City Council - Regular Meeting

Hello everybody. I will call the city council meeting to order on Monday, December 8th at 6:00. And uh for the record, all council members and the vice mayor are here. Uh do I have a motion to adopt the agenda? So moved. Second. All right. All in favor? Hi. Hi. Uh, do we have any public comment for the closed session items? Mayor Candell, we have no speakers in the community hall and no Zoom participants. All right. So, we will now go back into close session. See you at 7 o'clock.

We'll call this uh meeting back to order. We're coming out of a close session with no reportable action and we'll go straight to the pledge of allegiance. So, please stand. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. And since it's the first meeting of the month, we have our land acknowledgement statement. So, 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 embra 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. Thank you. I will go to public comments for items not on the agenda.

Yes, mayor. I have a speaker slip from David May. If you could go to the podium and you will have three minutes to speak. And I have uh one speaker in our Zoom audience as well. Sure.

Oh, sorry. My name is David May. I'm here. I'm an attorney and I'm here representing uh Bruce and Carolyn O Aust. They live at uh 11:15 Camino Valisceto here in Lafayette. Uh the issues that I'd like to bring to your attention and uh get put on the agenda for the next meeting are twofold. One is a procedural issue and one is the actual substance of the dispute. Um if if I could distribute to the to the powers that be here a packet I prepared.

Um you can leave it with the clerk and we can get it um at the end of the meeting if you'd like. Yes, please.

Uh I'll do that I guess after I finish my remarks. Um the procedural uh issue is uh we've tried to resolve the underlying dispute first informally and then formally. What we what we ended up doing this is a sign issue, a firewise sign and um the design review commission has authority over sign um issues and um they made a decision in this matter and according to um the city ordinances. The specific ordinance number is Um if it's in your notes that you're giving

number is 6232 and that particular ordinance says that that appeals from the design review commission if that the they are in regard to signs comes to the city council. And we see this as a mandatory uh provision in the city ordinances. And uh we filed an official um um appeal on the the form that was provided to us. And there's a little box um there's a a list of boxes uh of requests and there's a box on there that says appeal and that was checked along with all of the uh attendant materials. Um but since that that appeal was filed on November 19th and since that what what does that mean?

I'll have to wrap it up. Three minutes. Okay. the uh the um the date that the app appeal was filed was on uh November 19th and as far as I can tell there's been no city action taken uh on that appeal. Okay. Thank you. Um if you leave your information with us, we will review it. Thank you so much for bringing it to our attention. All right.

All right. Thank you. I'll take the person in our Zoom audience and this would be Libby Henry. Libby, you're able to speak. Hi everybody. Um, I just wanted to take this opportunity first to uh thank Susan and the whole council and staff for their hard work this year. I know there's been a lot of challenges and I do believe that this council is trying to stand up for our city. Um it's unfortunate that the state wants to you know battle us and you know and not just us 484 cities in the state with propaganda that's not true. Um, and but I just wanted to especially thank Susan for her service since I guess this is your uh swan song, so to speak, for for this year. And um, and say thank you. And I noticed that on item 14 uh A about the PBA, uh, I didn't see anything for public comment, so I didn't know whether I

There will be there will be public comment for sure, Libby. Okay. Okay. But anyway, I just wanted to say thanks to all Tracy and Nup and Mala and of course Joanne and everybody. Thank you, Stella and Jim and Carl and John and of course yourself. And thanks for putting up with me and my rants. [laughter] Thanks Libby. You know I care. Yes. No additional speakers at this time. We'll go to city manager's update.

Thank you and good evening everyone. I am going to uh present some year-end statistics. I promise I will not read every number that's on the screen. Just wanted to give you a highlights. Uh uh this these year-end statistics do not include the specific tasks that promote the council's priorities. They don't in such as the clearance along major evacuation routes. They don't in reflect the additional tasks like that every department does like the Hamlin master plan. Rather these numbers are about uh show you the dayto-day work that's performed by the various departments uh to keep the city operating smoothly and efficiently. We have five departments. This is administrative services and I'm very pleased to report it is now fully staffed. Um and we have uh all possessions filled. Uh city clerk Robins does more than anyone can dreams a p single person can do. I've highlighted in in blue uh the numbers that are over from LA or above last year's. Last year uh I wanted I wanted to point out the public records request. Last year we had 45. This year we're at 60 and the number seems to be growing. Human resources. It's a new category and we're going to be talking to you from now on about our onboarding, offboarding and the sheer number of applications

that we receive for each position uh for the position of uh planning technician. I think we received overund 100 applications. Finance as usually is is also fully staffed and is doing an excellent job. Uh we are pleased to report the 10th year of excellence in financing. It's an award that's uh pro uh given to us by the state public art again is it's just growing to be a very robust and exciting program and I'm sure everyone's uh watched the first downtown mural come to life and there are three more to go. communications. Uh Suzanne is in charge of communications and uh she tells me that uh we have ga gained uh the largest number of subscribers in Instagram uh up 342 since last year and an additional 100 subscriptions in next door parks, trails and recreation. All current budgeted positions have been filled. act uh recreation continues to overperform u activity and enrollments up by 160. We added 127 more classes and an additional 16 uh in afterare programs. Senior services is uh is really deep into the um seven domains. the age friendly plan. Uh, senior services provide has provided additional 11

additional classes since last year and nearly 400 additional hours of programs. The Spirit Van added 1,700 additional trips this year and new in uh from now on we're going to be reporting about our excellent partnership with Laarinda Village. uh public uh oh yes um just continuing to be a very busy community center and a busy department. Only one position remains to be filled in public works which is exciting. This year as you can tell focused on improving the conditions of our roads. uh as you can see by the the volume of materials that went into our road projects. Want to point out that the number of encroachment per permits that we are getting have increased. Uh they've risen more than 175 from the previous year. Also really notable are the underground alert service tickets that we have to handle. There were 4,000 more tickets handled this year than last year.

4,000. Planning and building. We are actively recruiting. There are a number of positions that need to be filled. We've already uh interviewed candidates for assistant planning director and senior planner. uh generally in pace uh development activity compared to last year we just had a few more tree permits. We have um experienced an significant increase in the number of people who call in who drop in and who visit our planning uh virtual counter. We had 240 additional in-person appointment uh appointments than the previous year. And also of note uh the number of public records requests have really focused on planning and building and that means uh a considerable amount of staff time spent on those requests. Building permit activity remains steady. And now we move on to the police department. Uh we've hired replacements for Sharon in the parking uh section and uh also the park parking interns. We have a budget for 17 sworn officers. We currently have 16. The 17th sworn officer position will be filled in January and the chief is looking at uh that person being a youth services officer focusing on school and safety uh bike safety maybe as well ebike safety. We had nearly 3,000 additional calls for

service compared to last year and 500 additional traffic citations issued. And so I come to the end of our year-end statistics. Um we will post this on our website. It'll be available for people to to view and I'd be happy to answer any questions. Great. Thank you. Wonderful report. Any questions? No. Thank you. You guys, Lafayette has run so well. Smooth, smooth running machine. Thank you so much. Uh, any public comment? No public comment on this item, Mayor Kandell.

Great. Okay, so we will go on to our finance manager. I am going to be presenting this um in uh in in lie of um our finance manager, but I just as you heard the city manager say, I wanted to uh tell the council and the community that for the 10th year in a row, the city has been uh presented with the certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting. Um, and this is for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2024. Um, and we're very proud of this and I think a lot of credit goes to the council for their good fiscal responsibility and the decisions and then also the accounting staff who make sure uh that everything is in order. There are quite a lot of uh what they call gazsby rules that need to be followed. Um and we do that very well with a small staff. Uh we are right now in the process of finalizing the um audit for the fiscal year that ended in June. Um and we are confident that we will be back here next year with the 11th certificate. So thank you.

Congratulations. And our assistant city manager Tracy Robinson may have had something to do with that excellence in reporting as well. Any questions? A comment please.

I want to say that back when I was in public finance, we'd look for two things in the audit. One was a clean opinion obviously, but the second was the certificate which case it kind of told us that this public agency's kind of doing the right stuff in terms of financial management. The governmental finance officers association or GFOA has this big operation to run through these audits and look for certain things. It helps it helped us in the bond world to sort of understand that that um staff was paying attention. We do our own due diligence obviously but it really is a threshold. So great job at the city and I wore my California Society Municipal Finance Officers pin CSMFO which public finance nerds is like the California Finance Officers group and I was kind of a groupy for them. So great work by staff. Um please thank Tim and Tracy you too for all the work you've done. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Any public comment?

No comment at this time. Great. Thank you. Um, now go to Senior Services Commission annual update. I see a lot of people in the room. Jonathan Katanagi is uh not able to attend, but he is going to uh zoom in

zoom in and run their uh power point presentation for them. Great. So CJ, uh Jonathan should be on Zoom. Yeah. Press it, please. There goes the council. Bring it closer to your mouth.

Oh, really? Get it close. Speak so loudly.

