City Council - Regular Meeting

conduct in the city council chambers. Rules of decorum for the public. Members of the audience shall not engage in disorderly or boisterous conduct, including the utterance of loud, threatening, or abusive language, clapping, whistling, stamping of feet, or other other acts which disturb, disrupt, impede, or otherwise render the orderly conduct of the city meeting infeasible. A member of the audience engaging in any such conduct shall at the discretion of the presiding officer or a majority of the city council be subject to ejection from the meeting per government code section 54954.3C. Removal from the council chambers. Any person who commits the following acts in respect to a meeting of the cities shall be removed from the council chambers per government code section 54954.3C. A disorderly, contemptuous or insolent behavior towards the city council or any member thereof tending to interrupt the due and orderly course of said meeting. a breach of peace, boisterous conduct, or a violent disturbance tending to interrupt the due and orderly course of said meeting. Disobedience of any lawful order from the mayor, which shall include an order to be seated or to refrain from addressing the city council, and any other unlawful interference with the due and orderly course of said meeting. Good evening everybody. Welcome to the Taft City Council Successor Agency joint regularly scheduled meeting for Tuesday, February the 3rd, 2026. City of Taft Council meetings are being held in person with full capacity seating and are livereamed at www.youtube.com

cityof. Public comment can be made in person and also can be received per the following. Written comments may be dropped off in the dropbox in front of city hall. Comments may be emailed to the city clerk at city clerk at cityofft.org or they may be made by phone to the city clerk's office at 6617631222. Public comments will be accepted up until 5:00 pm the day of the meeting and all comments received shall be read into the record. We'll begin this evening's meeting with a pledge of allegiance led by Councilman Chavea followed by an invocation from Pastor Shawn Piper. So, if you would join us, please

please place your right hand over your heart.

Pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for these leaders and for all of the people who run this city. Please give us clarity on the issues of the moments and vision and hope for the future. Give us the humility to realize our limitations and the faith and the wisdom to trust you for what is beyond our control. Lord, please protect those um the police officers and the firefighters and those that are going into the face of danger and give them courage and watch over our city. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Thank you very much.

Madame clerk, may we have a roll call, please? Mayor North here. Mayor Proen Bryant here. Council member Crier here. Council member Waldrop here. Council member Shiverira

here. All right. Item number one on this evening's agenda is a proclamation for safe surrender baby month in Kern County. I've asked Mayor Prom Josh Bryant to read this please. Thank you Mr. Mayor. It's my honor and privilege to read this proclamation issued by the city council of the city of Taft declaring February of 2026 as safe surrender baby awareness month in Kern County. Whereas the safely surrendered baby law responds to the increasing number of newborn infants uh newborn infant deaths, excuse me, due to the abandonment in unsafe locations. First created in January of 2001, the law's intent is to save the lives of newborn infants at risk of abandonment by encouraging parents or people with lawful custody to safely surrender the infant within 72 hours of birth with no questions asked. Since 2006, Kern County has had 105 babies safely surrendered. And whereas in Kern County, a newborn baby can be safely surrendered into the hands of any hospital emergency room or any fire station or to any fire station staff. The safely surrendered baby coalition under the coordination of the Department of Human Services works to educate Kern County residents about this important law. Whereas, our February awareness campaign will include a live press conference on February 18th, 2026 at the Adventist Health Specialty located at 3001 Select Avenue, Bakersfield, 93308 at 10:00 a.m. Over 15 presentations at collaborative agencies throughout Kern County and public service announcements on social media, all in an effort to alert the community about the safely surrendered baby law as a much better option than abandoning abandoning a baby. Now therefore, the city council of the city of Taft does hereby proclaim February 2026 as safely surrendered baby month or baby awareness month in the city of Taft dated this third day of February 2026 signed by the mayor and the remaining council.

All right. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Mayor Pro Tim, do we have somebody here to accept that? All right. You want to do the honor, sir? Absolutely. Let's try something a little different.

