Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

530 will call the meeting to order let the record show that all council members are present can i have a motion for adoption of the agenda so moved second all in favor say aye aye it's unanimous uh we're on to item 5a Group, do you want to say something? Are we just, okay, can I have a, well, I'll move that the council declares interest in 3483, 3487, 3489 Mount Diablo Boulevard and retire to closed session to discuss the price in terms of payment for a potential transaction. Is there a second? I'll second. All in favor? Aye. No public comment.

yes is there any public comment on item 5a before the city council goes into closed session mayor andury i have no speakers in the don tatson community hall and i have no hands raised in our virtual audience

Okay, so we'll vote again. All in favor? Aye. Aye. It's unanimous, 5-0. So now we'll take public comment on any item that we'll be discussing in closed session. Item 6A, B, C, D, and E. Is there any public comment on any of those?

Mayor Anduri, I have no commentors in the community call on item 6A, B, C, D, and E. and I have no hands raised in our virtual audience.

All right, thank you. So we will adjourn to closed session and we will return at 7 p.m.

CJ, are we ready? Yes.

All right, it's 7 o'clock. We're back in session. There is no reportable action from our five items on the closed session agenda. Please join in the Pledge of Allegiance. As we meet this evening, we acknowledge that Lafayette is part of the unceded ancestral homeland of the Bay Miwok people. The Bay Miwok and neighboring Ohlone people have lived in and moved through this place for thousands of years. They stewarded and shaped this land for hundreds of generations. We express our appreciation and gratitude for this profound legacy, which enhances and contributes to our lives to this day. We will strive to honor this land and strengthen our ties with the indigenous communities that continue to live and work in our East Bay region as our neighbors and community members. We acknowledge and honor them and their ancestors, elders, and next seven generations. Now on to public comments. This is an opportunity for anyone to address the council on any issue, not on the agenda, but within the purview of the council, and you will have up to three minutes.

We'll take callers in the Don Tatson Community Hall first. Please fill out a yellow speaker slip if you wish to speak. And I have one speaker here, and I have no hands raised yet in our virtual audience. Our first speaker is Pamela West. Pamela, make sure the button is green on the... On the microphone?

Okay.

Welcome.

Thank you so much. My name is Pamela West and I am running for the Contra Costa County Office of Education's Governing Board. I am doing so because I care about educating children. For many years, I was on the Orinda Union School District governing board, and serving was one of the highlights of my life, honestly. Contra Costa County has been our family home for over 40 years. My husband and I raised our four children here. They all went through public schools and graduated even from college. And we're very proud of them and are happy that they had those opportunities. And I want to make sure that every child in Contra Costa County has the same opportunities. So my goal on the Contra Costa Board of Education will be to help ensure that every student receives the best education possible and a chance to reach their highest potential. I will bring to the board a collaborative, results-focused approach to building strong schools and communities where every child can succeed. So I spoke to many members of school boards around the county, including the Lafayette School Board, and this is the list that we all agreed on as far as what the county could do for the school districts in this area. cybersecurity systems, AI approaches and monitoring, mandated program guidance and instructional tools, professional development for teachers, proven special education programs, funding, advocacy, more collaboration between district and the county. And to those I would add, adequate counseling and health services and emphasis on reading that begins with early reading programs, math and science programs that serve the needs of all students. And that whole list that I just read off is something that the new county superintendent agrees on as well, because we've had that discussion. So this community has benefited so much from, for my family, and I am determined to give back and to continue working hard to make sure that children get educated to their fullest potential. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you, are there questions for the speaker? Pardon me. Thank you very much. Okay, thank you.

Mayor Endury, there's no additional speakers at this time.

Okay, so we'll move on to the next item, our city manager's update.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, everyone. Here are updates from city departments. A reminder that this Wednesday, September the 16th, from 10 a.m. to noon, State Senator Tim Grayson will be hosting a free senior scam stopper seminar at the Veterans Memorial Building, and experts will share tips for how to recognize scams, how to protect your personal information, and help protect the people that you love. It's free, but you do need to RSVP through his office. If you're looking for a meaningful way to stay connected in the community and to give back, the Senior Services Commission is hosting its Senior Volunteer Fair, Make a Difference, Make a Friend, on Tuesday, October the 6th, from 10 a.m. to noon in this very room. And this fair will bring together local nonprofits and older adults who are looking for ways to share their time, expertise, and talents. And so whether you have just a few hours or want to get more involved, there will be plenty of opportunities to find a good fit. I hope everyone has received the new vistas in your mailboxes. They should have dropped over the weekend. It's a great look at the many ways art adds character to Lafayette, and the vistas is entitled Celebrating Art Where We Live, Work, and Gather. And finally, I'm very pleased to announce that we have a new member of city staff. It's our canine, Elwood. Elwood is an 18-month-old Belgian Malinois named in honor of Pittsburgh police officer Larry Elwood Lassiter, who was killed in the line of duty. Officer Harper and Elwood recently completed their six-week patrol canine training course and they started working last week on September the 10th. They'll soon be headed back to school for explosives detection training as well and we're looking forward to introducing Elwood to the City Council and to the community at an upcoming Council meeting and with that I'd be available to answer questions Any questions or comments from the council?

Is there any public comment?

No public comment

Okay, we're on to our presentations. During 2026 and 2027, we're beginning the first council meeting of each month with a presentation by an organization that either offers lifelong learning opportunities, promotes the arts, or both. We're doing this to strengthen two of Lafayette's core civic values. The first is the city's commitment to lifelong learning, which is specifically called out in our city mission statement. The second is the city's goal of embedding the arts in our civic life and in the fabric of our community, making visual and performing arts part of our surroundings and everyday lives. So far this year, we have heard from eight wonderful organizations that promote these civic values. And today, we hear from another, Berklee Chamber Performances. For more than 30 years, Berklee Chamber Performances has presented intimate chamber music concerts in the East Bay, primarily in Berklee. But for the last three years, right here, in this room, on this stage, in Lafayette. Today we'll hear from its founding director, Joanne DePhillips, and board member, Mark Hodgson. Welcome.

Yeah.

Turn this up. Thank you very much for inviting us this evening.

And we've been thrilled to be performing here for the last three years. And we'll give you a bit of a history of how we came here. As Mayor Onduri indicated, yeah, we started Berkeley Chamber performances in September of 93. And our concerts are at the Julie Morgan's historic Berkeley City Club. So this will be our 34th year there. Starting in 2000, and we do chamber music. We present chamber music anywhere from two players to we've had actually a chamber orchestra. In 2017, we started a consortium with the Gold Coast Chamber Players who performed here for many, many years with Pam Freund-Striplin as director. And also part of that consortium was the Mill Valley Chamber Music Series and Noe Valley Music. So we did those. We presented one concert a year. with all of those groups, all of those organizations, we would pick an ensemble that each of the groups individually could not afford, but together we could because these groups would come from wherever and even if they were local and would be able performing for venues, and that was very good for all of our budgets. So we did that through 2023, which was the last year that the Gold Coast Chamber Players were in existence. And then we decided this is such a lovely place to play. The acoustics are fabulous in this room, and all of the performers love performing here. So thank you for that. for that opportunity. So we decided we spoke to Pam and said, you know, you guys are going to be gone. And so there will be no chamber music in Lafayette, would we would would it be okay if we present it there? she agreed to that and we spoke to the library and we've just had a wonderful time here so this will be our fourth year and we're looking the thing that we're looking for is to increase our audience because we our audiences are not so large as they had been with when the Gold Coast were here and they're not so large as our venue in Berkeley so we have a huge task to increase our our audience and uh if you folks have any suggestions we're very eager to hear them because we would love to to do that because we would love to keep coming here so mark has a little bit to tell you about our upcoming program and we have brochures for our excuse me we have brochures for our upcoming season

So first of all, good evening, and thank you so much for inviting us here this evening. So yes, each year we have a total of five concerts, and so we have five in Berkeley, and then here we have three. So this year's lineup is we have the Telegraph Quartet, and they were Bay Area based for years and years, and they've since moved on to University of Michigan, but now they come back every now and then and perform here in the Bay Area, which is very special for the for the greater community here. So they'll be presenting a concert on Saturday, September, sorry, Saturday, October 17th. And that's a lovely program with Shostakovich, Mendelssohn, and Korngold. And then in January, September, I keep saying September, we're in September, January 23rd of 2027, we will have a Saturday as well. We will have the Ensemble Ari, and they're an area-based group of mainly Korean women, and they have performed a lot here in the La Miranda area. And they'll be performing again on Saturday, January 23rd. And then finally, on February 20th, we will have the Ensemble San Francisco, which is a pianist, I think it's going to be a pianist, cellist, violinist, and violist, and they will be performing... They're doing the Beethoven Op. 127, one of the very famous late quartets. So it's a wonderful lineup. We do offer season tickets, so there's a little bit of a discount if they get season tickets. And again, anything you can do to help us get the word out there and increase our numbers, we'd be thrilled to have this place filled every time we have a concert here.

and the other the other um offering that we have is for children uh anybody through high school doesn't pay anything they can just come and uh higher ed students will are are admitted for half price so yeah so anybody connected to schools uh if you have any uh music programs that you can let it be known that they're welcome to come here to concert for free

Thank you.

Do you have any questions? Thank you, yes. Any questions, comments?

Well, just briefly, so I guess I'm obviously a fan of musical performances, so, you know, with our music store, so we appreciate that I think, you know, having opportunities for adults to perform and, you know, the students to listen is just always great. It helps kind of build the overall community, so obviously, you know, I think getting the word out to the high schools in this area have incredibly accomplished groups, and so, you know, happy to kind of like we should make the connections there, so... That's great. It's a resource that we should really take advantage of. So thank you very much. Thank you so much.

And so you have materials you could share with us and with the city staff? That would be terrific. Thank you.

I have to say thank you so much for coming out here. I can say that I attended one of your concerts last year, and it was spectacular. Great, thank you. Incredible. And this venue is so good for chamber music because it is not that big, and every seat is a great seat.

It's actually better than our Berklee venue for the acoustics. Yeah, right. I mean, we love our Berklee venue, but the acoustics here are... really outstanding and the staff here is wonderful as well yes that's great to hear yeah well thank you very much we'll definitely get the word out to the school community and hopefully we can get some more young people here so where should we because we have business cards and brochures season brochures um to leave we'll just leave them with you excellent great thank you thank you so much

I'll just say that anyone here, if you don't believe it about the acoustics, and you probably don't because for a meeting it's not that great, but come and listen. It is unbelievable. The musicians, the performances are wonderful, but to hear the texture of the sound in this room is just really a surprise. So thank you very much for coming to Lafayette for the last three years, and we hope that we'll have full concert halls for you and that you can expand to five concerts in Lafayette over the next few years. That will be our goal. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Is there any public comment?

No public comments. Okay.

Thank you. Okay, so on to item 11b the creeks committee annual update goals and accomplishments. I Welcome the floor is yours. Okay.

Thank you Mayor Ann dory and council members. It's been another year keeps going around So I think you've had a chance to look at our goals and accomplishments over the last year We're going to be a little different this year. I'll just give you a short PowerPoint of our project at Lee Creekside Park that we've been working on for quite a while, and it's moving into a new phase, and so you'll see that. One thing we didn't... I think get on the accomplishments was Mary Jo went around and checked all the creek identification signs in town and replaced one and made sure they were cleaned up and looking good. So we did that as well this year. So I will just move right along. You guys want to introduce yourselves first?