I know, but Oh, it's that much better. What's wrong? That's okay. My name is Terry Black. I'm chair of the Senior Services Commission for the city of Lafayette. And I'd like to introduce you to our commission, Vice Chair Conrad Bree. Uh I don't believe Joe Derrisco is here tonight. Carol Fredigi, Cherry Sprag, Dorothy Walker, and our staff, Jonathan Katyanagi, who is unfortunately not with us tonight, Molly Cohen, who is our senior services coordinator, and Ricky Chester, who is our honorable head of the bus service, which we love. We want to thank the city council for adopting the age friendly action plan in February of 2025. If implemented, this very ambitious plan will improve livability for all older adults and persons of all ages in our community. The call to action. The Lafayette Senior Services Commission invites all community stakeholders to review the age friendly action plan goals and action items, excuse [clears throat] me, and contribute to accomplishing the identified goals and action items. By working together, we can create a more inclusive and supportive environment for everyone in Lafayette. Interested stakeholders can work to implement action items to help community needs or to reach out to city staff or the senior services commission to coordinate and/or update us on your effort. 35 goals and over 200 action items is far more than the commission and the city could hope to accomplish. This is why we developed the call to action that invites individuals and organizations to review the plan and to

help implement action items. The full plan can be viewed at www.loafafayette.orgfriendly. Oh, okay. Good. Outdoor spaces and buildings. to update you on our ef efforts. We will share a little bit about each of our nine domains. Starting with outdoor spaces and buildings. In an effort to create agefriendly spaces and to keep older adults engaged with outdoor spaces, several programs were offered. The commission is proud of our collaboration with the parks trails and recreation commission to identify age friendly bench locations in the Lafayette Community Park. In the outdoor spaces and buildings, we have the Lamarinda Nature Walk and Bird Watching, which is a weekly guided outdoor activity for exploring local trails and bird habitats, encouraging outdoor recreation, social connection, and use of Lafayette's natural assets. Introduc Introduction to Paton, outdoor recreational program hosted at St. Mary's Road, Paton Field, providing accessible physical activity and community connection. The commemorative bench program worked with we worked with parks, trails, and wreck commission to identify bench locations in community parks. The outdoor programs programs like the reservoir walking group three times a week and beginner pickle ball classes keep older adults engaged to outdoor resources. The impact of this shows expanded opportunities for safe outdoor activity, social engagement, and physical mobility for older adults while strengthening community presence in the local parks and open spaces. I'm going to go on to Ricky who is the head of our Lamarinda Spirit Fan.

Hi everyone. Um, as you heard, we are happy to report that we are offering more rides to seniors than ever before, as far as I can tell. I did much digging around in previous records and I couldn't find a number anywhere close to the number mentioned by Nai. And it should be mentioned that a big part of that growth is in rides is due to our collaboration with Lamarinda Village and all the classes and events that they offer. Um, [clears throat] it's increased ridership. I have we have more drivers and we're excited to grow even more and I anticipate that that's what will be happening and going to the next slide. Um, senior services department offers programs and resources to help seniors safely age in their homes. And the spirit van does take a lot part in that. It allows people to remain in their homes. And I am now going to move it over to Molly. Hello, I'm Molly Cohen u and I run the senior services department programs and social participation opportunities have increased thanks to the existing programs we've had and new offerings that we have partnering with Lamarinda Village. Many classes provide a structure or opportunity for seniors to build community around the various activities. These activities occur at the community center, at the library, on Zoom, and in local businesses. The now 3-day a week senior swell center here at the Lafayette Library provided by Lamarinda Village is a huge step towards a downtown senior center. It

went from one day a week. It's now uh Tuesdays and Thursdays kind of meet and greet and coffee and then Wednesdays are um come and play ma jang. Um though it's a small program, it's highly visible and it creates a space for seniors to gather and socialize. Many of the city's commission and committee members are retired professionals utilizing their professional and learned experiences to improve the city. Interested volunteers are encouraged to review commission openings on the city website. The commission is in the beginning stages of putting together a volunteer fair. The fair will be an opportunity for nonprofits and organizations to connect with volunteers that are looking for ways to help the community. And now I'm going to turn it over to Carol Federeri. Get it over here. Thank you. Communication and information. Um, this is an ongoing area of focus for the commission. Members are working to create an agefriendly content for the city's online newsletter, the weekly roundup. It's commission goal to start distributing printed copies of the Roundup to areas that seniors frequently um gather. Um and the coffee with a cop program was well very wellreceived and we hope to offer those with more frequency. Community and health services wellness classes have been very popular among participants. The spirit van is often used to get participants to these programs and to their muchneeded medical appointments. The commission is also looking at ways

to connect seniors with resources, including those featured at events such as the community foundations senior symposium and Lafayette Chamber of Commerce Reservoir Run wellness fair. Dorothy, emergency preparedness was added as one of our domains because of the info emphasis that the city council had. Um so it's uh been a certainly a focus for uh this commission. Um, a series of classes were offered and uh the uh commission collaborated with the Contraosta Fire Protection District uh the police department emergency preparedness commission and cert to develop a flyer that promoted measure X fire hazard mitigation grants. So those are two appropriate uh income groups. Um so the we are uh currently uh as you know you have funded the the two-year collaboration with the La Miranda Village. Um it came with many benefits uh including supported memberships for all income qualified Lafayette residents. Um additional uh days of the swell program as Molly mentioned at the library. um Lafayette uh the [clears throat] village uh Lamarinda village staff is now participating at the senior services commission meeting so we are fully aware of what's happening throughout the community and as Jonathan likes to share if there is a village class an open playground a pickle ball and pickle ball all happening at once there is likely to be a parking problem at the community center so you may have to Yes,

additional thanks for the group. Um, so the uh the village has been very effective uh because of their uh dedicated staff and ability to leverage community partners throughout um and uh so it is a takes a village and we are feel that we are accomplishing that. Um so now um I want to uh continue to we want to continue to build with what the village model has to offer and are of course inviting all stakeholders to review the action plan uh that we've put together and assist with making Lafayette a more age friendly place. And uh I'd like to turn it back to our chair of the commission. In closing this annual report, I would like to advise you that the city of Lafayette was the single city city in the United States chosen to participate in a webinar titled going digital produced by the AARP age friendly department out of the main office in Washington DC. We're the only sitting on the webinar will be held tomorrow December 9th from 12 to 1 Pacific time. and along with John Katyanagi, I will be speaking. We are very proud to be working with two professors from Rutgers University in New Jersey regarding our success with our age friendly program and they are very pleased to give us the exposure. We can be proud of our accomplishments and we will continue to work hard to maintain our age friendly community standards. Thank you for your support and for your time.

Well, congratulations. That is quite the honor. That's the first I've heard of it. Wonderful. I knew know it, right? Um, and what I'm hearing is that this partnership with La Miranda Village is working out really well. Like as well as we were hoping as expecting. Oh, that's just that's great. Thank you. Thank you. Good feedback. Any questions? Please go ahead after. Okay. Yes. Very impressive. Very impressive uh list. So next year, this is we're all looking back in 2025. It's amazing. Is next year really just trying to build on the programs that are there or do you have any aspirations for additional additional programs? Maybe Molly could answer that a little bit.

Yeah. Um we do hope to continue to expand the partnership with the village, offer uh you know bring more and more to the community center and to other locations in the city uh of what they you know to their their brainstorming their people. They get the people we get. We try to bring uh the village their village members in for that. So definitely hope to keep it growing. Perfect. Thank you. All right. Uh any public comment? No public comment on this item. Uh Mayor Candell. Great. So comments.

Okay. I just want to say this is an incredible report. This is uh it's wonderful. I wish the entire community could take a look at this because you've laid it out in a format that really shows concretely what's going on on behalf of the seniors in the community. So, I know this will be on the website attached to the council meeting. I hope it can be attached to the your page and the senior services commission and need to think about what else we can do to let people know uh all that you're doing. But great work. Thank you.

You thank you. And I'd like to echo Vice Mayor Anduri, I think you guys are doing tremendous work for this community. I mean, it sort of really uplifts us all with everything you're doing. Um, making everyone feel welcome. So, um, you know, really that the collaboration with Lamina Village and all these activities just really blows me away, honestly. So, what a great job. Thank you so much, you know, for doing the best for Lafayette. Yes. Thank you for encouraging us to make the partnership. It just sounds so successful. It's great. Susan. Yes. Go ahead. Make a statement. Excuse [clears throat] me.

Sorry. Um I I also just want to say thank you so much for all of your efforts. I'm really excited about the age friendly action plan and and you moving into putting some of the the projects, the action items into into work. Um I think the volunteer fair is a great idea. I think that is just going to be a win-win win-winwin um on so many levels. I think there's got to be a lot of um nonprofits in this community who would really like to get the word out about what they're doing, what their specific needs are for for labor. Um I think a lot of people have money to give, but not always time to give. And so I think providing that opportunity through the volunteer fair to make those connections is going to be really really important. Um I also want to thank you for the work that you've done with the youth commission, the Lafayette youth commission. I think that's just a fantastic intergenerational um activity. And I I know personally my daughter is on the youth commission and she said that one of her favorite things is working with the senior services commission. So she told me a lot about the monarch butterfly um seeds um and how well that went. Um and so thank you very much for for everything that you do.

Thank you. Thank you all very much for your help,

Chris. All right. Thank you. All right. Next up, we have one more presentation, guys. [laughter] Sorry. Um, so we'll do park, trails, and wreck, uh, annual update. He's remote. He's doing the thing. Pardon? Go ahead. You're not on though. Yeah, perfect.

That's close enough now. Okay.