Oh, you got to look that way. Faith, you're getting a photo bomb.

Your name is Marcus. And the public health department has provided me some comments. Please absolutely battalian chief. Okay. I didn't memorize these comments. She

I'm not sure Carrie would have either. On behalf of the safely surrendered baby coalition, thank you for recognizing and supporting the safety surrender law. I'm sorry, the safe surrender law with this proclamation. We are deeply grateful for your partnership in raising awareness about this about this life-saving law. Each February, our coalition unites to educate the community about the safe surrender option, reminding everyone that there is a safe love or there are safe loving alternatives for parents in crisis. Since the law's enactment in 2001, lives have been saved and the number of infant abandonments has decreased significantly across the state. Locally, as of December 2025, 105 babies have been safely surrendered and given the chance for a brighter future. This progress would not be possible without the commitment of our community leaders, first responders, and advocates like you. Thank you again for standing with us and helping us ensure that every baby has the opportunity to grow up safe, healthy, and loved.

Very good. Thank you very much. Appreciate you being here. I I will ask, have you been uh a part of any of those surreners by any chance? I have not. You have not? All right. I would have to guess that would be a very emotional time, but uh 105. That's great. 105 locally. Wow. That's quite amazing. Thank goodness you all are doing that and be a part of that. So, thank you very much. Thank you for your help.

All right. Next item on our agenda, item number two, citizen request public comments. We have none. Oh, that saved me an entire paragraph. All right. Item number three, council statements, non-action. Uh, Councilman Chave, I'll begin with you, sir.

Excellent. Thank you. It's a new year and, uh, you know, it it's so important that we as a community get involved. So, I'm going to leave you with a couple quotes. There's no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about. Alone, we can do so little. Together, we can do so much. And finally, without community service, we would not have a strong quality of life. It's important to the person who serves as well as the recipient. It's the way in which we ourselves grow and develop. So, I would encourage us all as community members, you know, make time to get involved wherever you can. Thank you.

Thank you very much, sir. I appreciate that, Councilman Crier.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Um, what's makes it nice for our safe surrender month is important to to me. He's everybody makes mistakes in life, but at the end result, make the right decision. If you can't handle having a child, it's good to go to your nearest fire department to to surrender. I'm a recipient of I adopted two girls, one straight from the hospital. They're enjoy my life and uh excuse me get a little emotional all this but they're beautiful children. They got a chance in life to be successful and I'm very proud of them. But don't make another mistake by abandon them or worse. So that's what I have to say on that. Mother Mother Till is uh at a meeting today at the S King Valley Air uh authority advisory board. Uh Les Clark and I are a member of from TAP and uh today was his last meeting. He retired there after 35 years being on the board. Amazing. Amazing. He's a good man. It's good heart and good common sense and great for the oil industry and uh I just can't say enough of that gentleman for uh being part of TAF and being not only what he does in Taff, he cares about our our students in our schools and does great things and uh to make our make the grow straighten the youth up to be straighten. in life, encourage them, people who would otherwise they would not be where they're at right now. But I'm just happy

to be part of of of the organization that he's involved with and he will surely be missed because we joke around quite a bit there, you know, behind the cameras and stuff. But he's a great man. I just want to acknowledge that on that on that part. and uh like uh tab had a lot of great people in this you know Rotary Club the Tuanas the Lions the Optimus and other organizations I'm sure I missed but we got we're blessed we're blessed to have those organization because we value our youth and our children here in town our schools here to make our school we have a great reputation for our schools and our our colleges and And I I'm and we're blessed with that, but uh we take it for granted, I think, sometimes because we got we're so lucky and I and I and I feel proud of that. And uh I just uh it's a great place. That's all I have to say. Thank you.