So yeah, here we go Yeah, so the Bleak Creekside Park project

has been going on for quite a few years. Actually, I'm not exactly sure how many because I couldn't find the first record of it perhaps in my collection easily. But I did find that I think this was a planting plan that was put together by the Friends of Lafayette Creeks. So we actually used to have a friends group that Carl Piercy headed up for quite a few years and it was That group that first proposed the restoration of the creek bank there at Lee Creekside Park a year or two after the park became a park. So it's been going around for quite a while. I did find one picture in my collection of the restoration site in 2003 before I think any of the plants were put in the ground and there were some old snags in there and things. Invasive trees and things that got removed so that's what I look like in 2003 looking downstream And then in 2007 They had put the steps in coming down to the restoration site area and done the initial restoration planting by that time. This is looking from the trail that's now closed across over at the bank there at Lee Creekside Park. And part of the restoration was putting the signage in both the plants that were planted there and the invasive plants that were removed. And those signs are getting to look a little tatty so i think we should probably replace them pretty soon but they're still out there then the next sort of big event i found in my collection is 2012 creek day and this this was quite a creek day something we should all aspire to to see if we can put together again so that creek day we had quite a few presentations caught some fish out of the creek, which we put back in, and showed the public what actually was living in the creek. And we had quite a few high school students that volunteered. And that's when we removed a lot of the blackberry from the central part. And I'll show you the restoration site coming up. And then on the Lafayette Community Day 2025, we had quite a big group. And this is when we first started working with the La Mirinda Sunrise Rotary Club, who supported us in a big way and continue to do so. And so we had a big turnout there. This is what the site looked like in 2025. You can see the riprap has been now placed on the other side of the creek where the big slide was. So I guess that's post dates when they drove the equipment across our restoration site to put that riprap in. And so in 2024, restoration trust who has been during doing well i guess we we paid them a little bit for that right we get two thousand dollars two thousand dollars for for a plan so Zone 1 was the first zone in the center that we restored, and that's what you saw in the photo before. Zone 2 is not in too bad a shape. It's had a little bit of work done on it. But Zone 3 was total blackberries on a steep bank. And that's the next phase that we're now moving into. And so Restoration Trust, John Zentner, came up with a planning plan for that. And then in this year, we talked with the California Urban Streams Partnership people, which are the county contracts to help out with stream bank issues in the county. And they develop a plan for revegetating that slope, that steep slope. And that involved not only working on the upper bank, which is where John Zentner's plan was, but also doing some stabilization work on the lower part of the bank, which will require stream bed alteration permitting to actually do that work. That's kind of the next phase that we need to do is get this permit in place, which is going to require some planning and probably some money. So just foreshadowing there that we probably need some help. And so here's what that bank looked like last year before we removed the blackberries, which pretty much totally covered it. And here we are this year when the blackberry's gone and the bank's ready to get the replanting. But again, we can't touch the lower third, which is above normal high water stream mark. And as a little aside, I found this picture from 2001 when we did a stream survey. So you can see this, the former landowner before it became a park had put this Barrier in here to keep the bank from eroding on that side because the water comes around and it Hits where that slide is and it reflects off and then it comes over on the the bank of the park there and so that it is susceptible to Erosion as you can see right there below where Ron is that's This this is what it looks like today that structure. So we want to, when we go for the permit, to also remove that sort of dilapidated structure and then go in and put willow posts and weave together other materials, natural materials, to protect that lower bank which is getting undercut in a little bit there. And that is it. So what we're doing right now is we are planning for a planting event. And we're looking for volunteers to help us out. It's November 14, 15? 14, 15. Yeah. So coming up November 14 and 15. will be planting. In the meantime, we're putting some jute fabric over the bank to make sure it stays stable, and then we'll be planting through that. And that work has all been supported by the La Mirinda Sunrise Rotary Club, which they've given us a $10,000 this year and We need to spend that money this year We may not have a happy partnership in the future because they have to have that money spent so I We're going ahead with that. We're doing the planting. We're working on getting the permits in place to do the lower work on the lower bank. The urban stream partnership people will be able to come out and help us in collaboration with the resource conservation district to do the lower work once we get everything in place to do that. So that's kind of our big plan there. The other thing, a big focus that we need to keep our eye on is making sure that we get a consultant contracted to do the environmental work needed for the West Reach project. We need to make sure that there's enough staff time or whatever to get that in place because we can't go anywhere until we get that going so that's a very high priority on our list and the other thing i think you know we're going to work on looking for more grant money it's not real encouraging at this point in time but really we can use more money for that project but So we're gonna work on that this year. And I think the one other thing that would be a high priority is seeing if we can get this youth outreach program in some sort of form going this year. So that's kind of where we're at. And we're ready for questions.

Okay, thank you. Are there questions, comments? Jim.

So I'm curious, you mentioned permit, so is it like fish and game or Army Corps of Engineers or who are you dealing with?

Well, so fish and game for sure. If we go in the water, probably Corps of Engineers too.

OK. Yeah. So like removing the remains of that wooden structure, that's, you got to deal with those agencies to do that.

Yeah, we're getting in the water so I'm pretty sure we'll have to get a, what is it, 404 permit to Corps of Engineers to get in the water.

And I have another one which is completely unrelated, but I can't, I think every single day I read an article about the super El Nino that's coming our way, which means potentially a lot of rainfall. I think of that and like when I used to live on a creek in Orinda and the water went from like six inches to 12 feet in like three hours. So are there issues that we should be aware of? Like if we have extreme rain events with respect to our creeks and the things the city should be looking out for? to maybe get ready for this if and when it happens later in the fall or winter?

Well, I think one thing for sure is some of the culverts have grates on them. And we definitely need to make sure that those are clear before the rains start, because that has been an issue in the past.

I guess I'd say as much as possible, If there are obstructions in the creek in the way of trash, debris, branches, these types of things will tend to capture even more debris as it comes down. So it becomes much more of an issue. It was during a couple of the El Ninos five, six years ago that we had the problem with the collapse of the bank on the north side. And it's just part of the fact that these creeks are prone to that sort of thing. So the best you can do is try to keep the flows without allowing them to become obstructed, if at all possible.

Actually, we used to have, when I started here, annual inspections that staff would do of the creeks. And then they became like every five years. And now they don't happen, I don't think, at all. So we used to be able to know where those trash buildups were and to notify the landowners. To do something about them, but we don't really have a good handle on that anymore and you know so We don't you know we don't know where that is really today and as far as bank failure areas I mean we know some places that are susceptible, but You know, it's a crapshoot where the failure is going to happen, but we do know there will be failures.

I saw our city manager taking furious notes as you spoke, so thank you, city manager. Thank you.

I just want to express my, I mean, I know that Grease Me is one of the hardest working communities we've got. You guys are actually out there doing the work, right? It's not just doing studies and working on press releases or whatever. And I really did enjoy the... look back to say this is obviously not this is not a problem a problem or situations that were solved it's about constant maintenance and constant renewal and you got me in for the long term and i mean obviously some of you are new or some of you have been there for a while and i want to appreciate your dedication and uh and uh is making material difference making lafayette really terrific so i want to just express my sincere uh gratitude for all the work that you guys do thank you

Yeah, I second that. Thank you so much for this comprehensive report, and it's really, really great to see all the restoration work that you have underway. It's exciting to think about what you'll accomplish in the next year. Thanks for reaching out to Akilani's. I'm glad to see that you started that connection. I hope that you'll be able to continue and get extra able bodies to help with your work and then i wanted to ask you about the las trampas creek east bay regional park or yes east bay regional park district trail and what the latest update you've heard about that work yeah you you probably have heard more directly anybody else doug

I have worked with Linda DeChambeau for a number of years in several different capacities and she's the local board chief for this particular area. We've had regular communication with her. And she's been instrumental in moving things along inside the park district in terms of getting a few things taken care of, such as the bridge next to the gazebo is supposed to be replaced I believe fall of next year. That's the last we've heard. There is still some question as to what's going to happen with regard to the trail. uh... right now uh... you may have seen in the one picture that was relatively updated uh... that you could see that the rip rap came in and there was sort of an undercut area underneath the the asphalt the idea that they want to essentially top uh... put in a layer of some sort of uh... Yeah, sort of a cantilever structure, although I don't think they're putting any counter supports or anything like that. But nonetheless, the idea is they're basically going to flatten the area and complete that trail. And they don't want the bridge completed until the trail is completed. We have Linda and a couple of her colleagues are coming into our meeting in October. to give us an update. And I know that among the things that she has on her agenda is to establish better continual communication between the two organizations. One other thing that certainly I have on my list is they actually have a foundation that goes looking for money. And I would like to tap into that. Linda has suggested it and now I'm going to see if we can actually make use of that.

please thank the sunrise rotary on our behalf when you guys deal with them because they have just been so wonderful recently they've kind of adopted you guys as a little pet project and I it's fabulous so definitely thank them on our behalf okay are there any public comments no public comments mayor andery

Okay, thank you for all that you've done in the past year and for all that you're going to do in the next year. We know it's going to be a lot, so thank you. Okay. We're on to item 12, the consent calendar. Is there any item that a council member would like to remove from the consent calendar? Seeing none, is there any item that a member of the public would like to request be removed?

I have no request, Mayor Endury.

Okay, I have a motion for approval of the consent calendar.

I'll move approval of the consent calendar. I'll second. All in favor?

Aye. It's 5-0. The consent calendar is approved. We're on to item 13A, old business. mayor and we will we will convene the successor agency to the lafayette rda tim it's all yours okay can you hear me yes

bring before us the team that was put together to refinance the redevelopment agency success agency bonds and Tonight Ken's not able to make it with us, but we have a part of the team that he put together We have Eric McKean from Ramirez and company as the underwriting firm And we have James where isn't the act from Jones Hall the bond disclosure council and they'll give the presentation to this to us this night and

Okay, and we'll stipulate that we've all read these documents and you can just give us the key things we might not, that we might need to focus on. I can guarantee that one member of the council has read the documents with interest and pleasure.

Absolutely right. Thank you very much, Mayor and Council Members, now sitting as the board of the Lafayette Successor Agency. So as I think Ken Deeker described at the last meeting, when we kicked this project off, of course, Lafayette had a redevelopment agency. It issued some bonds primarily to finance this wonderful structure, this library and accompanying improvements back in actually that was 2002 2005 2008 bonds were issued successor agencies were dissolved in 2011 2012 helped with sort of the state budget deficits and at that time the City Council became the successor agency board all the successor agency can do now is essentially wind down the affairs of the agency, and part of that is being able to refinance bonds, if economic. So again, at the last meeting, you approved Success for Agency City staff to move forward with drafting documents, and we eagerly set about doing that as as the mayor indicated in the package tonight is a resolution as well as about 150 pages of documentation pursuant to which these refunding bonds could be issued if the market is is right and we'll get into that as well as a disclosure document that describes the lafayette successor agency the project area all those things so Again, we're here tonight to walk you through those documents, seek your approval to continue moving this process forward. The slide here shows the requested action, which again is to adopt the resolution actually authorizing the issuance of refunding bonds. Those were to refund the existing 2014s and 2015 bonds, which in turn refunded those 02s and 05s and 08s that I mentioned. So it's a little bit like refinancing your mortgage, right? We can lower the interest rate. and reduce the debt service which uh results in savings obviously to the successor agency and all the affected taxing entities so the resolution is the operative document what the resolution does is uh authorize successor agencies city staff to essentially carry out whatever would be required to finalize the transaction subject to the parameters you see there on the screen Most importantly there has to be a minimum 5% net present value savings So there needs to be a meaningful amount of savings here for for the transaction to get finalized We're kind of hovering right around that number right now. We were higher a month ago When we were before you unfortunately as we all know the bond market has not been favorable to us in the last few weeks and so we are in the municipal bond world part of that too. Eric McKean will go through that a little bit more in depth. But again, we're shooting for that 5% minimum net present value savings. The underwriter's discount, the amount we pay to the Ramirez and Company as the underwriter of the bonds would be no more than .35%. all other costs of issuance are included you know in that savings parameter how we get paid how other members of the team get paid all happens as part of that savings threshold there's no extra costs and again we want to approve the resolution part of that is executing all the various documents that are in the agenda package they're kind of being approved tonight as to form there's blanks there's things to be finalized Mr. Cervantes did very thankfully send us some comments. Not too many. We were very happy. There was not too many errors in there. But again, a few little corrections he pointed out to us, which we'll make in the next document. One, for example, should we have a potential risk factor regarding the Lafayette Reservoir dam failure, right? If there should happen to be something there. Unlikely, unlikely. But again, we want to disclose any potential risks. Bondholders, so that's the kind of thing that will continue to work on the documents improve them finalize them before we would sell any bonds And then finally step three is just you know again authorizing city staff to go out there in the market find Interested buyers of this debt and hopefully be able to lock in that that minimum five percent savings and Next slide, kind of, again, just an overview for everyone's benefit. What we're doing here is we're refunding existing debt for savings. The 15 bonds and the 14 bonds, we are not extending the maturity, so the 2038 maturity on the debt would stay the same. Public offering means we're gonna go out there, we're gonna talk to all the mutual funds, all the pension funds, all the high net worth individuals, anybody that is interested in owning a municipal bond in California. to make sure we get the lowest cost of capital. RPTTF pledge, of course, is what the successor agency receives. That's the Redevelopment Property Tax Trust Fund. Now that it's a successor agency entity, it's the share of the 1% ad valorem tax that goes to the agency. If economic, we might get bond insurance, reserve fund surety. Those just kind of help the credit. Wherever the success rate you see credits at, it maybe boosts the credit a little bit. And so if economic, we would purchase those using bond proceeds. The current structure is level savings. So whatever savings amount is anticipated through 2038, you're kind of going to see that in equal chunks. every year and i say you all meaning the successor agency but also of course all the affected taxing entities which we have on the next slide all the agencies that would benefit from the refunding um the bonds would be non-callable meaning this is kind of the last last issuance you know usually um bonds in the municipal world are a 10-year no-call period so here we're going out to 2038 which is more like 11 or 12 years but Unlikely you're gonna refund that last one or two years only so if we say all 12 years are non callable you're gonna get a lower cost of capital, so that's the That's the plan here and again the the final bullet is the most important one Which is we're all here to try to lower the interest rate bring the money back to this community as opposed to paying the existing bondholders

Good evening. In preparation for this meeting, we prepared a bond sizing using interest rates as of August 24th, so a couple weeks ago. And as you can see on this slide, the savings generated at the time was a little over $2 million gross. That translates into a little bit under $1.7 million in NPV savings. As the savings, as James alluded to, is allocated to each one of the underlying taxing entities, what one of your consultants put together is this summary table. It's a little small, the font, but what we highlighted here is the amount of savings that would go to the city's general fund. The city receives about 6% of the 1%. So what that equates to, all those saving numbers that I talked about on the previous slide, is the general fund would receive about $127,000 of gross savings from this refunding, and all the other taxing entities are laid out here with their share of the savings. Again, this is as of August 24th, interest rates. As James alluded to, the market has been very volatile, especially over the last week. We have a very special benchmark in the tax exempt market called MMD. It's representative of all the AAA rated issuers in our market. That benchmark has moved about 40 basis points since we updated the numbers in August 24. So I did update the sizing result today using today's interest rates, and the NPV savings are right around 4.3%. So they've dropped below the threshold. A lot of that's just been driven by the headline risks and the geopolitical developments that are happening in Iran and now the Red Sea. And that's caused the price of oil to really increase, and there's been inflationary pressures from that, which we're all reading about in the daily headlines. I do think there's some items on the horizon that investors will be focused on. The next is the FOMC meeting later this week. That's when the Fed is likely going to increase its Fed funds policy rate. That's what the market's currently expecting. but also provide a little bit more forward guidance on how it's going to handle inflation. If there's one silver lining to all this, the California municipal bond market is still performing very well. Transactions are getting done orderly. It's just yields have increased along with other yields in other markets. Looking at a tentative schedule, this is more of a roadmap than set dates and time. But we are in front of you today asking for your approval, even though we have slipped below the threshold. But what that does is it then allows us to go to the oversight board for its approval, and then to start the process with the DOF to then get its approval, which can take up to 60 days. so by getting all this approved we'll be able to you know assess how market conditions change and then also be very nimble if market conditions do get better we can move quickly execute all these other steps and we're very optimistic achieve those five percent mpv savings if not greater so even though we've kind of fallen below the saving thresholds we do hope we can get your approval tonight and that wraps up our presentation happy to answer any questions

Great. Thank you very much. Questions?

