City Council - Regular Meeting

Call the meeting to order. Let the record show that all council members are present. For the agenda, I'd like to make two changes. One would be to change the order of the two close session items to accommodate um people being available. And I would like to move item 11F recognizing the Eagle Scouts from Troop 200. um move it up to be the first presentation so the scouts can get back to their school activities. So with those two changes, could I have a motion for adoption of the agenda as revised?

So moved. I second. All in favor? I I. It's adopted. Now we're at public comments on items that are on the close session agenda only. Is there any public comment at this time? Mayor Anderie is taking items on close session items only. I have no speakers in the community hall and I have no hands raised in our virtual audience. Okay. So, we will now move into close session and we will return at 7 pm.

Okay, the 7 o'clock the council is back in session from close session where there were no reportable actions. Uh we have made a change to the agenda item 11F uh recognizing Eagle Scouts from Troop 200. we move to uh the first uh presentation under uh item 11 presentations. So we will now move to the pledge of allegiance. I would ask two Eagle Scouts, Emo Kunoshi and Cohen Pet to lead us in the pledge. if you'll step up to the podium and make sure the microphone's on.

There's a button on there. Okay. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. As we gather this evening for the first council meeting of the month, we acknowledge that Lafayette is part of the unseated ancestral homeland of the Bay Miwok people. The Bay Miwok and neighboring Aloney 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. It's now time for public comments. Anyone may provide up to three minutes of public comment on any item that is not on tonight's agenda but within the purview of the city council. There was anyone who would like to make up public comments.

Mayor Anduri, I have no speaker slips for persons in the Dontaxen Community Hall. I have no hands raised in our virtual audience, but if members of the public want to speak on any items on the agenda, please fill out a yellow speaker slip in the back of the room and hand it to me, and I'll make sure you come to the podium to speak.

Okay. And no one online. All right. So, we will save the city manager's update for the next council meeting and we'll move right into presentations. Um, we are very fortunate to have in Lafayette a thriving scouting community and uh over the past month I've been able to go to several uh Eagle Courts of Honor. It's just a a privilege to be able to meet the young people who have risen to the highest levels of scouting. And tonight we're going to honor uh new Eagle Scouts from Troop 200. So I'd like to ask uh Emo and Cohen to come up. And while they're coming up, I'm going to read the proclamation. That's a city issues and

okay. Right. Okay. I will I will read Emo's in full and then I'm going to uh read Cohen's the the relevant parts and you'll see what I mean by that. Okay. Whereas an Eagle Court of Honor was held to recognize the achieve advancement of Emiko Kunashi to the rank of Eagle Scout. And whereas reaching the rank of Eagle Scout is a singular personal achievement on the part of each scout and represents an important milestone on their path to becoming a leader in our community as an adult. Only a small percentage of scouts have the ability and perseverance to reach this goal. And whereas Emiko has brought pride upon herself, her family, her troop, and our community by her pursuit and dedication to this lofty goal. And whereas Emo's Eagle Scout project involved designing and constructing a Redwood ADA accessible rolling garden bed for openhouse center, a nonprofit daycare facility serving individuals with physical, behavioral, and developmental challenges, thereby creating an elevated and mobile gardening space that provides participants with an accessible hands-on activity that fosters relaxation, community building, inclusion, and personal well-being. And whereas such honor as bestowed upon EMO by the scouts BSA in earning the rank of Eagle Scout warrants this community's recognition. Therefore, on behalf of the Lafayette City Council, it is my pleasure to honor and proclaim July 7th, 2026 as Emo Kunashi Eagle Scout Day in Lafayette. Congratulations. Whereas an Eagle Court of Honor was held to recognize the advancement of Cohen Przloff to the rank of Eagle Scout. And whereas Cohen's Eagle Scout project consisted of organizing and conducting a storefront food drive at Safeway and a school food drive at Campalinda High School, as well as sorting, packaging, and transporting the donated food and

providing on-site support during a weekly food distribution event at Monument Crisis Center, resulting in the collection of more than,300 pounds of food to assist individuals and families experiencing food insecurity throughout Contraosta County. Therefore, on behalf of the Lafayette City Council, it is my pleasure to honor and proclaim December 10th, 2026 as Cohen Prat Przloff Eagle Scout Day in Lafayette. Congratulations.

So, now you to come up here in the council members and we could get a picture of our Eagle Scout council members and then if there are parents and scout leaders would like them to Thank you. Okay, this is our last city council meeting before Memorial Day in the year in which we celebrate our country's 250 years of independence. We obtained our independence and we have maintained it because many Americans

over the years have served in our military forces. On Memorial Day, we honor and remember those who gave their lives while in the service of our country. This evening, we want to honor and remember them and their families. Before this special Memorial Day, we also want to honor all those who have served in the past and their families. We especially want to honor and thank our Lafayette residents and those who went through our schools who are serving now. We want them to know how much we appreciate them and how much we appreciate their families here in Lafayette. We also want to learn about support and resources available to veterans in Lafayette. I will now ask Bart Carr to lead us through the program. Bart is a board member of Lafayette War Veterans Inc. and a member of American Legion Post 517. He's also chair of Lafayette's Transportation and Circulation Commission, BART. Thank you, Mayor Dury. We have a little logistics to uh handle here just for a moment. Thank you. Um, good evening, Mayor Anduri, council members, city staff, audience. Um, I want to begin uh this presentation by first asking the

question, what is Memorial Day? Because, uh, for many people, for most people, it's a holiday. It's the start of summer season, right? It's uh having picnics, spending time with your family or friends, barbecues. Um but there's a deeper a real meaning to Memorial Day that may dur mentioned and that is to remember and honor those who have died in service of our country. So tonight, veterans from the American Legion and uh veterans from from for veterans of foreign wars will join with city council and with the Lafayette community to recognize and honor our fallen heroes. But first, we want to recognize the mothers, the gold star mothers who have lost a son or a daughter while in service to our country and have to live with that reality every day. So, we have two gold star mothers with us tonight and I appreciate that. Could I get the next slide, please? And you can go to the next slide following that. So, the core of our remembrance tonight is to honor our fallen heroes. And we're going to be begin with Corporal Sean Cany Aldrich Langan. How did I do? Almost. Corporal Langavven was a member of the 173rd Airborne Brigade known as the chosen few who served during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. And we lost Corpal Langan uh killed in action on November 9th, 2007. So his mother Roxan is with us tonight and I'll ask her to share some of her

memories with us. and you can use that that microphone.

So Sean um always loved an adventure. Um if he wasn't bungee jumping, uh white water kaying, um snowboarding, he was jumping out of a plane. Um and he was an Eagle Scout. So congratulations to the two Eagle Scouts there. um he learned a lot in the milit or he learned a lot as an Eagle Scout um or as a boy scout at the time and it really helped him as he got through um you know the the military. Um but the one thing about Shawn is and that I'm very proud of is he while in the military he fought in two battles. The first one he was injured um but he got back out on the uh got out got back out there um and that was in August of 2007 and in November 9 of 2007 he um lost his life um in an ambush attack. Um the one thing that his fellow soldiers have they've reached out to me and they said that Shawn was a light in the their darkest days that his humor um his compassion um being a friend um to all of them and uh how much he supported them during the time of war. they truly appreciated him being by their side. Um, more than anything as a mother, you know, I can say all of the great things about Shawn, but when you hear it from somebody else and when you hear it from the soldiers that he fought with, it just, you know, puts a smile in my heart. Sean um

was married. I had the opportunity to officiate his wedding. So I brought him into this world and I sent him off to his wife. Um but uh unfortunately um he was not able to make it for uh the birth of his child. His daughter Zoe was born 3 months after he was killed. And so the only thing that I want to leave here is Zoe. And you know, you just have to think about this. he was able to name Zoe um before he died. And Zoe means life. So, and Zoe is the light in my darkest days.

Thank you. Thank you, Roxan. Yeah, thank you so much for giving us the opportunity. Truly appreciate it.

We We certainly honor Sean's memory. Thank you. Uh next slide, please. Next, we honor Private First Class Kevin Clark Dexter, who was a member of the Second Battalion, Seventh Marines, Light Infantry, known as the War Dogs. He was based at 29 Palms Marine Base here in California. And we lost PFC Dexter on September 10th, 2022. And so we have his mother, goldstar mother Kathy Dexter here with us tonight to share her thoughts and the reme and remembrances.

Okay, Roxan's a tough act to follow, but my stuff's written down, so I should make it. Um, just a few words about Kevin. You know, he was big-hearted, caring, he was a big thinker, strategist, historian, very joyful, loved movies, just really a fun lover, um, dog lover, and also a thrillseker. So when I heard all what Sean was doing, I'm like, "Sounds like you're talking about my son." Um, from the age of toddler, he was a perimeter seeker and a boundary pusher. Um, from the physical sense, meaning that when other kids were on the on the play structures, um, he was looking for the perimeter of the park and how to escape. So, I usually pretty much had to go to fence parks and the the one by the Lafayette Community Center was my favorite actually because of the fence around it. Uh, Kevin wanted to know what was beyond the perimeter. He was a very active he was an accomplished swimmer, wrestler, skier, snowboarder, football. Um, and yeah, anything he could do to just kind of push the edge there. Uh, he naturally transitioned into the demands of physical endurance necessary to thrive in the Marine Corps. Uh, he never complained about any of the extreme physical challenges and in the short time he was there, he earned a marksmanship award and then also was one of the best swimmers in his company. As far as in school, he was an Aqualani, you know, high graduate just a few years before. And um his favorite part of school would have been the social part and and the football. Uh however, he did have a few favorite subjects which were history, current events, politics, and autoshop. Um his biggest curiosities developed into a vast knowledge of world history. He knew it like like the back of his hand. And he specifically the strategy of war and battle along with that survival. He enjoyed computer games that were around building colonies and uh the infrastructures that helped them survive. He did boot camp at MCRD in San Diego, followed by School of Infantry at Camp Pendleton, and his final assignment

was to be stationed at 29 Palms in the desert. Very hot out there. Um I went visit him one time. Very hot. Um his friends described him as loyal, dependable, and caring with a bright spirit. And they put others first. His fellow Marines described him as hardworking, incredibly confident, loyal, and that he always had their back. And his squad leader let me know that he had a level of maturity and ability to excel at his job to set him apart from his peers with the ability to sust sustain a smile even after the most rigorous training. We had regular FaceTime conversations from the base that would always include checking in on the well-being of his brother Kyle, the dogs, and other family members, as well as enthusiastically filling me in on the week's drills, and hearing of what he accomplished. Um, I miss him every day. The conversations, the laughter, the determination, his energy. He was my movie buddy. Um, and I'm grateful for his final year of life with the Marine Corps because it led him into such a fantastic space on a trajectory of where he felt successful, what he was looking for. Um, and I hold on to that story and mostly the remembrance of his joyfulness, his forgiveness of others, and how he gave his commitment heart and soul to people. So, that's that's how I remember Kevin. Um, and he has one of his best friends actually just enlisted in the army and he's in boot camp. And one of Kyle's best friends is uh just completed like the Navy boot camp. So have a few others that are going that direction. Thank you for the opportunity. We really appreciate it. And uh time to share.

