Walnut Creek City Council Regular Meeting - August 5, 2025

Good evening.

I'm Cindy Darling, Mayor of the City of Walnut Creek, and welcome to the regular meeting of the Walnut Creek City Council.

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

This 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 everyone and talk briefly about the public comment process.

For each agenda item, there will be an opportunity for public comment on that item.

Thus, if you desire to speak to an item 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 Communications, 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 communication 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 and line up behind the lectern at the appropriate time.

Wait your turn, and then when you approach the lectern, please state your name, City of Residence for the record.

You will 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 your remarks.

Written comments submitted and received up to two hours before the meeting have been posted to the city website for public review and are included in the meeting record, but will not be separately read into the record.

Here council member Francois.

Council Member Silva.

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Wallet.

Here.

And Mayor Darling.

Here.

At this time, I invite City Clerk Susie Martinez to administer the oath to our newly appointed prose commissioner Glorian Sasser.

Come on up.

Hi Glorian Sasser.

Do you solemnly swear?

That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States.

The Constitution of the United States.

And the Constitution of the State of California.

And the Constitution of the State of California.

Against all enemies.

Against all enemies.

Foreign and domestic.

Foreign and domestic.

I'll bear true faith and allegiance.

That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States.

To the Constitution of the United States.

And the Constitution of the State of California.

And the constitution of the state of California.

That I take this obligation freely.

Without any mental reservation.

Without any mental reservations.

Or purpose of evasion.

And then I will well and faithfully discharge the duties.

Discharge the duties on which I'm about to enter.

Upon which I am about to enter.

Congratulations.

All right.

You can um hi Gloria.

Why don't you introduce yourself to the audience and just say a few words?

We want to just say hi.

Welcome you here.

Right, yes, good evening.

I'm Gloria Ann Sasser, and I'm pleased to be um appointed a prose commissioner.

I'm looking forward to working with everyone and hopefully I'm contributing to the continued success of the city.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

We so appreciate everybody that serves on the commissions.

It's it can be a thankless job sometimes, and we really appreciate it.

No, no, no.

It can it is a huge part of making the city run.

So tonight we also have the pleasure of welcoming Dwayne Dahlman, board member of CalEd, which stands for the California Association of Local Economic Development, known as California's premier economic development association with more than 900 members, and is one of the largest economic development associations in the country.

Duane is here to support the Merit Award in the programs and promotions category.

This award recognizes the business leaders for arts program, an innovative initiative that has deepened the connection between our business and arts communities.

Caledist recognition echoes the program's meaningful role in promoting arts downtown and advancing both cultural and economic vibrancy in Walnut Creek.

Welcome.

Oh thank you.

Well, actually, good evening, Mayor, members of the city council.

So again, my name is Dwayne Dalman.

I'm the economic development manager for the City of Alameda, but tonight I'm here as a board member for Calette.

And as the mayor said, CalEd is the statewide organization for economic development professionals.

Every year they have applications that they take for for statewide economic development awards.

Then those applications are reviewed by peers and then presented at the economic development conference.

So I'm excited to be here tonight to present this award of merit to both the city of Walnut Creek as well as the Diablo Regional Arts Association for the Project Business Leaders for the Arts Program.

And to specifically recognize the Diablo Regional Arts Association for their work and contribution to that benefits the city's economic development program.

So I want to say congratulations and very excited for you guys.

Well, why don't you join us down front, Peggy?

Well, thank you very much.

We are so honored to receive this award in partnership with the city because we have a fantastic partnership and arts is commerce and to be part of a contributing to the economic vitality and also bring a lot of fun.

It was really great to see business leaders gathered on stage to celebrate the center between arts and commerce, and we're just getting started.

We have big plans for 2026 to do more of this, so stay tuned.

So thank you very much.

Thank you both.

And I wanted to um call um assemblymember Rebecca Bauer Kahan's because they wanted to help recognize you for being recognized because that's how we roll here.

And then we'll do the picture out front.

We thank you so much.

I'm Sharice Cound, uh field representative for our state assembly member Rebecca Bauer Cahan.

And the assembly member just really wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate um DRAA and the City of Walnut Creek for this award.

There were only two um uh entities and um cities and organizations that received this award in all of Assembly District 16.

Um, and so this is this is a huge honor, and it really is um just you know representative of the excellent work that is done in this city.

Um businesses coming together to support the arts um is essential now more than ever.

Um and arts are such an incredible part of the economic development of this city.

And so we have on behalf of the state of California, congratulations from assembly member Rebecca Bauer Cahan.

All right, now let's give Peggy the big round she deserves.

And now let's all pop out for the picture.

Oh, sure, sure.

I saw the Cindy Salarian.

Oh, Dwayne, don't we go?

Thank you.

It's always nice to have some recognition for the hard work that DRA puts into the city.

Next on the agenda is the consent calendar.

