of fun stuff going on here at the LA Lafayette Library. And now I would love to see if you all have any questions. Thank you very much. Questioners,

I just So, thank you very much for the presentation. So, um it's very encouraging to see the number of physical people going to the library increasing. Do you have a have you guys figured out why that's the case? Are people just, you know, finally getting over the last few months of COVID or is it your programming or what what's driving that?

Um it feels like the programming is partially what's driving it. Um, also we've seen a lot of people coming in for remote work as that has started to change um the way people are doing work. They're using the library as a space for um a place to come and work remotely and just hang out throughout the day. Um we're always seeing uh new families and that's something that whenever we go to outreach events, we're always meeting new families in the community and we're hearing from them. Oh yeah, we just moved here. We came to the library. So it seems like for us we're seeing a continued number of people coming into the library who are coming for the first time and bringing their children in to hang out in the library to borrow materials to attend the story times that we're doing. Um so it seems like it's a lot of different components kind of happening all at once. Um yeah it's it's very exciting.

I hope next year continues a trend. Thank you. Yeah. And do do you have a sense of um other communities, people from other communities coming to the library? It does feel like people are coming from other communities. It feels like we have a strong Lafayette presence for sure, especially with our families. Um, but with story time, something like that, we do see that we're having families or like nannies who are or caregivers are coming to bring children across from library to library um because they appreciate the services that we have. We know that they're also visiting places like Walnut Creek um to go to story times and programs there as well. Um yeah.

Um so the new deck, the covered deck outside, how is that working out? Is that helpful or

It seems like it's great. Um, yeah. So, it is a space where people can go, children and their caregivers can go hang out on warm days. It's shaded, which is nice. So, it's a way to be outside and experience being outdoors while still being inside the library. We've got some toys out there like early literacy toys and you can also obviously take materials out. So, we'll frequently see young readers, parents outside reading together. Um, the only thing I would say the negative is just trying to get everyone to not eat a bunch of food out there because it is a lovely place to hang out and have snacks and uh, you know, I get it that that's the only that's the only negative. It's it's actually quite nice a That sounds okay. Yeah. Yeah. It's a good problem to have.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Is there any public comment? Mayor Anduri, I have uh no speaker slips for persons in our community hall and I have no hands raised in our virtual audience. Okay. Well, Rob, thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you. We have actually we have the u the proclamation. So, I need a um motion for approval of the proclamation. Some moved. I'll second. All is there any public comment on that? No public comment on the proclamation for library week. Okay. All in favor? I I

All right, it's adopted. So, we will together present it to Rob. Thank you again council for your time right now for our final presentation before we get into the other business and a very important presentation. We'll welcome Sharon Smith, outreach analyst for the California Department of Insurance. Welcome to Lafayette. Thank you so much for having me. I will say uh you know rides for seniors community garden hard one to follow up with insurance talk but um we will continue. Um thanks again. Thanks again for having me. I'm I'm pleasure to do this. Make sure I can get this up here. There we go. Um, so the purpose of this talk was really to give a legislative kind of analysis of some of the bills the California Department of Insurance is sponsoring. Um, I know Lafayette is probably very familiar with kind of the insurance crisis, so I'm not going to harp on this too much, but to put it in context, this is what we're looking at. um mostly obviously due to the growing intensity and severity of climate events and you pair that with historic inflation and something that doesn't seldom get talked about the rising cost of reinsurance. So reinsurance is insurance for insurance companies that's also getting incredibly expensive. So all of these things together are really really driving this insurance crisis and

making it so there's fewer insurance options and an accelerated growth of the fair plan. And the fair plan, as you know, is the insurance of last resort. It's the very bare bones policy. Um, and it's usually incredibly expensive since it's the pool of all of the highest risk properties in the state. Um, I put some numbers that were specific to Lafayette there. Um, the 94549 zip code. This is information from the uh fair plan themselves, but you've seen just last year 91% year-over-year increase and about Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. about 1,773 policies in force. And it looked like the year before there was about a 200% increase. Um so clearly Lafayette's one of those places where there's few fewer and fewer private insurance options. Um, I did want to talk a little bit about what the Department of Insurance has done previously with previous legislation. Uh, the first kind of thing, uh, when I I first started, we were talking a lot about the Safer From Wildfires Act, and this mandated insurers offer premium discounts for homeowners implementing wildfire mitigation. So it gave some sort of reward for risk reduction if you had zone zero uh you know defensible space um home hardening measures all of those things were um are or having to be you know awarded through discounts. The sustainable insurance strategy really built upon this. Um, this allowed for insurers to use catastrophe modeling for precise wildfire risk pricing and they factored in the mitigation that's being done at the community level, at the property level, at the landscape level um to ensure market stability. So, for a long time, homeowners are saying, "Hey, why if I'm doing all of this mitigation, is it not being taken into account for insurance?" A lot of it was due to kind of the regulatory structure uh that we had in California. insurers were only able to use the last 20 years of data. They weren't able to take into