Thank you, Kathy. And we uh we certainly honor uh Kevin's memory. Next slide, please. Next, we honor Private First Class Adrien Jeff um who was uh in training platoon 1023 of the Marine Corps Infantry School Camp Pendleton, California. We lost PFC Jeff on August 29th, 2021. Goldstar mother Liz Jeff can't be with us tonight, but she asked me to share the following information. PFC Jeff was a graduate of Okalani High School in June 2015 and was an all-American law lacrosse player and league most valuable player. He attended and graduated from San Diego State University with a BA in finance in 2019. He enlisted in the Marines in October 2020 and went through basic training and earned the National Defense Service Medal. He also was a awarded the expert rifleman's badge which is a very difficult badge or award to earn. PFC Jeff wanted to do something meaningful after his after losing his brother at the end of 2019. He felt that joining the Marines and taking an oath to serve his country was the most meaningful action he could take. We honor the memory of PFC Jeff. Next slide, please. Next, uh, Specialist Taylor Hannah was, uh, trained to do intelligence work to catch the bad guys, as his mother relates. He worked in US Army military intelligence, uh, and computer systems, and had a top secret clearance. After basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, he spent 51 weeks in intelligence specialty training at Fort Wuka, Arizona, and then

spent spent time deployed in South Korea. We lost Specialist Hannah on March 1st, 2020. His mother can't be with us, but asked me to share the following. Specialist Hannah loved music and enjoyed playing the guitar. He liked languages and learned both Spanish and Japanese. He enjoyed being a big brother to his younger siblings and he joined the m military because he thought it would be a good maturing experience and would give him direction in his life. We honor the memory of Specialist Hannah. Thank you. And next slide. And then finally, we want to honor Senior Airman Jonathan Jake Vega Yelner, who was a member of the 28th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Bram, Afghanistan, also during Operation Enduring Freedom. We lost Senior Airman Yelner, killed in action in April 2008. His mother, Lafayette resident Yolanda Vega, passed away in June 2024, where she is now reunited with her son. So, we honor both Jake and Yolanda in our memories. We can go to the next slide. So, to conclude this segment uh in our program tonight, I would like all the veterans in the audience to please stand. I'd like the mothers, would you please stand and uh turn to face the veterans? We're going to conduct an honor salute to pay respect to the gold star mothers and to their sons. So, veterans uh on my command, please render us and hold your salute. Veterans, present arms.

Order arms. Thank you. Everybody can be seated. Thank you. You're fine there. No, you're fine then. Now, we turn our attention to America's greatest generation, the men and women who served during World War II in the Korean conflict. It's been 80 years since the end of World War II, and this generation is unfortunately fading quickly. However, we are fortunate to have two World War II veterans who are with us tonight, giving us the opportunity to recognize and to honor them. Gilbert Verdugo. Gil, can you raise your hand so everybody can see where you are? That's Gil right over there. Gilbert Dugo was a crewman and a gunner on a B-24 Liberator bomber that was part of the US Navy anti-ubmarine patrols hunting German yubot off the east coast of the United States. Gil operated out of Naval Air Station Bufort in South Carolina from 1943 to 1945. Allied. And just to give you some background, Allied submarine crews, Allied anti-ubmarine crews manning aircraft like the B-24 destroyed 287 Germanot during World War II, making them a primary factor in the defeat of the German German Yubot fleet. So Gil, we want to thank you for your service. George Ben Weski sitting next to Gil. George, raise your hand, please. There he is. George Beneski was an instructor at Aberdine Proving Grounds, Maryland, in operation and use of anti-aircraft

guns and fire control systems from 1945 to 1946. targeting high-flying and very fastmoving enemy aircraft using groundbased anti-aircraft guns was extremely difficult, but George played an important role in training soldiers how to do this. And for that, George, we uh appreciate you and we honor your service. Now, George, you said you had something you wanted to add. I C E W memorial center beautiful building facility provided for

thank Thank you, George. And and that's a great leadin to our next segment, which is to talk about the Lafayette Veterans Memorial Center. Currently, veterans living in central county communities can meet and socialize with other veterans at the Lafayette Veterans Memorial Center. The original Vet Center was built in 1925 and was located in the Lafayette Library Learning C Center's current location where we are right now. The new Veteran Center was completed in 2005. is located on the other end on the western end of Lafayette and is available for use by the veterans groups and for banquet room rentals for weddings, receptions, business and club meetings and many other uses. So, I'm going to ask uh Terry Murphy, the president of Lafayette War Veterans, uh who overall manages the center, Mike Gillson, who is the commander of Lafayette American Legion Post 517, and Peter Coobbler, who's the commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars post 8063, to come up and briefly describe the cent's function for veterans benefit and the veterans associations that use it. So, gentlemen, if you can come up here and again very briefly give us your messages. He's already violated the number one rule of public speaking. Never give an Irishman a microphone. I have a comment, brief comments to make. Um, we're gathering because in a few weeks we'll have a Memorial Day. a Memorial Day that basically started back in 1868 when General Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic decided that we needed to have some way of celebrating the veterans of that war, his war. I think for me personally, I think Memorial Days went back a lot further than that. 1868 was barely a start. I

actually think that the friends and families that put flowers on the graves of the veterans who served in any conflict created their own memorial. And all we've done is upgrade it. And it was upgraded as a national holiday back in 1971 as again a national holiday. And we have the honor to be able to celebrate this. And I wanted to personally thank the council staff and all of you in the audience for coming here and helping us with our celebration for Memorial Day. Thank you. Um the celebration of Memorial Day is about two things. One is about the veterans that we've lost and the other is about service. In the VFW, we have a number of sayings. One of those is service and sacrifice. And the two go hand in hand. The sacrifice uh there's another saying at the VFW and that is all gave some, some gave all. And that's what we're here for and why we have a Memorial Day because some did give all. I would say that every one of the veterans that you see here came home and every one of the veterans were in service to this country. Sometimes that service left them damaged. Sometimes it just left them wanting. In the end, it was service and sacrifice. But every one of them came home and like

all of you went back to school, got an education, started work, had a career, found somebody to marry, started a family, and along the way there was one little thing that was missing because every one of them was imbued with the idea of service. And we've tried to give the veterans in the community that opportunity to be able to serve the community. And that service is a number of different things. You you can see us, the VFW and the scouts cleaning up Diablo Mount Diablo Boulevard down at our end of town, right? That is a day of service. And Patrick, thank you for organizing that effort. We've been doing this for several years now. We'd love to be able to expand it even more. Our problem is getting enough veterans to do even more, but we're going to keep doing what we can do. Um, when those veterans started to look around, they had a career, they had a family, their kids were becoming teenagers, and they didn't want to deal with us anymore. Um, we had the chance to do something. Some of the veterans went out and helped with scouting. We've had a number of different highlevel people working in scouting. We have got scout leaders. We have higher up at the barrier council. Um some of us found it other ways. We decided to volunteer for boards, commissions, and some even ran into politics. Go figure. But we found a way to serve. And in the end, there are a number of different

opportunities for us to be able to recognize our veterans and their service. And we avail ourselves of every one of them. One of the ways that we do it, if you look at the picture in front of you, you'll see that there is a granite monument. on that monument are insized in stone the names of every veteran in Contraosta County who've lost their lives since 911. Unfortunately, we're still adding names to it and we will as necessary, but we've got some room yet to go. So, that is the veteran's way of recognizing their contribution and the gold star mom's contribution. Thank you. Okay. Um, another thing that we do is Memorial Day weekend, the weekend before Memorial Day weekend, you'll see us out with our caps at Diablo Foods. The family of our uh late member have decided that we should continue down there to do buddy poppies. If you see us, we give away poppies. We don't sell them. We give them away along with flags to any child or any adult who'd like to have one. We do accept donations. I can rest assured every dollar that we collect as in a as a donation is used to support the programs, scouting, teacher of the year, firefighter of the year, all the programs that the VFW has and will continue to support. So with that,

good job. Good job.

I'm going to be really quick. I'm Mike Gillson. I'm the post commander of American Legion Post 517. And I'm a 12th generation veteran, meaning that the first generation of my family served during the Revolutionary War uh as as acknowledged by D, where my daughter is a D in Lafayette. Um, and I'm named for a World War II casualty, my uncle Ed, who was who was buried in the cemetery, American cemetery in Cambridge, England. So, I know what being GSAR mother is all about. Um, my favorite part of what we do is the boys and girls state and we should acknowledge the fact that this community sends boys and girls to a program in June every year in Sacramento and we've had some remarkable students who've joined this program over the years. Many of them are at the servicemies and we don't acknowledge the fact that West Point Naval Academy, Air Force Academy sends students from our high schools, local high schools to uh surfacemies and we have several of them now. So just and by the way, the the the monument, the granite monument, I just need to acknowledge that was designed by my daughter Kelly. Thank you.

Uh thank you for having us. I'm the incoming post commander for the VFW. Um given how well it's been covered, uh the I'll I'll I'll uh rely on the prior comments and uh I'll yield my time to some future meeting of the city council. Uh hope you'll have us back. Uh we really do appreciate getting uh uh invited and and thank you for the respect you've shown to uh veterans and and the sacrifice of of veterans. Thank you.

Thank you. Um so we're we're coming to the conclusion now. Um to conclude, thank you. Yeah. To conclude our Memorial Day program honoring our fallen veterans. So again, I want to thank Mayor Mayor Anduri, the city council uh for supporting this recognition tonight. Um, I the the final message that I would like to leave with you is actually borrowed from Roxan's email address. You recognize it or email signature block I should say. The message, a hero remembered is never never dies and it's so very true and worth remembering on Memorial Memorial Day that we're going to be joining in just a few days. So with that, I'm going to conclude. Again, I'll thank you for this and I don't know. I'll turn it back to you, Mayor Anduri, if you have any comments.

Yeah. Well, we are the ones who thank you for being here and allowing us to carry out this this recognition. I'm thinking that we'll go to public comments and then come back, do it the opposite way we usually do. So, we'll open now for anyone who'd like to make a public comment of up to three minutes. and um city clerk Robin. Mayor Anduri, I have a speaker, Tracy Riley. I have no other speaker slips on this item. So, if someone else would like to speak, hand me a card with your name and I'll call you to the podium.

Good evening. I'm Tracy Riley. Well, first I just want to say um thank you, Mayor Anduri. Thank you so much for for listening to me a couple weeks back. So um when I served on city council many years ago, I was approached by Miss Vega and she really wanted a recognition for Memorial Day. So this was you know quite a few many years ago and she during this conversation she spoke about her son. her son as you um got to see Antonio Vega Yelner and she talked about her son in such a way and I saw such sorrow and sadness but I also saw such pride and I see that with Kathy. I know my son actually went to school with Kevin and Roxanne. But these that conversation really stayed with me. And so many years later, I stand before you with the son who is serving in the military and I've gotten to know many other families here in La Miranda who have kids who are serving. So it touches all of us. And I reflect upon my conversation again. And I I remember just this deep sense of pain and sorrow that any one of us would feel with the loss of our child, but such pride. And I want to think that it's really important that we remember all those people who served and sacrificed on our behalf. And so I'd like to thank each of you and all of you in the audience who came, all you veterans that have served and the families who made the ultimate sacrifice. So, I want to thank you and I think it's important to remember

that these people chose sacrifice and service over self. That's pretty remarkable actually. And so, I say thank you to all your sacrifices and to those of your families. Thank you again, Mayor Anduri, for this opportunity. And I just want to say again, thank you to the gold star moms who are here today. Thank you. And I want you to know that we see you and we remember your children. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Anduri. I have no additional speakers.