Does any council member wish to pull any items for discussion?

Do any members of the staff wish to pull an item for discussion?

I have two items I'd like to pull.

Okay.

Any others?

All right.

We will now open for public comment on consent calendar items to A, B, C, E, G, H.

And it ends at eight.

Any public comment on those items?

I see somebody approaching.

Oh, it's for regular.

Okay.

All right.

In that case, do we have a motion?

Move to compro consent calendar items two A through C, E, G, and H.

So again.

Roll call, please.

Councilmember Silva.

Aye.

Councilmember Francois.

Aye.

Councilmember DeVini.

Aye.

Mayor Pro Temwal.

Aye.

And Mayor Darling.

Hi.

Motion carries.

All right.

Item two D.

Did you have a question or?

Well, I pulled it in order to thank the city and the Center for uh the Found Community Arts Foundation for their work over the last 10 plus years on behalf of our community and the city and fundraising efforts to provide scholarships for participants in the community arts programs.

Thank you.

Um any comments on item two D.

All right, I'll look for a motion and that to include the revised MOU per the addendum.

Move to authorize the city manager to enter into the five-year memorandum of understanding with the community arts foundation for fundraising and support with the changes that were presented at the diocese.

Roll call, please.

Councilmember Silva.

Hi.

Mayor Pro Tem Walk.

Hi.

Councilmember Devine.

Hi.

Councilmember Francois.

And Mayor Darling.

I motion carries.

All right.

2F.

Thank you very much.

2F is an item to execute a consultant service agreement for the engineering design services related to the Ignacia Valley Road Fiber Optic Communication Network and Infrastructure Improvements.

And I have some questions and hopefully some clarification or elaboration on what this really involves.

This is a multi-million dollar multi-year project.

How we're currently in the past, how we were doing it, and what was the ch what were the challenges, and then what are we moving toward in this multi-year program?

Yeah, um, thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, Council members.

Uh Matt Redman, traffic engineer.

And uh this project essentially upgrades our communication lines that communicate to traffic signals along Ignatio Valley, but really citywide.

But this particular project will upgrade that communication from telephone communication like DSL to fiber optics.

So what we had previously wasn't just a tin can and a string.

It was more improved than a little bit better than that.

Yeah, okay.

But we are going to more um digital.

So they both communicate over the same standard, which is Ethernet, which is essentially like a standard protocol uh that communic that computers communicate with today.

Um but you can have faster speeds, higher bandwidth on the fiber optic rather than the um the copper communication telephone wires we essentially use today.

So, what are some of the challenges if we left it the way it was and what are the advantages and benefits of improving this?

Uh, I'll say that this project is funded from earmarks, earmark money that we received uh a few years ago, and the advantages of uh upgrading this would allow us to have improved video uh quality transmitted to City Hall for live feeds, uh as well as um communication to our traffic signals, and this project will allow for uh some communication to our city facilities, including the Heather Farm Park and other facilities that IT you know can essentially cut the cord on those contract services and use our city fiber optic network.

So essentially saving money there in the in the in the contract services for those buildings.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Any member of the public wish to comment on item two F.

Seeing no comment, I'm open to a motion.

So I move that we authorize the city manager to execute a consulting services agreement between the city and Kimley Horman Associates for the engineering design services for the Ignatia Valley Road Fiber Optic Communication Network and Infrastructure Improvements Project, and that would be just from I-680 to Oak Grove Road.

Second.

Roll call, please.

Councilmember Silva.

Hi, Councilmember Devini.

Hi.

Councilmember Francois.

Hi.

And Mayor Darling.

Hi.

All right.

Next on the agenda is public communication.

This portion of the meeting is reserved for comments on items not on the agenda.

Since there is no more agenda after this, that's all the comments.

Under the Brown Act, the council cannot act on items raised during public communications, but may respond briefly to statements made or questions posed.

We can request clarification or refer to the item to staff.

And we are going to allocate 30 minutes right now to this.

30 minutes, all right.

Well, not for you.

You get your two minutes.

Okay.

Anyway, um, and with that, I will turn to our speaker.

Jan Warren, 40 year resident of Walnut Creek.

Happy to see y'all this August evening.

I didn't I forgot about the film and all when I drove into the wrong place tonight.

I'm here for a couple of comments.

Um the Measure X uh funds uh that were given to the library for tech exchange, and Walnut Creek is one of the three libraries with Pittsburgh and San Pablo, who are going to be having uh on Tuesday and Thursday from 10 to 5 in our library downtown, wonderful opportunities for people to come and get extra help with technology that we know that many of us are challenged with.

They don't need a library card or an appointment, and there's lots of ways that they can be helped with their phone or other technical devices.

So I'm thrilled with that and hope we can get that well out there into the public.

Also want to thank um the work that's being done on our parking uh management that I listen to, I think on transportation.