account the mitigation that was being done. And this was a problem obviously for homeowners doing this mitigation and for insurers that are seeing that risk is increasing and they're not actually able to to account for that in their their um portfolios. So the sustainable insurance strategy, there was a lot more to it, but um this was kind of the the main thrust was allowing for catastrophe models because it allows for more um accurate risk pricing. And since we're asking, you know, homeowners to invest um especially those that are in like lowincome areas, um low-income homeowners have a really kind of high barrier for being able to complete a lot of this mitigation. So last year, a grant program was passed and this is being uh worked out right now. Now, I don't have any additional fund additional information on this, um, but it allows for grants for low-income homeowners in these high fire severity zones to apply to fund defensible space and home hardening. Um, so you see that this is kind of the the the pipeline. um these measures weren't really siloed, but they were building momentum towards delivering available insurance um and coverage statewide and really emphasizing the um importance of mitigation. Um and the reforms that I'm going to talk about today, the ones these are all passed or or being worked on like the last one, but the ones I'm going to talk about today have been introduced to the legislature but haven't passed just yet. Um, but these also aim to expand insurance options and really enhance post- disaster recovery. Really been informed by a lot of what we saw in Los Angeles um after the wildfires in 2025. So the first um act I wanted to talk about was the Make It Fair Act. This is AB1680. This mandates compliance with the insurance commissioner's recommendations from exams and operational reports within set timelines. All this means is the insurance

commissioner for several years uh was asking the fair plan to increase their staff to you know make it easier for homeowners to make policy holders to make payments. Um there's a lot of just operational um uh improvements that needed to be made to the fair plan and they didn't do any of them. And so this would mandate compliance for this because we saw um when the workloads uh and kind of the rising claims happened after the fires, they were a they were not able to actually uh they couldn't withstand that that level of of complaints and weren't able to process claims quickly. Part of that is that they weren't set up to do that. And so again, this would mandate compliance and it would impose fees for violations when they don't um actually uh you know do any of those those recommendations. It would impose uh due process protections through hearings and appeals, but it would um impose fees for not making that better. Would also provide a comprehensive coverage options. Like I mentioned, the fair plan is a really barebones policy. This would make it so it's like any other homeowner's policy that would reduce the need for separate policies for liability and for water damage, but also boost accountability and consumer protection and pathways to shift policy holders back to voluntary markets. And this would be done through uh through a clearing house program. Right now, if you're on the fair plan, it's up to you really. Like, the onus is on you to go and ask for different insurers. Um, get quotes from other people or other insurers and and see if you're able to to get off the fair plan, the clearing house program. Um, and kind of strengthening the clearing house program would make it so that the fair plan itself is auctioning off these policies to the private market. Um, so, as you know, the private market funds the fair plan. This isn't a taxpayer plan. Um, so they would go to those people or to those insurance companies

and say, "These are the plans we have. Which ones of these can you take off of our books?" So that's really it for the Make It Fair Act. Um, do you want to do questions in between or did you want to wait till the end? Well, we could ask questions as we go through. I have a question on the prior slide. Yeah.

California safe homes grant program. What's the channel for dispersal of those grants? that is still being worked out right now. This is not something This was passed last year. There's supposed to be a portal uh completed by the mid kind of midy year. I'm not exactly sure where they're at with that. That's been something that's that's kind of been worked out. Um but we're not exactly sure how much the grants are going to be, what exactly it's going to fund, if it's defensible space, if it's a new roof, if it's enclosed eaves. So, there's still lots to be kind of decided here. I'll show our um I'll have a a QR code at the end for our consumer alerts. We're sending out a lot of information through that. So, if you want to stay tuned on that kind of information, um I would definitely use that channel.