Okay. Comments. Just briefly, thank you. I'm not a veteran myself. I'm son of an army vet. And um I appreciate your um your sacrifice and actually attending. I think it's easy to um have service and war and all that as being very abstract and I think seeing your faces and hearing the pain and the pride is important to make make the connection right that it is um it's not a game it is sacrifice and it uh it means something and um thank you very much for taking the time both the gold star mothers and the veterans themselves for uh for everything you do.

I'd also like to express my appreciation. Um, I'm really happy to see two of our veterans from World War II. My father joined the Army Air Corps in 1943 and stayed along for Korea and Vietnam that followed. Um, but it shaped our family, the being in a family that grew up in the military and moved from Air Force base to Air Force base and the service and dedication of individuals um, who serve our country and those who give all is just deeply rooted. So just I've have just such profound appreciation for your all service and what you've done for our country and I'm really glad we had this moment to share and thank you Mayor Anduri. I really appreciate that. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you very much for sharing and for all your service and also for sharing your remarkable remarkable sons um with us. Really appreciate it and may their memories be a blessing. Thank you. And Bart, thank you for reme remind reminding us what the real reason for Memorial Day is. Really appreciate that. Thank you to all of you. I do want to acknowledge um three years ago we adjourned in memory of four gold star mothers and their sons and um it would Tracy Riley reached out to me and reminded me how important it is to do this uh and particularly recognizing the families in our community who aren't normally recognized and thanking them for what they do. uh because it's not easy having a son or daughter in the military. So, thank you to the families and thank you very much Bart for organizing this. Thank you for everyone who came to help us. Uh again recognize the importance of Memorial Day, recognizing the importance of appreciating those who defend our country particularly in this very uh important year, the 250th anniversary. So thank you.

And now for this month's lifelong learning and arts presentation. Lafayette's mission statement calls out our commitment to lifelong learning. And through organizations such as the city's public art committee, the city seeks to embed the arts in our civic life and in the fabric of our community. In 2026 and 2027, we will help strengthen these civic values through presentations at the beginning of the first council meeting of each month by an organization that offers lifelong learning opportunities or promotes appreciation of the arts. This month's featured organization is the Friends of the Lafayette Library. And I have to say this morning I attended the friends uh annual meeting and uh it's just there are organizations in Lafayette that are real pillars of the community uh who have done so much to make Lafayette what it is and the friends of the library is certainly one of those organizations. Its primary mission is to support the programs, collections and services of the Lafayette library. Tonight, uh, this year's president of the Friends, Cherry Sprag, together with Ellen Wrenches and Cass Kazanghelong learning and the arts. and and Cherry, you did say this was a no PowerPoint. Okay. If you would like if you'd prefer to speak from the podium, you're welcome to do that. Whatever is

hit it one more time. Oh, okay. There we go. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. So, thank you, Mayor Andrew and other council members for this opportunity to share the mission, programs, and operations of the Friends of the Lafayette Library and Learning Center, or as you just know, it's the Friends. Okay. Uh our mission as a nonprofit organization is to support programs, collections, and services of the library. Since 2009, the Friend's Bookshop has been on the lower level of this complex at the corner of First Street and Golden Gate Way. Some people still try to find us and think we're the library, but we keep trying to stress that. Okay. Um, our mission is support programs, collections, and services at the library. Okay. Our organization relies on the public to donate their used books and we rely on the public to buy our gently used books at relatively reduced prices. Typically, we have a half-pric sale about once a month. That allows us to continually add new books to our inventory that hovers at about 20,000 books. There are currently five officers and 13 other members of the board who have specific roles and some of these individuals have other roles in the organization as well. Eight of our current members have served as the president. Okay. Um so I so we have monthly meetings that allow us to keep a breast of our financial status particularly our book sales and to have and to update our operations and programs and that you will hear about from some of my friends pretty soon. Okay. Our monthly meetings also include Rob Tigot who is the head librarian here and Sarah Blumenfeld who works with the county Contraosta County Commission and Carol Varane as the director of the

foundation. Our intent is to align in word and deed with those who share this great complex at the heart of Lafayette. What you see in the bookshop relies on what goes behind the doors in the back of the bookshop. This incredibly small area that has about four computers, two printers, and stacks of books waiting their turns to be prized and shelf priced and shelf. Uh there are a bunch of group of volunteers who process the books and get them onto the shelves and sold. So right now I'd like to bring somebody who is runs most of this for us and there's lots about the operation our immediate past president Cass Kasanoff.

Thanks Cherry. So you're going to hear today about some of the wonderful programs the Friends runs but we really spend most of our time daytoday uh selling books to support the library. Um, every year we donate around $100,000 to the library um to support the efforts that been mentioned. We used to do this on a limited basis in really small spaces like little tables at the community center and stuff. Uh, but 16 years ago when this beautiful library was built, some folks had the foresight to build a proper bookshop and uh, thus Friends Corner Bookshop was born. As Cherry mentioned, we have about 20,000 books in the bookshop, all donated to us by the community. All everything it takes to run the bookshop and to run our board of directors is done by volunteers. We're open 45 hours a week and we have about 90 people volunteering in the shop. During the pandemic, during the pandemic, we took advantage of the time the shop had to be closed to computerize our inventory. take that step into the 21st century. Uh we also started taking um credit cards and Apple Pay which after many years of only cash and check but what this system means is each book is considered individually and priced individually. So gone are the days of two bucks, four bucks, two bucks, four bucks. Each one's individually considered. So that takes a lot more time. Um it also means we have a lot more data to run the shop. Um, and I want to acknowledge Ellen who creates amazing reports that really help us get a handle on what's going. Here's a few stats for calendar year 2025. Our pricers, maybe 15 or 20 of us, priced 48,000 donated books. We sold almost 39,000 books and raised over $135,000

on books. And then we just for fun about another $8,400 in puzzles, games, and DVDs. As Cherry mentioned, we have halfp price sales almost monthly and everything in the shop is half price. Our children's section is really amazing. And though the children's books are generally lower priced and are only 16 to 18% of our inventory, they tend to represent about 25% of our revenue, at least in 2025. So, it's amazing. I've lived in Lafayette for quite a long time and I've seen the power of volunteerism from the early days of youth sports to this very city council and uh I'm just constantly amazed by what we do at Friends Corner Bookshop with our rag tag posi of amazing volunteers uh you know running an actual retail store where you have to be open a certain number of hours and there have to be people working. Um, so we uh were so honored to have you, Mayor Ender, at our annual meeting where we got to celebrate our volunteers once a year at least. Um, and I'll pass it back to my colleagues.

Well, our next speaker is Ellen, right? Just

right. So, so I'm going to talk about the um wonders of the world program and that um or wow and that's really what we call it is wow and that um name came from uh one of our prior volunteers many years ago Ruth Bailey and perhaps some of you might have known her. So, WOW was sponsored by the friend since 2012, and it brings together speakers from art museums, gardens, and other similar interesting organizations to the library once a month from October to May for an afternoon of serious but fun learning. And some of these speakers are hilarious. You can can't imagine how they can take what could be a very dry topic and make it, you know, extremely interesting. During the pandemic, we ran the lectures on Zoom for two seasons. Uh, WOW is free to the public. So, our audience is primarily older adults from central Contraosta County and adjacent Alama County. We have people who come from Berkeley and Oakland and a few other places. And sometimes we get people farther a field depending on the topic. And when we first started WOW, our audience uh was mostly in the 25 to 50 range and the program built a following over the years and now most of our events draw 75 to 150 people. On Wednesday of this week, two days from now, we have a speaker from the fine arts museums coming to talk about their uh big current exhibit um Monet in Venice. And we have 175 registered and 20 on the waiting list. And uh that can be interesting. We've we've only had to turn people away a couple times in the entire time we've done this. Uh we have a core set of organizations and speakers and that includes the fine arts museums of San Francisco, an independent speaker who focuses on modern art and we have the Asian Art Museum and then we

supplement these with speakers from other museums and gardens which are often small smaller or farther away. And so to give you a flavor of our mix over the past two seasons, we've had the fine arts come five times, the independent modern art uh speaker three times, the Asian art museum twice, and then we've had these one-off organizations, and that's included Lafayette Public Art, UC Berkeley Botanical Garden, the Gardens of Golden Gate Park, uh and sales uh sales for Force Park, the Contraosta Search and Rescue Team, and the Oakland Zoo. And so while I'm the coordinator, it takes many people to make this program successful. And these include I have two teammates who work on developing the new organizations because that's usually takes a lot more time than going back to the um museums. Uh we have other members of the friends who welcome people into the community hall and help manage the check-in process, which can be hectic on days like this upcoming Wednesday. We uh occasionally get help from the library staff if a patient patron has questioned on how they can sign up for one of these. The foundation advertises the events in the weekly email. Then the building staff does a fantastic job not only of setting up the room but also making sure that the technology always works. and and the um fine arts museums in particular once told me that this is the go-to place their dosens want to come because they never have a problem unlike some of the other pl some of the other 100 places they go to. So, the friends of the library underwrite the cost of the WOW program. That includes speaker fees for the core organizations, occasionally other speaker fees, and the rental of the community hall. And so, the total investment in this program for all the people that come here is about $3,500 a year.

And I'm going to talk about the final program that we have. That is the sweet Thursday. That is really under the direction of Lori Miles, but she's not with us tonight. So, I'm going to try my best to represent that. Uh, so the sweet Thursday, uh, Lori coordinates the room arrangements, secures the author, takes care of the details of the programs, uh, gets the room set up. She takes care of, uh, all the, uh, really many ways in which she uh, advertises this event. She does digital media and she also goes around and still does the oldfashioned put the flyers up around the places as well. And she has really in her administration of this uh skyrocketed our attendance. It's now almost also pretty well full on the Thursdays that we have it. So uh as this uh gets its name because it's on the third Thursday of the month here in the Don Tatson Community Hall. The suite refers to the cookies made and delivered by teams of mother and daughters from the organization of the National Charity Leagues. And then we have another director uh Dorothy Walker who sets up the refreshment area and the tables and the hall opens at 6:30 to allow time for coffee, tea, sweets, and mingling. The program then starts at 7 o'clock. There are also three other members on this team. Ruth Thornberg, Robin Holt, and Jeff Deedon. They rotate the events being the events host and moderator. They guide the destruction the destruction this the discussions by reading select passages and taking thoughtful questions that nudge the author to share their development of the book, their reasons for structure, characters, and sometimes a lot of personal and juicy little stories pop

out. There is always time for questions for the audience and the programs are energizing and engaging. Uh often Orenda Books also provides on-site selling of the books after the discussion. So Thursday 21st we have our sweet Thursday will be Mark Pertie. He's covered the 49ers for 31 years as a columnist for the San Jose Mercury News. He shares decades of memorable players and legendary plays in his publication, The San Francisco 49ers and Illustrated Timeline. So, if you are free this uh 21st, drop by here at 7 o'clock. Okay. And now we have the final one which is our final program. Again, Cass is going to talk about this for us. It's uh finally my pleasure to tell you a little bit about our bookmark design contest. We run an annual competition which draws submissions from all the schools in the Lafayette school district plus the mayor school and St. Perpeta TK through 8th grade. Something like 500 students each year participate in the bookmark contest. Um, and we take these 500 bookmarks by date by grade order and we throw them on a table and a group of us stand around and judge them, which is a very tough thing to do. Um, we then uh honor them in an awards ceremony on campus here and their parents and grandparents come and they're uh given some gift certificates to local bookshops, a gift certificate to get their bookmark framed at Anony's Custom Framers. Um, and they're just celebrated. We also have an honor roll because you can only win once, but we have students that come back and back and back on the honor roll. You know,

they started in third grade and they won and every year they're back with another treasure. And sometimes siblings, too. Um, so it's really wonderful tradition. It's another part of part of the things we do. I brought some bookmarks to share with you. May I bring them to you? You know, so was that ending your presentation? Okay, then we're done. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Well, thank you for all you do. Uh, any comments, questions from the council,

public comment. We have no public comments on this item, Mayor Andy. Okay. A great bookmark. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Right. Now I'll now call on Chief Williams to recognize the police academy graduates. Welcome by now. We good? All right. Cool. Hello. I'm James Williams. I'm the chief of police for Lafayette. And

Judy Peterson, crime prevention commissioner. Stretches.

