City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. This is a regular meeting of the Oakley City Council. Tonight's meeting is called to order. It's 6.30 p.m. Will the clerk please call roll?

Council Member Shaw? Here. Council Member Williams? Here. Vice Mayor Meadows? Here. Mayor Henderson?

Here.

And Council Member Fuller is absent.

Would everybody please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. 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. Item 1.3, recognizing Lizzie Morgan for her extraordinary bravery during a house fire. If Lizzie can meet me up front. And if I could have the clerk read the... Okay.

Okay.

So tonight, we're here to recognize you, Lizzie Morgan, for your amazing courage, bravery, and quick thinking. with exceptional presence in mind and selfless bravery in facing intimidating danger. You helped save lives and prevented profound tragedy. The community of Oakley is deeply grateful and inspired by your heroism. So congratulations. Can we get a quick picture? Thank you so much for coming. We'll move to item 4.1, proclamations recognizing Parks and Rec Month. And with that, we'll be receiving proclamations from Jesse De La Cruz from Public Works Maintenance Manager and Alicia O'Leary from Recreation and Event Coordinator. If you guys can meet me up front, please.

Whereas parks and recreation is an integral part of communities throughout this country, including Oakley, and whereas parks and recreation promotes health and wellness, improving the physical and mental health of people who live near parks, Whereas parks and recreation promotes time spent in nature, which positively impacts mental health by increasing cognitive performance and well-being and alleviating illnesses such as depression, attention deficit disorders, and Alzheimer's. And whereas parks and recreation encourages physical activities by providing space to promote active lifestyles. and whereas parks and recreation is a leading provider of healthy meals, nutrition services, and education, and whereas park and recreation programming and education activities are critical to childhood development, and whereas parks and recreation increases a community's economic prosperity through increased property values, expansion of the local tax base, increased tourism, the attraction and retention of businesses, and crime reduction, and whereas parks and recreation is fundamental to the environmental well-being of our community, and whereas parks and recreation is essential and adaptable infrastructure that makes our communities resilient in the face of natural disasters and climate change, and whereas our parks and natural recreation areas ensure the ecological beauty of our community, and provide a place for children and adults to connect with nature and recreate outdoors. And whereas the US House of Representatives has designated July as Park and Recreation Month, and whereas Oakley recognizes the benefits derived from parks and recreation resources, now therefore be it resolved that Hugh Henderson, Mayor of the City of Oakley, along with the members of the Oakley City Council, recognize July as Park and Recreation Month in the City of Oakley.

And I'd just like to add to that, speaking for the council, you guys do an amazing job. A lot of it's behind the scene. Some of the things that we've seen with Studio 55 over this last year just has been amazing. And it has really brought the community together. And you can't drive through this community without seeing our parks look beautiful day in and day out. So we can't thank you enough. Please accept these proclamations on behalf of the council. Would the council like to come down and be part of this picture? Item 1.5, our report from our library commission will be moved to another meeting and rescheduled. Also, 1.6. will also be rescheduled for our September meeting. With that, we'll move to item two, public comment. And before I start public comment, this is our first meeting where we're integrating the Zoom as part of the meeting. So everybody kind of bear with us a little bit as we work through this new technology and everything. We will receive public comment that are not on the agenda tonight. If you'd like to speak, speaker cards are in the lobby. Please fill out a blue speaker card and bring it to the clerk's office. As a reminder, it's three minutes for public comment. There's a light in front of my seat. It will turn yellow and then turn red when it's there. We are doing remotely, so if you'd like to speak and you're online, please raise your hand and you will be called in the order to speak. The order we'll speak, we'll do in-person speakers first, then people that have submitted online that wish to speak, and then remote attendees. Our first speaker tonight will be Mr. William Carpenter. Good evening, Mayor and members of the

Carpenter, and I am here tonight to ask the City Council to consider establishing a dedicated senior center or senior activity center for Oakley senior residents. First, I want to acknowledge that Oakley does provide senior programming through Studio 55, and I appreciate those efforts. However, I believe Oakley's senior community deserves a level of support and recognition comparable to surrounding communities. When we look at cities in our area, including Antioch, Pittsburgh, Brentwood, Concord, Pleasanton, and even smaller communities such as Rio Vista, we see that many have dedicated senior centers or senior activity centers. These facilities provide seniors with a permanent place to gather, socialize, participate in activities, attend classes, receive information, and build friendships. Oakley Studio 55 is different. It is located with a general recreation facility rather than being a dedicated senior facility. The space is shared with other community activities, including programs for residents who are not seniors. While that space is appreciated, seniors do not have a facility recognized as their own community gathering space. Of concern are also the limited hour Studio 55 is available to seniors 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Compared with surrounding communities, these are among the most limited hours available to seniors. Many neighboring senior centers operate five days a week with longer daily hours providing more opportunities for activity, social connection, and support. The lunch program is another example. In comparable communities, senior centers provide lunch periods of one to two hours, allowing seniors not only to eat a meal, but also to socialize and participate in the community atmosphere. Oakley's lunch period of 11.30 to noon is among the most limited. A senior center is about much more than a building. It's about preventing isolation, promoting health, creating friendships, and showing older residents that their community values them. Oakley has grown into a city of nearly 50,000 residents. As our senior population continues to grow, it is time to consider whether our current level of senior services reflects the needs of our community. I respectfully ask that the City Council study this creation of a dedicated senior center or senior activity center with expanded hours, a consistent five-day schedule, and programs that provide Oakley seniors with the same level of community support available in many neighboring cities. Thank you for your time and consideration.