Okay. So, just to confirm that's completely separate from the funds that are available through, for example, Contraosta Fire. Exactly. Yeah. Completely different. This was a totally different California um bill that passed. Yeah. Okay. Other questions? Yeah. On the AB1680 Um, so expanding the fair plan to be outside of the fire, you know, damage,

it it just seems like that's the opposite direction that people were I mean like so what is the real justification? Is it because of that fourth point where unless they do that do they think that it will never get picked up in this clearing house? Yeah. by other insurance markets. That's that's part of it as well. And also the fact that I think that they're looking to and all of these bills are drafted. What actually gets passed is usually a lot different. Um I will say that's kind of the same question that I had. Um and this is the one this is the one point of this fair plan act that is getting the most push back, right?

Um and I I think it's partially because they've had such a hard time just passing the fire claims that adding additional claims processes is going to be difficult. I think part of it is that it needs because it's expanded so rapidly, people need coverage and in the meantime they absolutely have to have something other than that. And the fair plan is meant to be a stop gap. It's not meant to be the insurance that you have forever. And so I think that the kind of thinking behind it is that we have this full coverage option for a period of time as opposed to expanding it just so that everyone can have this this fair plan option that that covers everything. Um, I think that the plan definitely still is to remove policy holders off the fair plan. Right.

Right. Yeah. I guess I I had a similar question this one is like I mean I'd rather I mean this is fine I guess. Yeah. But uh you know I'm sure the insurance companies are probably pushing back on this imagine. Yeah. So if we have to kind of battle with the the insurance companies I guess. Yeah. My personal thing is I'd rather I think to your last point to me is more resonates more. Let's get people off the off the fair line. Absolutely. instead of trying to make this thing some sort of competitive or whatever because you know rate payers are paying it and insurance companies backstopping it like wouldn't we be better off trying to get the insurance

agreed and I think that the the um sustain uh sustainable insurance strategy there is a lot to that to entice uh insurers to come back to the state to start writing in the state again. And so definitely the direction that the department has been going is towards actually having you know um uh people off of the fair plan. And again, this is how it's written now. What exactly passes and what that might be a completely different situation feels counter to that. I'm not sure we're going to attract more insurance companies writing policy in the state with this. I mean, I don't know. Unfortunately. Yeah. Thank you.

The other act I wanted to talk about was the disaster recovery reform act. This is SB876. This is further protections after a declared emergency. Um, this would require insurers to have a disaster recovery plan. This is including the fair plan for how they're going to meet uh claims handling and meet timelines especially after a really big kind of urban fire like we saw um in Los Angeles where there's a huge kind of increase in claims. Um so this would require them to have some sort of plan for how they're going to deal with that. So it also double penalties on unfair claims practices. So right now um some insurers see penalties from the department of insurers as like the cost of doing business and they continue doing exactly what they've been doing that's either unfair to um homeowners or or policy holders. And so this would double the penalties on any of those unfair claims practices and also mandate insurers to pay direct restitution to policyh holders when they violate the law. Um there's not any actual uh verbiage in the law of what that direct restitution would be like but that is how it's written. um in the the law as as of now. This would also require a fiveday status update when a new adjuster is assigned. This is one that seems like it should be kind of common practice, but it is not um what a lot of claimants get after a any sort of claim from their insurance company is almost a roulette of different um adjusters. So this would make it that every time a new adjuster is assigned within 5 days they have to provide a status update um to the policy holder. This would also expand living expenses to 100% of policy limits. Right now it's only 60% of policy limits. Um and it would also expand these upfront payments like I said with these uh increasing policy limits but also make them payable with interest when they're late. Um the other part of the disaster

recovery reform act that's I think not it's particularly just about um after declared emergency is mandating replacement c cost options. This is something that we saw a lot um I mean this is not just in Los Angeles. This is after every single fire. Homeowners don't know that they're underinsured until after they have a loss and then they don't have enough coverage to rebuild to buy elsewhere. And part of that is that uh insurers are not required right now to estimate and update the replacement cost estimate on your home after a new or renewal policy. This does not mean that a homeowner has to get an increased coverage or they have to to pay more for their coverage. This would just make it so that there's an option and that there is some uh uh discussion about the replacement cost which I think is incredibly huge. Nobody wants to pay more in insurance but if with inflation and as costs go up it just makes more sense to update your coverage yearly. So this would force insurers to do that. This would also require safer rebuilding standards at the time of rebuilding. This is kind of a loophole we've seen exturers uh exploit a little bit in Altadena for example the they weren't in a high fire severity zone before the fires calfire maps were redrawn they're in a higher severity zone insurance companies aren't covering the building code upgrades for a high severity zone because they're saying at the time of the loss it was in a lower severity zone. Yeah. So homes that were being rebuilt some of them might not be built to the highest standards that they should be. So, this would make it so that it closes that loophole so that uh whatever the building code upgrades are at the time of rebuilding, those are the ones that insurers need to cover. Any questions? Just going to go through the last one. Uh the smoke damage recovery act SB1795.