Um, and that's always a work in progress, but I think we do uh a really good job uh so that we can answer people's questions when they want to complain about parking when we really have a good plan and they just need to to learn what it is.

I noticed in the the some of the comments that were sent in.

There was one about the senior trips with the senior group, and I don't know what happened because I wasn't here that night, but I do have friends that participate in that, so I was uh sad to see see that.

Um I also wanted to um ask who I should talk to with who I should talk with about properties uh that are being rented out by uh RB uh Airbnb in our net in my neighborhood uh to see to make sure that they're being that the city's getting the the revenue that they're I don't know how they're supposed to be registered, but they went from long-term, you know, one three year and now it's you know every weekend or whatever, and that they're good, but I just want to make sure that I just want to make sure they're paying uh to help our city.

All right.

Um any other public comment?

Oh, come on down.

Um good evening, council members and residents of Walnut Creek.

I'm Harika Threny, uh the content manager of open governance or up OPGov and a senior at California High School in San Ramon.

OPGov is a platform that summarizes city council and school bo school board meetings, uh with clear takeaways, public comments, speaker names, meeting videos, and transcripts and links to official PDFs.

We go beyond official meeting minutes, which often lists who spoke.

We include what was said, making information far more accessible to the public.

Uh in Walnut Creek, your 158 million dollar budget is shared by over 46,000 voters.

That's over 3,400 per vote.

But many residents don't feel that impact because it's hard to find or understand what's happening in the government behind the scenes.

Our team of youth volunteers, mostly high schoolers, spend four to ten hours a week making civic information easy to access and understand for everyone.

This isn't just a service, it's a movement for transparency, civic engagement, and youth leadership.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Can I ask you a quick question?

Do you guys use AI when you're doing the transcripts?

Yeah, we do.

Yeah.

We use an AI to summarize the meetings on our website.

Good.

Thank you.

Councilman.

Yeah.

I I uh I really appreciate you doing this.

Uh we've seen that the local media coverage when it comes to newspapers and and places that used to cover all city council meetings.

I remember my first transportation commission meeting year.

We had somebody from the Contra Costa time sitting here for every meeting.

That ended after the first year, and now I think there are two reporters in all of Contra Costa covering all of the different council meetings and and committees, they just can't get to everything.

And so this is really critical.

We're just seeing so much fragmentation on social media and everywhere elsewhere where there isn't actual information.

So the more you can get your message out and work with our communication managers across not just Walnut Creek but across the cities to get your message out that your generation is the future of all America.

We're counting on you.

So anything that uh we can do to help also promote the fact that this is open transparency governance, and ultimately, as you mentioned, it's the taxpayer dollars that are our residents that they want to see what they're getting for that, and so I appreciate you putting in you're not paid for this, right?

This is all volunteer work, so we appreciate what you're doing, and hopefully you see big success from this.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

And one I just wanted to share a story with you.

Years ago when I was on planning commission.

There was a young woman in the audience, and she was from she had a local government class over at DBC, and she approached me when we left the meeting.

She was from China, and she's like, people can just walk into this meeting and ask questions.

She was just astonished.

And there was somebody in the audience that stepped up to speak, it was somebody I knew, and I asked her a question, and she's like, You would never do that in China.

So I appreciate you guys' commitment to openness and to making sure that the word is out there and that we are public.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

I have a quick question.

Thank you for what you're doing.

Are you focused on just Contra Costa County or the whole Bay Area or so right now we're focusing on expanding towards the Bay Area and eventually by the end of the year we're trying to get throughout the entire U.S.?

So if we go to the website, you've got it broken down by the cities that you're currently covering now.

Yes, cities and also two school boards.

Excellent.

All right.

Good job.

Thank you.

All the meetings from uh January 2025 are already somewhat.

I sent a copy of the summary for you guys to review.

Thank you very much.

Yes, I can.

Thank you so much so much for what you're doing.

Um I was wondering if you are focusing primarily on those public agencies who do not have television available to the public to basically watch the whole meeting.

So for example, Councilmember Francois and I sit on the board of Recycle Smart, and that's the garbage and recycling services joint powers authority.

And we do not have televised meetings.

We record the audio, but then we do more than action minutes because there is no way to go back and watch the meeting itself.

And so are you so understanding the differences?

Yes.

If there is an audio, we do take audio as well, just audio.

We can transcribe that too.

We basically take the transcription.

No, actually, what I was asking is are you aware that in some cases that televised replayed video will be more accurate than written minutes?

Yes.

And that's why many have shifted from because they have the television and the expense on the media, they are using that in lieu of having two people sit here and transcribe for for days after each meeting, and potentially putting in their own opinion in an interpretation of what happened.

So yes, uh if there is an audio just to audio recording, we have a tool which will automatically we use the A to transcribe it.

Okay.

So do it much uh unbiased way.