That was my only public speaker. Card, online, we did have two people wishing to speak. Eric Cortez.

Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Eric Cortez. And for those who don't know me, I am the field representative for Assemblymember Lori Wilson, who represents the 11th district, which includes the city of Oakley. I'm here today to talk about the Assemblymember's upcoming town hall meeting that she's going to hold in this room on Friday, August 7, which is only three weeks away now. It will be held from 10 AM to 5 PM. Most of you know this, but I just also wanted to make sure that for the sake of the public and everybody aware, the way that it's structured will be pretty similar to the event that she had here last year, which is where for the first half of the day, she's going to be giving a presentation, most likely generally on her legislative priorities, what we've been up to in the last year. And that might also include a presentation from a state agency, particularly the Water Board, who I've been coordinating with for a couple of months now. We should have a definite response about their attendance by the 20th, I believe. And the second half of the day will be reserved for one-on-one appointments with the assembly member. That's open to the public, but also to elected officials. So if you all would like one of those appointments, we do encourage you to reach out as soon as possible, because they're already filling up. And our scheduler has to work swiftly to kind of coordinate everybody, especially because, as you all know as electeds, a lot of our electeds have very tight timelines usually to fill in as well. We also do feed everybody at these. We're planning to cater from Mr. Pickle's Sandwich Shop, which I believe is across the street. So if you do plan to attend, we ask that you RSVP for that reason as well, even if you're not booking a one-on-one appointment. believe that is all the information I have for you I just wanted to flag that for everybody and also make it aware to the public it's open to everybody especially if you live in Oakley and we're also pushing this out to our residents that live in Knightson Byron Bethel Island Jersey Island and Discovery Bay so we want to make sure we get everybody covered on our side of Contra Costa County And I also brought more flyers. I know I'm probably inundating you all with flyers, but I'll leave some outside in case you all or any member of the public wants this, because it also includes, it should include, if not a QR code, the link to RSVP, as well as more information to reach our office directly. And I believe that sums up everything, but I am also happy to answer any questions that anyone may have. So thank you for your time.

Our other person that submitted online and wanted to speak was Kristen. OK, not seeing that, we'll move to Madam Clerk. Do we have anybody online that wishes to make a public comment? CHRISTIE WOODARD- Yes, Mayor.

There is one attendee with their hand raised, Mike Katz-LeCabe. I will let you into the meeting now. Please accept the invite, and you'll have three minutes for your comment.

Good evening members of this honorable mayor and members of the council. My name is Mike and I'm the director of research for Oakland Privacy. As a result of a recent public records request, I discovered that the Oakley Police Department is illegally sharing license plate reader data with San Diego Sector Court Patrol, a federal agency. Shared license plate reader data with federal and out-of-state agencies became illegal back in 2016 when SB 34 was signed into law. However, so many law enforcement agencies were failing to comply with the law that the California Department of Justice issued an information bulletin in October 2023 reminding law enforcement agencies that, quote, SB 34 does not permit California law enforcement agencies to share AOPR information with private entities or out of state or federal agencies, including out of state and federal law enforcement agencies. Section 430.6 of the Oakley Police Department policy states, quote, ALPR systems should be audited or should be conducted on a regular basis. This is also a requirement under SB 34. At least one vendor of such systems has recommended that audits be conducted monthly. However, it appears that either audits are not being conducted as required or the audits are not thorough enough to check whether the police department is complying with California state law. Not only is it disappointing that the agency tasked with enforcing the law is itself failing to follow the law, its actions potentially have endangered the residents, visitors, neighbors, and families of Oakley. I look forward to this violation of state law being quickly addressed and a transparent investigation into how this happened, how long this has been occurring, and accountability for those responsible, including a plan for how it will be prevented in the future. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Madam Clerk, do we have any other hands up?

There are no other hands raised for this item, Mayor.

With that, we'll close public comment and move to item three, council members' comments. Seeing none, we'll move to item four, consent calendar. Do we have any public comments for the consent calendar online?

There are no hands raised for this item.

Okay, would that accept a motion? I move approval.

I'll second.

So we have a first and a second call for a roll call vote.

Council Member Shaw? Yes. Council Member Williams? Yes. Vice Mayor Meadows? Yes. Mayor Henderson?

Yes.

The motion carries 4-0.

Moving on to item five, public hearings, 5.1. This is a continuance from our June 9th meeting, a public hearing considering the confirmation of the assessment, ordering of a levy and collection for the annual assessment for 26-27. The city of Oakley streets and landscaping Assessment District 1. And with that, we'll have our Public Works Director, Billie Lee, present.