Okay. Um, my name is Scott Robinson. I'm the chair of the parks, trails, and recreation commission. Um, I want to thank the members of the city council for inviting us here tonight. This is always a highlight of the year for us. Uh, I'd also like to uh acknowledge my fellow commissioners. Um, and I'll sort of do it by commission subcommittee. Uh, trail subcommittee, uh, Allison Hill who's next to me, Jeff Bellinger. Uh, park subcommittee, Grace Dixon in the red jacket. Um, Carol Singer in the blue jacket. Uh, and then for the community center liaison role, uh, Casey Donovan, uh, sitting next to me. We also have a Hamlin Nature uh park subcommittee. Uh uh Commissioner Singer, uh Bellinger, and Donovan are on that committee. Not with us tonight are Frank Kirkuro, who's from the trail subcommittee, and Shane Riceman, also from the trail subcommittee, and Joe Doherty. Uh they weren't able to make it tonight. Um director Kay Kadayanagi is, I believe, remotely controlling the slides for us. Uh, so I will be presenting the parts that he would have been presenting tonight. Um, so I want to I want to thank the these dedicated volunteers um and recognize, you know, what they've done for the residents of Lafayette. Um, I think Lafayette has some of the best parks, trails, and recreation programs in the county. Um, ours is just one of of many programs. Uh, these volunteers are responsible for the excellent state of our public facilities and programs. Um, I'd also like to recognize uh Director Kadanagi uh for his ongoing support, dedication, and leadership to the commission. He is a true leader. Next slide. Um, the primary role of the Parks, Trails, and Recreation Commission, which I may slip and just call PTR tonight just because I know everybody likes

brevity. So, uh, we'll we'll do that. Is to advise the city council on matters related to parks, trails, and recreation. Uh this includes various degrees of planning, budgeting, and project management. Uh PTR consistently works with city staff and other commissions uh departments including creeks planning and public works. Um we our commissions actively inspect and perform basic maintenance issues on uh PTR facilities. And that's something I think the community doesn't doesn't see us doing, but they see the the the effect of that, the trails, the condition of the trails, etc. Uh in addition, PTR has responsibility for input to the uh general plan uh and managing the city's commemorative program. So the benches that you see around the the community center and on the trails um ongoing uh duties, I'll just name list highlight a few. The commemorative program uh uh uh is something that we oversee. budget monitoring, uh, general plan advisory committee input, inspection and maintenance, and then we advise the you, the city council, on issues related to PTR matters. And I'll turn this over to Allison, partnerships. Um, we couldn't do what we do without all these partners who are listed and I will not read. We have a number of key partnerships supporting our efforts. We'd also like to take this time to thank the motivated and hardworking young people in Lafayette. The youth commission supports events at the community center, including the haunted trail. The All Ages Recreation Downtown and the Junior Board of the Community Foundation of Lafayette helps to run pop-up recreation. and scouting organizations continue to volunteer to clean up our trails and build projects that have lasting impact.

All right, good evening. Uh the PTR commission has a number of initiatives that we're pursuing right now, including the park planning for the Hamlin Parkland in between Sweet Drive and St. Mary's Road, as well as the two parks collaborative concept for Lee Creekide and Gazebo Parks. Uh of course, the community center with its HVAC and roof design maintenance. And we also take a lot of pride in the wayfinding trail marker project. Um the commission and the city of course are very focused on reviewing deferred maintenance costs and working with council to find ways to fund projects such as the Buckeye patio and the renovation needs at the community center. These efforts are designed to meet current needs and ensure that the residents of Lafayette have a quality parks, trails, and recreation program both today and long into the future. What am I doing?

This right here.

They're Oh, our key accomplishments this year. Um, uh, have been the draft the park plan for Hamlin Parkland. That's, uh, we'd like to get that going. That's been on the, uh, burner for a while. Uh, the community park South Nature Trail. uh the child care and school bus expansion uh fees and use categories for sports fields. It's taken quite a bit of time to uh work on that. Lafayette Community Center room uh radal fee updates Oakbridge parking lot parklet which is all up and running. age friendly commemorative benches and fire abatement are what we wanted to list as our key accomplishments. In addition to the the accomplishments that Commissioner Singer just uh mentioned, we um embarked on a project this year in community park to uh create a wayfinding um um wayfinding posts and maps. Um we started with the community center parks because that made a lot of sense. That's the place where people get lost um or so they tell me. Okay, a validation. I love it. Um, so the po the the posts and the maps uh are are linked with QR codes. So if you just uh click on a QR code, it'll tell you where you are. Um, the map on the up up here that shown uh is with alpha characters. So if you click on a on a given post, it says H. That's where you are. Um, we our goal was to make the community center park friendly to the entire community in Lafayette and not just the folks that

that use it on a daily basis. So, the uh it's up and running and we're going to be moving on to the other trails uh the theater trails etc. um uh around the Lafayette uh the Maraga to Lafayette Reservoir trail is one that has been completed. Next slide please. A primary focus of PTR staff and commission aligns with the city council's goals uh to be firewise. We're very mindful of that, particularly in places where we have trails like the community park. Staff has implemented the removal of deadwood undergrowth to improve fire safety as well as increased visibility and safety concerns. Um this year, uh PTR was happy to implement a new technology for remote radiocrolled mowing of uh PTR properties. The mower is amazing. what it can do. If you haven't seen it, I urge you to go out and and watch it in action. Uh, but our focus on fire prevention has included a number of of issues which I won't go all the way through, but green waste removal and and uh u you know, Hamlin open space, neighborhood trails, downtown parks, those are all really important. Um, so it goes without saying that where we have trails, we generally have trees and things that can catch fire. Um, as far as challenges go, we have plenty of those. Um, and um, this slide is is going to look familiar to to the members of the city council as these challenges have been constant over the past few years. We have a need for parks and recreation facilities. There's no doubt about that. Uh, from ball fields to child care programs to downtown parks. Uh, we're faced with not enough funding either for acquiring new parkland or for maintaining and improving our current facilities. So, we're kind of victims of our own success in this community. It's it's it's a hard place to find property. Further, there are limited acquisition oppositions. Our published Parkland acquisition and development plan highlights the potential opportunities in the community. But when and if these properties become available, we are

competing with buyers in the market uh who can purchase the properties without having to go through uh a municipal negotiation process as we're as we're bound to do. Um so you know certainly the you're you're familiar with the challenges facilities you know sports fields parkland acquisition facility maintenance you know the community center is is is uh aging um and um you know and the like so um let's see am I and I have the next slide as well um uh commission budgets um there are there are these are the various budget programs that the commission oversees uh includes general funds enterprise capital project funds and syncing funds. The passing of measure measure H will help the general fund uh budgets, but we still see the impacts of inflation and increases to construction costs that will impact our ability to deliver uh on capital capital projects. And Jonathan's right on top of this. Uh well, we're very pleased that Measure H passed. All of us are. The half cent sales tax was only enough to fund uh enough funding to maintain uh level of service. There are still several unfunded maintenance needs for existing facilities including the community center uh roof and HVAC system, the patio at Buckeye Fields and the parking lots that support the recreation facilities. Um I apologize for that less than attractive photo that we put in there, but uh

yeah,

it's real life. Y we thank the city council for initiating initiating the capital management uh excuse me the capital maintenance study. The results from that study will help us better understand what it will take to care for our existing facilities and inform decisions most importantly about new projects that would require ongoing maintenance. Uh and that those those items are listed there. We don't need to go through all of them. I'm I'm sure you're very familiar with these. Uh in closing, sorry. In closing, I would I would like to thank the city council for granting us time to present this uh this year's update. It's always a pleasure to be here. Once again, uh I'd like to recognize our commissioners for their time and energy and uh welcome any questions you may have at this time and I uh I thank you for your support.

Of course. Thank you. Great report as always. Park Child, you guys are an amazing commission. You know that and you get so much done. So, thank you for everything that you've been doing. Any questions? You're good. Thank you very much. This is a really thorough report. Um, great to help get people up to speed. I've got a question on the community center roof HVAC question. So, estimated 3.3 million or 4.3 million for full facility expansion. Can you elaborate on that? We're not talking replacing the the facility, right? I can't elaborate on that. That would have probably been director Kadanagi um who would have been able to do that. Um, unless you have Can you hear me? Hi. Yeah, Jonathan. Yes. Hi.

Sorry, a little under the weather, but happy to comment. Oh, I'm sorry.

Uh, so, uh, the the expansion has to do with the number of rooms at the community center that don't, uh, currently have AC. Uh, so not every room in the center has AC. And the design plan, um, gives us a system that allows us to expand to those other rooms as part of this process. So it can be designed in such a way that we could grow off of the type of unit over time or uh we could do it all at once. Right now during the summer we actually bring in portable AC units to cool the rooms for camps because um just with climate change and the things that we find the rooms are hotter than they've ever been and we're having to find solutions to keep the kids comfortable and focused while they're enjoying their summer camps and classes. So uh that expansion allows us to go beyond the rooms that currently have the the cooling. Every room has heat, but not every room has cooling.

Okay. And And how old is the facility? I mean, I should know this, but I'm going to ask the question. Uh, let's see. It is um 1983 was the the renovation and it's 54 was the original construction. So 54. Yeah. So 54 and 83 for the renovation for the community center. Okay. So it's fully depreciated. Okay. Yes. Thanks. [laughter] [gasps]

Thank you. Um, quick question. So, it's an amazing amount of things on the on the plate. Is there anything new happening next year or because you have so many balls in the air or is it just moving the ball, you know, moving the goalpost kind of forward on on the things that you have in play or is there anything new planned for next year? not nothing new at at this point that I'm aware of that you know we're we're going to be having our our December meeting as well for the full commission mostly pushing forward with the projects that we have uh you know that you saw on on the list

for the most part we we took on a pretty big project in the last year doing the wayinding and the and the labeling and and of course the roof issues but uh nothing nothing that I can really speak to at this point. Great. Because I do I will say the way finding I think is is a really nice way of because you we always I think everybody's the the big things we all think about are the new projects coming or the new parks, new whatever. I think the way finding a way to take an existing resource and make it that much more accessible I think is a really it's a great use of resources and uh I appreciate I think that's that's very clever. Thank you. Thank you. Great. Any public comment? No public comment at this time, Mayor Kendo. Great. Any other comments?

Okay. Well, I'll just say there's at least one person in this room who attended elementary school at the that building, so knows the age. Um, again, great report. Um, you're just such an active commission. Each one of you has at least one project that you're working on all during the year, and it it really makes a difference. It it it shows. I mean, we do have one of the best programs in the county, if not the state. and you're the ones who are responsible for it. And uh thank you for reminding us under challenges, facilities, needs identified in city plans. And I appreciate you're using the word needs. These are not just things that people want. These are things that they need. So, thank you for focusing on that.

Thank you. Great. Thank you again, everybody, and thank the other commissioners who aren't here, too. Oh, one more. Oh, Stella, sorry. Very quickly, just thank you for everything that you do. Your your domain is so important. Parks, trails, recreation. We got to have park, we got to have trails, we got to have recreation in this city. Um, so thank you very much and great job on the way finding. It saved my skin and I was lost in the community park not too long ago. You're welcome.