And Denise Brown, Crime Prevention Commission. Oh, is it not playing yet? Sorry, Kyle, if you can hear me. Um, I have the screen up, but let me know what I need to do to fix it. I'll start off with this so we can get the event going. So, good evening, Mayor Andory and members of the city council, community members, and our graduates here with us behind us. Uh tonight we are proud to recognize the graduates of both the fall 2024 and the spring 2026 Lafayette PD Citizens Academy. Over the course of six weeks, these graduates received an inside look at modern policing, public safety operations, emergency preparedness, and many responsibilities k uh carried out daily by Lafayette PD personnel there and our partners at the Contraosta County Office of the Sheriff throughout the academy. The participants experienced hands-on and interactive learning opp u o opportunities. I got a little screen show going on of some of the uh some of the shots from the weeks of training we did. Some of the opportunities included criminal justice, traffic enforcement discussions, a traffic stop in our back lot, drone usage, use of force decision-making simulations, firearm safety, and a supervised range experience, criminal investigations, detective operations, a tour of our 911 emergency dispatch, a tour of the coroner's office, a brief K-9 presentation wanting us all to want a little bit more about that deputy and his K9. A tour of the Martinez detention facility. The Citizens Academy helps build trust, strengthen transparency, and create meaningful relationships

between our police department and the community we serve. Programs like this give our residents a better understanding of not only what we do, but why we do it. The academy also created open dialogue between the community members and law enforcement professionals. Participants were encouraged to ask questions, share perspectives, and gain firsthand insight of the complexities of policing in today's environment. And there's Vice Mayor McCormack getting his shots in the LA. Yeah. Welcome to laugh long as I'm reading this out for sure. These are fun photos. The Lafayette PD strongly believes that public safety works best as a partnership with the community. Programs like the Citizens Academy strengthen the partnership through understanding, communication, and mutual respect. I would like to thank all of our instructors and the office of the sheriff personnel who contributed their time and expertise to make this program successful. Congratulations to the graduates behind us here. We're going to be calling their names in just a minute. And thank you for your interest in law enforcement and the Lafayette PD. We appreciate your support and your commitment to our community. Um I can go over some of these photos or I can read names. And as we're going over, if you guys have questions, some of these might evoke some questions about what we're doing and what's going on. It was a really fun experience. You guys okay if I read the names off now? You want to hand these out to the guys? So, if you're in the audience and you hear a name called, please come up to the left over here by the podium and we'll hand you your certificate. Larry Blahett from 2024, Michael Low.

And we'll hold off on the applause if we can to the very end to keep this program moving you guys. Thank you, Michael Meloitz and Lori Wear. There were other participants that couldn't make it to tonight's event and they will get their certificates mailed out to them. All right, for the and you guys please stay lined up over there. We're gonna Oh, no. Did that go away?

Kyle, I let the screen go blank. Sorry. Oh, there it is. Okay. From class of 2026, Bob Baldwin, Carl Balante. Okay. Stephanie Bontemps. Did you say Blair? Blair Bidd will be here. No, she Marie Ferington or excuse me, Mayor Ferington. Mari Ferington. Sorry, I'm still learning. Douglas Hill, Sandra Harris, Cameron, Leah Cow, Kevin Lee, John McCormack. We can walk yours up to you if you'd like, sir. And last but not Oh, no. Sorry. and Rob Pulcalmik. And last is Haley Ty. So again, that is your 2024 and your 2026 class graduates of the uh Citizens Police Academy. I'm very proud of the people who uh were engaged with us, who wanted to learn more about law enforcement, who weren't afraid to ask us questions or challenge us on the things why we do uh what we do. So, I I really want to thank I guess I can stand up now. I want to thank you all for your interest to Lafayette PD and for doing the police academy. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you.

And if I may, uh Scott Pyler is here. He's my sergeant here and he was he taught a couple different classes including uh use of force um and the at the range. She was a fantastic instructor. And um we have dep this is this is going to live forever because it's on YouTube, but we have deputies who will complain if it's too hot or raining or too cold. These uh participants were out there in the rain. Not one of them complained one time. They were out there shooting with smiles on their faces, happy as can be to be there and shoot rounds down range. So congratulations to you guys. With that, any questions you guys can stand behind?

Yep, that sounds great. You can choose if I don't. Okay.

Yeah, we can't say Excellent.

Ready. All right. Smile. I love Lafayette. Excellent. Thank you. So,

okay. Leave or do you guys have Well, just is there any public comment? Mayor Anduri, I have a speaker in the community hall, David Clark. Oh, okay. Great. Thank you. Oh, you're welcome,

Mayor Council. I'm I'm Dave Clark. I just want to say I I attended this program a number of years ago. It's wonder it's a wonderful program and uh if you if you haven't attended and you're thinking about it, do it. And uh you learn some things that may become invaluable. For example, never argue the vehicle code with a motorcycle officer. You will lose things like that. They can come in handy. Thank you, chief. Thank you. Um, thank you, class. Thank you, graduates. I really do highly recommend it. Does exactly what you said, which is familiarize the citizens like us with what what the difficulties of your job and how you handle those among many other things. So, I highly recommend it. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And do you have ready access to the picture of our city manager on the firing rate? Yeah, she's uh coming up here in just a moment. Let me see about that. Right. So, is am I allowed to talk on this? Is my time up? Can we should we post a picture in the lobby of the offices?

So, it is true that uh people There she is right there. That's city manager Naroo shooting right there. And that's Sergeant Plyer walking her right through it. And of course she when she shot there was sun out. There was no more rain. So let's be clear about this. The rain was afraid of her for sure. And um Vice Mayor McCormack did a great job and John Ace was out there shooting as well. Everyone did great and I recommend it. We'll be announcing our fall 2026 hopefully soon. So

Okay. Well, thank you to you to the department and the crime prevention commission. Thank you. Thank you. So, we are on to item 11D. We'll hear from uh Claraara Donado, community development manager at MCE. Uh Mayor Anduri, today in uh Kiara's place, we have Sebastian Khan. Okay. Yeah. Go ahead. Do you have a PowerPoint? Yeah. You just plug in right there.

Okay. Welcome All right. Good evening, members of the city council. Thank you for having me. My name is Sebastian Khan and I'm with MCE. MCE is a notfor-profit, locally governed community choice energy provider. And part of the reason that I work at MCE is because I truly believe that community choice energy is one of the most effective tools that local governments have in addressing climate change. And we're going to get into why that's the case this evening. But what I aim to do is give some context to community choice energy in California. Uh to talk a little bit about the city of Lafayette's energy choices as a member of MCE's joint powers authority and to talk a

little bit about MCE's community engagement efforts as well. So with that we can dive in. First, we have to start off with the context uh for why we're here today having this conversation. And it's because of the energy crisis of the early 2000s. We had rolling blackouts. We had an unregulated market. We had the Enron crisis. And consumers did not have much control or autonomy with their choice in energy. And with that, we had legislation kind of born out of out of those causes. In two 2002, we had Assembly Bill 117 that effectively said if cities and counties in California want to come together and aggregate the electrical load of their communities, meaning they buy energy for their constituents along with other cities, they should be able to do that. Fast forward about eight years or so, MCE launched in Marin County as California's first community choice energy provider. And so we started out serving about 8,000 customers only in Marin County. And if you look at today in 2026, all of these green counties in the state have active CCA programs. So there are now uh it says 14, but there's actually 15 million customers being served by a community choice energy provider in the state and over 200 communities have a community choice energy provider. Uh I do want to call out that this is an opt out model. So, the state legislation makes it so that when a city or county enrolls in a CCA, all of its residents are automatically enrolled in the program with the ability to opt out if they choose to do so. So, that's a little bit about the context of community choice here in California. And in practice, the way that this works, the reason why we call it community choice is because residents truly have a choice in where their electricity generation is coming from. Uh, prior to a CCA, you really only had the

investorowned utility model, which it PG Gene here in Lafayette. Um, but now folks have the ability to choose a CCA. Uh, that's MCE in the city of Lafayette's case, or PG. PG Gen continues to deliver the energy. So, the poles, the wires, the transmission and distribution still come from PG. But what changes is the ability to choose MCE which is a locally governed model that is buying and building clean renewable energy for the community. Uh so here's just a map of our service area. We do serve uh Contraosta County but also Salana County, Napa County, and Marin County. We serve about 1.8 million customers uh throughout this 4ount service area. And what's important to call out and what makes CCAs really unique is that local governance. So we do have a board of directors that makes policy decisions on behalf of MCE. Uh really really excited that we have council member McCormick serving on that board. Thank you. And these are all elected officials making decisions on behalf of the communities that they represent. So there's an extra layer of accountability that simply does not exist with the investor own utility model. Um, there's also no tax dollars that go towards MCE or CCAs. We are largely self-funded. Here's just a quick snapshot of MCE's growth. You can see that the city of Lafayette joined MCE's JPA in 2016, which is kind of squarely in the middle of our time uh, as an agency. So again, we do serve 30 38 communities and most Contraosta communities have joined at this point. All right, let's talk a little bit about your energy choices with MCE. So, with MCE, we like to say that choice is power. Uh, folks have the opportunity to choose really three different energy services. The default product with MCE

is called our light green service, which is 60% renewable, and that's a figure that is verified by the California Energy Commission. Um, comparatively, PG Gene's portfolio is about 23% renewable and folks do have the opportunity to opt up to what we call our deep green product, which is 100% renewable. Um, just for reference, about 8% of customers here in Lafayette have opted up to that threshold. Uh, we'll talk a little bit more about the different uh, data and metrics related to Lafayette, but thought it was an interesting point to call out early in the presentation. So understanding MCE rates, there are many components to an electricity bill. And MCE is responsible for just one of them. That's electricity generation. So not delivery, not gas, not P gen fees. What we are responsible for solely is the electric electricity generation, the source of the power. This is all done in a public transparent process. Our rates are typically approved on an annual basis and all rate changes are reviewed by our board of directors and approved in a voting meeting. All right. And when we talk about local control and local decision-m it is an abstract. I think it shows up quite clearly in the way we think about rates at MCE. So just this year, we've reduced our rates by about 14% on the generation portion of the bill and we've applied an additional uh bill credit through the end of 2026 to help offset some of the recent P Gen exit fee increases. I think if we want to get into a bit more technicality, there's the power charge indifference adjustment, which is a charge that is is