Good evening, Mayor Henderson, Vice Mayor Erin Meadows, and council members and members of the public. My name's Billie Lee, saying she'll learn. I'm the Public Works Director, City Engineer for the City of Oakley. I am here tonight to present the public hearing to consider confirming the diagrams and assessments and ordering the levy and collection of the annual assessments for fiscal year 2026-27 for the City of Oakley Street Lighting and Landscaping Assessment District No. 1. The City's Street Lighting and Landscape Assessment District No. 1, otherwise known as the LLAD for short, was formed in 2000 to fund the annual costs to operate and maintain public parks, landscaping, and street lighting benefiting properties within the district through the annual levy of assessments on property tax bills. The LADD is compromised of three benefit zones and encompasses approximately 80% of the city's parcels. The Landscaping and Lighting Act of 1972 requires that an annual engineer's report be prepared and approved by City Council to set assessment rates each fiscal year. For fiscal year 2026-2027, the assessment rates proposed for all benefit zones do not exceed the maximum rates set when the LAD was originally formed, or when additional territory is annexed in. The total fiscal year 2026-2027 collection of assessments is estimated to be approximately $5,294,000. City Council took the first steps in the fiscal year 2026-2027 annual approval process on May 26th with adoption of two resolutions, initiating proceedings and approving the preliminary engineer's report and setting the public hearing date of June 9th, 2026. On June 9th, City Council continued the public hearing to the July 14th City Council meeting for the public hearing to be properly noticed. This evening, City staff is recommending City Council to take the final steps required in the annual approval process by conducting a public hearing, accepting public testimony, and adopting a resolution confirming the diagrams and assessments, and ordering the levy and collection of the LAD assessments for fiscal year 2026 and 2027. Following the public hearing and adoption of the resolution this evening, the LADD assessments will be submitted to the county prior to the August 10th deadline. Furthermore, an analysis to develop strategies to address the funding challenges for the LADD that have been previously presented to City Council will be conducted later this year. City staff will come back to the City Council at a later date with findings of the analysis and recommendations for consideration. I come before you tonight for the City Council to make the seven findings listed in the resolution. Item 1. A majority protest has not been filed with the City Clerk protesting the levy and collection of assessments for fiscal year 2026-2027 for the City of Oakley Street Lighting and Assessment District Number 1. Item 2. The plans and specifications for the proposed maintenance, operation, and or servicing as contained in the final engineer's report are hereby approved and confirmed. Item 3, the engineer's actual itemized and total costs and expenses of said maintenance, operation, and or servicing, and of the incidental expenses in connection with contained in said report are approved and confirmed. Item four, the diagrams indicating the assessment district referred to and described in the resolution number 40-26 are hereby approved and confirmed. Item five, the proposed assessment upon the parcels of land with the proposed boundaries and the assessment district in proportion to the estimated benefits to be received from said maintenance operation in our servicing and of the incidental expenses thereof as contained in the final engineer's report are hereby approved and confirmed. Item 6, the engineer of work is directed to submit the final engineer's report to the county auditor for the collection and enforcement of the assessments at the same time and in the same manner as county taxes are collected for fiscal year 2026-2027. Item seven, the finance director is directed to adjust the fiscal year 2026-2027 city's budget to reflect the assessment revenues operating expenditures shown in the engineer's report for each lighting and landscaping district fund. With that, that concludes my presentation this evening, and I'm available for any questions.

Questions for staff? So we'll go ahead and open the public hearing and receive public testimony. I do not have any speaker cards. Is there anybody in the facility that would like to speak on this matter? Seeing none, I do not have anybody that submitted online to us ahead of time for this item. Madam Clerk, do we have anybody online with their hands up to wish to speak?

I see nobody with their hands up for this item, Mayor.

Seeing no one wanting to speak for that, is there any property owner that wishes to turn in a written protest regarding this levy for the lighting and landscaping assessment for District 1 for 26-27? Seeing none, we'll close the public hearing. Madam Clerk, is there a majority protest levy on this assessment?

There were no written protests submitted. Therefore, I declare there is no majority protest, and proceedings may continue.

So we'll bring it back to council for deliberation or a motion. I move approval of item 5.1.

Second.

So we have a first and a second. We'll call for a roll call vote.

Councilmember Shaw? Yes. Councilmember Williams? Yes. Vice Mayor Meadows? Yes. Mayor Henderson? Yes. The motion carries 4-0.