Thank you for a very thorough presentation. Super helpful. And maybe, Eric, I'll ask you, does Ramirez have a take on where the market might be going? I know this is the impossible question. And according to some sources, everything gets better after the election, which is your time frame. But any sense of what does Ramirez think about the market right now?

We think it's highly correlated with what happens in Iran and what's happening in the Red Sea. It's hard to predict that, but we've seen over the last six months a really high correlation between interest rates and the price of oil. So, you know, we've had a lot of successful transactions that we've brought to market for other Bay Area issuers, and that even just a month ago where rates were a lot lower because the price of oil had come down because there was a de-escalation in the conflict. So it's really hard to predict what's going to happen there, but if we do see de-escalation, we expect price of oil to come down, interest rate expectations to come down, and your savings to go up.

All right. That's helpful. Thanks. And James, you did mention that One of the things we're supposed to look at in this, are there any material facts that have not been disclosed, which is what hung up Orange County back in 1994 or so, prior to the Orange County's bankruptcy. The one thing I could see in the official statement was, this is super remote, but in the flood risk section, there was, I mean, I thought, hmm, got the Lafayette Reservoir, based on when they worked on the safety element, if something happened to that, that would be bad news. So I figure that's worth a sentence or so, maybe not more than that. But we should be disclosing to investors things that are material. That was the one thing that kind of disappointed us. All I could find, I think you guys did a good job, but I thought that was worth noting. The other thing, and this is more for Tim, principal law question for you and because the key covenant that the successor agency makes is the timely annual filing of the recognized obligation payment schedule which is the basis for which these bonds get paid if the city somehow failed to do that that would be a problem And this is kind of a more ministerial function or administrative, but I just wanted to ask the question, are you aware, have we been making these filings timely? Have we ever dropped the ball on this?

Not to my knowledge, and I know that we did file time league last year when I did the filing.

Okay. That's just kind of the answer I was expecting because bonds have been good so far. And the other is not to go through all this, but in the bond purchase agreement, there's a number of items there where we make representations, and I'm sure you'll go through that, so Lafayette, we can sign on that, noting we've done everything that's been asked of us in the bond purchase agreement.

Yes, I've discussed that with bond council and we'll go over that carefully. Great. Thank you very much. Thank you.

All right. Well, I'm completely inadequate following Jim's questions, but I do have a, so I like, I kind of get the, you know, the bond, you know, the bond market's very volatile right now. The election coming up is probably going to be more volatility, not less. You say you're kind of getting all your ducks in a row, if I can paraphrase, right? So basically, you're going to keep an eye on things. And if we go above 5%, whatever our goal, we can strike relatively quickly, it sounds like. But for how long is that period, right? Because presumably, the approvals that we're giving here and the other approvals, they must have some sort of expiration. We probably can't wait till next November to do it, right? I mean, what's kind of our?

It's a great question. There's a lot of consultants that actually work on this financing and one of the key consultants it's called a fiscal consultant and That individual that firm prepared a lot of the data actually that you see in the documents tonight His report is based off of the latest published assessed values From the county and those just came out this summer So those values really aren't going to change materially until we get to the summer of 2027 so this report is good for about a year. Now, we are going to strategically pull the trigger on moving forward when market conditions allow for us with all those other steps that I didn't review in detail. But once we do start engaging other parties, for example, the rating agency, S&P, they provide a rating on the bonds which help helps us market the bonds once we do that then we only have 90 days with that with that rating staying valid so we want to be very confident that we're going to be able to move forward not incur costs that we don't have to incur but those are kind of the two timing elements that we're paying attention to all right great thank you

Okay, I have a question that's just related. When you showed the slide that illustrated that City of Lafayette savings are 6.13% and we're doing this for the common good and glad we're doing it. But, CONFIRE, we'll be saving CONFIRE 26,000 a year. Are they aware of that? I mean, because that's money that could be devoted to clearing vegetation along evacuation routes that we're bringing to them.

I don't think they're aware, but I'll certainly make them aware of it.

Okay, so that's, yeah. All right, I have no questions, so is there any public comment?

Mayor Anduri, I have no speakers in the Don Tatson Community Hall, and I have no hands raised in our virtual audience.

okay so we'll bring it back to the council and is there any comment or do we want to go right to a motion just a quick one this is a segue on your point because i you look at that we get eleven thousand dollars a year or whatever um not a whole lot but So it's so good, but I think a nice letter to some of our overlapping jurisdictions I can't fire the school district the county To say look, you know, we're looking out for you here Is well-timed and especially with our friends at con fire. It's 26,000 a year. Yeah, so that's That's better than nothing

Let's just make sure we get the deal priced and sold first, though, because this is all still theoretical. We're going to try our very best, but once we do, we'll work with the city manager.

I know we're counting our chickens before they hatch, but I have full confidence in Eric and Ramirez to deliver for us here, so we'll talk later.

Okay, I have a motion.

Yeah, I'll move we approve the package to authorize the sale of successor agency refunding bonds.

Second. Adoption of the resolution.

Adopted the resolution of issuance. Yes.

Okay second that okay all in favor. Aye It's unanimous. Thank you very much. Thank you Okay, we adjourn the successor agency and we're on to item 13 B which is the settlement agreement between the city of Lafayette and Brian Bessie and Allison Bessie So turn it over to the city attorney

Thank you, Mayor. As you might recall, at our August 10th council meeting, the council considered the settlement agreement that is attached to the staff report. But at that meeting, the council requested that the Mayor and Councilmember Kandel meet and discuss with the Vesey's whether they would consider dismissing the public from the lawsuit, which would then result in an amendment to the settlement agreement. Since that meeting, the Mayor and Councilmember Kendell have reached out to the Vesey's. They have left a voicemail. They have texted. They have sent correspondence through our office to the Vesey's attorneys at the request of the Vesey's, followed up with the Vesey's attorneys. And as you're aware, when the staff report was written, had not received a response. Since the staff report was written, we did receive a response from the Vesey's attorney. they indicated that the vestiges were appreciative of the council's efforts that the city settlement and the neighbors concerns are separate matters they would like to proceed with the city settlement without conditioning it on dismissal of all persons unknown the vestiges will address their neighbors concerns separately Since the Vesey's have indicated they are not amenable to amending the settlement agreement to dismiss the public, we continue to recommend that the council authorize the city manager to execute the attached settlement agreement. Happy to answer any questions. My colleague, Scott Titforth, who is handling the litigation is also available to answer questions.

Okay, are there any questions for council to the city? Okay, we will go to public comment.

I have no speakers here in the community hall, but I do have a hand raised. Do we have a speaker slip from you? I have no yellow. That's why I'm not calling you. If you would just give me your name when you come to the podium, you have three minutes.

Hello, I am Amy Peterson, and I have lived in Lafayette for 47 years. I left for eight years but came back. It's been a total of 47 years. It has been a wonderful place to be. And I live on Glen Road. And it's been a really wonderful neighborhood until I can't tell you exactly how many years this has been going on, but many, many years. It's caused a tremendous amount of consternation for all of us that live in the neighborhood. and beyond the neighborhood, people who use the DIPS on a regular basis. I want to also add the word that I'm disappointed in the way things have been dealt with with regard to this situation. I do have a question for all of you. If the council is supportive of the public's limited goal to maintain the status quo in this matter, and I think many of you have expressed that you are supportive, and the Vechys haven't even responded to the request to dismiss the action in its entirety, why can't the council decline to settle with Vechy until they agree to dismiss all persons unknown?

We'll address any questions when we bring it back to the council.

I want you also to know that the public remains willing to meet with the Vesey's and the city with the goal of bringing this to conclusion rather than continuing or escalating the litigation. But we really need the city to do their part to support and properly represent the public. I ask you to do the right thing. Thank you.

So, my name is Kathleen Burke. I have lived in Lafayette since 1989. Absolutely love Lafayette and love living here. Lived in the Glen. We actually have an easement to go over the Vechies property. So, other than... Being emotionally involved in it, I shouldn't even be here, but it drives me crazy that our kids got to do it, that it's a safe. route that all the children do and when you throw all this traffic and i'm not even sure if the veshes will cut it off we don't know but we need some kind of commitment we need them to to talk to us so it doesn't make me feel great that he doesn't answer um us and he won't commit to anything so that makes me feel that there's something else going on and that he is disingenuous But I drive up and down North Thompson every day, and it is not a safe place to throw all the kids and the little scooters and the bikes to have to go. There's like a real narrow point that I often think I'm going to hit the phone pole, because if another car comes around, it's just a pinch point. So all of the bike paths and everything have been designed to kind of keep our kids safe. and I think you should consider that. And do the right thing.

Thank you. Are there questions for either of the speakers? Okay, thank you very much.

I'll go to the speaker we have virtually, Ben Douglas. You've been allowed to speak.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, welcome.

Thank you. So I'm Ben Douglas. I've lived in Lafayette on Glen Road for 20 years now. My children use the Dips to get to Happy Valley. I, like many of the neighbors, use it regularly to get through the downtown. Again, echoing the comments that Amy Peterson and Kathy Burke had made, that it is, I'm going to choose my own script, really disingenuous of the Veshes and their attorney to be claiming that they want to work with the public to resolve this when they have been evading discussions throughout this. We actually paid, the neighbors paid for a mediation that the Veshes and their attorneys were supposed to come to, and they refused to come. One of the participants managed to get Brian Vesce on the phone, and he simply refused to engage in any meaningful discussion about resolving this. And the fact that they are now refusing to dismiss the public clearly indicates that they have something up their sleeve that they are trying to accomplish by not dismissing the public. And I understand Mr. Vesce is there now. And if he disagrees with that, I invite him to come up and explain to the council why he is refusing to dismiss the public, if not so that he can use the litigation process to extinguish public rights to walk over there. And I urge the council not to become a tool of this manipulation of the litigation process that the Vechies and their attorneys have engaged in. I remind the council the Vechies received over one and a half million dollars as compensation for their underlying alleged lack of knowledge about the dips when they bought the property. Again, no one in the neighborhood believes that they really didn't know, but whatever. They got a $1.5 million payday out of it. Good for them, good for their lawyer. But it is completely inappropriate and against the public interest, which after all, the council has been elected to represent, to allow them to get out of this litigation without dismissing the public. And the fact that they were evading any contact with the city attorney's office, with the council members for so long, until in this last minute simply said thanks but no thanks again really reflects the bad faith that they've used to conduct this entire process so i urge the council do not become their pawn in this simply say we're happy to dismiss the litigation but you need to dismiss the public too thank you thank you are there any questions for the speaker

Okay, are there any other speakers?

Our next speaker is Libby Henry.

There we go. You can hear me now?

Yes, welcome.

I just hopped onto this, and I'm not that versed in this particular thing, except that I know the property that is in question, and I've been questioning it since the so-called Bessies moved in. And I just want to support the people who just spoke. The gentleman on the phone and the two ladies, this smells exactly like what is overtaking the state right now. This yimby, you know, in the billionaire takeover of our land and our property and, you know, abusing the law to get their way. So, you know, don't let them off the hook. don't let them off the hook that you know they're uh i i knew i knew when they moved when that house was bought and rebuilt i said okay this is a sham just like what's been going on in other places in california they're buying up property in single-family home neighborhoods and now they're you know wanting to rule the rule the roost

and to hell with the rest of us and i'm sick of it the yimby's can go to hell that's all i have to say questions for the speaker okay thank you very much is there any other public comment no additional public comments mayor andery okay so we'll bring it back to the council are there any comments questions

I think it would be helpful if our city attorney explained what faces us if we don't settle this right now and what we believe the public faces if we don't settle right now.

sure thank you council member kendall if we don't execute a settlement agreement the court will set a trial date in the litigation for probably january or february of 2027 and so the litigation between the city and the vestiges and the public as you recall the public was also named will occur and everyone will need to start preparing for trial And can the city represent the public in this case know the city would only be representing the city's interest, the public would need to represent its own interest in the litigation.

so we can't represent the public in this case and i think that there's something that people don't really understand and they wish we could right but we can't legally the public would have to provide their own attorneys to go to the trial in january or february to represent the public's rights to that easement because the city doesn't have any rights to that easement that's just unfortunate and which is what led many of us to reach this settlement agreement and we did it in such a way that we're trying to help out the public as much as we possibly can in order to help you guys retain all of your rights moving forward and and this is what i i talked to colby over the weekend and explained to him that we need your eyes on the ground if things change for you at any point in the future, please bring us in immediately. We have a lot of interest in the DIPS and maintaining the status quo. So if any of that changes, just know, please loop us in because we won't know. It'll happen and we won't know. And so please make sure to keep conversations and communications open for anything into the future. We can't go back and forth, I'm sorry. But you can contact me afterwards if you want. You can email me.