Great. Thank you guys. All right, we will move on to the consent calendar. Does anybody want to pull anything off of consent? Okay. What? F. Item F and uh item F. Okay. To pull a A item F and A. Okay. E E F A F E E and F. Is that what I'm hearing? Yes. Okay. Uh do any community members want to pull anything on the consent? I have no requests, Mayor Kandell.

Okay. So, um I move to approve the consent calendar with the exception of A items A, E, and F. A second. Second. All in favor? I

I thank you. We'll come back to this later. All right. Now, we're going to item 13, city council reorganization. Finally, cake. [laughter] So, I do want to take some time to talk about some of the great things that have been going on in Lafayette this year. So, um, wow, what a year. So glad to be on the far end of it now at the end of 2025. I hope that most of us are feeling like it was a good year with some ups and downs, but so many wins on the real important things for our city. We started the year off high, fresh off the Measure H win. For me personally, my year was going to start off awful if we had lost that election. We would have had to start holding meetings, you know, right off the bat on how to make some heartbreaking cuts. But instead, we end the year with a balanced budget and a newly formed Measure H oversight committee. Next, we got into the final pieces of our housing element, and we're looking at HCD's long- aaited approval. But then bam, we get hit hard out of left field by a lawsuit by the Housing Action Coalition, which we find out is the organization suing cities in the Bay Area over housing elements. We're still fighting that lawsuit today. And so, sorry Carl, be handing that one to you. Um, next up in the spring, we started discussions about 949 Maraga Road, the city-owned parking lot across from Lafayette Elementary School. Now, this is an opportunity site in our housing element, and we want to build housing there, but I don't think any of us could have predicted the amazing journey we're now on trying to get 48 units of permanently affordable housing for developmentally disabled adults, all managed by Sunflower Hill. This effort has been a fullcourt press by staff, by council, local elected leaders, by people in this room. Um and and but also

most importantly Rosemary Kerbach of Sunflower Hill and they secured the first round of funding from HCD for over $19.5 million in the late summer. Now we're still fighting because it's only about a third of what they need. And the next round is coming up in the next few weeks or even days to see if we qualify for the funding from the county's Measure X funds. and our supervisor is here and thank you so much for supervising those funds. Uh next, all of us on council and our residents learned a lot about our constitutional rights to peacefully protest in our city and we are grateful for everyone who took part in this important learning process. Uh in the late spring we were learning about SP79, the state housing bill that would have upzoned us for very high density um housing in a half a mile circle around a BART station. So, Council Member Cervantes and I worked hard with our legislators and police and fire representatives who pointed out very clearly that if we allow for highdensity housing into neighborhoods with very small winding roads and single egress and high fire risk areas, our evacuation routes would be severely compromised. And that's a real safety uh problem in our uh for our residents. By the end of the session, we're so thankful for our senator Tim Grayson who was able to get all counties removed completely from SB79 that are not urban counties like Contracasta. However, our joy was very short-lived as our regional governments MTC and AAG are trying to pass their own versions of FB79 and these uh same regional governments are trying to get it enshrined into their long-term policies. So now, not only do we face the state's overreach into our local planning authority, our regional government is

now doing the same. Again, Carl, sorry passing that on to you. Um, then in May, Rachel Zenner from Senator Grayson's office staff reached out wanting to restart our old Lafayette leazison meeting, one that was canceled since CO. So since May, we've had monthly meetings um with all of our partners in Lafayette, including schools, police, fire, our state and local federal representatives, the chamber, and many others. These meetings help us stay coordinated in a much more organized fashion, which is so helpful for all of us. Next, late in the summer, we started hearing about softball's request to use one of the fields of Buckeye Fields. This led to an entire series of meetings with Park and Wreck, LMYA softball, and Lafayette Little League. I truly want to thank everyone who participated in this process, especially the leaders in LMYA softball and Lafayette Little League who showed everyone what real leadership looks like. We now have an agreement moving forward and a one-time investment in the fields at Buckeye and Upper Community Fields. But more importantly, we have goodwill to work together moving forward on even more lofty goals of getting more fields for Lafayette, and I really look forward to seeing that in the future. So, our last big wins this year include getting work started on the school street and topper lane walkways. I can't thank staff enough for being so patient and so thorough, especially with the residents on Topper Lane. But this work is paying off and we're getting excited to get started. The other big win is getting funding for the new aqueduct walkway project. This new grand vision of a bike and pedestrian pathway from the west of town all the way to Hill Pleasant Hill Road is tarting starting to take shape. And again, I can't thank staff enough for pushing

this forward. I'm almost done. Just a few thank yous. First, I'm being completely honest when I say I think this is the best council I've worked with in my seven years here. I truly enjoy each one of you and believe that we are 100% in support of what is best for Lafayette. It's actually very much my honor to serve with each of you. And next is thanks to our amazing staff led by our fearless uh city manager. When this council and our staff are so supportive of each other and shared in vision, we can achieve pretty much anything we put our energy into. Again, thank you to each and every one of you. Next is to thank all of our commissioners and committee members. We could not have such a great city moving forward without all of your contributions. Again, all volunteers helping run our city committed to make Lafayette a better place place to live, work, and shop. And one more as a shout out to our our uh county representative uh who's here tonight. Thank you so much, Candace Anderson. And we have our state representatives from Assembly uh Rebecca Barah Han's office and Senator Tim Grayson. Thank you guys so much for being here. Um and finally to my husband Brian, [laughter] thank you for putting up with me this year. Um both of our jobs have been really crazy this year, so it's been a long one and hopefully 2026 will bring us bring us both some needed relief. Um, [snorts] Brian also reminded me recently that being the mayor is kind of like being a boat owner. The very best day is the first day when you buy the boat and the other best day is when you sell that boat. [laughter] So, thanks again and I love Lafayette and hopefully we'll have cake soon. [snorts]

All right. Well, not before I express on behalf of the council and our residents our gratitude that you agreed to serve as mayor this year. Just people may not realize that um you didn't have a running start on becoming mayor. You went right from council member to mayor. And in fact, looking back, you weren't even able to attend this meeting last year in person because you were sick. And then beyond that, you knew that in 2025 you'd have a very intense professional schedule, which turned out to be true. Um, so again, we're grateful that you took on the role. But what's most important for us is the way you met this challenge. And for me, uh, two things stand out. First is the welcoming way you conduct council meetings. and all of us who follow you are going to look to that as the the standard going forward. What has been most impressive to me is the way that you've reached out to try to bring people together and try to get them to reach common ground on issues before they come to the council. And I know that's selfish because that's lowered our workload, but you've just been great in bringing people together. So, um, thank you and please accept this small token, gratitude from your city.

Thank you. Oh my gosh, you guys. So, should I open this now? Okay. Yes. All right, I'll open it. I might have an idea of what this is. It's looking very suspicious here. Not coming out. Thank you. This is a beautiful waterman pen because I do not have very many nice pens. I have to admit this is going to take a special spot in my office and I will hold this memory fondly. Thank you very much. Now, it's not exactly on the agenda, but I think we should call for public comment. Oh, okay.

Now, sure. Yeah, call for public comment. I have people here that want to comment. So, we'll start with uh Rachel Zenner from Senator Grayson's office.

Mayor Kandell, uh Senator Grayson is sorry that he could not be here. He's um returning to the country from a much needed break. But um he is so grateful for your service, for the relationship that he and we have established with you. Um I mean all of you in Lafayette have been so welcoming as he started in this new to him part of the district and I think he's just grateful for the working relationship with all of you and we have a certificate. Thank you. Thank you. So how should we do photos at the end or what should which or one by one or no one by one? Okay.

How was the virtual mayor last time? I don't know how to do any of this stuff. [laughter] All right. Great.

And one more. Thank you. Thank you. It's been a joy to work with me and the senator's office. We'll keep going. Of course. Thank you, Mayor Candell. I don't think you can sit down. Uh, we have Shereice Con from Rebecca Bower Cahan's office. Yes.

Hello. I'm Shereice K, field representative for state assembly member Rebecca Bower Cahan. So honored to be here to be able to recognize your service in your second time as being mayor of this city. Um, want to thank you. The assembly member wants to thank you for always being so open in communicating and working with our office, you know, connecting with us anytime that there's a way that we can be of service and help from the from the state level. Um, and communicating what's happening here on the ground, what it looks like, and you were able to draw out the pictures of SB79 to see to show how that what it really looks like on the ground. that really helps our state assembly to be able to tell those stories when they're talking with the author of the bill. Um, you know, or trying to come to those decisions. Um, and also just wanted to thank you for your collaboration across not only within Lafayette with all the different community partners and commissions, um, but also with the other cities around. So, the way that you've collaborated with the other mayors in La Merinda um has just been tremendous and I think it's it's evident the way that you work together as a council but also as a region um what you've been able to accomplish. So, on behalf of state assembly member Rebecca Bower Cahan, we have a certificate of recognition for you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

And our next speaker is Supervisor Candace Anderson. Well, good evening everybody. It is always a pleasure to be here in Lafayette with all of you and to listen to your fabulous commissions, the great work you're doing. And tonight to honor outgoing mayor Susan Kandell. And I've always loved working with Susan because she doesn't mince words. She doesn't beat around the bush. I'll get an email or a text, hey, I need you to look at this. Can you check on this for me? Can you figure this out? And it's wonderful because I love that engagement. You know the issues that are impacting your community. You are a strong strong advocate for Lafayette. But the nice thing is you're looking for solutions and and I'm I'm going to add on MTC as the M one of the MTC commissioners in the county. We are finding some really good solutions. Um so as we look at OAG and some TOC issues, but nevertheless, it is just um delightful to work with you on just the myriad from housing to fire issues to public safety issues. Your leadership is fabulous and your entire council. I really enjoy working with all of you. So thank you. And so I would love to honor you this evening with a little recognition.

Thank you. And I want to tell a quick story about our supervisor. She came to the rescue of a Lafayette resident on a weekend when I'm calling down from Euseite and one of our residents needed her county help and she jumped to it on a Sunday morning. So, right back at you, Candace. I'm so appreciative. Thank you. Focus. Oh, yay.