Thank you. Item 6, regular calendar 6.1, adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute an agreement with local addition marketing LLC for public art project and development. And our staff report will be from our city manager.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Vice Mayor, members of the City Council. This item is a continuation of a discussion that we held almost a year ago to this day. At that time, we held a work session. And that work session was requested from, at the time, Council Member Williams and seconded by, at the time, Mayor Shah. And we discussed public art in depth. There was a great discussion. But at the time, it was determined by the city council that we just had too many things on our plate at the time to continue with exploring a public art program. So the request of the council was to continue the item for a year. During that time and shortly after that meeting, we were introduced to Tari and Sage Loring, who are in the audience. And they have assisted municipalities with public art programs all over the state. And they have quite a bit of extensive experience, especially in the Bay Area. And we started talking about how could they help the city, who does not have expertise in public art, How could they help us form a pilot program that could then be brought to the city council? So that is how we got to the point to where we are at right now. The item in front of you is a proposal from Local Edition Marketing, LLC, who does business as Local Edition Creative. The total budget would span two years, and it would be $100,000. So it would be $50,000 in this current fiscal year, $50,000 in 27-28. And it would essentially fall, the scope of the project would fall into like three buckets. So the main bucket would be sculptures in our downtown. So there would be six locations where local edition creative would procure sculptures that would then be mounted and secured in various places in the downtown to really enhance the civic enhancement of the city and really beautify and help beautify the city. We already have a great downtown, but it can help add to the vitality of it. And I think really... Something that we just don't have a lot of. Something that we just don't have a lot of in the city right now. The scope of work in the attached to the staff report does describe the few pieces of art that we have in the downtown, mainly the Heron sculpture at Second Street and the Yumi Wee Oakley sculpture that's across the street at Oakley Plaza. So that's the first bucket, is the sculptures. The second bucket would be assisting with procuring some art for City Hall. Since we did our remodel, the lobby is quite blank and bare. And it would be a great opportunity to start with the lobby. some talk in the proposal that if there's some funds remaining, we have a conference room. And obviously, this room is blank as well. So we could use something to fill it. So this is definitely a start to something. And I think it's really to see. You know, cities do pilot programs because it allows us to see, is it something that works? And we're not investing a ton of time and resources. And if it does work, it allows us to move forward with a full program at the end of the two years. So it's something to start and build on. And I think it's going to be successful. The third bucket is going to be a mural, and we do not have a location for that at this time. Historically, you know, I think they'd like to work with a private building owner to see if we could get a mural. I have some thoughts on some buildings downtown here, but we also have some civic facilities that are also candidates as well. So really, it falls under those three buckets. The scope of work is attached to the staff report. Before I conclude my presentation, if OK with the council, I would like to invite Tari and Sage up to the podium. They have prepared a small presentation to kind of go through who they are and what the proposal is. And with that, once they're done, we're happy to answer any questions. And of course, as mentioned in the staff report, The recommendation from staff is to authorize the city manager to execute the agreement as drafted and presented tonight. So I will conclude my portion of the presentation, and I will hand it over to Tari and Sage.

Good evening, and thank you, Joshua. I think he promoted us very well. I'm just going to sit back and let him sing our praises. But we really appreciate being here. And as was mentioned, the city of Oakley is very safe. It's very clean. But it's missing some identity and character building. And every vibrant city has that in the form of public art. And I'd like to just mention that this is by no means a decoration. This is civic infrastructure. And a lot of cities now, even cities like LA, large cities across the country are going, hey, you know, public art, the impact now has been studied. It is like having libraries and parks. It's that vital and that important. Some of you may know that. Some of you may not. But this is something that's out there for research. But we're very happy. We're Contra Costa County residents. And as Joshua mentioned, we do a lot of work in a lot of cities, and especially in our own neighborhood, which is Contra Costa County. Our mission is trying to build up the suburbs to be also cool as the cities are too. And the people who live here that are commuting, they want to come home and feel like, hey, I live in a very vibrant place as well. So we're excited to help with this process. I think Joshua mentioned a lot about us. There's nothing else to say here. We've been in business 10 years. Our background is in event marketing, project management. So we're very uniquely positioned to do this kind of stuff. We come from a very interesting place to develop public art. We are award winning, which I never really care about awards until you win one. Then you're like, OK. OK, we'll accept it. So again, like Joshua mentioned, we have a lot of experience in a lot of different environments too, a lot of different counties and a lot of different cities, big and small. We've made it our mission to really want to focus on the smaller suburbs. It became a place that we go, hey, we also live in a suburb. And we realized, just quickly, when a lot of the creative community was getting priced out of Oakland and San Francisco, a lot of them were moving out to the suburbs. Some of the best artists, we're talking sculptors and muralists and textile artists, were moving out to communities where they didn't feel like there was that presence there. So we wanted to build up the creative community and overall build up the community as a whole using public art. Joshua mentioned this is the plan I noticed price mayor Meadows pointing back there for artwork so this has all been brought up and we'll figure this we're very fiscally responsible how we're going to approach this we're going to get you the biggest bang for the buck and we know that these areas are important because it is a very nice newly redone Facility, but it is a little sterile with that just like we're talking about outside so we will concentrate on procuring art for for this first year and Planning the sculpture artists will do a call for artists this first year and then we're thinking that the spring would be the best time for installation from not competing with anything else and something to really tout and Let the community know about what's happening

The only thing I was going to add to that is that we do work very collaboratively with everyone. So this will be a partnership for us. So we'll handle everything turnkey, but we do look to city leadership and city partners to help curate and really select the final pieces that will be out there. So it is a collaborative effort for us in that part.

Yeah, this is something that's done with you, not to you. But we're really good. So we understand placemaking and a sense of place that fits the identity pretty well. This is just the timetable up here, how we're going to go through it. I just mentioned we're going to do this first period will be call for artists. We will select focusing on the sculptures. And we'll work with the city with placement, putting out cement plinths in certain areas. And we will focus on this downtown area right here. And then we'll also be looking for interior artwork. And then the second year, we'll look at the rotation for sculptures. The nice thing about this is rotational program. It's very successful across the country. Procuring permanent art is one important piece, but having a rotational thing is very successful. Palm Springs does it, Palm Desert, Lake Oswego, Newport Beach, on and on and on. Actually, we have a program, and Mayor Allen's been going for six years. So the Mayor Allen program, if you haven't been out there, go out there and be impressed. And then we'll do the mural that year as well. We'll figure out a place and the design. Big question that people ask. Everything we're talking about is meant to be really carefree, maintenance-free. So if we talk about a mural, it will be coated with a UV protection, anti-graffiti. In our experience, I mean, we've had very little problems with vandalism. But like anything else, over the years, if you would like to keep the mural up, We'd re-coat it in five years or so, depending on if it's facing south, what direction UV, the sun gets it more. So that's maintenance-free. Sculpture, same kind of thing. We'd select things that are made for outdoor viewing. But if the parks and recs are out there, cobwebs or anything else, dusting, that kind of stuff, just regular maintenance. But as far as structure and the way it looks, there won't be any issue. And obviously, we'll address things if something happens. Any kind of damage happens, we'll talk about that later on. But no worries for you. Just a few examples of things we've done. And one of those is in Fairfield. One's actually in Pittsburgh, right down the road. Mayor Island, there's a few of our sculptures. The Pegasus up there is this year's, one of this year's big ones. And there's a beautiful mosaic that we put in Salvia Pacheco Square in Concord. So some of you hopefully have seen some of these. And now you know who's behind them. Okay.