And I didn't come back and address Ms. Peterson's question, which was if the council supports the status quo and the Vesey's haven't responded, why don't we, the city, stay in the matter until they agree to dismiss the public? I mean, we, the city, have no power to force the Vesey's to dismiss the public. And as the city attorney has just explained, the city, it's not as if the public can stay If we stay in and go to trial, the public goes to trial as well, unless the Vesey's move to default judgment against the public before the trial because the public hasn't responded.

Mayor, just so that we're clear, we don't want to take public comment going back and forth. But to clarify, the Vesey's have named the city and the public in the litigation. And so if we go to trial, the city will be representing the city's interests and the public, if it does not choose to represent itself, I would imagine the Vesey's would obtain a default judgment against the public.

All right. I think what I'd like to ask the city attorney is to clarify the city's case, if you will, here, as I understand it, goes back to this 2000 Planning Commission resolution, this access condition, which is called the S3 access condition, which is not an easement. It's an access condition that was passed by the Planning Commission 26 years ago. As I understand it, those are the grounds we've got as the city. There's a separate case or argument, as I understand it, that the public has. In as much as over decades, the public has been using this walkway as sort of the way you use a walkway to go to the beach or some other public access. That's a separate argument and a separate case, as I understand it.

You are correct.

And if we go to trial as a city, only grounds we can fight on relate to this planning commission access condition from 26 years ago. Those are the only grounds, as I understand it, that we, the city, can fight on. Is that correct?

You are correct.

So if there's another argument, which may be a better one, about this decades of public access, we cannot make that argument because we're not the party here. It's the public, as I understand it. Is that correct?

That is correct.

So there's two separate fights here, one could argue. There's the city's fight with respect to this S3 access condition, and there's a separate fight, conceivably, the public has. One might argue is a better argument. So I just wanted to, I think that needs to be clarified because there's a few things going on here, sort of as I understand it.

And just to take it one step further on the legal side of it, the public argument that Council Member Cervantes just referenced

even if the essays were to obtain a default judgment against the public tomorrow on the current litigation the public would still have that argument correct because the current litigation is only about the s3 condition so the the issue that council member cervantes brought up was was separate from the s3 condition it's a separate argument the public can bring about their access to the property And likewise, there may be individuals who have lived in the community for decades who could argue for a prescriptive easement because they've individually walked over the property. So there are many different interests the public can bring or individual parties could bring. And those are separate from the current litigation.

Yeah, and the city cannot bring those.

Correct.

Right. So I guess I would just say, and I think I mentioned this last time too, and it's confusing because we talk about the public and then like the city, aren't we representing the public? And it's very confusing because I'm not a lawyer, we're not lawyers, and we talk about the public. I think to clarify, we're really talking about the people affected by walking on the dips and using that. They're the ones that are kind of affected by it, take advantage of it, and have kind of a reason for pursuing additional action, right? I mean, we say the public, we're talking about really the people that are Affected by this right is that the way I think about because I think it's confusing I know illegally this is what we talked about but we're not really talking about the public at large and aren't with the city aren't we as elected representatives representing the public and

It's more akin to as Council member Cervantes says it is a bit the public at large, similar to a beach access easement, but we are not representing.

it's not the residents of Lafayette that we are representing it would need to be those people impacted could take their own action correct and may or may not succeed, but it's really separate from we can take correct yeah I think that's what we have to do, I mean just as stewards of. But you know the the money and the the budget that would require to be fight this we you know We can only fight it on this this one narrow kind of thing that is probably doesn't look very likely We would prevail.

Thank you And to follow through on that it's like we have certain cards we've been dealt as the city in our legal position I think our assessment is those are not the trump cards in this case There's another set of cards dealt, I'm butchering this metaphor, but that the public at large has, or the residents of the area have, the Save the Dips folks have, that are different than ours, that are actually stronger cards, I think. But that's something that had to get settled separately. Those aren't our cards to play, unfortunately.

Well, and just to really butcher the metaphor, it's two separate games. And our game has nothing to do with the other game. Whether we stay in our game has nothing to do with the other game. Any other comments or questions?

Please reach out to us if you want more explanations, anything. We are absolutely available to talk to you.

Okay, so I think we're at a point, we have a motion to authorize the city manager to execute the settlement agreement with Brian and Allison Bessie.

I'll move approval of the settlement agreement.

I second.

Any discussion before we vote? Okay, all in favor? Aye.

It's unanimous, 5-0.

Thank you. Okay, so we're on to item 14A, Madison Church and the PADU. Oh, and Mr. Wolf. The floor is yours.

Thank you very much. Good evening. Before the council tonight are pre-approved ADU designs produced in partnership with Moraga and Orinda using funding under the Senate District 7 ADU accelerator program. The three La Miranda jurisdictions partnered with RRM Design Group to develop a library of pre-approved ADU plans. On August 17th, staff took the plans to the Planning Commission and Design Review Commission for feedback on the draft designs. La Mirinda consolidated all of the feedback received and incorporated the appropriate revisions into the plans. Tonight, staff is seeking city council adoption of these designs. Following adoption, the complete permit ready construction documents will be prepared for building department and fire district review. The target release date is March of 2027. Once completed, these plans will be available for download on the city's website free of charge. there are four floor plan options they range from just under 500 square feet to just under 800 square feet and include studio one bedroom and two bedroom options with various optional design choices such as added windows or added walls or removed walls or added skylights the final construction documents will also include mirrored versions of each plan starting with plan number one above. Plan number two. Plan number two showing the expanded living area option. Plan number three. And lastly, plan number four. These floor plans will be available in two different style options craftsman or ranch and Mediterranean. Please note that these colors and materials that are shown are illustrative the colors and materials, including roofing material are fully customizable by the homeowner to match their primary residence. A display ad was posted in the East Bay Times for this item and no public comments were received. This program is not a project as defined under CEQA and is therefore exempt from environmental review. Staff's recommendation is that the City Council adopt Resolution 202654, approving the pre-approved accessory dwelling unit prototype designs. I'd also like to note that there is a minor error in the resolution related to duplicated numbering. This will be corrected after the meeting. Thank you, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

OK, thank you. Thank you for all your work on this project. Are there questions? Great.

Thank you. No, actually, I'm not an architect. I think they're really interesting and useful plans. I'm curious, a couple of questions. Have Arenda and Moraga City Councils weighed in yet, or are we the first, or what's our order on the City Council's side?

Moraga went last week, I believe, and they adopted the designs. Lafayette is obviously tonight, and then tomorrow is Arenda.

Okay, great. And how much, you may not be able to answer this, but how much can somebody expect to save by using these pre-done plans, assuming they would use them in substance versus contracting and doing the work on their own?

I don't have specific costs, but ultimately having these plans available will save design costs and also permitting costs.

Right, it would be great to have a number, because I think that's kind of the reason we're doing it right is to try to lower the barriers and to be able to say we're saving somebody $20,000 or whatever is it's meaningful but. Great Thank you, I will, I will just comment, I was kind of surprised, I know they did a survey looks like here of of all of london and only had 34 survey responses across all you know 60,000 people and three it's a disappointing low but um. But no, I think this is a great, you know, every little bit helps. This seems like a nice option, at least nothing else to inspire people, so thank you.

Following up on the question, did Moraga adopt it as is? Did they make any changes?

No changes.

So that's going to make my proposed changes problematic?

That's why I asked.

So first question, manufactured housing or manufactured ADUs has become a thing also. Would this lend itself to that approach? I guess a manufacturer could build to these specs and you just plop it in. Is that doable with this approach?

I don't think so. I think that these are meant to be pre-approved plans that can be constructed on-site, not constructed off-site and then popped in.

Okay. And in the materials, there was a really extensive conversation at the Planning Commission about this. They raised a lot of things I never would have thought of, like HVAC units and where you put them, flipping the plans and so on. They raised a lot of good issues. Have those been all dealt with here? I mean, I want to get a sense of like, they brought the points up, have they been factored into what we're looking at here now?

I believe that most of the comments and recommendations were factored in, but not all. Staff took everything to the consultant and we discussed different options and possibilities. Not everything was doable just with cost. Some things just weren't doable because of code. But we did what we could with the feedback that we got.

Okay, but they were considered and incorporated where possible then?

Correct. And I believe the staff report details all of the revisions that were made. The meeting minutes from that meeting are also available. And I did my best to provide a summary of what that feedback was.

OK, great. Thank you.

So i'm looking at the craftsman one and as i'm doing changes to my house in my high fire zone and with the fire codes and it has wood on the posts and the fence. Are you requiring those to be fire rated would. Because then it would be good for your insurance and and looking forward.

That could be something that comes up during fire district review, but also material is fully something that the homeowner chooses themselves.

We shouldn't let them put in non-fire rated woods, I would imagine, in our towns.

If that's something that the fire district requires to be included within the set, that will definitely be included. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you. I have a question. So for the plans themselves, the renderings, I noticed that they have a lot of shrubs depicted as up against the buildings. And I think that's just not best practice in the current time. I mean, I know a lot of our areas are not subject to the zone zero regulations. But it seems like to put forward an optimal planting scheme would be important for these these plans and drawings that the public is going to see. It's an opportunity to give them an example of what fire safe landscaping is, which I believe is basically don't put plants within five feet of your building. Maybe you can use pots, but not the shrubs, not the bushes up against. So that's a change. I don't know how easy that is to make with the drawings, but I would think that's very important to do.

Thank you. And just to reiterate, the plants are purely illustrative, just part of the rendering to make it look nice.

No, I think we need to use it as education.

I understand the comment and I can bring that to the other La Mirinda jurisdictions and see if that's something that we can incorporate within our budget and in time. Okay, thank you.

Yeah, I noticed that in the prior version there were some of those junipers. I think they're what Roman candles or fire sticks. They're in the old one. They took them out of the new one. So it made me think that maybe this... Maybe it got addressed, but I still feel like it's an opportunity to do education about fire safe landscaping. I just wanted to tee off of what Council Member Cervantes started to ask because I think you got a message from me. I asked a few questions about some of those details. The items that the planning commissioners raised and so maybe i'll just ask them, so that we can on the record here here the staff analysis and and response so one was is the mirrored or flipped decision outstanding and so will the public have access to a mirrored or flipped version.

They will have access, yes, depending on how much money is left in the budget will obviously opt for the complete. plan set to be mirrored, but we do have the ability to choose just the mirrored floor plan as a lower cost option.

Okay, for all of the plans? Yes.

Okay, okay.

And then roof pitch flexibility was raised as desirable, but the plans are identical from the first version to this current one. So was that not possible?

It was discussed, but again, was not chosen to be implemented. It required additional engineering, which we couldn't fit within the costs.

Okay, so you might have if you did want to offer different route pictures, you might end up with 16 or 24 different versions. And that's just beyond the scope of this particular project budget. Correct. Okay. And a similar question about HVAC heat pumps, water heaters, there was discussion about using that space, the water heater space, tankless water heater.

etc what was your determination about the feasibility of those we spoke with the consultants who told us that a tankless water heater is not an option for these plans as heat pump water heaters are a requirement for the 2025 energy code so therefore the water heater was kept in its current location

Okay, and for HVAC, I think the worry was that there might be equipment on the roof, and that would be handled how?

Many split systems will be used for heating and cooling.

Okay. Okay. So those are just on the face of the building and appropriate locations.

Yes.

Okay. And then what exactly triggers the loss of streamlined status? You know, what kind of tweaks is a resident able to do to these plans and still exist within the streamlined area?

In the plan set, it will be entirely clear what is an option and what is not. If it's within the plan set, the homeowner can choose that as an option or a choice or specify what material or color they're opting to use. If they're changing something that is not included within the plans as an option or customizable choice, then that would no longer make the plans pre-approved and streamlined.

Okay, I think that that's really helpful. Yeah, a couple other questions, but you answered them, and I don't think they're necessarily need to be aired right now. Thank you.

Just one follow-up question. So going off of Councilmember Witherspoon's comments. So this is still going before Fire District, you said? So is that going before both CONFIRE and MOFD then for review? Yes, great I guess this is more of a comment, but I would just say, because I think what we're actually angling for is. we're looking ideally be more than just compliance would like to be let's if there's best practices that they suggest we would love to see that incorporated, I guess, however, that works. And it may be a very will be the plans don't change at all it's really just kind of exterior you know talking about. exterior materials, all that kind of stuff but, so I would ask them, I guess, my. I know it's probably on the back side, but it's like instead of saying just does this pass, this is minimum, we're looking for maximum. Thank you.

Yeah, that's definitely something that we can take to the fire district and get that feedback and incorporate into the plans.

Are there any public comments?

I have no public comments on this item.

Okay, any further discussion? Are we ready for a motion?

Maybe just a comment, which is I really appreciate all the work that's gone into us. I mean, it's probably hurting cats exercise to get La Mirinda on the same page with all these diagrams and they look attractive. If it makes it easier for homeowners to do ADUs and save some money, That's good. We've had different questions on this. I think the fire safety one is one that resonates for us here, because it's our top priority. But I really want to express appreciation for all the work that's gone into this. You can really see it here. And I thank you for that.

Thank you.

OK, do we have a motion for adoption of Resolution 202654? So moved.

Second.

OK, all in favor?