No additional speakers at this time, Mayor.

Great. So, I guess we get to move on to our our next uh business, which I lost my glasses here somewhere. I'll find them. Um, so next point of business is uh we need to elect a um new uh mayor and vice mayor. And I would like to uh what would I would like to propose that we uh um elect uh um Vice Mayor Carl Anduri as mayor and uh Shawn Mccor as our next vice mayor. Have a second. Second. Are we ready? Any conversation? We're good. We can vote on this. All right. Okay, [laughter]

just maybe if we can tough act to follow. But I mean I'm I'm super excited that you guys are moving on to and thank you. I'm so thankful. Yes, that you guys are here. All right. All in favor? I comment. We need public comment. Public comment. Sorry. It's just required. You can Yeah. Yes. No public comment. Uh I have none. Okay, great. Just All right. All in favor? [snorts] I Oh, enthusiastically. My goodness. [laughter]

We'll do that later. Okay. After Kate.

Yeah, we'll switch late. We'll switch after K. So, uh, thank you and, uh, thank you to my family, particularly my wife Sharon, my colleagues on the council, and the community for your support. I want you to know that I am deeply aware of the privilege it is to serve on the city council and as your mayor and of the responsibility that comes with that privilege. As we go into the next year, we are fortunate to be able to build on two important strengths. First, we have a great team in place to pursue our goals. As I have said before, I sometimes marvel at the level of talent on the city staff serving us, a small city of 25,000 people. And I marvel at all the talented residents who volunteered to serve on our city commissions, committees, and task forces. Our second strength is that our current team benefits from the examples set and the high standards established by all those who have preceded us. Past councils and city staff have built a tradition and a model of excellence in public service, fiscal responsibility, and transparency that guides and motivates each of us. One of our traditions is that each year we together as a council set our priorities for the fiscal year. Our three current city priorities are in brief preparing for and mitigating wildfire risk, implementing our housing element, and continuing to plan for fiscal sustainability. At our next council meeting in January, we will do a midcourse review of these priorities to see if we need to tweak them before the end of the fiscal year. And then on Friday, February 20th, we'll meet for a full discussion of priorities for the next fiscal year that begins

July 1, 2026. And we welcome your input and participation at both these meetings. In addition to these main priorities, there are the many ongoing activities of our city staff and our commissions and committees and other activities our city supports. You've heard about many of them. Partial list includes strengthening our city schools partnership, our essential collaboration with the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce, support for the Park Theater Trust's efforts to renovate the Park Theater and bring additional vitality to our downtown. Support for the Lafayette Library and Learning Center, the heart of our community. Facilitating the development of affordable housing at 949 Moraga Road for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. constructing the new walkway along School Street from the Lafia Lafayette Maraga Trail to Moraga Road. Completing the BART entryway project, which will make the transition from BART to our downtown more welcoming. And this is not close to being a complete to-do list. And even that list would not include very worthwhile projects and activities that many of our residents support, but would require additional resources we do not currently have. These projects include planning for and building additional sports field, which you just heard, creating downtown parks, buying and preserving open space, building protected bike lanes throughout the city, creating shaded fire brakes around our city, expanding our capacity to provide child care, providing civic space for our own city offices, a senior center, and a teen center. During the next two years, we need to decide if we want to invest in any of these or other projects. Now, while the council sets the

priorities, each mayor has added something to the mix, which ideally does not require significant staff time or money. This year, we will be trying something a little different. I reached out to council member, now vice mayor McCormack, to see if he would like to join me in planning and launching projects that will carry on through both terms, both of our terms as mayor, thus giving them a greater chance to achieve positive results. I'm very grateful that he said yes. And here is what we are planning. First, the initial descriptive word that appears in our city mission statement is welcoming. Lafayette's vision is to be a welcoming city. We want to do more to make our new residents feel welcome in our community and to help each of them quickly learn about the resources in our community. We are pleased to announce that the Lafayette juniors will take the lead in this effort in collaboration with the city and the Lafayette Library and Learning Center Foundation to plan and present a regular series of events here in the Don Tatson Community Hall to do just that. The first welcome event to which we invite new residents to learn about what makes Lafayette such a special place to live is scheduled for February 3rd and you will be hearing more about it. Second, and I'm glad that Andy is in the room. We want to double down on slow down Lafayette campaign. Safe streets is a Lafayette priority. By far the main determinant of the severity of an accident is speed. We want to establish a serer observing the posted speed limits as a recognized civic value and something that all Lafayette residents are proud of as something that each of us does to make all of us safe.

Third, we want to make Lafayette more small businessfriendly, which is essential to having a vibrant downtown. We'll start by increasing the city's collaboration with the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce on regular door-to-door visits with downtown businesses, both chamber members and non-members, in order to develop a deeper understanding of the needs and concerns of our business community. Fourth, a guiding principle in our mission statement is support for environmental sustainability. We'll focus on one simple action that each of us can take to increase sustainability. We've worked closely with Recycle Smart, our local agency that manages our garbage recycling and composting to determine the solution that has the biggest impact with the uh least amount of effort. We agreed that we want Lafayette to increase the percentage of food scraps that go into the green cart rather than into the landfill cart. This seemingly simple action can have big and positive consequences. A study conducted by Recycles Smart earlier this year found that less than half of the food scraps that Lafayette single family residents discard discard are being placed in the green cart. Our goal is for every Lafayette resident to participate. If we can get 75% of the food scraps into the green cart, it would be an equivalent of taking 200 cars off the road for a year for every year. Fifth, as you heard earlier in the meeting, Lafayette is officially an agefriendly city. The city's senior services commission developed and the city council adopted an age friendly action plan. As part of the city's efforts to become more age friendly and increase services for seniors, three years ago, the city began a collaboration with Laminda Village. And you heard about the how that is is

coming along. During the next two years, John and I will help deepen that collaboration with the aim of expanding services provided to Lafayette residents and also increasing volunteer opportunities for Lafayette residents who want to be of service. Sixth, Lafayette's mission statement calls out our commitment to lifelong learning. And through the city's public art committee and its newly expanded focus, the city seeks to embed the arts in our civic life and the fabric of the community. During the next two years, we will help strengthen these civic values by promoting arts and lifelong learning whenever possible. To that end, we'll be arranging short presentations at the beginning of the first council meeting of each month by an arts organization or by an organization that offers lifelong learning opportunities. And finally, as a city name for the Marquita Lafayette, we think it will be appropriate to help commemorate 250 years of our nation's independence next year by highlighting and celebrating the role of France in gaining our independence. The Lafayette Historical Society and its president, Mary McCausker, will take the lead in this effort. With our city priorities, our ongoing activities, and our mayoral initiatives, we have a long list of things we want and need to do. And fortunately, we have a very talented and engaged community, a talented and engaged city staff, a committed city council, and a year's long tradition and model for getting things done. I look forward to working with all of you in the years ahead as we continue our efforts to make Lafayette an even better place to live. Thank you.

And I now call on our new vice mayor, John McCormick.

Thank you, Mayor Anduri. And I will keep it brief. I know it's between you're saying I'm staying between us and uh a little celebration um in honor of the transition, but I will say it has been a privilege. Uh Mayor Anduri came to me many months ago. I mean, this has been long. I mean, clearly there's some deep thought in this about um all all the work and all the initiatives. And I'm I'm just I'm honored and it's been privileged. It's been a lot of fun. Um, just to think about the different initiatives, how we're going to achieve them, and I look forward to moving them forward over the next two years. Um, and just generally, I am excited to serve as vice mayor next year. I mean, what I find if you think about the initiatives that Mayor Andura outlined, I mean, what is so special about them is all the different organizations we're going to be working with from the Lafayette Juniors to the Chamber, Historical Society, Recycle Smart, and so many others. And I know we're a small city, but the level of civic engagement and partnerships and with the community as a whole that we can leverage to get things done is truly remarkable and it really allows us to be to provide services and opportunities um of a city much larger than us. Also, next year is going to be a year of building in Lafayette, which I think is very exciting. I mean, as we all know, the cancer support center construction is underway. The Park Theater um will be undergoing construction in the next couple of weeks. We're kicking that off. Um, we have, as we heard, we heard about the school street in Topper Lane. We've got several housing projects that this council has approved over the last couple years will be coming to fruition uh next year. And it's very exciting because the projects and the building that we're doing, I mean, they aren't just projects and building. They really, I think, reflect our values. I mean, from just the wellness, you know, and health that the cancer support center is going to have to culture that the Park Theater is going to be doing to building new housing in a way that we can hopefully honor our semi-ural heritage as much as possible. Um, it is it's truly remarkable what we're doing. This doesn't even begin to consider what Sunflower Hills could be doing at 949 Moraga over the next several years. Um, and I also want to acknowledge that, um,

unlike our our incoming mayor, our outgoing mayor, um, I'm relatively new. And so, one of my goals this year is to learn um, from these two, from all the mayors that have come uh, before me, so that when I step into the mayor's role next year, I'm going to hit the ground running and we're going to keep these initiatives going. Um, and then finally, I say I'm just grateful for um, for the council, uh, for the staff, for the community, for the support. I mean, it is amazing. We all bring different perspectives um to the discussions but these are all just tremendously smart, gifted, caring people and we don't always agree on everything or you know we just come with with different sides. I just when we agree and get and make a decision I know it's really best for Lafayette and I'm very excited for the next year. So with that let's bring on the next year and let's get some stuff done.

Okay. And now with advanced thank you to the best city clerk in California, we'll take our cake break. Thank you, sir. So glad you came.

Okay, the city council is back in session and we are on item 14A. City manager Svatza.