And the idea behind it was because when we go into each and every public comment, there's only one line this person spoke, nothing else.

So thank you.

Thank you so much for your comment.

Or did are you guys anybody else want to say anything?

Uh yeah, okay.

Go ahead.

So I'm from the same organization, and I just want to speak a little bit more about it.

And your name is?

Um I'm Mihika.

I'm a student at Doherty Valley High School, and um I've had the opportunity to volunteer with Open Governance Initiative, and through this experience, I've learned a great deal about how accessible and transparent our local government actually is.

We break down complex city council meetings into simple, clear summaries so that every resident, no matter their background, can stay informed, understand the issues that affect them, and take part in shaping their own community.

The work is vital because informed citizens are empowered citizens.

With a growing team of over 50 volunteers, 12,000 views, and 520 active users, we'll build we're building a movement to bridge the gap between government and the people it serves.

To continue this, we request the entire city council and all the residents of Walnut Creek to create a free op account.

You can do this through our website, opgov.ai, where you can also provide feedback about our platform, which will greatly help us improve what we're doing.

This will allow us to share your updates and decisions in a way that truly connects with the community.

Thank you for your time, and we look forward to partnering with you to build a stronger, more transparent local government.

I would also like to add on that it would be great if you guys could you know, add this tool to your website, kind of as implement it as an action item so more residents could you know use this tool.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

We really appreciate you guys coming down here tonight, and we appreciate the work that you guys are doing.

So thank you.

So I wanted to follow up.

There was some question about how to find whether or not some an airbnb.

Do we have quick?

Yeah, we can um have some folks in our administrative services department uh if Ms.

Warren would like to reach out to them, we can make the connection, yeah.

Great.

All right.

Oh, Jan.

They're gonna call you about the A the Airbnb.

Actually, I'd like to get a little update on what was really the comments around arts and recreation and the senior services.

It seemed a bit confusing.

The letter I was reading, um, yeah, I could provide a quick summary, provide more information.

You may recall we trimmed some programs and services as part of this recent budget adoption with having to close the six million dollar gap.

And one of the programs was effectively um uh we would coordinate uh vacations or trips with uh the seniors, and we discontinued that program, yeah.

And many of those programs were that we were not funding the programs, we were funding the coordination.

We weren't paying for the the trips themselves, but helping fund the court.

Thank you.

That's right.

Anything else?

All right, so that is the end of this.

And um flipping over, we are moving on to council member and staff announcements, reports on activities and city attorney.

Anything to report out on closed session?

Uh nothing to report.

Okay, thank you.

City manager, do you have a report?

Yeah, Dan Buckshire C manager.

Just one very brief update.

Um state legislature is currently on break.

They will reconvene.

I believe it's August 18th, and they will have a little over three weeks in which to consider the roughly thousand bills that are before them, a little over a thousand bills when the legislature convenes in September 13th.

So I anticipate we may receive some information or updates from some of our local legislators asking for inputs on various bills, and certainly we'll be tracking that closely for any that may have a significant impact on Walnut Creek or other cities.

So stay tuned, and then just playing that out in terms of timeline.

The governor after September 13th has roughly three weeks or a month in which to review all the bills, decide which to authorize and which to veto.

Thank you for that update.

Um now we'll move on to city council member reports on AB 1234 activities.

I will turn council member Francois.

Okay.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh I serve as a council's liaison to Walnut Creek downtown, our business improvement district here in Walnut Creek, which does such a great job, and met with the chair and some of the uh board members.

Basically, they wanted to extend uh an offer to help uh with permit process improvements, some of the updates we're making to our sign code.

Uh I was able to tell them about some of the reforms that are already underway, some that date back a ways in terms of the board of appeals, a process where a property owner can appeal a technical determination of building code compliance to a neutral body of uh outside specialists, structural engineers, civil engineers, contractors to rule on those.

So that that sort of uh possibility exists.

Of course, it has to get to a pretty extreme level, and we're not wanting to overload them with work.

And so, what what can we do at the front end in terms of the permit process improvements?

And I know that uh staff is going to have an update for us in September because economic development was one of our priorities, and streamlining the permit process certainly was high up there, and so I encourage them to attend that meeting and also I think they're looking at ways that Walnut Creek downtown and the chamber can assemble their own kind of panel of experts in retail and office and restaurants to advise new uh proprietors of the process and things that can help streamline the process.

So there'll be both a public and a private component to this, and I think it'll be a good good uh combination to try to speed things up in terms of the permit process.

Um July 24th, we had the long-awaited recycle smart board meeting uh where if you've been tuning in to my updates, you'll have remembered that we were in a two-year process of going out to bid for new uh post collection and collection contract services for solid waste, recycling, and organic waste, and not necessarily in that order, but uh those are the services that we provide.

So we awarded the post collection contracts to a variety of different operators last fall, and now we were going through the process of awarding the actual collection contract.