charged to CCA customers uh because of existing contracts that P Gen had entered into on their behalf many years ago. Um so that fee has has gone up quite a bit in this year and this credit is intended to help kind of alleviate that. And a point that I'm really excited about and one that I think is really salient in the community when I'm out talking to folks is the expansion of our MCE cares credit. So this is a $10 million additional fund that our board set aside that provides a $20 monthly bill credit to residents who are enrolled in state incomeverified programs. So that is on top of the state care program. If you're an MCE customer, you're also getting a $20 monthly bill credit. Uh, and that's a $25 credit for small business customers as well. So, this is a residential cost comparison. And when people look at their electric electric bill each month, it looks like one charge. You see something that's, you know, uh, taken out of your account, but it's it's really a combination of a couple different things. generation, delivery, additional fees, and that comes down to this this this last line item here, the total monthly cost. Again, MCE is only controlling for that generation portion of the bill. And if you look at the top here, we are actually less expensive than PG and providing about more than two times the amount of renewable content. Uh what stays consistent across the board regardless of if you're an MCE customer or a PG& customer is electric delivery. So that's taking up uh a large bulk of the bill. About 70% of folks bills in California are going to delivery plus added fees. Uh with generation only making up about a third of the bill or so. Uh again with MCE we do have those additional PG fees which I refer to the power charge and difference

adjustment. Um, that's something that MCE customers are paying that we do not set. We're not within our purview, but something that CCA customers pay. Uh, total costs right now, and I want to be totally transparent about this, MCE is a little bit more expensive than P Gen's option. Uh, we do know that based on filings at the CPU, um, there are expected rate increases from P Gen uh, in in the coming years. So we we expect those charges to continue to go up. But I think what makes MCE and CCAs really unique is our ability to think about our communities and rates uh and how they impact you know everyday folks at a small business level at a small at a residents level and controlling for that electric generation as best we can. Next slide please. Oh. All right. So, a little bit about MCE in the city of Lafayette from a community engagement perspective and just some data and rebate points that we can call out. So, what I want to highlight here is a really high participation rate amongst Lafayette customers. There's about 90% of folks participating in MCE. Again, about 8% of those have opted up to Deep Green. And if you look on the right hand side of the slide here, these are rebates and incentives that have been directly distributed to Lafayette residents. So we have an EV rebate program for folks that are looking to purchase a new electric vehicle. Uh they can get up to $4,000 for a new vehicle and $2,000 for a used vehicle. In the aggregate, it's been about $119,000 invested for Lafayette customers. Um energy efficiency rebates as well. Uh these are things like energy efficient lighting or heat pump

water heaters. And those rebates for Lafayette community members have uh reached about a $498,000 threshold. And what I'm really proud of as well is the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that have been reduced here in Lafayette. Um it's been about 8,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. Uh and the way that that's calculated is comparing since 2016 when you all joined MCE to now uh MCE's renewable content versus P gen and kind of the the difference in that has equated to about 8,000 metric tons of carbon and that's uh over 900,000 gallons of of gasoline as a comparative figure. All right. And from a community engagement perspective, I do want to highlight some of our partners here. Uh Sustainable Lafayette has been an organization that we have sponsored and partnered with over the years uh just as a way to help get the message out about MCE. They've been a pretty instrumental partner for us in in doing that. Um your your business community is also showing up in a great way too through our Deep Green Champions program. Uh, obviously we can't disclose which customers have opted up to Deep Green, Deep Green, unless they want us to to tell them so. And you've had a couple of those in Lafayette, most notably the Town Hall Theater Company, um, who's really proud about their 100% renewable commitment. So, uh, excited to highlight them and their work. Another thing that we like to do at MCE is highlight uh local youth climate leaders. And we have an award each year because called our because of youth impact award. And really pleased to say that uh Ronni Chu who is a Lafayette resident was the recipient of that award this year. and she did a lot of great work with her classmates uh encouraging the use of cleaner vehicles which is something that is so important because transportation

actually makes up the highest percentage of greenhouse gas emissions in California right now. Um so just great to see that there's young climate leaders doing that work here in Lafayette. Um and then local sponsorships as well. Uh Sustainable Contraasa is an organization that we partner with quite a bit as well. So again, customer programs, these are things that we offer at MCE. Um, in addition to that EV rebate program that I mentioned, we also have a work workplace and multif family charging uh rebate. So for businesses that want to install EV charging, we do have a $4,500 rebate for that, which is coupled with free technical assistance as well. um as well as energy efficiency and strategic energy management programs. And last but not least, I wanted to talk a little bit about an exciting new project that we are rolling out uh called the virtual power plant. And if you're not familiar with a virtual power plant, basically this is the idea that we take a number of smart devices, you can think solar panels paired with battery, uh, heat pumps, HVAC systems, and have those communicate via software in real time to dispatch energy to the grid. Uh, we know that reliability is a concern for Californians. We know that affordability is a concern when it comes to energy, and this is a way to help mitigate those effects. So, the VPP is something that we're rolling out right now in the city of Richmond, uh, made possible through a social impact bond with the city. Uh, and what we're doing in partnership with a couple of different nonprofit organizations and the city is renovating uh, abandoned and blighted homes that otherwise would not have um, anybody living in them, but they're being made available to first-time home buyers. And with that renovation process, we are putting in

all of the energy efficiency appliances that they need to be able to participate in the BPP. So very excited about that. Um it is something that we see as a strategic way to support customers moving forward at MCE. So rolling that out across the service area uh in the coming years. But just to close, I want to take a step back and talk a little bit about the power of MCE. um we've eliminated nearly 550,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions. And so when I say that CCAs and community choice is one of the most effective tools the local governments have, I think that figure really proves it. Um reducing emissions at scale. Um, and we're doing so in a way that is creating jobs, that is creating reinvestment from a financial standpoint into the local communities that we serve, and an ability to build new renewable projects throughout our service area. And that concludes the presentation this evening. I'm happy to take any questions.

Hey, thank you very much. Other questions? Thank you very much. That's very helpful. I I want to understand a couple of things. one is the um the additional PG& fees, the $16.29 that gets added on, is that to cover P G stranded costs for energy infrastructure they put in but aren't able to utilize for uh like through MCE like Diablo Canyon or whatever. Is that what is what is that exactly?

Yeah, that's that's a fair characterization. It's not so much for infrastructure that they put in, rather contracts that they entered into. So let's say the city of Lafayette um had never joined MCE. They had to have contracts to serve that energy load. When that load departs when it comes to uh a CCA is now serving that they are still on the hook to pay those contracts. And so the intent of the PCIA is to make them whole for that process. So theoretically as the contracts drop off that would drop off that additional search charge would drop off as well in in theory. Yes.

But they're probably really long term. So, okay. And right now there's really huge volatility in the energy markets now. Um, I know you're you're not using fossil fuels in your mix, but I got to think energy is energy, so that must there might be a ripple effect. Are you seeing volatility? Are you hedging against that? I mean, how do you make sure that your cost of energy is manageable and doesn't blow up the system because you've got fixed charges that you're locked in on for at least a year? To be honest, I am not a procurement expert, nor am I a finance expert when it comes to power procurement. And so I don't want to misspeak or mischaracterize anything. Um, I'm happy to follow up offline and find that information for you though.

Okay. And and then one last one on the last slide on the impact. You talk about 548 metric,000 metric tonses. Is that relative to a baseline like what if you had stuck with PG PG& this is this this energy um where the the carbon reduced relative to that baseline or what's that what

correct yeah it's it's it's the aggregate each year greenhouse gas emissions P Gen relative to MCE and and I'll say too that when we launched in 2020 or excuse me 2010 MCE was roughly 25% renewable and P Gen was about 15% renewable and so those those numbers have obviously jumped quite a bit. Um but yes it's it's a comparative figure between P Gen and MCE. Okay, thank you. We could do comments later or you sort of do

Thank you. Um I have a question. So, PG& has on their website their energy mix and um and so one of the things that they say is that um their 12% of large hydro is I think quote GHD free and renewable and is that um does does MC have a different um appraisal of that of that energy source in terms of it being renewable or greenhouse gas free?

Thank you for the question. Off the top of my head, I want to say that our large hydro percentage of our portfolio is 38% in that ballpark. Your question is more of renewable versus GHG free and and what um what's important to call out here is that hydro in the state of California is considered renewable energy, but excuse me, it's considered greenhouse gas free. It's not emitting anything to the atmosphere, but it's not renewable. um per the California Energy Commission. So um they have about 12%, we have high 30s% um again both of those renewable, excuse me, greenhouse gas free but not renewable.

Okay. Yeah, I could swear that they said renewable. So maybe that's not accurate on their website. Yeah, I don't I don't So I was just trying to understand the mix and how they compared. Um and so what is the power mix for the other 40% in the um MCE light green? Yeah. So, it's primarily solar and wind. Um, but there are smaller percentages of geothermal and biomass as well and and small hydroelectric which if we want to get into technicalities is is renewable. Okay. And so the but 60% renewable. So what is the 40% is that non-renewable? It's it's primarily large hydro large hydroelectric.

Yeah. Okay. Got it. Okay. Thank you. You mentioned that Lafayette is 8% deep green. What percentages do you find in other communities? That's pretty that's pretty typical, I would say, of of Contraosta communities. Um, some of our higher percentage communities are in Marin. I want to say the town of Fairfax, very small town, is 15% maybe, but that's that's the highest of any part of our service area. Okay. Thank you. All right. Is there any public comment?

We're taking public comments on item 11D. I have no speakers in the community hall, but I have a hand raised in my virtual audience. Rob Lavoy, you've been allowed to speak. You'll have three minutes.

Hello. Um, I had a question for the uh speaker. Um the I calculated um that MCE owns about 68 million of their own solar P panels and that's their owned, you know, unique power production. Um and the rest of it basically they're buying from sources that PG& can also buy from. Um, can you tell me um are those numbers correct? And and uh is there is there any other uh um justification for the uh MCE power um you know being being uh unique something that PGD can't also buy. Um and the other thing is is if you count um large hydro and uh nuclear which don't generate any CO2 um P gen's percentage is more like 98 I believe um higher than uh and it's higher than 95% from uh MCE. So it doesn't seem like it seems like there the the low percentage that is assigned to PG&E is just based on California's rules that don't count those two power production facilities. Um so calculating that 900 or the 400 548 metric tons of savings if that's excluding hydro and nuclear seems like that's not really correct.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Rob. Would you like to address those comments and questions?

Sure. So, I think when the speaker is talking about their figure was 68 megawatts of of solar owned. I think maybe he's talking about our local investments in our four counties. So, we have what's called our feedin tariff program which is to encourage development of solar production in the Bay Area and we have uh about 20 or so different projects that are directly feeding communities that we serve. um he's the the speaker is correct when they're saying um you know everything else we're going out to market to to purchase energy and that's that's pretty typical I think of energy providers um not just PG& sources but all CCAs are really entering into contracts in the marketplace to serve residents. So I don't um I I agree with him there. That's what that's what we're doing. Um, and then I I I missed some of the question about large hydro and and nuclear. Um, I think he was saying that if you included those in PG's percentages, PG's percentage of clean energy would be 98% higher than MCE's 95%. That's I believe the comment.

Yeah. No, I understand. um renewable content is verified by the by the California Energy Commission and nuclear is not renewable in in that regard. So, okay. All right. Comments from council members.