Thank you, Mayor Anduri. Before you is a recommendation from this uh staff and the legislation committee to forward a letter to Abag and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission outlining concerns about Plan Bay Area 2050 plus plan Bay Area. it uh the plan for the Bay Area 2050 was adopted in 2021 plan barrier plan Bay Area I'm just going to say PBA 2050 plus is is a more focused update to PBA 2050. Um it focuses and uses as uh one of its criteria the implementation of the transit oriented community policy checklist which uh if you recall in October of last of this year you submitted a letter of concerns about other concerns with PBA 2050 other population projections the um incorrect statements that the plan will not override local land use decisions because there are specific policies that talk about the expectations of higher growth and higher densities and uh a number of unfunded mandates on local governments and organizations. The city of Certino did a deep dive into PBA 2050 plus and the legislation committee reviewed that letter as well

and asked that it be added as um an attachment to our letter that will be forwarded to uh AAG the legislation committee. It really also I I think spent a lot of time looking at the what I would call the fundamentals of PBA 2050 which is the other population assumptions and the fact that uh PBA 2050 overestimates the potential growth in population compared to the department of finances projections. And it seems in conclusion that adherence to PBA 2050 plus could lead to policies that that or could lead to cities planning for growth and for um population growth that may not materialize because the fundamental assumptions of PBA 2050 are faulty. With that, I'd be happy to answer questions. Uh the letter uh will contain the comments in the staff report and any other comments that you raised today and we will include the city of Certino's letter as an attachment.

Questions? Council member Svante for comment or um uh questions now for staff. Questions. Do we um question quick question though on the So the comments are due December 18th. Do we have a sense on other cities? I mean, how I mean, I mean, it's fine. It's Certino. It's kind of a a random one city. Do we have any sense of other cities that are doing this kind of same thing or what what's the what's the kind of the vibe on this? Uh, you know that the city of Walnut Creek is re researching this and intends to submit a letter of comments. Okay. Under two. Under two. Okay. Yeah. because I think it's just going to be I mean it's great if I'm just kind of like oh just Certino and Lafayette of the whole Bay Area seems a little

weak but obviously if there's a big ground swell of so we're doing our own it was interesting um just so Certino had so the letter that we're going to do is kind of going to be based on the items in the staff report basically because Certino obviously had different things that they were worrying about you're really going to focus on the items in the staff report they really focus on the EIR right and we're doing and we're doing on the plan got it and so they seemed like they were complimentary yes very good great thank Thank you. Well, we should I would then say we should probably Well, we I'll wait for the comments. [clears throat] Any other questions? We'll go to public go to public comment.

Uh mayor, we do have public comments. Uh I have uh speaker slips and then I have one hand raised in our virtual audience. Our first speaker is Elias Fretwell. You'll have three minutes to speak. They'll be followed by Andrew and Andrew Zang, I believe is the last name, but correct me when when you come to the podium. Oh,

okay. Welcome. You have three minutes.

Okay. Thank you. Um, good evening members of the council. I'm Elias Fratwell. I'm a senior at Okalone. I was here a couple months ago regarding SB79. Um so a few things I want to talk about with this plan. Um the first thing I want to bring up is population estimates which seem to be the big topic of um opposition. Um [clears throat] so the article from Catalyst for Local Control cites the DRU projection as evidence that MTC is um overestimating the population in the coming decades. Um, so I have two issues with that um, conclusion. Um, the first is that it's just taking the DRU's projection over the MTC's. Um, so I'd like hear why you think that's um, the DRU is more relevant. And the second is that the DRU still projects for half a million people. Um, so regardless of what the estimate is, there's still a lot of people who are going to be moving here. Um, and then additionally, the 2050 plus projection is actually 750,000 people lower than the original plan. Um, so we're actually at a decrease from what was originally planned for. Um, and then also um I want to suggest that 24% growth they um outlined is not unreasonable. So across the bay um all the cities are planning for around 440,000 housing units. Um and we have around 2.75 people per household in the bay. So that comes um out to 1.2 million people in the 23 2023 to 2031 housing element cycle. So that's 1.2 million out of 1.8 million that MTC projects for and that's just in the next decade. So to me it seems pretty reasonable that the growth they suggest could very much happen. Um and then uh moving away from the

population estimates, I want to talk about um the whole plan itself. Um so it does a lot more than I mean I know you know this but it does a lot more than just projecting for population and housing. Um it addresses climate change, transportation and transit, infrastructure, green space, jobs, internet access and inequality. Um so it does a lot and sea levels are going to rise regardless of how many people are here. Our roads need improvement no matter how many people are here. Um, our transit and infrastructure are already in need of investment. Um, so regardless of population, that part of PBA still needs to happen. Um, the plan has the potential to improve so many aspects of the bay and focusing on the one number to me is disappointing because it goes it's that's just four strategies out of the I don't know what is it 35. Um, so to me it seems like some people are saying to throw away the whole thing just because one part of it is maybe questionable. Um, so to me I don't want to see that happen. Thank you.

Per perfect timing. Thank you. Are there any questions for the speaker? I have a question. Okay, we have a question for you. Yeah, thank thank you for coming and speaking. Um, you mentioned DRU a couple times. Can you clarify what that is? That's the the it's um a subp part of the department of finance. It's the demographics research unit. I think it's when they when you see department of finance, that's what it it is. Great. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. That's good to know. Okay. Thank you. Thanks.

Next speaker. [cough] [clears throat] You could speak into the mic though because it Yeah, we need you to speak because it's hard to hear. Hi. Perfect.

Nice. Sorry. I have limited experience talking in front of microphones. All right. [clears throat] Hi, uh, city council. My name is Andrew Zang and I'm a current senior at Akalani High School. Um, I know that I'm not an expert at PBA. My friend Elias probably knows like about a thousand times more than I do about it, but I think that something I might have to contribute before you all today is how me and my family came to be in Lafayette. As I think it might be useful to hear some stories about, you know, who came to live in Lafayette as considering um this bill would affect both affordability and things like that in Lafayette. So, my mom and I um you know, my mom, my brother and I, we used to rent an Alamo. And after the owner of the house we were renting, um wanted to sell the house, we couldn't afford to buy it, so we moved over to Lafayette. And her rationale for letting us move to Lafayette was actually pretty simple, right? She said the motto um of the town was green hills and great schools. And of course, with a pretty attractive, you know, like rental unit on offer, we we had to move here. Um, so now that you know a little bit about me, um, you know, someone you've never met before, might never see again. Um, I think one of my main concerns is that what attracted us to come to Lafayette is, uh, in my view rapidly diminishing if we agreed to, you know, downvote um, PBA. And I think the reasons for that are pretty simple. One of the reasons why we wanted to move to Lafayette was because we were lucky to find a place that could accommodate us where we could afford it. you know, um, during the COVID pandemic, my mom got laid off by another medical provider, but because Lafayette opened its arms to our family, she was able to start her own medical practice that now serves nearly half or rather 5,000 people. Um, so I think that that opportunity is one that I find especially valuable, something that Lafayette uniquely seems to be able to offer. But like my friend Elias said, it's not just about people

like my mom who are highly educated with PhDs and MDs. It's also about lower income people. When I briefly glanced over the PBA plan and expected outcomes, I saw that 50% or rather we were going to see a 50% decline in um living costs uh living and transportation costs cumulatively among lower income people. And even if your uh concerns are right that these numbers might be slightly inflated and say only 25% um and only a 25% reduction in costs is actually going to happen. That's still a 25% reduction in cost um for quite a few people living in our community um including many many of my friends who have personally experienced homelessness within half uh the past half decade and I would give anything for them to you know keep staying in this community for all they've given me and so when I think about our you know everything that our community stands for I think that helping making it more affordable for families like mine who wanted to move to here and were thankfully successful would be a really really great thing to do. Thank you all so much and have very happy holidays.

Thank you. Other questions for the speaker? Okay. Thank you very much. Our next speaker is Libby Henry. And Libby, I've allowed you to speak.

Um, yeah, I'm uh I'd like to thank the two young men that just spoke. Um, [clears throat] but uh I would also implore them to please do a little more research or look a little further into what Catalyst uh wrote um about the Plan Bay Area. Um you know PBA mentions affordability a bunch of times. However, they have nothing in the Plan Bay area that has anything to do with how to make things more affordable. But the true uh projections, the factual projections that the DRU does give out, they base theirs on facts. Uh, I don't know what Plan Bay Area based their theirs on. Um, other than the 2017 outdated in inaccurate report that uh the housing crisis was based on. Um, and so we're doubling insanity with insanity with unachievable goals. and Plan Bay Area has no way except by asking the people of the Bay Area to pay for it. Um, and you know, at a $1.5 trillion uh price tag, [clears throat] uh, these young men probably should rethink because that's approximately $100,000 for every person. That includes you non-

voting uh you know um young people um in the Bay Area 100,000 a year to achieve this so-called goal. But how thing you there's nothing in the legislation that's been passed. There's nothing in this plan that says how they're going to make things more affordable. And the concept of this transitoriented community uh uh community, I guess that's what the C stands for. Um you know, that's a madeup term. a madeup term by politicians that are pushing an agenda of the wealthy billionaires that are behind the housing crisis. And I know that the city council has heard me say this before, but um you know this Plan Bay area is staffdriven. It was uh and they have very little staff. Uh this the whole thing is so superficial. I appreciate the letter that um the draft letter that Nai um put out and anyway I just wanted to say please send the letter and you know hopefully the young men that spoke will seek to educate themselves a little bit more about reality.

Thank you. Other questions for the speaker? No. Okay. Thank you very much. Is there any other public comment? No additional public comment. Mayor Anduri. Okay, we'll bring it back to the council and now we're ready for comments. Council member Svantes.