All right. Thank you very much, sir. Councilman Waldra,

I too would like to thank uh Mr. Clark, Les Clark, uh better known as the mayor of Ford City for his 35 years of service, among other things, too. Uh he's just a downright good man. 105 children. Isn't that great? You know, the way I look at it, there's there's always somebody would love to have a baby. And uh I got um uh what would I say? A sneaky preview of uh code enforcers are going to be out checking for these weeds that I mentioned. They're going to be checking them. Make sure you got them mowed down. So fair warning, get out there and get them done uh before they come and get you. That's all I got, Mayor. Thank you.

All right. Thanks for the reminder, Mayor Prom Brian. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to be clear to everybody because uh Councilman Waldup did mention Les Clark and right after that he mentioned 105 kids. I want to make sure that he is not built Chamberlain. He may be responsible for

now. Less did just have his 83rd birthday. So, I wasn't here on the DIS to be able to wish him happy birthday. I did talk to him, but from all of us here at the city of Taff, Les, if you're watching this, happy birthday, our friend. We appreciate you. And uh the mayor gave for the mayor of Ford City is in the mail. Uh the only comment I really had was today I got to watch the the press conference that the governor put on in Bakersfield talking about highspeed rail. I was a little I guess disappointed in some of the verbiage folks use because some call him a visionary. And I thought if vision that's about as visionary or he has been as a leader in the state of California as the people who labeled Sandy Creek as a navigable waterway, right? If visionary is being able to take a multi-billion dollar surplus and turning it into a multi-billion dollar deficit. Now granted, he's not the only one there, but he's in charge just like we are of the city of Taft. I would love folks what what do they think of us when they look at our our financials. Come to our uh finance committee meetings. Tell us how visionary we are struggling with those sorts of things in the city of Taft because a lot of the state's policies. So please, we'll send you an invitation if you want to come governor. We'll show you what visionary looks like and it's nothing special. But I was just taken a little bit of back by uh some of the comments that were used there. Uh outside of that, Mr. Mayor, I'm glad to be back here in these chambers and that's all I've got.

All right. Good to have you back. Happy New Year. Happy New Year.

Uh I was fortunate enough to have our congressman, Congressman Vince Fong, come visit with us last Friday. I'll tell you that there was a a matter that I felt compelled to spend time with him on and it it has great deal to do with energy and uh employment opportunities overburdensome regulations within the state of California as well as the effects of some national uh policies regarding energy. So I reached out to the congressman's office and requested a meeting. And I will tell you that's one of the wonderful things about our community. We're so fortunate because our electeds are responsive and and they listen to us. So, Congressman Fong along with the staffer came to my office on Friday and sat down with myself and Fred Holmes and we talked at length about a great many matters that are facing our community and uh some of these matters like I say that will have effects coast to coast effects. And I want to thank Congressman Fong for taking the time out of his busy schedule. I know he also met with our chief Damon McMahon to discuss things that were critical in nature regarding public safety. So here again just to let everybody out there know that has who has supported Congressman Fong and I have and I've endorsed him and he has responded and he will uh work for the people of the west side and the people that ask him to work for them. So thank you very much Congressman Fong. Uh, sincerely appreciate your time and your attention to these matters. And that's all I have. Next up, item number four, department reports. Do we have any department reports this evening?

We do, mayor.

All right. Chief McMen's going to come up here and chat with us. I also want to take a minute to thank I call him Vince. We have a good relationship. He calls me Damon. And it was a wonderful meeting that we had and his assistant Courtney and we did speak about a lot of the issues that are uh plaguing law enforcement. And the good thing about Vince is he's understanding. He knows what we're fighting against and he's always been there to help us. So kudos to him and his staffer who showed up and and to let me bend their ear and um I'm sure there will be change if he has anything to do with it because Vince is a strong opponent of uh law enforcement. So I really I in fact I enjoyed our visit. I'm going to get into the uh uh statistics for the month of January. Um our total incidents and this is for the city of Taft of course and our total incidents are 893. Our calls for service were 339. Our officer initiated calls were 554. Um we did 47 traffic stops. um 507 other incidents which are patrol checks, which are uh community oriented officers go out and citizen patrol go out and and we love them. They're out there uh shining the lights, traveling the alleys, going down the main streets of our business uh sections to keep uh crime at bay and we have done so. So, we appreciate them. We're going to go to total case cases written 134 Curtis reports of one for other agencies. uh total misdemeanor and felony arrests of 63 in the month of January. 48 misdemeanor arrests and of course 15 yes correct 15 uh felony arrests. So just want to get our stats out and I appreciate what our team's doing. Uh kudos to our dispatch center. We're a little short-handed right now.