Well, the only com Great. Thank you. Just as your as your primary I think I think council member Kendall is my alternate on the primary on on MCE. So, I will say um yeah, one of 34 board members and you can imagine a 34 member board made up of city council members from all over from four counties. It takes a while to get through stuff. But we do worry about things like as council member Santes was saying about like um the mix of these long-term power contracts versus these short-term uh you know kind of uh stop gap ones and how we do with index plus contracts and so on. And it's um it's interesting. I mean it's a public form. It's, you know, it's Brown Act um uh kind of rules and so the public can kind of see the decisions we make and so I think that is a kind of distinguishing thing from uh from PG&E. Um it's also interesting I would just just share just briefly I was actually at there was uh Rob Lavoy made a comment about are not these not the same sources that PGD can purchase from and it's true and I think the difference is that because CCAs are out there we are forcing and incentivizing all these new constructions of renewable projects that perhaps wouldn't otherwise be there because there's more uh demand in the marketplace. Just briefly, I was out uh last week at the McQueeny wind uh turbine um field that uh MCE is in the purchase in the process of uh is going to purchase all the energy that come that comes from that 80 megawatts right there on the other side of the Altimont Pass. It's a um you it was it was a second generation field. The first generation was 400 wind turbines like first gen wind turbines. Those are being torn down and it's being replaced by 19 second generation wooden turbines. And these are these ones you see on the freeway with there's a giant pole and they're three bl three blades and those are like um I think the the posts are 250 ft tall and the blades are like 500 feet wide and um the edge of the blades they always look like going very slow but the edge of the blade is actually going over 100 miles an hour. It's generating so much torque and that's could be generating um uh it's 80 megawatts of uh of clean power and it's important because as you know with solar

we actually have almost too much solar in the state that generates a lot at the beginning of the year the middle of the day and then kind of tail tails off toward the end of the uh afternoon and evening when it's most important for for power consumption so everybody's getting home from work. Wind though picks up in the late afternoons and evenings and so it's actually a great complement to um to the solar farm. So I think um again I think we are seeing PG doing much better around renewable. I think we can't argue with that but I think it's being forced to by P by MC. So it's a really I think it's a good market force uh dynamic uh to do um so what they're doing. So it's an interesting uh interesting process to be part of. You peaked a question for me. We are generating a ton of solar in this state during the daytime. I mean, I've seen these graphics where there's this hump of energy that's beyond what we actually need in that time frame, but it's the shoulders that kind of matter. Uh, is there battery technology that you're investing in to sort of like take advantage of that where we could store that energy that's generated till the sun goes down and use it in that 6 to 9:00 time slot?

For sure. On multiple levels. That's really the intent of the VPP, the virtual power plant. Uh being able to harness that energy that folks are generating from the rooftop solar. So in the evenings they can rely on that battery to power their homes. But then also um it's contracting with long duration battery storage primarily in the central valley right now. uh to be able to serve that explicit purpose to benefit the grid and reliability statewide, but to do so in a way that saves or our customers too on their bills each month. All right. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And one quick closing comment. I'll make a plug for our June 5th power procurement workshop which is an open to the public meeting if folks are interested to learn more about power purchasing and what that looks like. Thank you. Okay, thank you.

Okay, we're on to item 11E hearing from the capital project assessment committee on the annual update and proposed CIP program for the next fiscal year. Mr. Moran. Where

Kyle? So, good evening council. Um, we're here for the capital improvement program both this year and uh the future years or this coming year and future years. Uh, this program has been vetted through our capital projects assessment committee. And although uh Chair Frell, Mike Lman, and Bob Mlan aren't with us this evening, we have our newest member uh Carly Falconer Bank and um our most tenured seasoned member uh Lee Thompson, who's uh been on CPAC longer than I've been with the city, so over three decades. And we tested this computer as the test computer earlier tonight and it worked. Why do we still have the old MCV up there? There we go. Just go right there. So, I will quickly run through uh some of what's going on, some of what we were working on uh capital improvement related. Um this last year, we did pave two larger uh arterial roads, St. Mary's Road from Glenside to Roar. Here's a picture out by the community center and another one from the Glennside uh start of this. Uh we were also out on Mount Aba Boulevard on the west end of town. This is near the reservoir there and then near Aalani's u avenue. So the very west end of our town. So that was our large paving project last year. Uh it went fairly smooth. It it did take a while. Uh and we appreciate the patience particularly for folks on St. Mary's Road that were uh they were inconvenience through that construction, but it drives uh very nicely now. Um we also completed this pathway on Pleasant Hill Road near Spring Hill School, which is uh been very helpful for access from

uh the East Bay Regional Parking lot adjacent to that school. It also has uh eliminated a parking issue we've had with people parking in the gravel lot there, making unsafe maneuvers to get in and out of that. Um so that parking is gone. Uh the pathway is well used and it looks great. Here's another photo of that there. So those were our two main paving projects. We did have a police station project that came up. Um we had to change the uh the roof and the HVAC. You can see some of the new ducting there. That actually turned in to be quite a significant project. Um given the little building um but not as easy as it might have, at least as easy as I was hoping it would have been. It was not. Um we have been designing a bridge maintenance projects. We get uh bridge inspections from CALR bridge inspectors about every 3 years on our bridges. We have several we have four or five that need some minor to medium maintenance. Um I don't expect this to hit construction until 2028. Maybe 2027, but I doubt it. Probably 2028. And two of the bridges require um more extensive work that we are going out to a grant for for uh the highway bridge program to see if we can get those portions of it funded. But this is for example a picture of a bridge on Maraga Boulevard near Lee Creek Park. This is at Third Street. It needs to be redecked. Um, but also underneath it needs to be stripped down and recoded and some welding and some other stuff that's more expensive in part because there's a creek there and there's an environmental uh process that you need to go through and you need to capture all of your power washing and and so forth. So, um, we are going to we have applied for the highway bridge program. Those typically take three or four years to run through that cycle. Um, and then there would still be some matching funds with that, but it could offset some of the costs that we'll have

for some of our bridge maintenance. Um, the smart signals project that you've heard about for a few years is coming. It should be out to bid this summer. Uh, CCTA has given us updates on that. As a reminder, we have two different projects. One funded by one Bay Area grant and another as an earmark. Um, the earmark project is for La Merinda. our three jurisdictions are are pulled together and the OAG is is countywide. Um because we have these two different funding sources and two different projects. It will touch effectively every signal we have in Lafayette um to update the controllers to the latest and to actually get us some communication and uh between the signals and even remote communication to make adjustments. Um it will also lead to hopefully better evacuation should we ever need it. And that would not just be within Lafayette, but regionwide. Um, still working on the St. Mary's roadside repair. Uh, this has been over two years of just the environmental process. I believe we've submitted the very last thing we need to get back to CALR. But I will be honest, I'm holding my breath to get something back because we need to get this last box checked off before I can submit the package to local assistance engineers at CALR. And we're running out of time to do this this summer because I have a fish and wildlife permit that allows us to work only into October. I'm hoping we'll do this project in September. Um, this is a project that maybe isn't a project. It's up for sale, but I just put it here because we've we've talked about the campana. Something that may come out of that is still the purpose for buying that was trying to get some shared parking and an overlay in the plaza district there. We may still have some of that um with the future purchaser of this with shared between for example the theater and this we've we've sought out an easement. Um

so there could be pedestrian connection between those two and you might be able to park here in the evening and at the theater in the day for example and have that shared use. So, we may still get that benefit even though we plan to resell this building. The BART project, if anybody was here and saw the Dandelion Art feature several years ago, that's what this is about. There's a bike station and an art feature and a connection from uh downtown Lafayette. It has finally broken ground. Um it's not moving extremely fast, but it has broken ground. The project's out. Um we're under construction and watching that now. Um, so this is that southside BART entrance. It is torn up right now. So happy to have that project under construction. We also let out to bid and this council awarded at your last meeting uh a project for 22 project streets this year that will start in first week in June. Uh we have the con the pre-construction meeting on Thursday for this. This is the most residential streets we will be repaving in in decades. We've had some surface seals, but this is actually repaving. So, the it's going to bump the pavement condition index up to 100 instead of maybe 10 points from where it was and the life is going to be much longer than just a surface seal. So, excited about that. There's going to be more residents that are happy with their roads um come the end of this summer. So, we do have a couple more flashing beacon crossings. This is a photo of the roundabout. The third leg as you're going toward Rossmore, we will be adding that one in. That may happen over the next couple months. The materials have been ordered for that. The other location for a flashing beacon crossing, something that came to council years ago was Hampton at Mount Tampa Boulevard. Um I have a consultant, a traffic engineering consultant working on the

design for that. It will include a center refuge and look at the turning radiuses and basically all the things that we need to look at engineering wise on that crossing. So that is also very close to going out to bid. Uh the seabore garden here at this facility. I threw this in because um we had some water infiltration. the the floor that was here was uneven and it had a sub drain and literally under the carpet of the library we had water when we weren't supposed to. So, what you're seeing here now is we've we've gutted out the garden. I've put in a concrete slab that now drains away from the building. Um don't know where the architect was when they designed that one, but that's it. Gravity still works. Um, we will be adding a tile uh a tile decking to that and then hopefully an art feature to that, but that's going to be in a couple phases. We are working with the public art committee and also uh the aesthetics committee for this facility on moving that forward. So, threw that one in there, too, because it's just kind of one of those behind the scenes ongoing things that you don't think about, but it does take some time. Um, another thing is we're going to be changing the lighting starting at 5:00 a.m. tomorrow morning in this building. And this is a a PG& loan program where they front the the fixtures and and actually most of these will be retrofits. These will have these 8 in cans, for example, in this line in in this room, the Don Tatson Community Hall. Um, P Genie fronts the money with the energy savings. That loan is paid back over time. It's going to take eight or nine years probably to do that, but uh we have mostly compact fluorescents in this building. You can't even purchase those in California. Um we needed to be updated. You're not going to notice a lot of difference. There's a couple

lights on stage that are have been changed out. Um maybe you can tell, maybe you can't. Um the LEDs will last longer. There will be a slight difference probably in tone, but there are with a new fluorescent versus a one-year-old fluorescent versus a three-year-old fluorescent as well. So anyway, we're changing that out. Downtown striping, um you may have noticed chaos downtown if you've been there in the last few weeks. Um this is us striping in addition to some other utility work. Um they're tonight. Um if it's after 8:00, they're probably striping on the road right now. We're having them do some of the long line tonight. We should be done in about a week with this. Um, and you should notice uh better delineation downtown and safer for drivers to see where they're going. This is primarily Moraga Road, Mount Taba Boulevard. Um, the School Street Topper, as I updated the council a couple months ago, I'm so sorry, but this has been deferred a year. Um, again, for environmental purposes. Um and we because this is funded through grants, we need to go we need to jump through all these hoops. Um you will still however I believe starting next week see PG& and even East Bay MUD doing their relocation. So uh there will be some progress on this street to get their utilities out of the way. These utility poles will be relocated. Um I wish we were undergrounding them, but that's a that's a dream we aren't going to get this this time around. Um, but they'll be moved to a location that we can work them into the planters and not have them in the way of the pathway. So, there is some progress going to start on that, but we're looking for 2027 summer to do the main part. Um, this is a project, the aqueduct pathway. Um, we have grant funding for design. We have stip funding