Thank you very much, Mayor. Mayor Anduri. Um, what I wanted to say, I I took a look at the executive summary of the EIR, which is rather extensive, but tried to get to the population projections. It's on like pay A3 of appendix A. And what was remarkable to me, it's one page. And um our our guest speaker Elias actually was more thorough in his walkthrough on this than what the EIR did because it's significantly different than Department of Finance projections. Now they're all projections. So the odds are that none of this is right. But there's a significant difference in order of magnitude where you take the department of finance projections relative to the ones used for the EIR for this U PBA 2050 plus it's like a four and a half times difference. And it's it was striking to me that you look at the assumed population growth of the bay nine Bay Area counties at 1.8 million in the EIR. Department of Finance assumes 1.3 million for the state of California over the same time frame. So something is kind of a miss there. And what I would have hoped as I looked at it was that that there would have been some explanation as to why the difference. There really wasn't. They just presented the numbers on one page. And um like I said, Elias was actually more thorough in talking through it than what I saw in the EIR. And my concern is that when you add up the programs, and I differ a little bit from Libby Henry on this, my number was 1.38 trillion, but what's a hundred billion, you know, with something like this? Um, it's a huge number. And to me, the the driver on that or the underlying assumption is you've got a certain population growth trend of almost like, you know, 1% a year. If that if you change that assumption, I mean, I wonder like what would you have here? I don't think you'd have a $1.38

trillion program, maybe be 500 billion. I'm not sure, but it seems to me that they needed to uh if they're going to use different figures in Department of Finance, explain why. And I guess I get hung up on this because I'm sort of a data nerd, but um that to me is like not playing not being honest with the reader, it seemed to me. Um and because the implications of that assumption are dramatic. Um and in the end it's all projection. Who knows? Uh odds are the department of finance is wrong and the PBA 2050 plus is wrong. But we're facing a demographic headwind in the United States and actually the the developing world and actually globally where birth rates are on the decline. We're at the point now where we're getting below replacement and as we succeed in kicking out immigrants in this country will drive that further down. So you so if you don't if if you're at uh birth rates that are at or below replacement and you have limited immigration from overseas or maybe from other parts of the country I'm just kind of hardressed to see how you get to these numbers. Again, I would have appreciated if they explained it, but to me it seemed like if they didn't give us the courtesy of doing that, then I I I don't see how I mean, I I support sending out this letter um because it seemed they they they owe us the courtesy of explaining what's underlying this. That would be my my comment on this.

Yeah. Um I echo everything you're saying. I think, you know, I that's was my thoughts as well. I mean, I think we're we're anticipated uh in 2025 we're going to have a negative population growth in the United States between the birth rate decline and the uh aggressive uh deportation of of of immigrants. And so, um yeah, and so their their population numbers are are kind of are out completely out of whack of real with reality. So, uh I agree with that. And um the other points on this the letter are great. I my my only thing was I think their strength and numbers. So, that was why I was asking about the different um the different jurisdictions and I I mean this letter I mean I can see the I can just see the the bones of the letter and I know it's um it's quite good and I would just suggest if we could send it to other jurisdictions and ask have them to kind of maybe do I mean there's much time left. It's December. It's difficult to get action but it's just too bad because I think I'd love to have more voices kind of say challenge that I mean the population and the implications of that. Um, and I agree our experience with MTC and those policies that we dug deeply into those um, a few months ago were very disappointing. Right. So, I think I think, you know, I think Libbyy's right in some ways. You just can't take this a good-look document at face value and say, "Oh, it must be correct." I mean, you have to kind of dig in and see if the assumptions work. And I agree it doesn't quite hold water. I like I mean, I do kind of I like intellectually like I like some of the objectives. I mean, so it's not like I disagree with we should be more diverse and we should have better transportation, all that kind of stuff, but you have to be you have to be on the right uh the right foundation. Yes. So I I agree. We've probably add should add the pieces that we actually agree with, right? And then and and you know exemplify those because we actually do agree with a lot of the things that are in there and a lot of things you guys mentioned. Um the uh but the real flaw is like I even take it down to it's like who gives them the authority to make up their own projections, right? I mean, how do they even So, SB828 in 2018 um gave special

accommodation just to HCD to add more factors into the growth projections because they used to only take Department of Finance projections and 828 is what blew up our arena assessments. And so what you see here is that oh well because HCD got the ability to blow them up now we're going to build all of our policies based on these blown up numbers not department of finance again. So I think it's a very valid thing to question. It's like who gave you the authority not to use Department of Finance's projections like you guys have always been using in the past? And I don't know because the the legislature had to give HCD that ability to do it, you know, outlaw and, you know, very specifically. Um, and you had mentioned that they one of the assumptions that they had made was that the home prices were going to drop to 2001 levels.

Yeah. I I went back and read it was in an appendix. Sure. And it wasn't really the home prices, but the re the comparison, the ratio of Bay Area home prices compared to the nation would would change and it was very it was very confusing. I I I didn't understand where they were coming from. Okay. The thrust was they ant they anticipated that given the increase in housing uh housing values would go down.

Great. So we got this great recession and that's why it's going to get affordable. Great. [laughter] I seems like there was no backup for that. There's no backup for that. Right. Which is another reason like how

what who gives you the authority to make up your own numbers, right? and your own projections on this stuff. I I just don't see it. Um, and another part that I really, as much as I I like it, their their whole strategy is that they're going to have all this housing growth down in the South Bay and in San Francisco. you have these little bubbles on this map where like, oh, we're going to get all this growth here and here, but then they want to expand all these policies to all the other areas even though they expect like no growth in Contraosta. It's like, well, why are you expanding all these policies around the entire Bay Area when you're not even wanting the growth other than in these areas? And and we all know that we don't even control it [laughter] because the developers, you know, and so that would be another part of the policies is like, you know, as much as you want this, what policies are you putting in place to even make to see this would happen? Because there are policies that they could have considered, but they didn't. And if that's what they want it to be, you know, why aren't they focusing on policies that would help actually bring jobs? like why aren't you making those employers that bring all those new jobs to those areas actually contribute to housing, right? It's just, you know, why aren't they considering policies like that if that's what they're trying to get to? Um, and another the other part that I had a hard time with was um, one of the goals is to get higher home ownership rates and provide vital intergenerational wealth building, which I think we all agree with, but the pol, they didn't pursue a policy that would actually help that. The whole, you know, the only way we get affordable housing right now is through density bonus, but density bonus projects do not result in intergenerational wealth. Not the type that's envisioned in this plan. And so if they really are committed to do the kind of things that we would support, why aren't they pushing on those, right?

I [snorts] don't know. So I I think that we could add some more things if if if we if we wanted to, you know, add these maybe some other things to the letter if we all agree on it. I'm just I'm just throwing ideas out. Okay. Yeah. Um I I agree about the the lack of credibility that we need a methodology document that tells us exactly where this projection comes from

um to to go without it. It it just you know begs the question of how can you really um believe anything that that is based upon this plan. I agree that we absolutely support the goals and many of the many of the the programs, but without the the validation, um it's it's just yeah, it's deficient. Um I do like the Certino letter in that they have some pretty direct list of items that the council um requests and I thought that was pretty effective. Um, but I do understand wanting to try to separate the theme in this letter. Um, I think that that the core is it makes sense. Um, just basing it on the the inconsistency and the in the the incorrect statements um about the plan and local land use decisions. Um, one thing that I I found really disturbing was that the plan doesn't really address wildfire evacuation at all.

Um, I think the word doesn't appear in the entire plan. Um, and that's a real concern. There's talk about wildfire risks, um, mitigations, but nothing about people moving in a state in a state of crisis. Um, and I think that's just a big hole. So, um, that's I would like to hear more about about their plan and how it would be, um, aiding, facilitating, not impeding wildfire evacuations. So, what are the next steps? And we have, you know, we don't have another council meeting. Oh,

we got, you know, there's it's the results are due in 10 days. As I said, I would love to get something that's kind of substantive and out there a little bit ahead times if we if we can circulate it. So what's what how you is the subcommittee going to just author or how is that going to work? I was going to draft a letter with uh the comments from the staff report. Anything else you wanted me to add tonight? I would be happy to share that with the Larinda cities, Walnut Creek, our neighbors, so they know uh particularly those with BART stations um because of the TOC policy,

right? And and usually when you're commenting on draft EIRS, I would just say that we we uh we refer to the city of Certino's letter and say we concur with all their comments on the drafty because when they respond to comments, they're going to put Certino as the lead and then list all of us. Yeah, that makes sense. And I do think is important to I think to to uh council member Kendall's point. I mean we do want to I think do state things that we do like right. I mean I think this does have a lot to um to do it and I I worry a little bit about I mean I think your point a lot of points that were all wrong but I mean it's like

we do we want to stick on like top three or four or you know four or five points versus kind of having a laundry list because I'm I'm actually because even the Certino letter was a bit like okay you kind of plow through it and whatever. I mean, if we had like this, the ones we have here, plus we have one or two more evacuation routes, hit those and just be strong on those and that's what we, you know, do. And I don't know, that'd be my thought is not to Yeah. Well,

yeah, I I I agree with that. I get the sense that if it's a shorter, more focused letter, it's going to get more attention. So, the point you've raised here, I would raise um council member Kandell's point about asking them why they made the moved away from the department of finance. I would include that in in point one and I would add the evacuation, but then I would go with that. But [clears throat] are you this was discussed with the uh legislation subcommittee? Yes. Okay. So, and you'll then run it by the legislation. I'd be happy to share a draft. Okay. So, I guess where we are, I guess.

Oh, sorry. I was told it's a Brown Act meeting. I can share it with the chair of the legislation committee. Yeah. With Jim. Why? I'm sorry. Why can't you share with There's only two. Oh, because because it's a Brown Act subcommittee because the mayor has to sign it. Got it. Oh, got it. Got it. Yes. So, yeah. Share it with Jim. Right. Okay. Perfect. Okay. So, uh we're looking for a motion. Go ahead, please. I'm sorry. I I was remiss earlier because I really wanted to I complimented Elias earlier um for your thoroughess you and your your colleague and I just want to say thank you for coming out and stating your view on this. I you know it's a school night. It's like after 9:00 I really appreciate it. You gave this a lot of consideration.

I I think there's like agreement on some of the big picture goals here. I mean one of my issues was I just didn't see how they could justify their number. I know you were raising your hand. Maybe we could talk afterwards, but um you know, it's like but that's the stuff that we do. We're trying to sort this out here kind of with limited bandwidth, but um it does have major implications when you start throwing trillion dollar plus numbers out for the Bay Area. That is something you got to pay attention to. So, I really appreciate you guys coming out talking about it. You've looked into it. Look at all the other people here who spoke on this. You know, you guys get kudos for that. So, thank you. Yeah.

