The Walnut Creek City Council held a special closed session at 4:30 PM and concurrent regular meetings (City Council and Parking Authority) at 6:00 PM on May 6, 2025. The regular meeting included proclamations, a consent calendar, public communications, councilmember reports, and two major discussion items: the Fiscal Year 2026 and 2027 Proposed Budget Overview and the Draft 2026-2035 Ten-Year Capital Improvement Program (CIP) and Capital Budget. Councilmember Silva was absent due to a planned vacation. The meeting adjourned at 9:47 PM.
Good afternoon. I'm Cindy Darling, Mayor of the City of Walnut Creek, and welcome to the Tuesday, May 6, 2025 special meeting of the Walnut Creek City Council. The special meeting is called for the purpose of holding a closed session related to the following conference with real property negotiators. Does any member of the public wish to comment on a closed session item? As a reminder, each speaker will only have two minutes to make their remarks. Seeing no speakers in the city council will reconvene in closed session. Thank you. All right, good evening. I am Cindy Darling, the Mayor of Walnut Creek, and welcome to the Tuesday, May 6th concurrence regular meetings of the Walnut Creek City Council and the parking authority. The City Council is conducting this meeting from the City Council Chamber. This meeting is being video streamed and can be viewed late live or later on the city's website. As some attendees may be participating in their first Walnut Creek City Council meeting, I wanted to welcome everyone and talk briefly about the public comment process. For each agenda item, there will be an opportunity for public comment on the item. Thus, if you desire to speak on an item that's on our agenda this evening, please hold your comments until the city council gets to that agenda item. Additionally, we have a section on the agenda titled Public Communication, which is for public comments on items that are not on the agenda. Any comments during the public communication should not relate to an item that is on the agenda this evening. Consistent with section 9.5 of the city council handbook, we will allocate 30 minutes for public comment at the beginning of the meeting for items not on the agenda. And we will have additional time for public communication for items not on the agenda. They'll be provided at the end of the open session portion of the meeting if necessary. If you desire to provide a public comment, please compete, complete a speaker identification card and line up behind the lectern at the appropriate time. I'll call you up for the each item. Wait your turn, and then when you approach the lectern, please state your name, City of Residence for the record, and you'll have two minutes to address the city council. Please keep in mind that this is a city business meeting. The City Council has adopted rules of decorum to ensure that meetings are conducted efficiently and effectively and that all members of the public have a full, fair and equal opportunity to be heard. The City Council handbook outlines decorum expected in the council chamber and can be found on our website. All remarks should be addressed to the City Council. Please do not use threatening, profane, or abusive language which disrupts, disturbs, or otherwise impedes the orderly conduct of the council meeting. Again, each speaker will have two minutes to make their remarks and written comments submitted and received up to two hours before the meeting have been posted to the city's website for public review and are included in the meeting record, but we will not be read separately into the record. And this is the last time I'm going to have to read all that because it's going to be videotaped next time. So right now, go ahead and please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. And to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God. Indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Okay, roll call, please. City Clerk Susie Martinez. Councilmember DeVinny. Here. Councilmember Francois. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Welk. Here. Mayor Darling. I am here. And Councilmember Silva is absent due to a planned vacation. Okay. And at this time, I invite Deborah Ahrens, the Executive Director of the Contra Cross of Midrasha, to accept a proclamation. Just come up here and I will introduce the proclamation, then I'll be over, I'll meet you over there. Since our earliest days, Jewish Americans have been an important part of the American story and have greatly contributed to all areas of American life and culture. On April 20th, 2006, the federal government proclaimed May as Jewish American Heritage Month, stating, as a nation of immigrants, the United States is better and stronger because Jewish people from all over the world have chosen to become American citizens. And so we have many generations coming here to our country, and that diversity is part of what makes our country so strong.