We have uh Yahra young lady having a child and so we're a little short-handed but they pick up the slack for each other and I'm super proud of them. All right. Thank you very much. Appreciate the report. Gentlemen, any questions for the chief? I do. I do. Just one, two questions. And just for our viewers to remind our viewers because some of us do understand uh some of these questions, but again, this is just so we can answer to some of our viewers. How can the folks identify where city limits and county limit stops?

Basically, you're asking me, we we we are intermingled with the county, of course, and we all know that. Um the the easiest way is call the call dispatch. They'll pull it up on the screen and notify you right away where you're at. But if you're inside the city and you dial 911, it will come to it will come to our dispatch and u and it's just where your location is at the time when you make the phone call. Right. Could you say that again? Usually we it doesn't work in all cases. If your street sign is green, you're in the county. If it's white and black, you're in the city. Fair enough. Some areas intermingle and they're a little bit, you know, confusing, but most most part it's green and white and and some don't have street signs anymore, right? For issues, but

they're definitely in the county if you don't have a street sign. Yeah. We we used to always say sidewalks, city, non-idewalks, county, but they're they intermingle us also. Uh, city manager said, but the easiest way to do is call 911. Sure. I you know, if it's an emergency, of course, if not, just call the dispatch number and they'll provide you with the information that you need. Sure. at any time. Perfect. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Absolutely. Thank you, Chief. Anything else? Thank you very much, Chief. Appreciate it, sir. Next up, item number five, city manager statement. City Manager Jones. Thank you, Mayor. I have nothing additional tonight. All right. Item number six, city attorney statements. Jason, all right. Thanks, sir. Item number seven, future agenda requests for this evening, gentlemen.

I have none.

None. All right, then. Moving on. Oh, I almost went past that paragraph. We'll move on to the consent calendar. Items 8 through 12. All items listed on the consent calendar shall be considered routine and will be enacted by one roll call vote. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a member of the city council requests specific items to be removed from the consent calendar for separate action. Any item removed from the consent calendar will be considered after the regular business items. Are there any items on the consent calendar that any member of the public would like to comment on? Seeing none, those items are item number eight, the minutes for the January 20th, 2026 regularly scheduled meeting. Item number nine, payment of bills, some $600,000 and change. Item number 10, updated agreement with Vincent Griffith, DBA Native Productions for video and live streaming services. Recommendation is a motion to approve updated agreement with Vincent Griffith, DBA Native Productions, and authorize mayor to execute said agreement. Item number 11, approving a resolution for the authorization bank card services. Recommendation is a motion to adopt resolution entitled resolution of the city council of the city of Taft authorizing bank card services. Item number 12 is a replacement of lease agreement for communications ground lease agreement with California Department of Technology for a telecommunic telecommunications site for their middle mile broadband network and termination of past agreement. Recommendation is twofold. First, a motion to adopt a resolution entitled resolution of the city council of the city of Tap authorizing and approving a communications ground lease for portions

of APN numbers 220-290-10 and 220-42-05 to the California Department of Technology for the purpose of constructing a fenced fiber hut shelter to replace resolution number 4321-25 and then separately a motion to approve the proposed communications ground lease agreement with the California Department of Technology to replace the previously approved lease agreement passed on October 21st, 2025 and find that the project is exempt from the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act, SQUA, as set forth in section 15303 of the SQA guidelines, new construction or conversion of small structures. So I have at this time I will entertain both those motions.