Yeah. And just on the point of uh pointing out what we agree with there there is a statement here just generally I I don't know if we need to go beyond that. Okay. In in this letter because otherwise we're getting Yeah. Can you can you repeat that mayor?

Well [clears throat] rather than say we because there are a number of things that we like about the plan. you know, the [clears throat] problem is that a lot of those depend on the foundation numbers here. Um, so I think it's fine just to say, you know, we agree with the a number of the goals of the plan, but here are four main points that we want to convey. So, I guess we need a a motion to authorize the mayor to this exact wording here, [clears throat] to submit a letter outlining the city's concerns. So, moved.

Second. Okay. Any discussion? All in favor? I I Okay, thank you. Thank you for participating. Yeah. Okay. So, we're on to the items that were [clears throat] taken from the consent calendar. And the first one is a um 12A.

Right. So, that was there were just um a couple of small changes. One is the bottom of page six. Uh there's a comment that says um asking Springh Hill residents how they would like the poll. And it actually should have been how they how would they like the proposed pull out. And second change is on page eight. Uh Zunis was spelled uh Zu N I E and it's actually Z O NIE. I wouldn't have made that suggestion by itself but with the other one. So those are the only two changes I had. Okay. Any other changes? Any public comment? Mayor Anduri. I have no public comment on this item. Okay. We have a motion for approval of the minutes uh as amended. So moved. Second. All in favor?

I I Okay. 12E right for 12E. Yep, I did. Okay.

Um, well, I just wanted to pull this just so that I had an opportunity to say publicly how much the Lafayette Community Garden uh means to me and is special. And I was hoping maybe Janet would stay for this, but she she is not um not here right now. But um it's a tremendous resource. We are so fortunate to have that community garden that is uh just incredible educational space for all ages. Um I think in her report she talks about having third graders. Um and we know there's also adults who go and they learn quite a bit there. They've held special events that are open to the public um that are just really fabulous. And I think that it's also really important green space and opportunity for some of our newer residents or new residents who are going to come in and might be living in apartments without a little plot of land of their own and they could get involved, go there, touch some dirt, um enjoy this, enjoy the sun and and uh it's really wonderful, productive space. So I just wanted to say thank you to Janet and the entire team at the community garden.

Okay. Any other thoughts on this? I'll just take the opportunity to note in our relationship with East Bay Mud, uh, this is a very positive part of it because this the garden is on East Bay Mud land and indeed u Janet and the others in the garden. It's just an amazing community resource and if anyone is listening there are openings for the next year. Okay. If

And I I brought pull this item in as much as um coincidentally the New York Times magazine had a piece this past Sunday. Are ebikes out of control?

Um was posted on the online edition maybe about a week or two before which some people saw. Great article. It talks about the legislation that in the end targeted to Marin County. Um but I thought there was a quote here. There's a study being done by the Benetta Institute and the lead author for this upcoming paper um on ebike safety and policy options made this comment saying motor motorcycles were regulated like cars but Americans treat bicycles as toys and as you get this sort of like blurring of the lines of bicycles and ebikes and so on it's kind of a telling statement. So, I I support this um issue issuing the letter because there's been a lot of talk about this and and it's in the New York Times Sunday magazine. Um it's getting national attention. So, thank you.

I thought another interesting observation there was that if they were called motorbikes instead of ebikes, would that have made a difference in public perception? Right. Okay. Uh any other comments or thoughts on that? All right. So, we're on to item 18A. Council Do you need a motion? Do we need to take public comment and a motion to authorize the mayor to send a letter? We do. I need a motion. We need a public comment first. Oh, public comment. No public comment. There is one. Oh, is Oh, David Clark. Yeah. Oh, absolutely.

Thank you, Dave Clark. I'll just add that that article in the New York Times. It's a local article. I know it's in the New York Times, but the the young woman who was injured was immarin and it involves Redwood High School and what they've done and the the the the act that they got through the state the state senate was um it's a it's a state act. So, there's probably some wiggle room there that we could do something locally if we if we want to along the lines of what happened uh in in I guess that's I don't know in Marin. Okay.

Thank you. So, if there's a motion, I would move that we issue a letter may the mayor issue a letter of support urging the legislature to convene anformational hearing on the findings of SP 381 and create a forum where local agencies and safety experts can share observations, concerns, and proposed next steps relating ebike safety. I second. Okay. Any discussion? All in favor? I.

Okay. Okay. Now, we're on to 18A. Council member reports on activities. Any reports? Quiet week. Okay. Um on [clears throat] to 18B. Um resolution 2526 appointing members to the measure 8 citizens oversight committee.

Okay. Yeah. We had a a bunch of uh interviewees. We had six interviewees for five positions. And uh the now mayor Andori and I chose um Peter Appert, David Clark, we taquac, Matt Peas, and Vincent Selimi to the Measure H Citizens Oversight Committee. And David is here. Okay. Are there any questions? Public comment. No public comment. Okay. Do we have My comment would be this would be this is like a blue ribbon committee. So, uh that's well served. good group. We we yeah we had six very good applicants and uh five

outstanding participants. Okay. Uh do we have a motion then to adopt resolution 2025 26 appointing members to the major age citizen oversight committee. So moved. A second. All in favor? I.

Okay. Thank you David. Okay. All right. So, we're on to item 18 C, allocation of bonus pay performance rewards. So, let me just start out with a proposal and then we can discuss it and see what people uh think. But um you know last year we well looking at the past years we've usually had four or five% uh of total salary bonus pool to be allocated by the city manager. Last year was a a lower amount. um suggest for this year would be a bonus pool of 250,000 which would be about 5% of payroll to be allocated by the city manager. Uh and also this year looking at the holiday schedule um there are holidays on the the the 31st and 1st. 2nd is a Friday. So we we could do without any um financial impact making January 2nd a paid holiday just for this year so that we don't have to open the city offices just on Friday and then close them for the weekend again but then city staff can take more time with their families uh through that Monday. Uh and then um on the matter of a a bonus for our uh city manager, um we there was no uh bonus last year at the request of the city manager. Um, I think this year it would be appropriate given

the outstanding work that the city manager has done over the uh the past 18 months to authorize a bonus of $15,000 which would be 5% of the city manager's salary. So in line with what we're doing with the employees. So that's a start from there. Are we doing questions or comments? I'm comments. I'm happy to Yeah. Well, I actually had a question then we'll get No questions. Okay. Is there public comment? Mayor Anduri, I have no public comments on this item.

Okay. Well, definitely I'd love to kind of just weigh in. I think it's a um um I think it's it's a it's a good it's a good amount. I think you know we are fortunate as we we said many times to our RC manager but also our city staff. Um they do great work a very small but mighty mighty um team and uh I think that bonus is uh uh is welld deserved and I think it should be noted I think the way it works is the city manager has the kind of authority to take that pool then allocate appropriately to make sure that our our high performers are really rewarded and because we want to keep them local. I mean, I think one of the exciting things about the report we heard was how close we are to getting all open positions filled, right? And after so many years of just operating um and so really people are doing more work than they need to to cover the open spots. So, um I I totally support the uh the proposal.

I agree. We have a fabulous staff. They're doing a lot of hard work. We saw in city manager report um just a huge number of of numbers of things that were being done and increases over past years. So I think this would be welld deserved. Totally agree. Thank you for all the hard work the staff has done and continues to do for us.

I just want to say on behalf of staff and myself, thank you so much. We're truly grateful. like I just want to echo my c my colleagues. I think staff's doing a great job. And for those on the audience who might be listening, I think I I really do want to point out again and again and again, we're one of a handful of cities in California that's not on this the pension the the Kalper system. So, we're different and which means I think we need to acknowledge that and treat people really well because they could go somewhere else and to another city with a much better pension system than the the kind of system we operate here. You know, it's fiscally sound, I think, to have great people and to keep them and pay them appropriately. So, I support this.

Okay. So, again, the proposal is one, establish a bonus pool of $250,000 to be allocated by the city manager. two, make Friday, January 2nd a holiday for this year. And three, uh provide a bonus to the city manager of $15,000. Have a motion for approval. So moved. Second. Okay. All in favor? I I

Okay, great. Ah. Okay. Appointment of the city council finance subcommittee. The reason this is on here is that uh we wanted to get started on meeting uh for the finances for next year. So the recommendation is to appoint mayor and vice mayor uh to start serving as the finance subcommittee effective immediately. Have a motion to that effect. Do we have questions or anything? Oh, public comment.

I have no public comment on this item. Mayor Andury. Okay. Right. So moved. I'll second that. Any comments, question? Okay. Discussion. Okay. All in favor? I I Okay. Uh item 19A, letter of [clears throat] resignation from Christina Storm, resigning from the planning commission and the recommendation accept with regret and thank Miss Sterm for seven years of volunteer service. and um she definitely stepped in at the right time and has done a fantastic job on the planning commission providing stability over the last

Yes, sir. I'll just echo that as well. She um is phenomenal. I just loved her. You know, she wasn't the most vocal, I think, as far as like the number of words spoken, but her her comments were always just um uh unique. She had brought a great perspective and uh she will be missed. There is no doubt. Okay. All right. Item 19B. Oh, we just accept it. But one I I do want to say one more comment. I I think she's fabulous. Uh we will miss her. Um on the side, we're down to five on planning. Okay. Just great. Thank you. There was a discussion of that with the the leazison had a discussion today on that very topic. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Uh a letter requesting permission to place a minora in Lafayette Plaza for the remainder of December. Um questions, public comment. No public comment. Mayor Andury. Okay. Do we need a a motion? Okay. So, we have a motion approving uh placing the manora in the plaza immediately. Well, whenever on the 14th for the rest of December. So moved. I second. Okay. All in favor? I thank you. All right. We are adjourned. Oh, you could use the gavl, you know.