Uh we went out to bid for that uh contract.

We received two bids, both from companies that provide services to us now, including Republic Services, which provides collection services, and I was served on the ad hoc of the board that made a recommendation to the full board, and we did recommend uh that we select Republic Services to and award them a 10 year contract starting in 2027 to continue to provide collection services uh for all those items.

And and one of the key reasons why that we had the two bids, uh Republic's bid was about 14% less than MDRR's bid.

And to put that in dollar figures, it was 10 million dollars a year less, and over the 10 year life of the contract, 100 million dollars in savings by going with Republic.

They also offered many different uh and new exciting services that we don't currently get, including uh on demand second recycling bin for no extra charge.

You just call and say I want a second uh blue bin or a second organic spin, which can be really helpful in the fall when you've got a lot of uh leaves in your yard.

So those are going to be provided free of charge.

We'll now add in uh battery recycling at multifamily uh residential.

That service currently doesn't is not extended to multifamily, so any multifamily development with 16 or more units and a manager on site will now be able to recycle their batteries, just like uh people who live in a single family home do.

Um we're going to add in used cooking oil recycling for those who are interested in that topic.

Uh you know, I would say too, you know, stepping back from the extra services that Republic is providing seven additional trucks and many more employees than currently provided, and all the trucks will be new trucks as they typically are at the beginning of a contract.

So that adds in to the cost of uh bidding this contract.

And let's see, all the carts will be relabeled with new labels so everyone will know what's recycling and what's not, what's compostable and what's not, and we'll have a handy QR code on the bin because those items continue to evolve and change, and so we want to make sure the information is the most current.

Matt, can I ask a question?

So, are these actual new bins that are being swapped out?

Not just a sticker on them.

No, the cost of doing the new bins would be quite high.

I don't have the actual figure on that.

So instead of that, unless if your bin is not operational, call republic, they'll get you a new bin.

But otherwise, they will not be replaced.

We're just going to have them relabel each of the bins, and it'll take some time, six to twelve months.

I should point out too that there'll be there will be extra recycling and composting bins.

It's actually required that they provide those bins in each trash enclosure in a multifamily unit.

So you can't just have a centralized one for each kind of trash enclosure, it has to have now recycling and compostable bins there.

So that was exciting, and that was the effort.

Uh I know uh councilmember Silva served on the design at we we had a lot of ad hoc committees for this and a lot of meetings.

And she served on the first committee.

I served on the second committee, ad hoc committee, and then we've got a great board and and uh asked a lot of good questions and came to a I think a good result and good resolution for continued services, and I applaud our our Republic Smart or Recycle Smart staff for having the foresight to start this process two years before the contract is up.

I mean he's they started it really four years before the process was up and to separate out post collection and collection and to go through a competitive process we did not so much in Walnut Creek but in some other harder to serve communities in Contra Costa County think Arinda Moraga they they did experience some uh service issues especially during the pandemic Republic really turned that around and improved their performance I get one other I think you're gonna bring in the one other item I forgot to mention which is if they miss service if Republic misses service of any one of your cans you automatically now under the new contract starting in 2027 not right this minute will get a $10 credit on your bill for each can for each day that they're late so built in incentive for them to get it right get it done get it done on time.

Okay.

Anything to add on I'll let you add any more council member Silva when we get to you.

Is that okay?

Walnut I attended along with the mayor pro tem the Walnut Creek Library Foundation summer appreciation reception and we heard from the new board president who happens to be a relation of mine that it's nepotism involved there was no nepotism involved and just a desire to serve the community and so really they've got a great board great stories some of the testimonies that the other board members told about you know a library is really one of the very we have we're we're fortunate to have two libraries in Walnut Creek Ignatio and the downtown library but a library is really a place where nothing's expected of you don't have to buy anything you can stay as long as you want the services are free and it's it's a rare commodity kind of in our world these days and a another board member told of a really moving story about how she had um had not gone to to college as she was a single mother at age 22 and through the library she discovered the options and opportunities that were open to her ended up uh graduating from Stanford and then the Kennedy government school and going on to a career in city management so really inspiring stories and good stuff that the libraries are doing on a day to day basis.

Let's see I think wrapping things up tonight along with everyone here I attended national night out to see our law enforcement in full force as in addition to our fire brethren and sisters and got to see a demonstration by Timber the canine dog and quite a fierce dog when you put on that sleeve going after doing your demonstration got to talk to some of our sweeping staff and thank them for what they do on a day to day basis see some of the bomb detection devices and interact with some of the members of the Chief's advisory board.

So it was a great night and thank you for the opportunity to provide an update.

Thank you.

We'll go next to Councilmember Silva.

Thank you very much and I'm gonna start by going back to the recycle smart topic I really lobbied for requiring to test people so they can't throw their garbage away unless they sort it properly but I didn't win on that one so I want you to know you're all safe.