This is another one that really really was was kind of shown to light after the fires, but this would establish science-based health-driven standards for intest inspection, testing, and restoration of smoke damaged homes and create a uniform insurance claims handling process and have required restoration protocols. A big reason why homeowners in Aladina in the Palisades um are getting their smoke damage claims denied. It's because there are no health-based guidelines for to determine when a hope is safe for rebuilding. And a lot of insurers have uh or some insurers rather have some very arbitrary guidelines about what they're going to cover. I've heard some homeowners say if it didn't their their insurance company told them if there wasn't visible smoke damage, if they couldn't smell the smoke, then they weren't going to cover it. Even if their home was testing positive for arsenic, lead, whatever it might be, they were using these kind of standards. And this is again because we don't have any guidelines for them right now. And so this would establish those guidelines and it would designate the appropriate state and local agencies to implement and enforce these standards. And in the meantime, it would provide immediate relief to survivors that are being forced to go back to their homes in unsafe conditions. They're able to rely on local public health standards for smoke testing and restoration while these standards are being finalized. They can take these to their insurance companies and say, "Hey, you can't force me back into my home if it's unsafe." So really, um, I'd love for you to consider supporting these legislative reforms. Um, we have three different um, letters, draft letters of support. I will follow up with an email afterwards so you can see those. Um, just encouraging uh, the council, encouraging your constituents to support this legislation. Um, and to just engage with our oops, sorry, engage with our department. Um, so I can again I'll I'll send those letters of support

afterwards. Most of these are being heard within the next few weeks. So, um, that's sooner rather than later would be best. Um, but if there are any other questions, feel free to reach out to me. Um, this is what I was talking about. If you would like to stay updated on legislation, regulations that have already passed, um, fraud prevention, unfair and deceptive business practices, this is our consumer alerts. We don't spam daily or weekly even. This is every couple months or every month, uh, maybe twice a month. Um, but this is a really good resource if you'd like to know, especially for the California Safe Homes Grant. The first thing that will come up about this will be in the consumer alert. This is another um kind of statewide education series uh designed to help consumers better understand important insurance topics. So, we're the department is really spearheading this as well. we're seeing, especially after these disasters, there is not a fluency around insurance with a lot of people and it's it's a very confusing confusing uh context. So, every single every other month we're tackling a different type of insurance and there's ability to ask questions and have those questions answered by um our staff and um also just kind of platform the types of resources the department does have available. So, that's all I have. I can answer any questions you might have.

Well, thank you very much. Are there any additional questions? Yeah, thank you. This was really great. Thank you for coming and taking the time to come and see us. Um, just to let you know, we have a very active ledge committee um in Lafayette and is a one of the ones we're looking at today is around the fire hazard severity maps and the other one is on uh insurance. Okay. And so do you have you are you familiar with SB 1076 by Perez? I'm not sure what what is that one actually. It is the admitted insurers residential property insurance. Okay. And it says it doesn't let insurers deny coverage if the home has a proven fire safety mitigation.

Yeah, that's not one that's actually being sponsored by our department. Oh, so those are just the ones. Those are the ones that are being sponsored. That's not all ins there's a lot of insurance regulation that's come out. Um but these are the ones that uh the commissioner worked with the drafters of this to to work on. Um, but I I have heard of that one. I just um that's not one that that our department has talked about. Appreciate it. Thank you for bringing these to our attention and we I'm sure we'll be considering them. So, thank you. Thank you. Uh actually, yeah, I just want to just briefly I want Thank you very much for sharing. I agree. I think you know we had a presentation here

um 18 months ago or whatever that I thought was fairly light on substance. This one is quite good I think as far as really getting. So, I really appreciate that. Bring it on. you know, we're all we're all worried and I just say my own personal view which indicate a little bit I mean I'm like, you know, it's really tempting to kind of bang on the insurance companies and I don't like them either, but we also like we just see how else we at the same time we need to have hold to account and get more of them here. Absolutely. So, I think it's a tough balance. So, I appreciate, you know, anything you guys can do to to both sides of that coin would be great. Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you so much for your time.