Motion second. Motion a second. You made the motion sir. Any further discussion? No further discussion. Mayor Pro Tim. Any further discussion? No, sir. Okay. I have a motion and a second. Madam clerk, may we have a roll call, please? Council member Crier? Yes. Mayor Prom Bryant? Yes. Council member Waldrop? Yes. Council member Shivera? Yes. Mayor North?

Yes. That's approved on a 50 vote. Thank you, gentlemen. Next up, item number 13, Economic Development Services, HDL Econ Solutions. City Manager Jones. Thank you, Mayor. The city planning department is requesting authorization to execute task orders 1 and two with HDL economic development services. The city of Taft currently maintains a master service agreement with HDL for sales and property tax analysis. The proposed task orders would serve as an amendment to those exist the to the existing contract. HDL Econ Solutions has an extensive knowledge of TAP's local economy, including a comprehensive understanding of the city's various sources of tax revenue generation. HDL proposes to complete all work outlined in the attached proposal for an amount not to exceed $45,000. Payment for task order one will be made upon completion and acceptance of the deliverables by city staff. Task order two would be paid in increments as outlined in the attached proposal based on the completion of the specific work components. A study session to discuss economic development strategies will be scheduled for February 17th city council meeting. During the meeting, the city council will receive a presentation from Richard Chapman of Kernney DC and Barry Foster of HDL Econ Solutions. The study session will be conducted in an open forum allowing members of the public to attend and participate in the discussion.

Thank you, C Manager Jones. At this time, I would entertain a motion to authorize the mayor to execute the professional services agreement with HDL Econ Solutions for tasks one and two for an amount not to exceed $45,000 and find that the activity is not a project for the California Environmental Quality Act, SQUA, as set forth in section 150603 and section 15378 of the SQA guidelines. Motion second. I have a motion and a second. Sir, you made the motion. Any discussion?

Not really. I think I think it's a it's a a good thing that's going to happen here. Good information and stuff to develop ahead of our future. But uh just just want to thank uh us for putting on the agenda and and have it for our February meeting. All right. Thank you very much, sir. Mayor Protown.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to reiterate that the ultimate goal of this is the ability to further enhance our marketing capabilities of the city. We have to think of the city as an entity and you've got to be able to market it, but without data and without understanding that data, marketing doesn't do anything. You can go off hearsay all you want, but people want to see things black and white proven numbers. And I think that the services that HDL offer are offering here will help us do that. When you pair that up and run either parallel or consecutive with some of the work we're looking to engage the uh Kern County Economic Development Corporation with, they can go handinhand and really help push the city forward in terms of uh whether it's diversifying or expanding our current abilities as a city to bring business in. They can look at bottlenecks. Is it infrastructure? Is it, you know, something that we're doing as a city that's prohibitive to business, which I don't think it is, but you never know. The data won't lie. But we need to have the data and need to have the data interpreted because we simply don't have the people here on staff to do that, right? It's not what we do every day. So, I'm very much in favor of this and look forward to a yes vote.

All right. Thank you very much, gentlemen. Any further discussion regarding this? No. I think uh Josh said it correctly. We need that data. All right. Thank you very much. I would have to agree. Madam clerk, we have a motion and a second. May we have a roll call, please? Council member Crier, yes. Mayor Prom Bryant, yes. Council member Waldrop, yes. Council member Shira, yes. Mayor Nort,

yes. That passes on a 50 vote. Thank you all. That brings the open session portion of this evening's meeting to a close. This council will be going into close session for three items. Item A, conference with legal counsel, anticipated litigation, government code section 54956.9B, one undisclosed case. Second item, conference with real property negotiator Craig Jones, city manager, government government code section 54956.8, one undisclosed parcel. And lastly, conference with labor negotiator Craig Jones, city manager, government code section 54957.6, all units. I want to thank you all for being a part of this evening's meeting. This council is going into close session.