But I want to personally thank my colleague for his work on the ad hoc franchise decision committee I mean it was easier to write the contract proposal than it was to review the the proposals and make help make that decision so thank you for all that work.

The um community service day is that time of year to talk about it.

And if you may have already heard, we are moving from a one time of year format to a two season two opportunity format.

Basically, we're moving the regular community service day, which is a community cleanup day, and it's been going on for about 15 years, to the spring.

It'll be in late April each year, which works better for our schools and others who are looking to get involved in so stay tuned for that.

But more importantly, in the upcoming, we're um changing the fall to a fall community-wide food drive, and this will be throughout the community collecting food in front of grocery stores in neighborhoods.

Also, Brossmore will be having a food drive on the same day.

Online donations are available, and more information will come out in the fall newsletter, the nutshell, and it's available.

Information is available online because we're looking for volunteers.

And so the food that is collected for the food bank of Contra Costa and Solano will be redistributed back into the community as well as other communities.

So the central date to remember is end of September, September 27th, and I hope everybody can volunteer.

And lastly, I will mention I was um in Columbus, Ohio three weeks ago for the summer leadership meeting of the National League of Cities.

I serve on the housing and community and economic development policy committee for the National League of Cities.

In fact, I'm vice chair of that committee, and it's an honor to be able to serve.

But one of the things that the summer meeting affords is the opportunity to visit take mobile tours, and about 40 of us went on a mobile tour of a company called Connect Block Housing.

It is one of the nation's largest modular manufacturer.

Wait a minute, modular company for modular apartment manufacturing right.

It's a warehouse, and everything other than the pouring and laying of the foundation is actually done in the manufacturing plant, including the training.

It's faster, they can work year-round, they can shorten the time to market from an average of two years in Ohio to 18 months, save money, they train the train labor in the field in the plant to within a day, they're can be doing skilled labor and get getting the work done, and it's a model that we probably need to think about across the country because they have a housing crisis across the country, it's not in this just in California.

The interesting thing, and I'm looking for our community development director, is that the state approves the plans that are done in the manufacturing plant, and the local agency is only responsible for what's built on site in the field.

So and we went out then from the manufacturing plant.

We went to a local apartment building, and I rolled out, they parked in a parking lot.

We went walked around the block and they stopped, and I said, So where's the building?

I was standing right in front of it.

You wouldn't know it from the exterior, and the quality of the work inside was amazing, but it was modular.

So very interesting, and I'm hoping we can talk about it at the state level here as an alternative of way how to expedite what we're doing.

And that is my report.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Councilmember DeFiny.

Good evening.

Um I uh had the pleasure of attending the East Bay Leadership Council installation awards uh last week.

And uh it was a very nice event while while I was there, made a connection with um uh the executive director for the workforce development uh board for Contra Costa County, and I was thinking about our Trinity Center and how uh they've started their workforce program, and um so we put the two of them together, and I'm I'm hoping that creates a you know productive connection.

Um it speaks to uh, you know, when we look at homelessness and and the approach to homelessness, I think it's sort of a two-prong approach.

One is to uh provide uh unhoused folks with an avenue to housing uh through supportive services, and then there's the um you know, see enforcement side of things when there's a public disturbance or um uh you know we need to get the police involved, and so it it dovetailed on to uh what we what we got this week in our correspondence report, and I wanted to to give a shout out to our homeless outreach program.

Um there was an encampment and there was uh public intoxication going on, and uh while the neighbors were in the midst of filing the complaint.

Our our homeless outreach program had already identified the problem, and I just want to read an expert from an excerpt from that communication.

It says, as you may have noticed, our homeless outreach officers um have been resolved have been working to resolve this matter this week.

On Sunday, one of our hop officers contacted the subject of the encampment and arrested him for public intoxication.

The hop officer at that time initiated the encampment protocol by posting a 72-hour notice at the site, and then uh the following uh couple days later, they returned to the location and um cited the uh subject for illegal lodging and facilitated an encampment cleanup.

So I just want to remind the community that that resource is available and um and compliments um our police officers for that program.

Um and then and then uh the last thing I wanted to bring up was uh, and I know it's something we've been talking about, but it it really struck me the other day.

I was leaving work, it's about nine o'clock at night, and I'm turning out of La Casa Via, and three three bikes, three e-bikes came up the middle of Ignacio, going about 30, 35 miles an hour.

They're all kids.

Um, one of them had a headlamp, the other two didn't.

They're all wearing dark clothes.

It was dark out.

Um I'm we're working hard at the city to try to resolve uh this issue or to try to help to solve this problem.

It's gonna be something that we need probably the state or the county to step in and pass a more broad ordinance.

But I wanted I want to make a plea to the parents in Walnut Creek who have kids between the ages of I'd say 10 and 15.

Um these V-bikes are very popular, and they often use them.