starting in 29 for the west end to do another section. Uh, Representative Sier's office has has authorized in their earmark um some funding for the east end. I will say we have run into a roadblock in working with East Bay MUD and they want us to do well they don't want us to really do anything other than pave the aqueduct path that they have there now which is not going to lend to an ADA compliant pathway. It's way too steep. They don't want bridge abutments. They don't want retaining walls. Um I think we're going to need to have a conversation with the East Bay MUD that u maybe has a little more political clout than than I have. Um have how important this regional project could be. CCTA's on board. This is also going to utilize CALR. Um maybe they can have some exceptions. Certainly I understand they don't want any changes and then their importance is they're protecting their aqueduct. Um, they also have a project to line one of the two aqueducts that is not planned to be completed until 2032. So, they don't want us doing a lot on their pathway until that time. So, we'll see how this goes. I'll be honest. Right now, we've put our designer on hold and just had him stop and and I'll take questions on any of these um at the end of this and I'm almost through. Um, but that's what the pathway looks like if we build one. This was the up by LAR and across from or up above the veterans building. Um we've got a couple sections that have been completed as a condition of approval for those developments. So very nice uh used quite a bit already and we would like to obviously extend this all the way to Pleasant Hill Road and and beyond. So, the West Reach Creeks project um we have an RFP going out for the environmental portion of this. Um this

is still a couple years away. We have also um we are working with the funding source. This is a new one for us. We've never worked with this funding source before. So, engineering is learning this. Um we could use some more funding u talking with our with our finance director with Tracy Robinson. Um, if there is additional funding, um, this is probably a project we're going to have to design to the budget. It's not going to get all the features that everybody would like if we just use the $900,000 that we have. Um, and then we have a little bit of other funding for the design and and it's probably not enough, but we are working on this. Um, here's the funding sources, the projects. If you look at just that top portion, the 2627 program is about $6.9 million or almost almost $7 million. We have some of those carryover projects. Um that's basically what later in tonight's meeting when we come to staff reports, I'll ask you to approve. And then there's also a resolution associated with um an SB1 project, which would be that 2027 pavement management project. um that needs to be by separate resolution for California Transportation Commission. So those are the recommendations kind of this is kind of three reports in one if you will. Hope you appreciate the efficiency tonight. Um and then just kind of it we do have some five-year in addition to a paving project every year. Some of the other things that we would be looking at is community center parking lot, St. St. Mary's Road drop off uh back behind Stanley School. Potentially a traffic signal Deer Hill Road at Oakill that does receive a lot of BART traffic during commute times. Um that has been a signal requested for decades. Um storm drains citywide. I threw in we have a a cemetery storm drain that we have to replace that we learned is in our easement. as we run across a

particularly older corrugated metal storm drains, those we do remove and replace as we're working on the streets or in the region or if we find out even as an isolated incident that this is causing flooding or something else. So, we're going to have several of those. And then I just put there other park, trails, and recreation projects to be determined. So, that's pretty much the presentation. We've got uh several things going on and happy to take questions. Okay, we'll do questions then get public comment and then come back with comments. Questions?

Thank you. Thank you, Mike. A quick question. What what what's that what's the completion schedule for that BART uh bike program with the dandelions? I mean, when can we expect that to be done? Because I agree I swing by it occasionally and I haven't seen a whole lot of movement in the last uh four or six weeks. It seems this contractor is going to be out of working days and about 15 more working days and I don't think they've done 15% of the work. Um, I I don't know. I We'll stay with it until they're done. Uh, but they're going to be in liquidated damages pretty soon. I I think this is a contractor that maybe wasn't prepared to to to go all in. Um, and didn't have the resources to to go at it hard at the beginning. Um, I I think this will go at least another year.

Yeah. I really do. Wow. Thank you. And it should have been 90 days. Right. Right. It wasn't that complicated. been seen in the scheme of things. Great. Thank you. Okay, other questions. I have one. Um, can you explain to me exactly what the repaving is versus surface sealing and and just kind of give me a little more?

Yeah. So, a surface seal is is usually just like a slurry, okay? Like a liquid with like a kitty litter sized aggregate in it. So, very fine, right? Whereas actual paving, it's typically 2 in or more of of asphalt mix with larger aggregate. And it's, you know, it's what you pave your streets with. And the surface seal is just a coating over what you pave your streets with. Okay. So, you're not removing any of it. You're just putting two more inches on topish.

So, if if we do an overlay, that's the case. We also do do some inlays. Um the the the 22 streets this year will have some of each. So, some of it will get a little taller. Some of it we will remove. We'll grind out what's there and then we'll replace what's there. Um because we have to conform and keep the slopes the same of that road. We can't just build it up and and and still catch, for example, the driveways without putting a bump there. So there are streets where we do removal of existing asphalt.

Yeah. So question on the um the pavement program. So it's 4 million a year. Is that been the kind of pretty much what we've been spending for pavement management? No, we've been spending less than that and and thank you for the question. Um, at least a million less than that, which we're getting from Measure H. So, that's a new start. Um, and that's going to keep us at least on par. Um, you saw the payment condition index is 75. Just in December, it was 76. It's dropped without us doing anything. That's just an extrapolation in the program. Um, but it's going to go up again, I believe, after we complete this year's program.

That was a segue to my next question. So looking at your da the street saver dashboard. So the PCI is like 75. The pure comparison says 83. Only Arinda is above 80 in Contraosta County. I I still don't know where they're getting that from. In all of Contraosta County, we're we're we're doing pretty well. Those are the bond issues I worked on back in the day, but Well, you did a good job. Yeah. So, okay. So, Serenda is up over 80. We're kind of like there's no other there's no other entity that I know of over 80 in Contraosta County. Okay. So, with the money we're putting in though, we're kind of Do you think it'll be going up? Are we kind of in this range?

75 to 79. I think and I think the if you could if you can hold 76, 77, 78, 79, you're doing great. I I think we're like in a two-year lag, right? We didn't know two years ago if we were going to get measure H. So, we weren't we weren't spending as if we were getting it, right? And now we actually have maybe a little extra and and we have a a good grouping of streets this year. Um so it's it's all going to be entered. We're going to get credit for that. Um it may they actually look at the streets every three years and then everything in between is just an extrapolation of the software. So um where it lands, you know, it they might put us at 77 with just our entries, but it really could be a 78 or 79 if you were to actually look at the streets. Um, but I think you should feel comfortable that your streets are in good condition. We're not going to go down.

Yeah, that's the takeaway. Thank you. Yeah. Thank Thank you, Mike. Thank you very much. Um, CPAC, I have a question about the road paving project, specifically the um Stanley Boulevard traffic calming replacement. Full disclosure, I'm a resident on Stanley in this segment that you'll be working on. Um, so I read your the footnote in the table and um I just wanted to ask is that going to be a like forlike replacement?

We don't know. So the the trafficcoming measures have some concrete medians in the center. They were designed so that for example fire engines could just kind of blow over them. Um they've been a little maintenance intensive. It's a very unique traffic calming that we've put in that we don't have anywhere else in Lafayette. Um, I think what you're going to find is uh some community involvement and we will we will have a workshop of some sort. We're going to talk with county fire. Um, I don't know if it's going to be like for like we could. The three choices are really to kind of just leave what's there or or refurbish what's there or modify what's there or remove what's there and put something else. Um, it's not going to be nothing because the community went through a process to get traffic calming years ago. So, I mean, but it could be, honestly, it could be traffic humps, could be speed humps, um, which would be cheaper and easier to maintain. Um, but I think we're going to need to go through a process.

That'll do a collaborative process. The, um, the road itself though will be is inlay. Is that the techn? We're going to need to do an inlay. Yeah, we're taking a lot of it off, right? And then correct. Okay. Because that it would be sounds like it would be hard to leave the existing traffic calming and kind of scrape scrape around it. it. Exactly. It would be a lot of detail and hand work and it may not be cost-ffective anyway. Uh in addition, there's there's a lot of chipped up pieces and and that was just extruded. It wasn't based. It was just put on top of the asphalt there. You in some cases we've had rebar break through and we've had to patch that. So, um I think it's time to relook at it regardless.

Yeah. Okay. Well, yeah, I definitely appreciate that and I would recommend you reach out to Linda Ratundo who was one of the residents back in I think 2009 or so and I can put you in contact with her who spearheaded the fundraising effort um amongst the community members to have all that all that fundraising and all that um that installed. Um I have another question on the aqueduct. Um and so you just mentioned that that there's some concerns on the EMUD front. um your design designer is on hold right now. I guess in your paragraph you say a portion of the design is already under contract with a consultant and a portion will be completed in house. My question for that was which segment are we talking about? Um

well the one I'm most concerned about right now is just from Dellores to Bart. So that west because that's what we have funding for to do next. Um that's in design right now.

That's in design but well it it's actually in design from Dolores to Brown Avenue. So in between that we would need to change East Bay Mud's aqueduct path quite a bit with grading with bridge buttresses. Um and their stance right now is that we don't want any of that on our rideway. Um okay originally it was hey maybe you could do some of these switchbacks and some grading and some retaining walls but we don't want any footing. So maybe just stacked lower retaining walls two to three feet and and make this work with grading. Um but now they're not really liking even the grading that we would have to do. So um this is brand new news to us with we had a designer meeting just last week. Um so I knew I'd be airing this at this time.

Okay. Um Okay. Yeah. I mean that that's a that's a big deal. This this is a a major um major project that would benefit Lafayette, would benefit the region. um really having that cross town spine for active um agreed bike pad use. Um it's more than just Lafayette, right? Really. And so yeah, I I fully support working with with EBMUD on a way forward. Um Okay. And then the other part you said was from Brown to Pleasant Hill Road. Is that the in-house design?

That is the in-house design. And a lot of that would actually be up on Deer Hill Road. Um the aqueduct goes to the other side of the road or the south side of Deer Hill Road. That would be through and also through the kind of through or around the terraces and back onto Calrans property. So we actually feel better that we can get that designed and used and built because we have a little more control. I mean honestly I feel better about working with CALR than East Mud at this moment. Okay. Okay. Well, thank you. Okay. Any other questions? Is there any public comment on this aisle?

Mayor Anduri, I have no speaker slips from persons in the Dontsum Community Hall and I have no hands raised in our virtual audience. Okay. Well, thank you very much to Cpek for all of your work on this. So, we will leave this item and we'll go to our next item and then Mike, don't go away. We'll come back to you. Okay. Thank you very much. So, we're on to the consent calendar. Would anyone like to remove an item from the consent calendar? Is there anyone in the public who would like to request that we remove an item?

I have no request to remove any items from the consent calendar. Okay. We have a motion for adoption. So moved. I second. All in favor? I. It's unanimous. 5-0. We're on now to staff reports. Mike Moran. Welcome back. Proposed CIP program for 2026 27. So shall we just get right into it?

Yeah. So the program in the streets are in the staff report. Unless you have any questions. I'm I'm looking for you um adoption of the program, the funding sources and as the part to the adoption of the resolution uh noting our uh pavement maintenance project as the uh SP1 funded project. Okay. For next year, we've got that as a separate item and I do.