Thank you.

Any questions? Any answers?

Questions from the council? Thank you. Not seeing any questions. Do we have any public comment? I have no cards up here. Anybody on the line?

I see no raised hands for this item. Okay.

Bring it back to the council. Council member Meadows.

I know the new technology. No, I'm good. I'm good with this item. I'm OK moving it forward. The walls in here do look a little blank. I hadn't thought of that until you guys started talking. But there used to be something up there. So I'm good with moving it forward.

Council Member Williams.

Um, I obviously am super excited about this project. I think it's good because, you know, they brought up a lot of this stuff about, uh, just the downtime, but downtown vitality and neighborhood vitality. And I think it's important for people to feel, you know, we obviously provide the homes, but are we really giving people a place where they can be proud of? So I'm really excited to just have things that get people excited about the beauty of where we live. So I'm really happy about this. So thank you for. Finding them. Thank you for being willing to work with us. I'm super excited about this

Councilmember Shaw also very excited Hopefully you guys really get to do a lot of fun research on how how amazing Oakley is and the Delta and all that all that stuff So it's gonna be really exciting to see what what comes and how it Enhances what is already super awesome here. So I do work in Pittsburgh. So I have seen that So now I'm pretty excited to know where that came from. So yes, very excited To see this move forward So I'll make a motion

Second. So we have a first and a second. Roll call vote, please.

Council Member Shaw? Yes. Council Member Williams? Yes. Vice Mayor Meadows? Yes. Mayor Henderson? Yes. The motion carries 4-0.

7 reports 7.1 city managers report Good evening again actually have several items to report on tonight.

So I apologize for the length We are going to hold the Joint Planning Commission City Council meeting to discuss data centers Next Tuesday the 21st at 6 30 p.m We plan to release the agenda with the staff report no later than this Friday of this week. I We have one open planning commission seat. Applications are open actually yesterday, July 13, through Thursday, August 20 at 5 PM is when the application period closes. The term is to complete through February 28, 2027. And if the public wants to view the application or download it and submit one, you can visit our website and go to the news section. And you will find that as the latest news on our website. The third item is our 2026 Oakley Leadership Academy is starting back up. We host those five Wednesdays in a row. It's going to start August 19 and end September 16. We do, as I said, one session per week, and each session covers department in City Hall so at the end of the day participants of the Leadership Academy get to learn all about our city and our operations and we even do two remote locations one in our Public Works building and one in our Police Department And then if you successfully complete all of them, you get a certificate at the next city council meeting. So that will be a fun academy. We usually have pretty good attendance on that. Getting close to the end, but not least in any way, shape, or form, our Oakley Civic Access Portal went live today. And that's part of our EERP that we've been in the process of for the last several years, three years. And I'd like to acknowledge all of the staff that has worked on this. This has taken about a year and a half to go to live. So it's been a quite an extensive amount of work for them on top of their daily normal job duties. So it's pretty impressive they've been able to get to the point where we went live. We've had a few issues, but not many. And they're going to get cleaned up soon. But the Civic Access Portal really does anything for the public regarding permits, plans, and licenses, mainly through our Community Development Department and our Public Works Department. You are allowed to submit plans, apply for licenses and permits, pay online, request inspections online, follow all of the paperwork online, and even print and download your approval or your license when approved online. So it's very cool. If you go to our website at oakleyca.gov, if you scroll down to the popular resources tile, and click on Oakley Civic Access Portal is Live. It'll take you to that webpage, and it will also, on that webpage, give you access to a detailed brochure that tells you how to make an account and use the system. So very cool. And lastly, we have Movies on Main this Friday, the 17th at dusk. It is a Minecraft movie. That is what's being played. And lastly, the June business license update has been attached to the agenda. And that concludes my report. Thank you.

Okay, item 7.2, Councilmember's report. Councilmember Shaw.

All right, well, I am, I guess, giving my report. And then Council Member Williams and I have a little announcement to make about our PD and some of the cool things that they got. But on the 12th, I was at the Rockies Chicken Ribbon Cutting, the 13th, the Juneteenth event. And then later that day, the Beer Isle second year birthday anniversary, call it what you want. The 18th was a Cal City's East Bay Division board meeting. We had a Tri-Delta Transit board meeting, and I was nominated to be this upcoming year's vice chair. I went to the City Pack Cornhole Tournament for Cal City's We had our Summerfest, which was awesome, and the weather was phenomenal. The Hometown Hero event, which I was speaking about, I'm going to let Councilmember Williams talk a little bit more about that. And I went to the new Officer's Swear Inn yesterday.

Councilmember Williams.