Okay. Well, let's see if we have any public comment or questions. Mayor Anduri, I have no speakers in the community hall and I have no hands raised in our virtual audience. Okay. Thank you very much for meeting with us. Come back again.

Okay. So, we're on to the consent calendar. I would like to pull item 11A and then I'll just say with respect to 11D there will be some uh just housekeeping changes to references to uh exhibit numbers on there. Um so that'll all be taken care of. So anyone like to pull any other item? Anyone in the public like to pull an item? No request to pull an item. Okay. Um, we have a motion for approval of 11 B, C, and D. So moved. Second. All in favor? I

I unanimous. 30. So that brings us to 11 A, item 15 on the agenda, and we'll consider 11 A. And the only thing I want to do there, this may not be a surprise to anyone, but on page nine of 20, um, it, uh, now says Mayor Andrew, the second paragraph on page nine of 20, Mayor Andur confirmed key pedestrian design elements, including an 8.5 foot wide sidewalk. I'd just like to make it clear. I just changed that to Mayor Andury. Ask the applicant to confirm that there will be an 8.5 foot wide sidewalk along Mount Diablo Boulevard. And then a new sentence. The applicant confirmed that there will be. So with that amendment, I would move approval of the minutes.

Second. All in favor? I I guess you Yeah. Okay. So, we're on to item 16, council commission reports.

Um I got a few things I guess to share since we last met. Um I did go down to Southern California. I'm on the uh Cal Environmental Policy Committee and so went down to um it's our second meeting. We had the first meeting in uh Sacramento. This meeting was in Southern California where we talked about some issues around uh the environment uh focused a lot on water um wildfire reactions similar to a couple of the ones that they had talked about there was you know understanding smoke damage and so on and also electricity and given that our we are MCE and a part of a CCA talking about um giving uh CCAs a little more granular ability to uh to procure power. So, those were all all good and um yeah, so it's an all day event quite um quite interesting and useful and uh it's good to have Calis on our um on our uh our side on this. Um the ones we're going to talk about later are a little more relevant to Lafayette, but they were all good. Um I also did attend the mayor's conference in Mayor Andura's absence on April 2nd and um it was good. They did talk about um again we are fortunate Lafia doesn't have that much of an issue but human trafficking and how that um of all kinds whether sex trafficking or labor um uh around major events like we have the Super Bowl uh World Cup and so on everything it just has this this this really followon event about and so there's task force lead talking about what they're doing to um to combat uh human trafficking around these areas which I thought was quite was interesting for sure. And then finally um last week uh we did meet uh the city manager and I met with um Cal City's leadership. There was a um a proposal that the city managers task force inside Cal Cities had done uh to try to as a reform trying to re help reform Bradley Burns sales tax you know and get a little more um equity or at least you know equality between the where the warehouses are located and

where the cities that where they're delivered because we do not as we know we do not get our our uh I would say our fair share of sales tax revenues from online uh sales. Um the city manager group put out a great um a great proposal to eventually kind of get down to a little more of a 50-50 split between where the um distribution centers are and the the end location. Uh the board of directors of Cal Cities um uh denied that or rejected that and so there was a question why did they? So we had a good conversation with them and it really turns out that there are not to get into there's two there there's uh there's two different parts to it. There's in-state uh distribution, out of state distribution centers. Out of state distribution centers are growing rapidly and those are the one that can be changed just through legislation. Instate distribution centers. The way that works with Bradley Burns require constitutional amendment and much much higher lift and it turns out we can get a bigger bang for our buck focusing on the out ofstate distribution centers anyway. That's where more money is and that can be done through legislation. And so they the Cal's um leadership did say they're well, you know, want to continue working on it and potentially hearing a uh another proposal next year. So that's a um I think you know it's moving us in the right direction of eventually getting more revenue from these online sales.

So what's the percentage of out of state instate debate

they say the um the ratio um I think this again I think there's just taxes that are available to collect was $1 billion out of state and four one one yeah and then 400 million instate. Yes. Apparently, according to Cal Cities, they were they were telling us that um there's been a big push from the legislature to actually not have so many warehouses in state. And so, there's a whole bunch of them being built right along the the California border on the other side. And so, that's kind of where the a growing percentage of the trans the all the deliveries are happening from. So, the out ofstate version, which we didn't quite realize, is actually an easier lift and is a bigger impact. So, that's what we're going to be doing. I know we we'd always been thinking we're talking about, you know, Central Valley, but turns out that's not where the growth is. The growth is out of state, out of state distribution centers. So, I don't know if the city manager can certainly give a give a characterization, but it was it was quite an interesting conversation.

