The Lafayette City Council convened on January 6, 2026, to conduct routine business, hear public testimony regarding council vacancies, flight paths, and pedestrian safety, and address capital improvement updates. The meeting featured a unanimous vote to approve the consent agenda (excluding minutes and salary ordinance for clarification), adopt two proclamations (MLK Jr. Day and Radon Action Month), and amend the Model Traffic Code. Key deliberations included the appointment of a Planning Commission member and the decision to interview all five remaining candidates for the open Council seat.
I will bring the city council meeting to order for January 626 and we'll begin with the lower shit. Clerk back if we can get a roll call, please. Mayor Tapia Vega. Here. Mayor Protem Barnes. Good evening. Councillor Friedland. Here. Councilor Gallegos. Good evening. Councilor Gianola. Here. And Councillor Jensen. Here. Mayor, we have a quorum. Thank you. We'll move on to public input. And before I do, I just want to remind everyone. You can obviously speak in person if you wish to speak in person, just fill up one of the speaker request forms there in the back through that glass door. But you can also call in. So with that, we will start with Betsy Ellis. Hi, I'm a Lafayette resident since 1983. And I want to speak about how the city council fills vacancies on the council. Within days of the election, as we all know, JD Mangett resigned. And in the past, the city council, it turns out takes applications and decides who they want to represent that last that vacant seat. And this in a way surprised me because within days of the election, I thought, well, the people have really spoken. And why the voters would not have the the you know their weight wouldn't be the most important because you know city council has tremendous amount of issues on their plate right now, you know, between deciding which developments get built, annexation, um open space, um filling other boards. Um it's it's a lot that that council is responsible for. And if that person turns it down or can't serve, then it would be offered to the next person. I'm not sure you go all the way down, or whether at that point you would open up to applications. But failure to do this really raises the question of cronyism. Why did you vote for this person? Was it that they had tremendous qualifications? Whether it was you agreed with their positions and thought, well, that would be good, you know, because they agree with my positions and that therefore decisions would be made. They're more like favorable to what I want. Um maybe they went to your church or they're in your neighborhood, but there are a lot of factors that would go into choosing a council person when just um going with the will of the voters. Um, to me is of a paramount importance. Thank you. Thank you. Up next, we will hear from Samantha Brown. Um hello. Um, I'm back again over here standing today. I will try something different. I will try to read um my statement, and I majority of you should receive what I'm just about to say, but just for the public record and people who listen in on um on the TV here. Um today I would like to continue elaborating on pedestrian safety concern along the west region of the Col Creek Trail in so-called Adler Thing Group Art. The main trail is here is winding along the wooded areas, has many areas with limited visibility and sharp turns turns. Main trail is open for use for both for bicycles and slow-moving pedestrians that result in many risky, near dangerous encounters for both pedestrians and cyclists. I would like also emphasize that need for safety is one of the basic human needs, and it's only second to physiological needs like food, water, and shelter. I would like also to read an excerpt excerpt from the public advocacy group, uh feed first that located in Washington, Seattle, and advocates for uh walkable community. Um I find that this quote describes occurring situation on a cold creek trail very well and possibly offers a potential resolution.