All right, we're going to save the hometown hero best part for last. I attended the Rockies chicken ribbon cutting. I also went to the ABAG meeting. It's our annual meeting. We did have a presentation from Libby Schaff on Bay Area Council. And she was just speaking on the importance of regionalism and local government versus state and federal. One of the things that was interesting is she was talking specifically about how many buildings are entitled currently in Oakland for housing, because I know we talk about that a lot, and that they can't pencil for the developers. So there is a lot of advocacy looking at California's fee structures. We do have a new president and vice president of ABAC, Susan Adams from Roanoke Park, and Wanda Williams, who is the Solano County supervisor. They are still running a liability. They do not have a balanced budget, but that's been an ongoing issue. We also got arena cycle seven preview. And a couple things that are pertinent for us is that the mix that we had in the last housing cycle, the percentage is going to be carried over. So I know there were Some issues with cities and counties having fair transparency to that, but they did let us know that it's going to be the same. We are going to get to look at it a year earlier, though. But we also have to include two new categories. So I don't know. It might be just a wash. Okay, so I also went to Tridel to Transit, and we do have a new service provider. So you may notice just some changes, but it's basically who operates our buses. It's a new service contract. Okay. We got an update from Glideways. The project right now is searching for funding. Still a lot of unknowns, especially pending the BART funding measures. Last time I talked about the JLAC audit. That was brought forward by a senator, mostly because I think she thought there was a lot of funding misappropriation. But the audit showed that The most important thing was that agencies do not have the means to overcome structural deficits with BART fees where they are. But Tri Delta is uniquely positioned because we don't have pension obligations. And if we were to be consolidated, which is what the legislation was proposing, that would actually increase all of our obligations by 78%. So it would not be feasible. Um, we did elect a new chair. So that is the Pittsburgh mayor Dion Adams and our very own Shannon Shaw is now the vice chair Also went to Summerfest amazing. I know every year I say that it's better and better But this one was one of the best for sure the weather cooperated and the staff just hits it out of the park So we really appreciate that mayor's conference We had a presentation from CCTA. They were focusing on Measure J, because that expires in 2034. And they talked about their vision, three visions, build a complete, reliable transit network, create people-first streets, and provide reliable freeway travel. As promised, as Councilmember Shaw just alluded to, we also got to attend the Hometown Hero event. And that was really a special event that was honoring all of our first responders. And we got to present our own Oakley PD with several proclamations and awards, which I believe the police chief has. So I don't know if you wanted to come up and just say a couple words about that event. I know I put you on the spot, but.

Yes.

And I would also like to thank him for coming on his day off, because there was a little bit of timing issues. So we appreciate him so much.

Well, no, thank you for this opportunity. So the Hometown Heroes event, this was, I believe it to be the inaugural event. It was very cool to see how the community came together for the purpose of just saying thanks to first responders, not just law enforcement, but fire services and AMR services as well. I think we can all think back to just a few short years ago when first responder services were not held in very high regard. And so it was very easy to feel as if we were not supported. So to have that kind of event was quite special. And yes, we did get proclamations or certificates of appreciation, maybe, from Supervisor Dan Burgess's office, Congressman Desaulnier's office, the office of Congressman Josh Hardner, and the office of California State Senator Christopher, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Yes, thank you, Malden. And Assemblymember Lori Wilson, who, of course, works very near and dear with us, very closely with us. So, again, thank you for this opportunity, and thank you for the notification. It was great to see you both there. Thank you.

Vice Mayor Meadows.

Since our last meeting, I've attended MC board meeting, CCTA board meeting, which we'll also have one tomorrow. We'll have two meetings. One will be discussing the expenditure plan that will be coming up to hopefully replace Measure J. I attended Summerfest, Juneteenth, and CCTA Planning Committee meeting, and then swearing in yesterday of our newest officer.

And since our last meeting, I want to jump on the bandwagon about Summerfest. Staff did an amazing job. It was a great family event. There were a lot of families out there just really enjoying the city, and there were folks coming from out of the area that hadn't been to Oakley before, and they were very impressed with the way everything went. And then I also attended Friday Night Bites, which was on the 3rd, and still had a good turnout, even though it was kind of a holiday weekend. With that, we'll move to 7.2.B. Is there any requests for further agenda items? Vice Mayor Meadows.

So with us going to the meetings having to be online, I would like to look at our public comments. We run public comments at the beginning of the meeting, which I'm fine with. I was talking to a city council member in a city in Central County. They have their public comments in the beginning with a limited time, and then if they go over that time period, they will continue at the end of the meeting so that they can get the business of the meeting. That's on the agenda, done. So I would like to have that discussion.

I support that. Antioch does the same thing.

I didn't know that. It was conquered. Thank you.

Any further? If not, we'll move to 8.1, work session. objective design standards work session and that will be led by our associate planner, Evan Gordon.