Well, I just my immediate reaction is the environmental impact of I totally I totally agree. I know now we have uh more uh more uh trucks on the road going longer distances, but apparently that's where that's where it is. So, putting that aside, I think that's a path for legislative relief hopefully for Bradley Burns.

Okay. On Saturday, I had uh two events uh presenting proclamations. One was uh the Okalanas chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. um uh had an event uh honoring the marquee de Lafayette, including a fif and drum corps that marched from here to the um the statue in the plaza and uh actually it was uh it was it was great to hear them play. Um and so that was that was good. They laid a wreath around the statue. Um there will be more uh coming uh with the historical society uh and uh others who are collaborating including the Okalanas chapter of the D uh in our celebration of our 250th celebration focusing on the role of France and supporting America's uh independence. So more to come on that. Uh and then the second event uh was at Okanes High School. It was um uh Okalanus High School students. The event was lead the way diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging. Students took the the lead in putting together along with the uh DEIB committee. It was a despite the rain, it was uh uh because it had to move indoors into the cafeteria. It was a well- attended event and I thought uh very inspirational to see the groups who were there including the uh student involvement and in organizing the the event. Um so that's it. Anything? Okay. Okay. Um I do have slides for my trip but no one shows.

Okay. So we're on to 16B. Council member Kandell.

Great. So, um, my fellow ledge committee member, uh, Council Member Son is not here, so I've put together something. Um, first bill AB1942, and I, it's the, um, Rebecca Barahan's ebike Accountability Act, and why we didn't, we've actually had two meetings on this, and it didn't come to the prior agenda, came to this one. Um because this bill is actually straightforward intending to add to the growing number of ebike safety legislations in the works and it simply requires class 2 and class 3 ebikes to be registered with the DMV and have a special license plate. It is very very simple. However, we had the first ledge committee meeting. We received really good feedback from avid bike rider David Dondereo and who was pretty critical of the bill and thought that we need to be taking this legislation towards more European standards. So Jim and I thought it would be prudent to meet with the assembly member and talk to her about it. But then in between that time, our emergency services coordinator, Andy Connley, sent us a really great report and an assessment of all how we should how Lafayette should proceed with ebike legislation. And so this report would then helped convince us we need to simply endorse AB1942 cleanly as it'll be very helpful for our police if these faster bikes had license plates on them. So this is why we have a support for this um bill at this meeting and we will continue to reference both David Danderea's report and Andy Commy's report to help us navigate um other ebike safety legislations in the future. Um we also at that meeting asked uh staff to pursue other items suggested by officer comm especially on training and education. So I would like to recommend support of that bill. Do you want to take questions now on each bill or I'll go through?

Let's do questions. Okay. Great. Um I can go first. No, go ahead. Um so one one question I had uh this is great. I know I I I was this is the first one where it actually said we had a watch in the memo and then we but you were recommending support which I did note but the other one I know we did hear I believe in one of our other or something that um most of these licensing uh bills have failed because of the cost required to doing that. So, this talks about just taking money out of the general fund or is there No, there was Is it selfunding? I guess I just kind of worry that Yeah, there was a fund set up for this one. Hang on. I know. I wasn't sure. It was unclear how it was. I know it said there's a fund, but like Well, yeah, you still have to fund it when you get Yeah, when you register it with the DMV, I think you have to pay. Okay. So, that's it'll be self-paying.

Self-paying. Okay, that that's my only worry is that uh it would get killed again, especially in this era of austerity we're in with state. So, Right. Great. Otherwise, no, it made sense to me. Okay. Okay. Is there any public comment? No public comment on this item. Okay. Why don't we just um do you want to move just move? Oh. Oh, I move approval of support um of AB1 1942. I will second. All in favor? I. Okay. Great.

Next one. AB 2517. These are the fire hazard severity map zone maps. And basically this one covers the responsibilities of the state fire marshall regarding the designations of local responsibility zones into the moderate high and very highest um severity zones. But the real meat of this bill is that it will require the state fire marshall to update the fire zones every 5 years. So right now the updates are kind of haphazard and unpredictable but this will enforce a five-year review. And this is why we uh recommend supporting this bill. Okay. And um I looked at this before but no what what is the fiscal impact of of this?