Uh kids, I have three boys myself.

They like you know, kids will push the bubble.

So uh beware of these the bikes, the e-bikes that you're buying your kids and how they may be being used, uh, because they're really just little motorcycles out there that many of the kids are putting themselves in danger.

And I feel like we are uh we're in a if not if not if but when scenario for you losing a young member of our community, and I don't want to see that happen.

So, thank you.

Mayor Pro Tem.

Uh, well, certainly, Councilmember DeVinny brings up a good point on that, and it's something that we're looking at more in terms of education and working with the schools.

Um, when you were Mayor Pro Tem last year, you and I went out with a couple of transportation commissioners out in the Valley Verde area, and we saw the issue that was going on as kids were speeding down their e-bikes in the wrong way on the street and through stop signs.

The sun is in the eyes of people that are going east on CGR with that time, and that was just one school.

Multiplied that by all the schools that we have in our area, and we see the problem.

And uh our police are very much aware of this.

I spoke with our chief and captains earlier this evening.

Uh it's an issue we do have to address this.

And we're not alone.

I mean, this is every city in the state and probably across the country are dealing with the same issues right now.

Um, so if parents are hearing this, let this be the early message.

Please educate your children, primarily teenagers, on the safety of riding e-bikes.

These are like electric motorcycles, and you need to take the same kind of precautions and follow the rules of the road, and you'll be hearing a lot more of this from your schools and from the city in the months to come.

Now I've finished your update.

And I really commend you for bringing this up because the one difference between a car and one of these is you can't take the car keys away.

There are no keys.

There's no way you have to physically lock them up.

And a car provide you some kind of protection with the frame.

So you are on your own out there.

Anyway, all right.

Thank you for bringing that up.

And uh and I'm receiving more emails on this than any other topic right now.

Rest assured, we are discussing this within the city management.

Uh as the liaison of county connection, just a couple of quick updates on that.

The first is that the youth pass that we uh are that we sponsored for July and August, to let you know how popular this is when you allow free passes for youths to ride without any kind of registration or sign ups.

In June of 2024, we had free passes on county connection buses throughout the system, and they just had to register ahead of time.

And there were 630 students that rode for free in June of 2024.

This last June, they just walked on the bus.

And if they looked under 18, they got the ride.

And if the bus driver had a question, maybe asked for a ID, but they weren't pressing the issue.

11,889 youths rode the bus for free in June on County Connection.

And so it was just this incredible increase of 1,700%.

We also saw this on Tri-Delta Transit in West Cat.

The idea behind this is get youths to ride public transit now, and they become adults comfortable with riding public transit as well.

So we we will I'll get the updates for what the July numbers are too, and then we'll be having, of course, the the different youth pass programs when school starts.

Well, school starts tomorrow, but it'll uh we'll get that for the fall as well.

But it really shows that these programs can work.

Mayor Pro Tem, were you gonna mention the free trolley seems to be back?

So has the electric infrastructure of BART been fixed?

Yes and no.

Uh there we do see the free trolley, about half the buses are working right now.

The problem with the other half is that they're not connecting to the charging device that's at BART.

That you absolutely need to recharge these buses on every route that they're making.

So if we can get them from the county from the county connection courtyard, which is in Martin is about as far, or I'm sorry, Concord, about as far down as you can get in Concord.

And they use about half of their electricity just to get here.

So they absolutely need the BART inductive conducting system, and about half the buses aren't making that handshake right now.

And so we're still working on that.

We hope to have that resolved in a couple of months.

The good news is that we do have about half the buses running right now.

The bad news is that the other half are sitting as a as good bookends in the courtyard.

Uh I did want to let you know about a quick straw poll.

I mentioned this a couple of months ago.

It county connection will be taking a vote in the next month to two months on when their uh their monthly break will be for county connection.

It appears that right now the headwind the winds are going toward July because with school starting in August, early August, uh a lot of staff especially find that they have to be back now by August 6th, and so having the month of August off isn't as helpful as it was previously when school was starting at the end of August or Labor Day.

So a lot of these cities are also moving toward that, and it just may be something again.

I brought this up before, but something we want to think about if we want to look at July as our recess rather than August moving forward, just putting it out there.

Um I do want to make sure that our staff feel as comfortable as possible in this, and I would want to make sure that staff was consulted on uh on the pros and cons and what their what their wishes are.

Kevin, could I interrupt and ask the city manager a question?

Yeah, is this require um contract negotiations if we were to discuss a change in when our summer recess is?

No, I don't believe so.

It's the schedule for the city council meetings, which is within the purview of the council.

So it doesn't necessarily mean everybody's off.

It's just it's those that might be involved with the city council meeting.

Okay.

Um also at the library celebration at the downtown library, and of course, that's a great opportunity to get the word out, and and thank you, uh Councilmember Francoff for bringing that up.

