All right.

Given her enough time.

Good evening.

I'm Cindy Darling, Mayor of Walnut, the City of Walnut Creek, and welcome to the Tuesday, May 20th, 2025 regular meeting of the Walnut Creek City Council.

The City Council is conducting this meeting from the City Council Chamber.

The meeting is being video streamed and can be viewed 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 everybody 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 do desire to speak to an item that's on the agenda this evening, please hold your comments until the city council considers that item.

Additionally, we have a section on the agenda titled Public Communication, which is for public comments for items not on the agenda.

Any comments during 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, 30 minutes will be initially allocated for public communications for items not on the agenda.

Additional time for public communications for items not on the agenda will be provided at the end of the open session portion of the meeting, if necessary.

If you desire to provide a public comment, please complete a speaker identification card, your handy little yellow cards, and line up behind the lectern at the appropriate time.

Wait your turn and then you approach the lecturer the lectern.

Please state your name and your city of residence for the record.

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 chambers 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 your remarks.

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 will not be separately read into the record.

So now, will you please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Deputy City Clerk Elena Brenson, would you please call the roll?

Yes.

Councilmember DeVinnie.

Here.

Councilmember Francois is absent.

Councilmember Silva, here.

Mayor Pro Town Wilkes.

Here.

And Mayor Darling.

I'm here, and I have heard from Councilmember Francois that he is expecting to be here, traffic permitting.

So we'll move on to our first proclamation.

As we all know this is the month where we celebrate with our housing folks.

Oops, that's public works.

We're going to celebrate housing first.

And because it is affordable housing month.

And Jan and I have spent the whole day together today.

So working on affordable housing.

So quality affordable homes are vital to a healthy, safe, and racially just community.

They foster racially and economically just community for all, even before current high inflation rates, increasing housing costs have led longtime residents to be displaced, to live in overcrowded houses, or experience homelessness, threatening our region's diversity and economic opportunity.

So stable homes is the goal here.

It's the solution to homelessness, it's the solution to keeping our kids healthy, and it's the solution to building our community, having a place where everybody can both live and work.

So people don't have to drive all the way to Tracy to find a place to live.

But it makes the role of the city and the other local and regional governments all that much more important in producing, preserving, and protecting affordable housing opportunities for our low-income residents.

And tonight we have Jan Warren from the what who are you from tonight?

Are you from the Interfaith Housing Coalition or the Affordable Housing?

Why don't you come up and tell us who you representing tonight, Jan?

All right.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is Jan Warren, and I'm chair of the Multiface Action Housing and Shelter Task Force.

That's why I couldn't remember that.

That's a really good I'm also a member of Lafayette Christian Church.

And my church is also a member of EPO.

East Bay Housing Organization, and we all just say EPO.