I don't think it I don't think uh we didn't get report of that. Okay. All right. Any comments or questions? Any public comments? No public comments. I move to support AB 2517. I will second. All in favor? I Okay. do 1557.

Okay, the next one is AB557 um electric bikes. Um we also recommend supporting and this bill reduces the speeds that an ebike can add assistance. It doesn't reduce the top speeds of these bikes. It just it can't add any more speed to it. And so now the max speed um of assist is 20 m hour for class one and two and this bill reduces this to 16 mph. It also makes manufacturers cannot allow these bikes to get power upgrades like so many do now and it has really really big fines if they do. Um so this is why the leg committee supports this one. Okay. Comments, questions, public comment. No public comments.

Motion. I move that we support AB557. Second. All in favor? I

um SP 868 by Senator Weiner, portable solar generation devices. And uh this bill defines portable, it actually gives us a definition of a portable solar generation device and allows residents to use them in their homes um to power any devices they choose. This also makes sure that the system cannot be attached and feeding in the grid during a power outage, which is a real safety concern. It is thought that many residents might choose this to offset their high energy bills and gives renters access to these devices that they may not have in their buildings otherwise. It does not let um utilities like PG& have any control over these devices and no fees can be attached. So the ledge committee supports this bill. We think Lafayette residents may choose to have this in in our rental units especially.

Just brief comment. I thought this was a this is excellent. I mean it's like you know Scott Weiner bill very exciting and um I think it's great. I think I mean just a pining that the um you we all talk about electric vehicles and all the things that are so great and we kind of ignore the fact that a lot of these things are not practical for people that live in apartments or whatever and this is like a hey let's kind of address it and um I think it's terrific. Yeah. Okay. Can I ask the the um opposition here? Not surprising is well some of it's not surprising but for the unions. Is it because a lot of this would be do it yourself? Yes. Okay. All right. Um, is there any public comment? No public comments.

I move that we um support SB868. I'll second that. All in favor? I. It's unanimous.

All right. Last one. SB 1076, admitted insurers residential property insurance. So in a nutshell, it doesn't let insurers deny coverage if the home has proven fire safety mitigations implemented according to the insurance commissioner such as home hardening and defensible space. So that that's a two-part thing. The insurance commissioner has to define these things and you have to get, you know, sign off that you've done these things. And it penalizes insurance who still deny insurance the ability to sell home and auto insurance in the state for 5 years. So basically if if insurers don't follow it, they can't sell home or auto in the state. We discussed how the penalties not might not be in California's best interest, but think that this will just provide some leverage over the insurers as a more of a threat. Don't think that they're going to do that very often because that would be a big impact. Um so we came around to supporting it.

Okay. Comment. No comments. Okay. Okay. I move that we support SP set 1076. I'll second. All in favor? I. It's unanimous. Great. We're all in. Okay. And we did have a quick question. There was one more bill in the packet. I noticed to do anything with that. Um, we did make Okay, that's fine. Can we talk about it's not on the agenda? Never mind. Okay. Yes. We may be bringing it back. Okay. And you didn't uh did you want to say anything about the legislative matrix? Do you have any questions on it? Nope. Okay.

All right. That's a separate item. So, is there any public comment on 16C? No comment on 16C. Thank you. Okay. Well, let me just say thank you to you, to Jim, and to staff who look at all these things so carefully so that we can look at it and rely on your judgment. So, thank you very much. Okay, item 17, a email from Larry Blahett. We have the letter. Um, the recommendation is to approve the street closure. We have a motion for adoption of resolution 202628.

I move that we adopt uh resolution 20 2026 28. A second. Is there any public comment? No public comment. Okay. All in favor? I I. And so that's approved. And then our final item uh email from Roger Deming unfortunately resigning from the uh planning commission which is a shame because uh he was a very strong member of the planning comm. I will echo that kind just seeing what he you know the questions he was asking and he really dug into the weeds and uh he was a great addition to the the commission for as long as he was on. I hope he comes back when his work life balance allows.

Okay. And so we will adjourn this evening in memory of Norm Tuttle uh who was uh elected to the city council in 1976 and served as mayor in 1979. We were informed of his passing recently and we are grateful for his service. We look at where we are today in Lafayette and it's because of people like Norm Tuttle who took leadership early on. So thanks to him and his family and we will adjourn in his memory.