Thank you, council. I appreciate it. Tonight we have a work session like you mentioned on objective design standards. We'll start with some background. Design guidelines are the city's adopted direction for what quality development should look like in Oakley. They apply to all types of development, single family, multi-family, commercial, industrial. Tonight we're looking at residential exclusively. These standards can cover the amount of open space and its design, small architectural details such as window trim, to more impactful standards around building massing and how large buildings are around neighborhoods. They help decision makers, applicants, and the public evaluate whether a project fits the community's character and expectations for site planning, building design, landscaping, streetscape, and compatibility with our existing neighborhoods. Over the last decade, the California legislature has passed a series of laws intended to streamline housing production by requiring certain types of projects to be reviewed solely against objective standards. At the same time, cities have been required to amend their zoning maps to accommodate additional housing, and so this has pushed cities to adopt objective design standards so that they can effectively regulate this new housing that we've had to zone for. Let's cover what ODS are. Ideally, objective design standards are design requirements that are clear, measurable, knowable in advance, and applied the same way to all qualifying projects. Here's an example. A regulation we have right now says when you're proposing new housing, you should emphasize home entries to reinforce pedestrian orientation and country warmth. of the community usable front porches and wide entry stairs, which are permitted to protrude into setbacks, can personalize the streetscape. A lot of this are suggestions. The way an entryway could meet this differs between people and reviewers, and it's hard to predict if you're an applicant for a housing project. To make it more objective, you might say, primary building entries shall face the public street or publicly accessible walkway, something that most folks can follow. In Oakley, the design guidelines look like we have design guidelines in two illustrated manuals. The residential design guidelines approved in 2003, and then there are design guidelines in our downtown specific plan. The downtown specific plan is newer than the residential guidelines. We reviewed it. It has many objective standards in it, and so we don't feel it needs an update right now. But the 2003 residential design guidelines, we feel that those should be strengthened to make sure new housing fits in with the city. Speaking of the city, why ODS and Oakley? As Oakley continues to grow, new housing may be proposed whether we have these standards in place or not. Objective design standards give us a tool to make sure that new housing fits in with our community and is nice to live in. Projects are well evaluated to our standards, housing is reviewed efficiently and consistently, and we meet the requirements of state law. Without adopted objective standards, the city has limited ability to shape the design of housing projects that qualify for streamlined review. These standards are how we ensure housing construction is aligned with our goals and values while still welcoming new Oakley residents. All right. For tonight, while we're working to draft these guidelines, we have some areas of focus that we want your feedback on. We want to see if we're on the right track. While we provide some draft guidelines to you, we're not expecting you to provide us with specific thoughts on each of the guidelines. Rather, staff would like to know what areas of the guidelines we should focus on and for you to provide us any topics you feel we may be missing. All right, here's one that took some explaining to my colleagues. Our first area of focus is public safety. Our team already routes projects to our public safety partners, and we require projects to address their feedback. such as fire code requirements. But some of our staff have been at public meetings in other cities for these new streamlined projects. And the community, we've seen them voice in those communities that they want public safety explicitly mentioned in these guidelines. We'd like to highlight those in our documentation so it's clear and upfront and reflects our city's values explicitly. We want our residents safe. We already work to make that happen. But we'd like to write that into these guidelines as well. At the permit counter, you'd be surprised we get folks who start with a blank slate when they come and talk with us. And so we really want to point them towards our partners in public safety so that emergency services can get in and get out. And that's their first step they're looking at. Next is site design. We want new housing to be a nice place to live with good site design, open space, pedestrian pathways, and connections to other forms of getting around. We're also looking at the building envelopes. Rather than being overly prescriptive about every aspect of design, planning staff are focused on ensuring the building envelopes are appropriate within the surrounding area. We want to add guidelines that try to ensure new structures don't dominate the surroundings, too tall next to existing single family homes or something like that. lower heights in certain areas that are sensitive, or step backs for upper stories. We want buildings that look good and hold up over time, but our standards need to be realistic about costs. If design requirements push project costs too high, housing does not get built, and that doesn't help anyone. We want to require articulation and facade variation without dictating every inch of a home's exterior. We want to focus on the elements that matter most to how a building looks and feels from the street or from other common areas. We're seeing in other cities, they might get so strict with their requirements and prescribe every inch, raising the cost of that housing. And so we're trying to strike a balance where we can still produce homes that folks can afford. All right. At our public outreach meeting, residents shared priorities that are shaping our approach as well. We heard we should build communities, not just housing. People want neighborhoods with shared spaces, not just rows of buildings. We heard that design should encourage interactions between neighbors. We also heard that we should allow creative freedom for architects. Standards should set the floor, not the ceiling. Prescriptive rules that force every project to look the same can work against good design. We're writing standards that set clear minimums while leaving room for architects to be creative and provide high quality solutions. All right, in Oakley, as far as I remember, we have had a philosophy of not procrastinating on the most difficult part of the project. For this, it is the nitty gritty details of how things are laid out. And so we've provided you with some draft chapters as attachments to this, just so you have that for reference of what these might look like. Attachment 1 covers multifamily and mixed-use residential standards, including site design, street connectivity, pedestrian pathways, building massing, and rooftop equipment. Attachment 2 covers single-family residential standards, including building form and massing, and facade projections. And those are the drafts we have for you in the staff report. In terms of next steps, so for tonight we're seeking your feedback on our overall focus and direction. We'd love to hear your thoughts. We'll then complete a draft of the regulations and provide those for public review before we take them to the Planning Commission and the City Council for potential approval. While we do want to strengthen our guidelines quickly and get quality regulations on the books, we're not great artists. So you could see us get the regulations approved so that we're protected and then seek out a consultant to draft the actual illustrated manual. And so once more, here are our areas of focus. We're looking for feedback on if we're on the right track and if there's areas we missed. Thanks for your time, council members. I am happy to answer your questions and would appreciate your feedback. Thank you.