Aye. It's unanimous, 5-0. Thank you very much. Thank you. Great work. So we will go on to item 14B1, consideration of Robert Minervini's mural design for the Lafayette Downtown Mural Project.

all right thank you mayor city council members for inviting us here oops it's going on its own don't want that maybe i'll have to talk faster um to and for your consideration of robert minervini's mural proposal tonight my role tonight is to help council understand the process the criteria and the records so that you can make the policy decision do that i'm going to address the process the public art committee discussion the interpretation of the artwork the criteria for assessment and the public comment and i made some simple slides to walk through this this is uh the design of the mural for a 286 lafayette circle so the process the artist went through the city's public workshop process the design was first reviewed by the property owners City Council Chambers and the public art committee ad hoc mural team, and then the design was reviewed by the full pack pack discuss the proposal and ultimately forwarded its recommendation, so the mural is now before City Council for its policy decision. The central concern for the pack was a choice to make general Lafayette the central historical figure. some pac members felt other historical figures should have been represented instead that was a substantive disagreement within pac it was not simply a rejection of the mural's quality or design there were also concerns that the work's conceptual intent might not be apparent to a general audience that leads me to the interpretation how is the mural being interpreted i think it's important I think it's important to distinguish between what people are interpreting the mural to mean and what the artist has said the work is intended to mean. Some of the reaction appears to come from a literal reading of the imagery. Because General Lafayette is large and central, some viewers interpret the mural as elevating him as a central figure in Lafayette's history. The artist describes the work as having a conceptual framework beyond the literal imagery. Minervini describes his work as creating invented spatial narratives that examine the relationship between the natural world and the built environment He describes General Lafayette's statue within the imagined landscape as a lens for considering human history alongside the natural environment. This conceptual relationship may not be readily apparent to all viewers, particularly given the figure's realistic depiction and contested historical associations. So what are the criteria for this public art? There are four. Number one, Number one is aesthetic quality to is the relationship to the collection and the Community three is compatibility, including the surrounding built natural environment scale form content and design materials fabrication and installation are the fourth. As far as more interpretive questions are possible with criteria, two and three. Community collection, does the work relate appropriately to Lafayette's community and the city's public art collection? And as far as compatibility, is the concept and content appropriate for this particular site and its surrounding context? Public comments since the PAC review. Regarding public comment about the landscape and wildlife depiction, The pack elevated evaluated the artwork in context of the artist stated artistic and intent. Member members generally agreed that the local landscape serves as a point of departure for the murals more cinematic and immersive setting. And that the botanical or wildlife accuracy is not essential to the artistic intent of the work with the other public comment, there are no broader questions being raised in the original pack considerations. Does General Lafayette belong on this particular wall or site? How should the mural relate to the city's recognition of Ohlone history nearby? How is the work being interpreted in the context of the site and the community? How should the city respond when a work's public interpretation differs from the artist's stated intent? So many people have spent a lot of time thinking about this work. I spent a lot of time over the weekend thinking about what I could bring forth to you for options and paths forward. What I've come up with is that we could approve the mural as proposed if council finds the work meets the city's criteria. We could consider contextual information around the artwork rather than changing the artwork itself. We could consider a revision only if the artist believes it strengthens the work and remains true to his intent. or we could reject the mural design. And I want to make a key distinction here. There's a difference between an artist independently deciding that a revision strengthens the work and changing the work to make it more acceptable to particular viewpoints. So at this point, I have sitting next to me Trent Thompson from ABG Art Group. He's part of our mural consultant team. And I want to go ahead and introduce him and allow him to say a few words as well.

thank you jenny thank you mayor council members um just to introduce myself uh i'm trent we run a group called abg art group and we have worked with cities throughout the bay area doing mural programs mural programs just to get a bit of a lay of the land part of what i'm here to do is help navigate all of the cooks in the kitchen that are involved when it comes to putting something like this together On this project, I want to kind of reiterate that we have, if there's 10 elements, we have nine of them, and you all are that 10th element. There's building owner permissions. There's tenant review. There's agreements between the building owner and the city. There is artist RFPs and calls down to a shorter list of artists. There's community feedback that's already happened. There's then been three rounds of revision with the artist and building owners. and those have gone to subcommittees for discussion. So what we're getting here is 9 tenths of the pie. My experience, not only in Lafayette, but in other cities that we work with, is really this decision tonight, I feel like, can have a big effect on the success of the program as a whole, whether or not artists are attracted to being a part of the program, whether or not building owners are attracted to being a part of the program, and whether or not community wants to be involved, whether Lafayette wants more murals. So one thing I want to do, I want to acknowledge the new comment that has come in since the last PAC about the that area specifically, less about the content of the design and more about isn't this an area where we should be doing this Ohlone tribute. Part of the program that we designed, of course you can't do something for everybody, but the goal is that this program would have four different themes throughout the murals. There'd be a botanical mural, there'd be a landscape mural, as landscape historical, that we would do some sort of native tribute mural, and then lastly, there'd be some abstract sort of mural. The Ohlone mural is something that we're proud to be working on, that we have an artist group that is working on an Ohlone concept for, whatever wall we can find for it. Now we're really excited to be working with the Liz John Nation, working with Ohlone artists, and have a really compelling proposal. Ultimately, because this is one piece of those ten pieces, we don't get to just tell the building owner, your wall is the native wall. But that's something that we're really excited to do, and um wanting to acknowledge that comment recognizing the validity of that comment and also saying that moving this program forward is the best thing we can do to get that next wall moving um another comment here i just have my thoughts kind of kind of organized um There is, in developing a program like this, cities will approach it in a couple different ways, whether that's wanting extra community involvement, students involved, you want a ton of community feedback, or whether you want a program that is attracting regional, local, international, prolific artists that are at a different career stage that Lafayette can be proud of a collection of artworks from renowned artists. For this wall and this artist, This is something that we made the pack aware of early on, is that this is an artist that we're lucky to have being a part of this program. That with this artist, there's going to be a bit less of this ebb and flow, or at least there should be for the standard etiquette. So the plan is generally the way we like to design a program is that we take all the feedback up front about The nature of the design, who the artist is, is a bigger community question than the exact, like, I don't like this pink, this rock is the wrong color type of feedback because, like I mentioned, there's so many cooks in the kitchen. So that being said, the artist being willing to modify their design is often the kind of thing that can shoot this type of project in the foot. And after that comment came in, General Lafayette being in that mural in the first place was a suggestion from public comment. And so that was the artist responding to community feedback that was given in public community input sessions. And the artist is This is not always customary, but the artist is happy to make additional adjustments to the design if that's what the pack decides. That could be moving Lafayette to a less central location, recentering the main subject, that could be removing Lafayette, that could be adding in another thing to the central figure and moving into, that could be, there's a variety of different design options that we could do. So my ask in those questions, because I understand you all need to make a decision, I feel like we have the opportunity to present you with an easy one, which I would request that for the success of the program, I should mention also, before I get there, this artist, because we opted to go for a regional prolific artist, is coming in from New York. So we have paints mixed, flights booked, because there was a timeline communicated to us and the artist for this mural. So just so you know, there's a cost implication to rejecting this mural. everything can be figured out that being said I would like to ask that the council approve the mural contingent on the new comments being acknowledged by the artists and some slight modifications being changed to the central figure of Lafayette contingent on an additional approval of course from the building owner and tenant prior so that we can stay with the adjusted timeline and I would like to Hopefully this helps us find a wall for that Ohlone collaboration as well.

So in addition to Trent, we have three of our public art committee members with us tonight too, and all of us or any of us are happy to answer any questions you might have.

Okay, questions.

Yeah, could you repeat essentially what you said about the artist's willingness to make some modifications if requested?

In my conversation with Robert, he's willing to make the modifications, I think ultimately to be able to continue on the current timeline. He's a father and works, so he's moved things around to be available to fit this schedule, and he's not personally feeling you know uh creatively attached to lafayette being where where he is so he was he was fine with taking suggestion um and some of the options i had mentioned if that was your question is he can move out of the foreground still be represented but less as This is a shrine to General Lafayette or something. He could add an additional element central or remove Lafayette. And ultimately, this was, as far as thematically for the program, we had some pre-approved themes. This was the historical landscape mural. So even without Lafayette, I think the design still achieves a Lafayette landscape, a surreal Lafayette landscape. So those are options.

OK, thank you.

Great comments which will wait till after but questioning what what is the this the round Lafayette California medallion on the right that's not there currently is that part of the mural.

that's part of the mural that's part of this sort of what do you call it what's that turn it'll have a shot like I wrote in the staff report it'll have a shadowing so it will look like it's a 3D object. on a flat 2D surface, which plays with the mural itself, which is a frame within a frame within a frame. So it's adding these layers of depth to the mural.

Perfect. All right. Well, great. I have comments, but I will say on that question, I think it looks great. I mean, I really like the way that the medallion looks, and great. I'll save my comments for afterwards, but that was certainly a question. I am a little concerned about, like, making a whole lot of changes with just us making the changes, but we'll wait until the comments section. Thank you.

Yeah, and I've got some comments, too. Question, though. It's a beautiful scene, sort of like Lafayette Eden, in a way. We could talk about the general Lafayette later, I guess, but the birdhouse, is that something that came up from public comment, too? Because it strikes me as kind of odd, frankly.

That did not come, well, it came from a public art committee comment. We have a murals ad hoc committee that was asked some specific questions by the artists as prompts for designing the work. And one of the questions the artists asked, I think there were just the two questions, what don't we include and what do we include? And one of the public art committee members mentioned a birdhouse as an Easter egg in the mural given our birdhouses in Lafayette. And this is what came out of that little comment.

Well, just before we go to public comment, I just want to, well, we do have four approved themes for murals, but we've never said we'd have one mural for each theme. I just want to make sure we understand that. And I guess a question, well, I'm just gonna provide this as information. You mentioned that we did this on a particular timeline. Part of that is it's not easy to procure really good walls in Lafayette. And we are very fortunate that Dr. Herbert Monroe agreed to let us use his wall for this. Dr. Monroe splits his time between California and Maui and is returning to Maui for half a year on October 5th. So we were hoping that we could get the mural done before he departs. So it's partly so people understand that's why we're going on this pathway. So another option, and I don't know how this fits with Robert's schedule, would be to aim for next spring and work on, well, I'll let you think about that and comment later. But just to know, I just want to express appreciation to Dr. Monroe for making his wall available.

That judge have all comment on the dates.

I did see in the packet the start date said September 20th 21st We were asked to wait after There originally we were intending to start closer to mid-september If the mural was approved however, the art and wine festival asked us to wait until the 21st I

Okay, so we're ready for public comment. Okay, public comment.

Mayor Enduri, I do have speakers here in the community hall that would like to speak. Each speaker gets three minutes and our first speaker is Janice Peacock to be followed by Jeff Peacock. Jeff, are you speaking for two?

I'm speaking for two, yeah, sorry.

I will try and combine my. Is Janice here? Janice is not here, and that's why I'm speaking on her behalf. I have something to read from her, actually. Okay, so you'll have three minutes. Yeah.

Okay, perfect.

So I'll try and incorporate, or I'll add my comments as well, because. I want to take up six minutes if I can help it. So my name is Jeff Peacock and I'm speaking on behalf of Janice Peacock who's out of the country at the time. We've lived in Lafayette for over 30 years and she served on the Public Art Committee for the past 11 years. I'm here tonight to read a statement from her speaking as a community member rather than as a member of the Public Art Committee. and to share her concerns about the mural. She was the sole dissenting vote on this matter. From Janice, I'm concerned about the decision to feature a large rendering of General Lafayette as the mural's central figure. General Lafayette is the namesake of our city, but that's the extent of his connection to this place. Lionizing him in this mural sends a troubling message that the person we chose to literally and figuratively put on a pedestal is a wealthy white male military figure. I would prefer that we focus on the contributions of people who were an important part of Lafayette's history and have made it what it is today, such as the pioneers, teachers, scientists, and many others who've contributed to Lafayette's history. A historical side note, during the French Revolution, Lafayette fled France for fear for his life because he was a constitutional monarchist. Given today's political environment and the massive no-king protests, including the ones downtown in Lafayette here, venerating someone who believed monarchy was a good choice for his country is a bit tone deaf, to say the least. I am puzzled by the choice of that specific bronze statue. It's not our city's unique statue of the general, but a version of Lafayette that stands in New York City. I also believe that many people will be unclear about why this statue is placed in front of a beautiful landscape. While the artist's description of the mural may address this, I think many citizens will be confused at best and upset at worst. I think this mural needs revision or perhaps a complete redesign so this community ends up with a mural residents will feel positive about, one that reflects Lafayette's history and values and will be loved for generations to come. Of course, we will never please everyone, but we can get much closer to a great mural with some extra effort. It is better to take the extra time and care than to rush and end up with public art that we regret. So those are Janice's comments. Janice put a lot of thought into the elements of this painting and was troubled by a number of things. I took a much more surface view of it, frankly. I am one of those public who look at the picture and say, what the hell is going on here? We have a kind of faded, dim background of the mountains. It's not our view of Mount Diablo, but it's probably Mount Diablo, someone's view. We have a wall of flowers, some of which are native, some of which are not. They block us off from the real world in the background. Can I continue with my three minutes?

If you could finish up, that'd be good.

Sure. So we've got a dim background of the real world, an artificial wall, a barrier in front of it that blocks us up from the real world so that we can focus on this glistening golden statue in the middle. a figure symbolizing for me, you know, wealth and gold and power. And is this Lafayette? I mean, this pisses me off, frankly. I look at this picture and it makes me angry. This doesn't seem to me to represent our values at all, and certainly not the way that I'd like to think of us as being insular and xenophobic and focused on a glittering statue with a barrier blocking out the rest of the world. It just pisses me off. So that's my comments. Okay.

