Walnut Creek City Council Regular Meeting – June 3, 2025: Budget, Bonds, and Appointments
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Walnut Creek City Council Regular Meeting – June 3, 2025
The Walnut Creek City Council held a regular meeting on June 3, 2025, beginning at 6:00 p.m. and adjourning at 9:24 p.m. The meeting included proclamations, consent calendar actions, public hearings on revenue bonds and city job vacancies, and review of the proposed FY26-27 operating budget and master fee schedule. All councilmembers were present.
Consent Calendar
- Approved unanimously (5-0): City Council minutes of May 20, 2025; acceptance of warrant registers and payroll transfers; authorization of arts and recreation printing services agreements (Folger Graphics and Stevens Printing, annual not-to-exceed $125,000 per vendor); award of contract for Lesher and Hofmann Stage Replacements to Rodan Builders Inc. ($633,503 contract price, $60,000 contingency, total authorized $693,503); and approval of Measure J Growth Management Program Checklist for fund reimbursement.
- Item 2c (SB1 projects) pulled by Mayor Darling – Adopted Resolution 25-20 after correcting neighborhood references. Approved unanimously.
- Item 2d (plan check consulting firms) pulled by Councilmember DeVinney – Authorized the City Manager to enter into Master Consultant Services Agreements with seven firms for up to $715,000 each over five years. Approved unanimously.
- Item 2g (Q3 budget update) pulled by Councilmember Silva – Accepted the Fiscal Year 2025 Third Quarter Budget Update report. Approved unanimously.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Denise Kalm (Walnut Creek resident) – Expressed opposition to proposed bike paths at Lime Ridge Quarry, citing safety concerns with e-bikes, fire risk, and biodiversity damage.
- Bob Linscheid (Walnut Creek Chamber & Visitors Bureau) – Thanked council and staff for the successful Art & Wine Festival held the prior weekend; noted Saturday sales were about 40% below last year due to heat, but Sunday was strong; acknowledged police, AMR, and BART support.
Discussion Items
- Proclamations – Recognized Gun Violence Awareness Day (Mayor Darling read statistics) and LGBTQIA+ Pride Month. Representatives from Moms Demand Action and Rossmoor End Gun Violence Club accepted; Rossmoor LGBTQ Alliance presented for Pride.
- Councilmember Reports – Members reported on various community events, including the Art & Wine Festival, BART new fare gates, Aquanuts fundraiser, Memorial Day ceremony, and legislative updates (SB1, cap-and-trade, homelessness funding).
- Public Hearing 5a (TEFRA Bonds for Sequoia Living/Viamonte) – Staff introduced item; David Latina (Sequoia Living) explained $165 million bond refinancing for four continuing care communities, with a minor portion for Viamonte. Council adopted Resolution 25-21 unanimously.
- Public Hearing 5b (AB 2561 Job Vacancies) – HR Director Trish Raver presented vacancy data (10.3% overall vacancy rate; no bargaining unit exceeded 20% threshold). Presentations were also given by:
- Shane Blatz (Walnut Creek Police Officers Association) – Detailed sworn staffing challenges: 61 full-duty officers out of 85 authorized, attrition due to retirements, competition, and lengthy hiring process; requested competitive compensation and support.
- Zachary Riquelme (Dispatcher, Teamsters) – Stated dispatch center has 12.5 FTEs, down from 14.5; forced overtime for 25 of 30 days in June; urged restoring two positions to reduce burnout and improve 911 response times. Council received and filed the presentation unanimously.
- Consideration 6a (TBID Assessment Report) – Economic Development Manager Mike Nimon and Nicole Hankton (Visit Walnut Creek) presented the Tourism Business Improvement District annual report and intention to levy assessments for FY26 (no rate change). Council adopted Resolutions 25-22 and 25-23 unanimously, setting a public hearing for June 17, 2025.
- Consideration 6b (FY26-27 Proposed Operating Budget & Master Fee Schedule) – Budget Manager Ryndie Azevedo presented: projected deficits of $4.97M (FY26) and $6.33M (FY27) before balancing actions, addressed through revenue increases, operational cuts (including overtime reduction), and personnel reductions of 3.75 FTEs. Proposed adds include general plan update, body-worn cameras, and Clark Pool master plan. No changes to police or dispatch FTE. Council discussed adding an outdoor dining incentive program.
- Public comment: Jan Warren questioned the use of tree replacement funds for salaries and criticized charging swimming fees for two-year-olds; she urged funding for police dispatchers and homeless services.
Key Outcomes
- Unanimous votes on all consent items and resolutions.
- Motion by Mayor Darling, second by Francois, carried 5-0: Directed staff to add approximately $100,000 to the proposed budget for an outdoor dining incentive/rebate program (potentially from Downtown Parking and Enhancement Fund), with a cap on monies per applicant; and to hold off on deciding the use of Measure O unallocated year-end fund balance until the cost of the new aquatic and community center at Heather Farm Park is known.
- Motion by Councilmember DeVinney to direct staff to revisit the $48 per square foot assumption for outdoor dining parking fees – failed for lack of a second.
- Council provided feedback on the budget and master fee schedule; staff will incorporate direction and bring the full budget for adoption on June 17, 2025.
- Separate special meetings earlier in the day (not on video) resulted in appointments: Lorie Tinfow to Library Commission (alternate), Cherise Khaund and Brendan Moran to Planning Commission, and Board of Appeals recruitment reopened; all motions carried unanimously.
Meeting Transcript
Good afternoon. I am Cindy Darling, mayor of the City of Walnut Creek, and welcome to the Tuesday, June 3rd, 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 a conference with legal counsel on existing litigation times two. Does any member of the public wish to comment on a closed session item? Seeing no one, we will reconvene in closed session on the third floor. Thank you very much. Good evening. I am Cindy Darling, the mayor of the City of Walnut Creek, and welcome to the Tuesday, June 3rd, 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 desire to speak on an item on the agenda this evening, please hold your comments until we get to that item. Additionally, we have a section on the agenda titled Public Communication, and which is for public comments for items that are not on the agenda. Any comments during public communication should not relate to an item that is on the agenda for the evening. Consistent with section 9.5 of the city council handbook. We will allocate additional time for public communications for items not on the agenda at the end of the open session of the meeting if necessary. If you desire to provide a public comment, please complete a little speaker identification card and line up behind the lectern when I call for you. Wait your turn and when you approach the lectern, please state your name and city of residence for the record. You'll have two minutes to address the council. And I will talk about this later, but organized groups can have 10 minutes if nobody else in the group decides to speak. 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 is going to 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 please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Councilmember DeVini. Here. Councilmember Francois. Here. Councilmember Silva. Here, Mayor Pro Temwell. Here. Mayor Darling. Here. All right, thank you. The first item tonight is a proclamation relative to recognizing gun violence. And this is one that is a huge issue in our community and our country because every day 125 Americans are killed by gun violence, and more than 200 are shot and wounded with an average of more than 17,000 gun homicides every year. Americans are 26 times more likely to die by gun homicide than people in other high-income countries. And firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens in America. I could keep going on and on with the statistics, but it is something that we need to find a way to break the cycle and to get out of this. While we support the second amendment and the right of law-abiding citizens, we also need to make sure that we're handling guns responsibly and reasonably in this community. We are working in partnership with a number of groups here tonight, and um I would like to invite um I rearranged my schedule my list of things here. I would like to invite up Aaron Roder with Mom's Demand Action and Kathy Maloney from the Rossmore group that is the president of the end gun violence club to accept this proclamation from the city. And you can I welcome brief comments from both of you on your work to help end gun violence. So please come forward. Yeah, come up here.
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