So, um are there any questions at this point? Okay. Sorry, I have one more question that I neglected to ask in the prior presentation, but about this. Um, it's about the aqueduct path again. Um, I saw in a footnote you said design work on the aqueduct project anticipated to be completed by July, including public meetings. Is that this July? Next July. That could be an error on my part. That's um

I I don't know what percent we we were likely expecting for that for that one section from Dolores to BART we will be at some percentage by July but it would not be 100% complete for sure. Okay. Okay. Well, thank you. Okay. No more questions. Is there any public comment? I have no public comments on this item. Okay. Would someone like to move the staff recommendations? So moved. I second. All in favor? I

unanimous 5-0. And that's both recommendations. So, we're on to item 14A2, adoption of resolution 202632, authorizing use of SV1 funds. Um, you want to say anything before we get into Okay. Any questions? Any public comment? No public comments at this time. Okay. Now, could we have a motion? and uh yeah, authorizing the use of the funds and adopting resolution 202632. I'll move approval of resolution 2026-32.

Second. All in favor? I. It's unanimous. 50. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. A lot of work went into that. We definitely appreciate it. That's great. The easy to read report. All right. Madison Church, assistant planner, coming back to revisit the EV charging. Welcome.

Thank you. This item is quick, so there's no PowerPoint presentation. Ordinance 701 would readt the city's electric vehicle code with one minor administrative update for consistency with state law. Changes would be limited to updating the 2022 building code reference to the 2025 building code. Staff recommends that the council introduce ordinance 701, wave the first reading, take public comment, and continue the item to May 26 for second reading and adoption. Thank you. And I'm here for questions. Okay, questions. There any public comment?

Mayor Anduri, I have no public comments on this item. Okay, we need a motion using the wording of the recommendation here. I I move that we introduce and wave the first reading of the city council ordinance number 701 readopting chapter 6-6 section 6-604E of the Lafayette Municipal Code and updating the references. Second. All in favor? I. It's unanimous. Thank you very much. You okay? We're on to council commission reports. Who would like to mention something that has been happening? Go ahead.

I can start. Um, I got to try to walk through these things. Uh, Vice Mayor McCormack and I were both involved with a crime prevention commission meeting and then we had a follow-on interview for an open commissioner spot. We'll be back to you at the next meeting, I expect, uh, with our recommendation for that. Um, Council Member Candell and I met with our Assembly Member Rebecca Bahan. on um April 29th to talk about legislation particularly especially especially on ebikes was a helpful update she was very thorough thoughtful good discussion they'll probably there's a lot going on in this front we'll probably have more later uh this the group is also we're working on a ledge day in Sacramento as part of the longer term strategy of basically establishing a better set of working relationships with the powers that be at the state capital um on the 30th with uh I was participating with with Bear and Dury. Uh we met we're at Merryill Gardens and I will say the mayor did a great job. He's too modest to sort of like say that but it was really helpful talking to the the residents at at Merryill Gardens and talking through some of their concerns. A number of questions about the project across the street which we approved just the week before. Um but that was a helpful session. Um emergency preparedness commission uh vice mayor and I were there for that. What's really interesting is that we have 33 firewise communities in Lafayette with seven in the works. We will likely get to 40 by the end of the year, I expect. And there's a team of people, Stephanie Bonto, is really very much involved with this, just powering it through. I think we're now at about about a third of Lafayette, give or take. It's pretty impressive. Um the other thing I wanted to highlight is um there's a group of residents in Lafayette and in Walnut Creek have formed the Okalanis Ridge Fire Protection Alliance. So we have this our Summit Ridge um

Ridge Firewise group. There's one in um Walnut Creek. There's a homeowner association there. A lot of this was spurred by that fire across President Pleasant Hill Road. uh they're working to sort of mitigate the fire risk in that open space ridge which is sort of our uh I think about that as our eastern flank and uh Jeff Langner has been very much involved with that. It's really pretty impressive. It's coalition building with our with our neighbor next door and uh to I think a really good outcome. Um our state senator uh Grayson in this room on uh Friday hosted the East Bay wildfire working group meeting sort of a legislative update. Uh he's got a request in for funding which I kind of figured as a cross your fingers exercise but the rumor at the capital is that there's more money in the state budget than had been projected in January. Anywhere from 20 to 40 billion. Um, you could say this is maybe driven by AI and capital gains. Who knows? But there's of more of a sense of optimism there than I think at the prior meeting we had. Um, and then finally, I'll say that um, in this room on Friday, Rotary had its 80th anniversary. It was a great event. Thank you to the mayor for making the presentation. Uh, but it was a really nice community building eventually celebrating 80 years of service in Lafayette, which seems to be our theme today.

Yeah. Great. I don't think I can't I can't meet council can't beat council member Cvantes's uh epic list. That was pretty amazing. Um I just wanted bring up one thing that is happening uh happened a week a week ago. We've had a couple of recent downtown burglaries unfortunately. Uh Cresco Rents was broken into um as well as Wear Design Jewelry. And uh to that end um we're looking to do another kind of again get out the the word about the importance especially what we've heard from the police. Uh neither um had great video and we we think they could do better with video and so the crime prevention commission is partnering with the Chamber of Commerce staff and board members and there's going to be a walkabout to all downtown businesses um Wednesday morning to um again remind them the importance of good video cameras, alarms. the police are willing to go out and um and do a quick survey of any small business and see what they um you know how to improve uh protection and safety and uh Chief Williams is going to uh be doing another kind of Zoom presentation talking about best practices that will be scheduled shortly. So that's moving moving ahead. So we'll

take advantage of that. Yes.

Uh so Council Member uh Weatherspoon and I we both have the CCTA. I was on the um we got the presentation from um Christian Riker from the street street smarts program and it's a program called walk walk and roll and they've rolled it out in all places around Contraosta County except for like Lamarinda yet and so they finally found some extra money to roll it out here in Lamarinda next uh fall and uh it it's a program where the kids come in and any kid they have a little tag and they get scanned in if they're if they've carpooled, taken the bus, walked, bike, you know whatever any active transportation other than single cars. And um and they get these little tokens after a couple if they've done it enough sequential get these little charms and they're super cute. And you can see the participation rate at all these other schools just go really up. I mean it really does help. And so they're going to do three schools per year in La Minda and it'll be first year it'll be Spring Hill in Lafayette, Del Rey and Arinda. And they've got that pick one in Moraga. So that's kind of cute. Yeah. So, they'll get them all over the next couple of years. That's one thing. And then one more. Do you have a question?

I was just going to say on CCTA, do you want to mention the students ride free? Oh, that is going to come back again this summer. Yeah. Yes, that is going to come back. Oh, thank you. Uh the very successful program last summer. We found the funding to do that again. So, yay.

Um then also the I guess the June 18th Abag General Assembly. I I I'm the delegate and I can go. So, it has to come back on an agenda sometime. Or do we have to vote on the voting person for like for the league? You don't. Okay. I'll just let you I'll go sign up. Okay. Thanks. Um yeah, last week I attended and so did council member Kandell the um future of BART information session that was hosted by the Lafayette Homeowners Council. Um presentation by our BART director Matt Ren. Um it was good. It was a frank conversation, a lot of really good questions from the public um about the state of the state of the system and um what they've done, why they've done it, and where they see themselves going in the future. It's to justify the the the attacks coming up. And so there was a lot of feedback from our Lafayette residents. So, and

and you characterize feedback, good construction, good constructive, you know, feedback and and he Matt Ren, I I like him. I mean, I just have to say he's very impressive at what he's doing and and he hears it and he understands it and is going to take it back, you know, to the board and do his best and they're also going to present at the Tri Cities meeting. So, um, he's now forewarned with, um, lots of questions that are going to come out of our area. Is that was that taped? Is it possible to see that? I think I I think the homeowners association or council did did record it. I don't know if they'll put it on their website, so you may want to just check in with them.

Thank you. Um, I also want to let you know, um, I'll be out of town and unable to attend the June 22nd and July 13th council meetings. And just to cover the events since the last meeting that haven't already been mentioned, on April 29th, I've represented the city of the cancer support community's topping out ceremony, which is in very inspirational. Narup is there. wasn't there. Weren't you there? Oh, okay. Not that one. All right. I got introduced as the mayor of Walnut Creek.

Not quite not quite a promotion, but anyway, bigger city. And uh and then on Yeah. On on May 4th, um we hosted our mayor for a day observance. As you know, we put um donate to El Pis's auction mayor for a day and um the mayor for the day was Barrett Graham who is a fifth grader at Happy Valley Elementary. His grandmother bought it at the auction, had the highest bid at the auction for him. And uh Narup and the staff organized a great uh three hours for him to learn a lot about the city and then he went to the police department. Enjoyed that. Um Nup and I went down to meet him as his grandmother brought him. He stepped out of the car in his suit and I was so relieved. I'd worn my suit.

Seriously, the picture is adorable. So, he was a very uh active participant asking questions, expressing his views on things. Um, one of the exercises was a budget exercise. Group said, "We have a a thousand dollars that we can spend uh but we only have we have we have a $1,000 in budget requests, but we only have $900. is where are we going to cut parks? So we said, well, okay, there goes a $100 from parks, but you're going to meet Jonathan Kadayanagi in a few minutes. You'll have to talk about your choice. Anyway, it was it was a it was a very good experience. Yes. Yes.

Pictures in room 365. Yeah. So cute.

Yeah. Um, and then this is first uh Wednesday of every month, but the community liaison meeting I find to be very useful. And I'm just wondering, does Heather send the readout to all council members? Are you all getting that? So, okay, just to make sure everybody gets that because it's a lot of good information. And um, yep, that's it. And just to remind everyone, uh, June 29th, uh, fifth Monday of the month, special meeting, state of the city and volunteer appreciation. Um, July 2nd, we're aiming for the city's 250th celebration. You'll be here this current plans. You'll be hear more about this later. And then the second Hello Lafayette welcome event organized by the Lafayette juniors in collaboration with the city and the library foundation would be Thursday uh July 30th. So, we are now on to item 18A and you have the email from Stephen Polling and you have uh the resolution that was uh edited by the city clerk for for length which has been approved by uh Mr. Polling and so we have that in front of us. Um, are there any questions before we ask for public comment? Okay. Is there any public comment on this item?

Mayor Anduri, I have no speakers in the community hall and I have no hands raised in our virtual audience. Okay. Any comment or

Yeah, I I have a comment. I think some people may say, well, why would we do this? Why would we but why would we adopt this particular resolution? And I have to say California has a long complicated and very difficult history when it comes to the treatment of the pe native peoples who lived here before the arrival of the Europeans. And you could talk about the missions. You could talk about the state of California and its treatment of um of native peoples here to the point where Governor Newsome some years ago acknowledged that there was genocide. This is serious stuff. And I I kind of learned this the year we all did the mission project. My wisdom was San Miguel. I think we also read Ishi last of his tribe which is one of the books that stays in my mind all these years later. This sort of very sad tale of a f the last family of a tribe trying to survive and he was the last one left and he ended up at UC Berkeley and there's a complicated history after that too. So I think that acknowledging individuals in this case this our Miwok elder for her work is really important. I I think it says something that you know we're in our small way we're acknowledging the peoples who were here before that what the gift that they gave us in this land and our extending of the hand to um and acknowledgement and appreciation. So I think that this is the kind of thing it's important and we need to say this and I appreciate Steve Holling for bringing it up to our attention. I'll move approval.

Second. All in favor? I. It's unanimous. 5-0. Right. So, we are adjourning this evening in honory and in honor and memory of those who gave their lives defending our country during the past 250 years. And with thanks to those who served today and their families. We're a jour. Great.