Thank you very much. Thanks. Other questions for the speaker?

No.

Thank you.

Our last speaker here at the community hall is Susan Dannenfelser.

I have a sore tooth, so please bear with me. um my name is susan dannenfelser i'm an artist i've lived in lafayette for 55 years and worked here for 55 years as an artist i'm a founding member of both public art communities the one that's currently um we have now and also i was on the original a public art committee that accepted um the great the generous gift of the markings of lafayette bronze so i have quite a history here i care very much about what happens with our public art Most importantly, I want to stress in the very beginning, I think that a piece by this very accomplished and talented artist, Robert Minervini, would be a valued addition to our public art collection. That's the most important thing I have to say. My problem with it, though, is twofold. It's the timing and the placement. Several years ago, I think that it would have served as a departure point for thoughtful discussions of man's relationship to nature and dominance over the rest of nature and our need to nurture and protect our beautiful environment. Questions might have arisen such as why is the landscape framed? Is that to preserve it? Is it possibly because it's going to become a representation of something we may be getting lost? Is it a future memory? And why the central placement of a military figure, albeit the namesake, but the central focal point obscuring the beauty behind him and not facing toward it as though he's truly gazing into the interior? Is he intentionally isolated by the artist? The Garden of Eden surely does provide an idealized beautiful painterly dreamlike vision of paradise and the spectacular flora and fauna that inhabit it. A very pleasant vision. But unfortunately now, war is once again dominating our lives with an elective war that we were promised would not happen and with no end in sight. Nor was adventurism supposed to occur as played out in Venezuela. And much worse, righteous fear for speaking out catch you tangible threats of retaliation and censorship. People are afraid to say how they really feel, even here. I protest on Tuesdays. I know how people feel. Meanwhile, environmental protections have been thrown out as too costly in dollars for the corporations. But what about the benefits value of a beautiful landscape as depicted here, let alone clean air and water to drink? Both no longer are guaranteed as a right. Just today, the EPA rolled back the limits on coal and oil pollution. Other unspeakable actions are occurring, like the selling off of part of our beloved Yosemite, national park attacks like on Bears Ears, It's unheard of. The timing of the current backlash to the military's aggressive action, trillions in dollars of cost, and the suffering of environmental resources growing daily. I'm afraid the artist's intent, whatever it may be, may be misconstrued simply by the composition's central placement of the military figure. Now, as to the site placement, can I quickly finish? The chosen site is near a location in our city where we have chosen to honor the native ancestors who perished because of European military conquest. Having the central element in the mural, the focal point, be a military figure, even in this case of our outstanding citizen and French namesake, seems insensitive and poorly cited. I want to finish only because I have a solution that would make me happy and I think a lot of other people. I very much admire this artist's bodies of work and his play between nature and human interaction. In this case, however, I think the timing and placement are making it easy to misconstrue the artist's intent. That is something I think that the council and the artist should consider. If the inclusion of Lafayette is important to the artist, then he might be willing to consider as reference the great samples of Lafayette as statesman. take off the uniform let him be a statesman he's important namesake here but he doesn't have to be in uniform which is something that is triggering to people that are sick of what's going on with the war I think that um that would make his prominent presence less jarring and more palatable I think it's important given we are in this unparalleled and very unsettling time in our country and in the world but again I still think we should have his art in our collection I think he's a very talented artist

Thank you very much. Are there any questions for the speaker? Thank you very much.

Mayor Enduri, we have no additional speakers at this time.

OK, we'll bring it back to the Council. And. We would like to.

I am an engineer and not an artist, and so I so appreciate all of the people in here that really. know art way more than I do. However, what I do like about art is that when you get a piece where people are talking about it, and boys, this generated a lot. And I really want to take the opportunity to let people know that the Marquis de Loft yet as a hero in both worlds since he was the person behind the french revolution he learned from america how we did our revolution and then went back and led the french revolution into democracy out of the monarchy so this is a history lesson that we can also capitalize on in saying this guy believes so much in democracy, he did it on both continents. So I saw this, Janie saw my response, because I had to miss the Public Art Committee meeting, and I looked at it and I said, oh, that's pretty. And I know there's so many details in here people will argue about, but I'm a fan. And I like Mark, General Lafayette right now. He's actually the right message that we may need politically at this moment because he is the person that has believed in democracy and created democracy on two continents for us. So I know it's in military uniform, but I don't know. I like it. That's about all I can say.

All right.

Sure yeah sure okay um okay so I guess maybe a counterpoint um I spoke with three PAC members this weekend and Jenny so thank you for for being available um I looked at the artist portfolio online and I I like his work very very much um I do understand and appreciate the concerns that some members of the public have regarding the general as a military figure, as a member of colonial powers. My concern relates more to one of the criteria in the municipal code, which is the relationship to the collection and the community. And so it's a little less about General Lafayette, what he's wearing, et cetera, than about redundancy. And we already have a prominent statue of this person. His name is very much a part of our, you know, embedded in our civic identity. And so I just looked at it as that our funding for public art is limited, our real estate, our wall space is a constraint. And so each mural is an opportunity to broaden the stories that our public art collection tells. and recognize perhaps another person, place, event, or aspect of Lafayette's history that's not already represented as prominently, say, as our statue. So I think we could do better. I mean, I think the comments that I saw in the Public Art Committee report that Jenny Brickerstaff was raised, that is a local person, who contributed tremendously to our community. We have our great schools, Green Hills, kind of byline, and I think we owe a lot to that person for the development of our public school system. And even the reservoir tower is an icon Unfortunately, we don't have any more but which has significance to us and our identity so I just raised those points That's kind of where I landed with this

Well, I guess I'm more on Team Susan. I looked at this one, and I just loved it. I don't know why. It really spoke to me for whatever reason. Again, I'm not an artist, but I like the bronze statue, like the hard statue next to the wildlife. For whatever reason, that kind of spoke to some sort of dichotomy. I am... I'm much more bothered by the birdhouse myself, so I guess I'm not going that. But this is where I think, it's almost like, I think the problem is you can't do art by committee. I almost feel like we've done art by, I mean, he's almost been almost too accommodating by, I think, personally, by instead of having a vision for what this is, some members of the public or the public art committee would say something, he'd try to incorporate it, and then we'd do something to try to incorporate that, and it's like, oh, at some point, I think you just have to be true to a vision. I actually I'm also with customer candle I love I think Lafayette represents the best of us actually it doesn't diminish what we went about do with the only I mean this is where it's like I to me it's not either or right and we have. You know the rap there we have the we have the sign with the you know with the better name from how Diablo you know we have other opportunities to think to honor the only people, so this is not. We can't honor the only because we have Lafayette and I question, I think any historical figure i'm just a little worried has got to have pro you know pros and cons so Lafayette is our namesake. We say it all the time. I think having a picture of him. We do have a statue, but that statue is a little bit hidden in there, so I don't mind having there. Would I like him a little smaller enough to decide? Yes. I'm not a big fan of having him be front and center, but I actually am not. I actually kind of, for whatever reason, I kind of like the dichotomy of the nature of and the manufactured uh right there and the tie-in with latvia was i think oh that's kind of that's kind of clever so i i am and i just the nickel and diming i was like i'm just a little concerned you know about committee so that's those nine points

So to pick up on Councilmember Kandel, I'm not an engineer, but I'm much more comfortable reading bond documents than looking at commenting on art. And I really do appreciate the effort that's got into us. And I think I'd echo the Vice Mayor. Doing art by committee is like you get a Parks and Rec episode in the end, whereas I think this is integrity and an artist's vision. And two things, one of which is I'm on team Lafayette in that as a figure in the Revolutionary War, key figure in the Battle of Yorktown, what he did in France before the Revolution, before they tried to chop his head off. And then I think most notably and why we're Lafayette now is he comes back to America in the 1820s for the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, makes this gigantic tour through the eastern seaboard He covered like 6,000 miles back in the day when you basically run a horse at an older age. And this is why so many communities, counties, cities in the United States are named Lafayette. It's because of that. He evoked this memory that was already fading of the revolution and what independence meant for this country. So he's sort of a hero of mine. And I think I got this from the Historical Society, but for Lafayette, he might have been called Dogtown, I think. There was an alternative name, and I wonder how he'd do that in a mural. So I love the figure. Here's my thing, though, on the art piece, and it kind of jarred me, to be honest, because as much as I love the figure of Lafayette, he just seemed out of context for me. I couldn't quite get that. I thought, okay, well... If maybe he was at Yorktown or maybe he was like doing one of his speeches in God knows where in America, that would be context. But here he just sort of stands out in this idyllic scene of Eden. It kind of jarred me, honestly. I you know as much as I respect the figure Lafayette I must be for this piece of art I kind of think it just too much almost it's like I'd stick with the vision of this Eden before the Spanish showed up and what that landscape would look like so I kind of mixed on this one honestly and and you know I know that there's so much effort gone into this thing, and I respect the process whereby we have a public arts commission who took a lot of input in, and I'm very leery being that person who comes in at the very tail end and says, well, you should do X, Y, and Z. So I'm just sort of giving you feedback. I would lose the birdhouse, though. I mean, just one observation. So I don't know. I'm a little bit mixed. Again, to the extent, I guess, to Councilmember Kendell's comment, if it evokes a public discussion about what this art means, OK, then maybe it's served its purpose. creates a debate. And in the end, having a debate about art is a good thing. So maybe that's the greater good here, as opposed to me kind of trying to figure out what this figure means and the context of this landscape. Maybe that's the point. Maybe that's what the artist is trying to get to.

OK, well, yeah. Art design by committee is terrible, but art design by city council is the worst. So this is kind of the worst nightmare to have it come to this. I will say that the, and Trent and Jenny, you can... Tell me if I'm wrong here, but this basically is what the artist came in with. This was the conception. The Lafayette was in the center. Lafayette was that size. The background is basically unchanged. There were some little changes made in the foreground. So it's not as if the artwork was designed by committee. It's pretty much the way it came into the public art committee. All right. Well, this is difficult because my household is split diametrically on this particular one. When I first saw it, I wasn't so sure. The more I look at it, the more I like it. Because I think the more you look at it and think about it, the more it makes you wonder. From very basic looking at it and thinking, who is that? What's he doing there? And it leads you to the question, well, how did this small village in the foothills of the Bay Area get to be known after Lafayette, this person who memorialized in the statue? The statue does stand. In New York, it was created by a French artist, just the same French artist who created the Statue of Liberty. And then you look at it, and different layers appear. You've got this incredible natural environment, and then you've got this totally, you know, artificial element which is not off to the side not hidden somewhere but front and center and you wonder what's what's he saying about the relationship of the the constructed world to the artificial world and then you think about the uh the naturalness of the environment and what this was long ago and you know how how do you well i mean there's a lot of questions and i'm going to say these inarticulately but you just wonder is the world of Lafayette, how did that world, how did that world get to be something that attached its name to our city? And actually, this showing the medallion, the full medallion on the right, you know, with Lafayette, California, that part of, that just fits in to me. It's, okay, that's... wouldn't be the same without having that that medallion and it wouldn't be the same if the figure were not lafayette in the middle with that that medallion so what troubles me is that um the depth of feeling of people who i don't like this um and i'm not sure you know we We're not going to have artwork that everyone agrees with. We have one mural that we've heard disagreements about it for a while there. Every council meeting, there was a comment made about it. But that was based on color and some sort of design. It wasn't an ideological, political kind of background. And that's what troubles me. If people see something that maybe in their mind, is not what Lafayette, the city, should be about. So that's what holds me back.

But in... We need one of those QR signs, the historical history of Lafayette, right underneath that.

Well, we definitely will have a QR. Exactly. That explains it. Yeah. So I think, you know, Councilman Witherspoon, are you a no vote if we were to vote no? Also, if we're a split council, that worries me too.

I just see it as an opportunity cost that we're paying that we have other stories to tell and that we have the statue. It's prominent. It may not be. a mural on a wall, but he's not the only notable figure in town, in my view.

And if we didn't have a split council, it would be different than all the other public art meetings too. Right? So it's not like, this one's been controversial. It was not unanimous there either. Right?

Right. Yeah, well, that's part of it, too, that that was not unanimous.

I guess I am, okay, I would vote yes for it. I actually do like it. However, I do feel it is odd to me that we have a time pressure on this. This is feeling a bit like we're forced into it because of the thing, and, like, I don't, that bothers me a little bit, that I don't feel like we should have a time clock that if we don't make a decision now, we're going to lose our window, we have flights, we have this and this and this. Like, well, that's not what it's all about because we're already living with it. So I guess that would be just a consideration. It's like, are we rushing into it because we just have these external factors?

Yeah, I want to come back on that.

That has nothing to do with the artist. The artist didn't ask for that. There was no leading up to the public art committee. There had not been public comment or anyone coming in with an objection. So it was not anticipated. At the point of the public art committee that there would be an issue with this and so we were trying to move it ahead so that the Wall owner could could see it if there had been public comment when the The design was first posted to the city website This would be a different story, but there was not you know, the public comment has come in at this stage you know, not to minimize the public comment, but that's why we're on this schedule. But recognizing that, what would be the implications of waiting until spring to paint it? Because the other factor is if we miss the window now, we're not going to be able to do this during winter most likely, particularly El Nino winter.

Tough to say exactly. travel accommodations. A project like this, there would be three or four people working on it. So there's assistants who have made their schedule available. Flights have been booked, things like that. You're looking at $4,000, give or take, a flight from New York and back and a place to stay, a car maybe, some paint. Yeah, like I said, it's tough to say. Maybe his flights are refundable. We could look into options. I'm sure that's something.