Questions for staff? We don't have any questions right now. Do we have any public comment on this?

There is nobody online wishing to speak. Okay.

And I'll bring it back to the council for feedback for staff. Vice Mayor Meadows.

My comment is as we move forward, I would like to see picture books so that it's easier for us to follow along in what you're trying to describe in words. So if you've got examples, that would be great. I mean, reading through what was presented in the staff report and the agenda, I mean, I understood a lot of it, but it would be nice to see examples. So that just makes it a lot easier.

Council Member Williams. OK, I have kind of a lot. Shocker, I know. So I guess I have a couple of questions, because I I want to know kind of what the reality of this. So you gave the two examples, right? And I realize the first one is kind of wordy and stuff like that. But to me, it also feels like who's benefiting from it? If we're just streamlining this and making it more bland, which the second design standard, the objective design standard seemed to me, Are we concerned at all that developers are going to put things down to the bare minimum, and we're still not going to have anything affordable, and they're just making bigger margins? And if that's the case, for me, I mean, we have a jobs to housing imbalance. Do I want to make it so that they're getting better percentages if that's not going to improve our community. So I think I just have some concerns with that portion of it. Like if we're doing this and we're just going to get very bland, especially when we had all of our conversations about public art and stuff like that. So that part concerns me a little bit. So I don't know how that could be incorporated in where we still have some of that stuff. And then I also don't know which of these portions it would actually go into. But I know with our commercial, we have pretty strict lighting standards. It doesn't seem like we necessarily have the same thing for residential. I don't think it's necessarily an issue when development is happening, but I think we need to consider that as we're putting it in so that lighting is also not impacting existing neighbors, neighborhoods. And then I also have a whole thing about trees. a lot about trees. And so I think the list of trees that we have, we're now down to one native tree. I think we had six. And as you all heard me lose my mind coughing today, I have horrendous allergies and I've done a ton of research and it's because we don't plant enough female trees. So while I know we're focusing on the residential and I realize where the impacts of female trees happen, I think we need to really update all of our design guidelines. I think this was like an agenda item, a future request that we had sort of asked for as well too. So I would love to see with all of this if we can start talking about some of the introducing incorporating natives and figuring out places in neighborhoods where we can have some of a mix of female species so that everybody's allergies are not as out of control. And I have a whole paper presentation if you would like that, but I won't go into that.

Council Member Shaw.

Funny enough, I'm going to talk about trees as well. I had asked for the newest tree list because I wasn't aware that there had been a change. So I appreciate that. But the concern was, while I appreciate it being updated for some of the invasive species, it did take us down to one native. So I would love to really look at that and see what we can do. I know drought tolerant and all those things. But if we can increase that list, I would like to see that since we are opening this up. I would be interested in some sort of matrix on what was retained, modified, removed, added, and which of those were required. I would love to be able to see that from our 2003. And I agree with illustrations as well. I think some people need to see that. But I think if we're making these changes, let's really make sure that we keep Some of the stuff that we have in the first one, like not having garage-dominant streets, and just really making sure that we have that appeal that Oakley has come to know with these individual neighborhoods. And when we're going into a neighborhood, it's got some sort of block or different design on the ground that just shows that you're going into another neighborhood. I would love to just really keep. I'm not concerned about the cost for the developer being more able to pencil I'm concerned about these residents living here long term and being proud of their neighborhoods going forward. So I want to make sure we don't lose some of the stuff that's in the original plan. I think it's really important we talk about community spaces. We talk about second story transitions, privacy, lighting. And I want to acknowledge this is still a work in progress. So I know a lot of the portions are still being being worked on. But yeah, the neighborhood identity, the pedestrian connections, the walkability. We have neighborhoods that have fought because of a project coming forward because they were promised some sort of walkable area. And that's a commercial versus residential, but it's the residentials that's complaining. It's the residents that are coming here making those demands. So I would really like to make sure that we be quite specific where we can be. But also, I know you guys have to make some changes. So I would love to see the matrix of what's changing.

compare it and I think having the public safety component in it is very important and I know projects now are going through the agencies for review and everything but having that focused into the plan I think is an important step in there again I agree with my colleagues that photos and illustrations on this stuff so making it you know not in city ease so anybody can open up this and look at it and have the ability to understand what we're really looking for and there because it's it's easy to that if you're a designer or somebody that reviews these every day to understand that, but the average person just opened this up is like, I don't know what this means. And unfortunately, in the government, we're good for all that stuff. And trying to make this a user-friendly document, I think, is important. Council Member Williams, did you have more? Your light's still on. Vice Mayor Meadows.

I'm good with what both Councilmember Shaw and Williams said. I think Councilmember Shaw was kind of saying don't throw, just because it's 23 years old, don't throw it all out. And I don't think you guys are. You're just looking to update where it needs to be updated. I'm good with all that.

Did you get enough direction tonight from us? Yeah, thank you, council. I appreciate it. With that, we'll move to item 9, closed session. Item 9.1 will be public employee performance evaluation pursuant to 54954.5 , city manager. 9.2, conference with legal counsel, existing litigation pursuant to government code 54956.9, subsection D, subsection 1. ADI, Oakley, LLC, Summer Lakes Homes Association et al., and the City of Oakley Superior Court case 24-076. And with that, we'll adjourn tonight. Thank you.