OK, so just taking a straw vote, it looks like it would be 3 to 1 or 2.

I mean, I'm sort of torn on this in that I want to respect an artist's vision and not let my late in the game perspective on things change that. um and it uh obviously just in the context of this one meeting alone it's created debate and again you could say if art does that if it creates debate creates an argument art is one um and not everyone's going to agree so i guess i'm less inclined to i don't want to uh diminish the The opposition of this thing but on the fly here. I don't think I could construct anything that I would think would be better unless Maybe you take the general out of the picture, but You know, I think To me I'd say if we do it in this design and this is something a property owner signed off on and this is what the artist vision was and Would say put it up life goes on We'll have people who like maybe have a discussion.

What was this about and it'll force a conversation, which is probably a good thing Well, just to make sure basically the one option that's not on the table is the council designing it tonight.

Thank you What are you gonna say yes No or

come back with another design if the artist is willing to do that. That's what we're going to do. We're not going to say go forward but make these changes. We're not going to do that. Well, at least that would be my recommendation. OK. And the other thing, I think Jenny alluded to this. I think Trent may have as well. One of the artists that ABG brought to us is an Ohlone artist who's resident in the East Bay. And the type of work that she does was not the type of subject matter that this property owner was looking for. She would be ideal for, and I'll go ahead and say it, because we've talked, the BMO bank building, which has niches for artwork. And if we had worked by her on that side of the open space, also known as a parking lot, and you have this, and then we have our utility box on the corner, we've got the street sign. To me, that's just an amazing room raising questions through art about the relationship, indigenous people, why are we Lafayette, I mean, it just would be, I think, a fantastic art space. We can't guarantee that we will have that, but if we can pull that off, I think that would be great. And I know one of the public commenters was concerned that, let's see, you see exact words that we were, that featuring General Lafayette represents the exact sort of erasure of local indigenous culture and peoples of the city has made strides. I disagree with that. I mean, I don't see a problem with putting this piece of art in this location. And in fact, I think it actually can raise questions about the relationship. And then it would be ideal if we had the artwork by the Ohlone artist on the other wall. So, okay, so options are approve it as it is, although there have been comments passed along from the Public Art Committee that he is going to take into consideration when he's on-site painting. But it's not going to affect any major placement of objects. Or postpone it until the spring and have him come back with a proposal that would be considered by the Public Art Committee and then eventually come back to the council or reject it. But I don't think we're, nobody is, well, We have one question.

Just a question. So for requesting consideration of some kind of design change, that you're saying would be in the spring?

Yeah, I don't think we could. He probably couldn't do it sooner than that. Trent, what do you?

I think the question is more about whether you feel comfortable doing it from a policy standpoint and less about whether the artist could pull it off. I don't know if that... He could make the change prior to painting, certainly. And we could review that by the building owner.

You mean this... You're talking about this week?

Yeah. I guess...

But I think you're talking about a revision like in a completely different concept. Am I understanding that? Because if it goes to the spring, are you talking about just tweaking this one? Or are you talking about a new concept?

No, I'm talking about tweaking this one.

I think, Stella, if it was, and Carl, please feel to feel free to correct me but i think if it's something simple like can we de-center him push him back in the frame put a bush in front of it or something like that um that's something that could happen on this current timeline yeah see what i would i hate getting into this but you know de-centering him to me takes away from you know why he's there and the questions he raised putting a

a manzanita bush in front of him sure why is he there why is he hiding behind the manzanita bush you know i think i'm sorry are we ready for a motion try to help us here well okay well i could do a straw poll i like kind of like a straw poll first before regular okay just so we can understand where we might be before we actually let's see who would Well, let's just go through and have people say briefly what they favor doing.

I'll start. I really don't like upending the long work of one of our commissions. It's been so much input and thought provided. Just the debate here, as I mentioned earlier, it does make you grapple with the art. I really don't want to punt this to the spring and come back. I'm a little bit mixed on it, but I'd say I'd go ahead with this as proposed and maybe drop the birdhouse. That's where I would be.

I actually think, obviously, maybe my feeling's clear on it. I think the fact that the building owner likes it is important. That's not easy, and every building owner has their own ideas, and so if the building owner would like this kind of more hyper-realistic kind of view and liked it, and it's been through nine stages already, then I could, you know, it makes sense.

I like it. I think it's going to draw people to it. That's what I mostly like about it. People will want to walk over and see what that is.

I maintain my position that I see it as repetitive and that we need to make space for other stories. I would entertain a request to change the prominence. I don't like the idea of meddling in the art, but to make it less of, in my mind, a repeat of a statue that's probably a quarter of a mile away. I am fine with the birdhouse too, so just had to put that out there.

You're fine?

I am fine with the birdhouse. I mean, it's really more just about that repetition, the repetition and that municipal code relationship to the collection. I mean, in my mind, we have him in fine form, just in another spot.

Okay, well, and then I hate to ask this the more I look at this. If General Lafayette were moved to the left...

It's at the symmetry.

I think we're ready for a motion. I move we approve the mural design as is. I will second. Okay is there any further discussion?

Okay, before we vote, I will only say there will be other murals. This is the, the council has approved a four mural program, and I'm also taking to heart what Trent said about, you know, what our mural program, and we want to attract artists who have reputations. We want to be known as an artist-friendly program. And we want art that makes you think, that makes you wonder, that makes you question, maybe that makes you mad, but makes you feel something. You know, there will be other murals, and when we do this floor, I hope there'll be another program. So there'll be many other opportunities to just tell other stories. So all in favor? We'll do a roll call. Councilmember?

Nay.

Aye. Vice Mayor McCormick? Aye.

Aye. And I'm an aye. So it's four to one. The mural is approved, and there is no specific direction to be given to the artist. except the birdhouse the valley the oak the coastal live oak versus the valley oak versus this oak as long as it looks like an oak thank you thank you very much thank you thank you to the public art committee oh we have one more public art committee thank you everybody who's and trent thank you thank you trent Anyone want a break? We'll take a five minute break if anyone wants a break. Okay, we're gonna break for five minutes.

Ah, that was an hour, that was.

All right, it's 9.35. We're back in session, and we're on item 14b2. The floor is yours.

Do you know how to get this on?

Can we undo that appointment?

I am finally ready. Thank you for your patience. I don't know what's going on. I have a mind of its own tonight. I think it's a little exhausted. So the second item from the Public Art Committee tonight, I will admit that I haven't spent quite as much time on the last few days, is for the artwork at the corner of Mount Diablo, the southeast corner, southwest corner of mount diablo and moraga road if you're you've lived here as long as i have it was the old world savings and then wells fargo and then jennifer perlmutter and we're really excited to have the renovation of the entire complex there and i don't know if you'll recall but jennifer perlmutter when she was there had an installation of children's art i think she had fish out of paper hanging up in the atrium and i just love that i lived down off of saint mary's road and i have to pass this two, three times a day, and I thought that was wonderful having that artwork up in the atrium. So I'm really excited about this project. I hope you are as well. I'm here with Jack O'Melveny.

O'Melveny. O'Melveny, thank you.

Thank you for having me. He's the project manager, and he met with Janice Peacock and Carly Sitko, members of the Public Art Committee, to look at the space and to look at artists. And then came up with their own artist, Scott Haycock, who has experience in mobile installations for over 30 years. And this is the design they came up with. It's over 100 pieces of acrylic in organic shapes and soft colors. They're frosted, so they won't show as much dust. They will move with the wind, so there'll be some gentle movement. So they'll move like those fish that were up there. before. And let's see, this is all off the top of my head, but I do have the public art requirements again. Aesthetic quality. The PAC's critical review determined that the proposed artwork demonstrates artistic quality and originality. The artist's 30 years of experience designing and fabricating large-scale kinetic sculptures further supports the quality and feasibility of the work. As far as the relationship to the collection and the community, the proposed artwork will complement the city's public art collection by introducing kinetic suspended sculpture as a distinct artistic medium, something we don't have yet. Its visibility from the interior and exterior of the building will provide a new visual experience for visitors and passersby. Lighting may also be installed to illuminate it at night. 3 compatibility the artwork is conceptually compatible with the surrounding built environment at scale form content and designer appropriate to the building's triangular vaulted atrium. and materials fabrication and installation. The proposed formed acrylic, stainless steel cable, and stainless steel hardware are appropriate for the installation. Secure ceiling anchoring and professional fabrication address structural integrity and public safety. The installation's location within the atrium limits exposure to weathering and long-term maintenance needs are anticipated to be minimal. This project also exceeds the minimum 1% established by the public art

requirement and receive unanimous approval by the public art committees so they have recommended approval to you and i am happy to answer any questions as i'm sure jack is are there any questions um just just briefly i mean um i guess i was thinking about say earthquake or safety because it is open underneath so these are all visible when you're inside the restaurant looking up you'd see them right so i guess we've got to make sure i wouldn't want to make sure obviously that it's the secure it's you know we don't want things dropping during earthquake or

So in your packet, I enclosed several samples of his work. So he's done this for 30 years. I noticed that, actually. Yeah. And also the artist was discussing possible netting underneath in order to keep birds from flying up. So that would also protect should anything fall.

Great. Thank you.

OK. Is there any public comment?

I'm awake. Mayor Enduri, there's no commenters at this time.

Okay, great. We'll bring it back to the council. Any comments?

Yeah, I can start off. First of all, I'm really thrilled that something's happening in that corner, which is wonderful. And I just, again, talking about the bond guy who doesn't understand art at all. I really love this piece. It's like, this is like an inverted aquarium and you can look up and see these shapes moving. I love the fish that were there before, but in a way, it's good they're not literal. These are just shapes and color. And with some movement, I think that's really wonderful. It's really, to me, eye-catching and a really nice use of what we have here. I thought it was really creative. I really salute you and the commission for moving this through.

We have Jack to thank, actually. They went out and found the artist.

Oh, yeah, that's really terrific.

Thank you.

Great I think it's great to actually I love the idea of the lights to I was kind of that was a little word like is in the winter it's like you know it's dark by 530 would we not see that, so I think having light shining on it is striking me this is gonna be like. A centerpiece of downtown it's like it's just a really I think an amazing. I think that's you know, again, I think that it's been so so underutilized, as you mentioned, for so many years, except for maybe during when Jennifer was there, so I think this is great to bring some life to that corner and all the different ways.

My house is not split when I showed my husband this. He goes, oh, that's cool.

So yeah, we're two thumbs up. I think it's delightful, and I think it'll really just lift up that corner, make it so much more dynamic, and I look forward to seeing a thriving business in there as well.

Yeah, I agree. This is very lively. Key corner is going to be lit up. It's great. You can just imagine now approaching Lafayette from the west, coming by, seeing the Brandt sculpture, the walkway, the murals, and then coming to the corner here with the lights. It's fantastic. So it's great. Do we have a motion for approval?

So moved.

I second.

All in favor? Aye. It's unanimous. So thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for finding the artist and bringing him to us. Absolutely.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Yep.

Thank you.

And thank you to the Public Art Committee for all you do. Yeah, what, do we have time?

I think we're targeting Q1 of next year, but approximately April or March, ideally.

Fantastic.

On to item 15a, Patrick Goliar, and we are talking about the introduction of ordinance 704. Wow. All right.

Good evening. Tonight I'm asking the council to introduce ordinance 704, which makes several amendments to the city's parking meter zones and parking rates as part of the implementation of the downtown parking management study. ORDINANCE 704 IS THE FOLLOW-UP TO COUNCIL DIRECTION TO TRANSITION THE GAZEBO LOT AND THE CITY-OWNED PARKING LOT ADJACENT TO ACE HARDWARE TO LONGER DURATION PAID PARKING FOR EMPLOYEES. It makes the municipal code amendments necessary to implement those changes, while also extending the longer duration parking concept to several existing metered location elsewhere locations elsewhere downtown. And the locations that would be subject to the longer term parking with a graduated rate include Dolores drive happy valley road oak hill road the gazebo lot and the city own lot adjacent to ace hardware. There's one additional change in the ordinance that's unrelated to the parking study. Caltrans required that the city remove on-street parking on First Street between the on-ramp to eastbound 24 and Deerhill Road. First Street is currently identified in the municipal code as a metered parking zone. And although the meteor heads have been removed, the ordinance formally removes First Street from both the city's meter zone and parking rate provisions. tonight staff recommends that the council introduce ordinance 704 and waive the first reading the ordinance would then return to the city council on september 28th for the second reading and adoption and i'm happy to answer any questions okay thank you questions is there any public comment no public comment mayor andery okay well

Did we open the hearing?

All right, we'll close the hearing and bring it back to the council for discussion. Is there any discussion before we go to a motion? If not, can we have a motion?

Just a quick comment. I really want to appreciate the work that's gone into all this. It sort of feels like we're maybe at the end, maybe not the end, but we're well along on a long trail. We'll put it that way. And so I really appreciate the effort that you put into this and other staff. God knows how many other people to sort of move us along here, because she has a group that's been talking about this for a long time. And you've been on it even longer, so thank you.

Well, yeah, I mean, just without having all the employee, I mean, employee parking, we were talking about it, it's one of our main issues, and you're solving it. And I seem to think we're adding more. I don't remember Dolores Drive being, I don't know if maybe it was, but do you know, I guess more of a question, do you know how many parking spaces we're getting on the streets also? mean i just didn't see like is there an aggregate of how many new employee parking spots we're adding i'm considering these i'm clocking these employee parking spots no they're not but they're suitable for it because they're long term you put in the meter one time and you're good for the day

the gazebo lot would be new parking supply that's made available to the public.

That's right. But even on the streets now, the street parking, it was two hours, and now we're actually getting the full day.

The street parking on Dolores, Happy Valley, and Oak Hill currently $5 for all-day parking, although it's just not marketed. as such but now we'll have them as the graduated rate to be consistent with busy bill and ace and then i'll reach out to the chamber of commerce to help promote that as well as the bart lot perfect yeah that's great okay can we have a motion to introduce ordinance 704 wave the first reading and continue it to september 28th for second reading and adoption

so moved a second all in favor aye it's unanimous five zero patrick thank you very much for all your work on this okay we're on to item 16 and there's not a specific item but uh just uh council members report on activities would anyone like to report we haven't seen each other for a while

So just to catch up the council, we had a conversation with representatives of East Bay Mudd on the another sort of like art installation, if you will, or marker memorial relating to the Lafayette Tower. the certain components of the tower that have been preserved as I guess a ring, which is part of the overall structure, some components of the cupola at the top, like a door, some windows. And so there's just an opening discussion we had with the general manager, Joe Volk. Joe Volk heard some other folks about what to do with that we've got a ball in place so to speak inviting in um representatives from the historical society and the um public art commission committee to sort of meet i'm sorry and the story i'm sorry i missed that one that's key um historical society sort of meet this friday to sort of like talk through what we might do There is a budget, albeit somewhat limited, that East Bay Mudd has, which could be used to help to facilitate this. So that's, just want to let the council know that this is sort of beginning to percolate. And Vice Mayor McCormick.

So I mean, just specifically what they're talking about, It's going to be, they've cut, the tower came down in sections. So I'm envisioning there's like a prior two foot sections they took out. They're somewhat intact. And so they're potentially talking about putting that perhaps near the boathouse as a bench or something with maybe some signage and some other things kind of with the pictures honoring and anyway, honoring the old tower. So it's like, it's a nice gesture. And I think, and again, it's in their budget. They're going to pay for it as a nice piece of recreation thing. And so it should be interesting to see what they have in mind.

So will they have an interpretive plaque?

Yeah, we're talking about, well, they're open to a plaque. We need to figure out, that's one of the reasons we're bringing historical society along, is we'll design, get a plaque designed.

Or a panel, like an actual.

Yeah, a panel, exactly, like an interpretive panel. More content than just a plaque. To actually, you know, kind of show the, I'm assuming they'll show a picture of the tower before and what it did and all that kind of stuff.

Yeah, yeah, it'd be interesting history to share.

It's a nice gesture for them, so we are embracing it.

Mm-hmm.

I guess I'll just let me disclose a little more on MCE, our energy provider. Our CEO search is going along. There was an article that the former CEO of MCE that was let go is suing MCE for $8 million for wrongful termination. Doesn't seem to be much merit. We'll find out, but that's going on. So MCE continues to be a challenge. Still a good organization, and we are making progress into trying to make it even better. But they're still in the news, and we're trying to get them not to be in the news as much.

Anything else? OK, well, there was a memorial mass and celebration of life for Ashley Diaz last week. And Council Member Witherspoon, Council Member Cervantes, and I attended. Brent Stevens was there as well. It was a very nice ceremony, very nice day. Okay, we're on to 16a. Councilmember Cervantes and Vice Mayor McCormick, emergency preparedness commission.

Thank you, I can start us off. There are actually a pair of openings at the Emergency Preparedness Commission. We had the interview of the one candidate who submitted thus far, Jeff Langner, who brings a lot. He's one of those individuals that has been regularly attending this commission, even though he's not a member, and consistently comes in prepared. He's working on an effort with, he lives up in the Akilani Ridge area, formed a firewise group there. has been working with neighbors in Walnut Creek, who've also formed Firewise Community, sort of an alliance, if you will, to sort of protect the ridge, which is important because that's our eastern flank. So Jeff has been, like, deeply involved in that, and I... thought he was terrific. We strongly recommend him for emergent preparedness. I think he'll jump right in and really add a lot to what the commission is trying to do to make us a safer, more well-prepared community. So that's our recommendation.

Any comments or questions? Any public comment?

No public comment.

OK, we have a motion.

So I'll move approval of the appointment of Jeff Langer to the Emergency Preparedness Commission. And I will second that.

All in favor? Aye. That's unanimous, 5-0. On to item 16B1, Council Members Witherspoon and Cervantes.

yes so council member cervantes and i had the pleasure of interviewing lee thompson who's our existing cpac member um who's being renewed he was it was a delightful delightful interview and conversation he has a wealth of knowledge and just a incredibly long history of working as a City engineer and consultant in Contra Costa County And I think he we're lucky to have him be willing to continue on the CPAC so Does anyone have any questions I Would say that Lee Thompson probably has forgotten more than most people know The topic of city engineering he has a remarkable history.

I think we're fortunate to have them. I

Is there any public comment?

No public comment.

OK. We have a motion.

Sure. I'll move to adopt Resolution 2026-53, appointing Lee Thompson to the Capital Projects Assessment Committee.

And I'll second that.

All in favor? Aye. It's unanimous 5-0. On to 16B2.

Well, once again, Council Member Cervantes and I had the pleasure of interviewing three candidates, three teens, for the Youth Commission, who are all really impressive young people. Really, they ask one question, they have really intelligent answers. I feel like, I don't know if I was there when I was in high school. They're really very, very impressive. We have two open positions right now, and so we hope our third candidate will join the LYC as an associate member this year. And so I would make a motion to adopt Resolution 26-49, appointing Noah Korder and Olivia Kemp to the Youth Commission.

And I'll second that.

Okay, is there any questions before we go to public comment? Nope. Any public comment?

No public comment. Do we have the right resolution number? I think it's a dash 55.

It's dash 55.

Yeah.

It's 49.

Yeah, go ahead and make the motion.

Yeah.

Okay, so I'll make a motion to adopt Resolution 2026-55, appointing Noah Korder and Olivia Kemp to the Youth Commission.

I'll second. Okay, all in favor? Aye. Okay, it's unanimous 5-0. We are on to Item 16C, and that's the booth staffing for the Art and Wine Festival. And I will take 10 a.m. to 12.30. on both Saturday and Sunday, and we can have no more than two council members at any one time. Lucky guess there on my part.

If I can go next, actually, I'm sorry, because I've got commitment. I cannot do any time Sunday because we're performing, and the middle one on Saturday I can't do. So I can do the first and second on the first and second, first and third shifts on Saturday.

Okay, so you've got.

Those are the only ones I can do, I'm sorry. I don't mean to preempt everybody.

Okay, no, gotcha. Okay, any other volunteer?

I'm not available on Saturday, unfortunately, so I can only do Sunday. Okay. I typically do cleanup. I don't know why I'm one of those gluttons to help do cleanup, so I will do cleanup.

All right, 3 to 5.30.

And then if we really are wanting to get somebody, I can do the shift before, too, but we'll see what other people are signing up for.

Okay, we'll hold on that one.

Yeah.

I can do 12.30 to 3 both days. Ooh, okay. Oh, wow. If needed.

Mm-hmm. Okay, that sounds good.

And my wife and I are not going to be available. We're going to be out of town on Sunday. I'm open Saturday. So I guess the 3 to 5.30 slot is open. Okay, so that would be probably good to cover that one then.

Okay, and what was the other one you were available for?

I probably should split them, right? I don't want to do back-to-backs. That would be hard.

So you want to do Sunday. You're not available Saturday?

I'm not available Saturday.

So Sunday morning?

What time does it start again?

10 o'clock.

I can do that.

Okay.

Okay.

And then who is actually going to make sure we're there?

Well, I'll send this out to you so you all know what you've committed yourselves to.

Oh, okay, great, great.

And then Suzanne is working to get staff. to have a staff person with you all day Saturday and all day Sunday, and we also are working on setup and takedown, so.

Okay, great, great. Okay, on to item 17A. All right. Request for proclamation recognizing September as ovarian cancer awareness month. And we have the resolution. Any questions or comments? Any public comment?

No public comment.

OK. Do we have a motion for adoption of the proclamation?

So moved.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Okay, it's adopted. On to 17B, a request for a proclamation recognizing September's Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. And again, we have the proclamation, thank you. Questions, comments? Any public comment?

No public comments.

We have a motion for approval.

So moved.

Second. All in favor? Aye. unanimously adopted 17c email from race Dixon resigning from the parks trails and recreation commission recommendation is to accept the resignation and thank her for five years of volunteer service on the park trail and recreation commission Any questions or comments? Any public comment? No public comment. And this does not require, I mean, accept it and we're... Very thankful for everything she's done for our park project.

It continues to do, actually, yeah.

Definitely.

Yeah, as it was clear at the PTR committee meeting last week, I mean, basically, this is what she's been doing for so long, whether she's off or on the committee. It's just amazing what contributions to the community she has made and the contribution that Eden is making. It's just incredible. So yes, our heartfelt thanks for all that she's done for the PTR and for the community. And now on to D, the annual conference resolution. We have, let's see, do we want any sort of staff report or just have it here to discuss and direct our voting delegate or whatever advice we provide to the voting delegate, which is Council Member Kandel. So any comments, thoughts?

Yeah, I can offer one. I mean, I'm just reading the package. It's a very thorough process that the league has. I mean, it's sort of a bit of a gauntlet, it seems, to get these resolutions through. But I think for me, looking at this, there are two values that, I guess, policy values I'd have here, one of which is enhancing local control, which is a good, and that's something we've been supportive of, but also trying to further housing in California because there's a shortfall. And so it's a balance of having appropriate local control and also doing the work to try to further housing. So I think there's maybe a tension in that dynamic here. I don't know. As a council member, I don't know if I'd offer direction one way or the other. The discussion, I think, could be really interesting, especially where in one of the resolved items, it would seem to me that it acknowledges the state's authority to establish broad statewide housing goals, which I assume is RHNA. But then further down it talks about protecting cities from state actions and so on. There's a tension there. And I think the discussion at the league conference could be helpful to sort of like maybe pull that apart a bit. Because that to me is like, you know, is arena with no teeth or is arena with some other mechanism? I'm not sure. And I think this is one where I'd say the discussion could be helpful, and I would frankly leave it to Councilmember Scandell's best judgment about what's appropriate. That would be my take on it.

Okay, since we're not doing questions, let's get public comment. My bad. No, no, no.

Is there any public comment on 17D?

We got a lot of written comments.

I have no hands raised and no speakers in the community.

Okay, so we are aware of the written comment. Okay, sorry.

Actually, I'm going to, I think, Council Member Cermontes' comments are fine. I think it's like long past time Cal State has actually took this up. That's my kind of thing. You know, whether this vote's voted up or down, I'm happy to leave it to Council Member Kandel. But this is something that I think the Cal City should have a position on. And I mean, what's there now is probably the one, it's kind of leaning away. It wouldn't surprise me if the final thing gets a little more in the middle. But no, I think it's great that they're having the conversation. So I look forward to getting a report back on how that went.

Okay. Any other comments or?

Let me add a comment. I've been on two calls with John Lovell, the mayor of Murrieta, on this topic over the last couple of weeks. And he is a very thoughtful and mindful guy, and I like the way he presents this. What's good is that he understands what the initiative can or can't do. And this process of having the league investigate it first is so critical, because it'll answer all the questions that people have about what this thing is and what this thing isn't, because that's always been the tension you get. And Sean's like, no, this initiative, going 10 steps down the road that it actually goes to the vote and gets passed, it doesn't change any state laws. The state laws, each city has to go back and make changes if they want any changes to occur. And so he frames this as a... You know, kind of softening the edges of the state laws for your city. Right. It's like we did with the SB nine thing, right? Remember that we had the emergency ordinance and we kind of tailored SB nine to be better for maybe us and now Lafayette felt. And so that's how he his vision isn't to just. undo all the state laws, because he's like, I don't think it's possible to undo all these state laws. No city would be able to actually do that. And so that's what I liked about this discussion. It was open-ended and he's like, let the league answer all those questions and will believe them right and there'll be finally a real a real conversation about it with real experts in the room, so I enjoyed his reasons for even doing this so yeah.

Any other.

No, I think I think I agree. with the others.

OK, so what I'm understanding is that we are asking, we're not directing our voting delegate, we're asking our voting delegate to participate and recognizing what Lafayette's needs are and what we're trying to accomplish and what our policy objectives are and how we're trying to come across and what we're doing to build up our credibility when we're trying to ask for things and then vote accordingly. Because we don't know what's gonna come before you. No idea. Okay, are we all, that's the direction?

In addition, Narup sits on the housing committee and she will be voting on this on Thursday. Right?

That's a Zoom meeting, right?

Yeah. Unfortunately, I have a CSCDA board meeting at 10 o'clock that day, trying to see if I can get out of that, if they have a quorum. If they don't, I have to participate at CSCDA.

I'm sorry.

No, this was arranged very quickly. They didn't do a poll, so it is what it is.

Okay, so with that, we will adjourn in memory of and in honor of. One more, Measure W. Oh, Measure W, okay.

How did I forget that one?

All right. Any questions or comments before we go to public comment? Public comment.

The mayor is taking public comment on item 17E. Mayor Anduri, there are no speakers in the community hall and there are no raised hands in our virtual audience.

Okay, so we have a motion for adoption of resolution 2026-56. So moved. second okay all in favor okay with that we will adjourn in memory and honor of judy garbens who among other contributions to the community was mayor and council member and member of the planning commission but beyond that a real inspiration to the community we are adjourned