Um, my closest library is the ACO library, and that's just a great resource to have.

I was also at the Shadow's Historical Society annual event.

The Historical Society, I think, is one of those societies that we don't hear enough about, and it's just amazing resource.

We hear about the car shows that are there every now and every year and some of the different events like the tea that the sponsored uh the high tea in December.

But this really is a way to help to celebrate those volunteers that uh and the donors that come out to help support the Shadowlands Historical Society.

Just any of the any of the pictures that are around the city council chambers or throughout City Hall, these come from the Historical Society.

If you haven't been out there, it's it's terrific.

Uh nice turnout, and former mayor Loella Haskey was there as well.

So it's always always good to see her.

And then lastly, last week, Congressman Mark DeSony held a town hall at Rossmore on Social Security and Medicare.

I think he hit the right audience in going there for that particular topic.

Uh there were probably 400 500 people that showed up for that.

Uh obviously very important to them.

His town halls are always terrific.

And then I also was able to accompany him to the Trinity Center for a tour later in the week.

And he was so impressed with what he saw at the Trinity Center.

And those tours are just terrific.

And I want to really have a big shout out to our one of our planning commissioners, Molly Klopp, who helped to organize all of this.

And what he said, and I quote that this helps him restore his faith in humanity.

When we see so much that's going out there that seems to be taking advantage of people that are uh underprivileged or that we are sacrificing the wrong aspects of society, this we see what we're able to do, the good that the Trinity Center is able to do to help our homeless and indigent and people that need it.

And it's so much more than people may think.

And I've had several tours of there over my tenure here, and I think I first went in there thinking, oh, they're pri providing some food and uh and it's a place for them to be.

They do so much more from showers to and something I hadn't even thought about in uh until I first saw it, is they provide an address for people that don't have housing because when you need a job, you have to provide a uh an address, and they're not accepting post office boxes anymore.

So, how does somebody homeless provide an address?

Well, the Trinity Center provides that, they have a whole mail department there.

People are able to get that, they have computers, people can get online and apply for jobs.

This is a full service, and while right now it's only five days a week, um, nine to nine to six, something like that.

Um, they would certainly like to be able to extend their hours because homelessness is not a nine to five job, and uh we are so thankful to have them here, and it's like the rising tide lifts all ships, and we're seeing this across with different cities as well, but they're truly a big resource, and I think our hop team certainly uh is is not just appreciated by the Trinity Center, but the hop team appreciates the Trinity Center as well.

So thank you for all of that and for being a shining light and helping the less fortunate among us.

That's my report.

Thank you.

And I'll start off mine with the big thank you because I took the last two weeks off.

And the mayor pro tem was because there are seven Kevin Wilkes.

There's not just one, there's seven.

He covered a bunch of things for me, and I really appreciate that.

Um, before I left town, I do represent the city on MCE, which is our electricity supplier, and we had set rates for the year a while back, but we had left open the issue of whether or not we would increase the amount that gets charged to customers in the deep green, which is the 100% renewable resource category.

Uh, we have been seeing an uptick in the cost of those.

Um we did end up with a very small additional increment that will be um charged to deep green customers that will affect the city because we are a deep green customer, and we were reassured by staff that the deep green customers tend to be the most loyal, and it was important for to me to increase the cost so that they are not burdening other users, that they're paying the full cost of what they're getting.

National Night Out was a heck of a lot of fun.

It's always great to go see everybody, go play with everything.

And I did not put on the bite suit for the dog because that was just like not going there, not going there.

A couple things coming up.

The last Wednesday on Locust will be this week.

We are looking forward to original Joe's opening on August 14th, and that will be quite the event.

They have a soft opening a little bit before then, and then should be open for business after that.

Staff and I are working to help Senator Grayson go on a walkabout in Walnut Creek, and we're going to go show him so he understands better now that he represents us.

And lastly, you know, back to the topic of traffic and safety and everything else.

CBS reached out, one of their reporters, and I talked to her today.

She started from the perspective, there's a change.org petition that talks about traffic in Walnut Creek and the need for that.

And I got updates from both PD and from Public Works, all the different things that we're doing.

And I shared those with her and shared with her the message about helping people remember to drive safely, helping people to understand e-bikes and watching out now that school starts.

So we're looking, hopefully, that message got through, and we'll see that report sometime later this week.

And that is my report for the last two weeks because the rest of it was vacation for me.

And that brings us to the end of our meeting.

So this evening we are pausing to honor the life of Jake Larson.

He's known to millions as Papa Jake on TikTok.

And he used his to his fellow veterans as a proud member of the Greatest Generation.

A World War II hero, Jake used his voice and his stories to inspire hope, resilience, and patriotism in people of all ages.

I talked to his kids about this, and they said he never talked to them at all about that until very recently.

And they said it was his greatest joy was to share these stories with people.

We were very honored to have Papa Jake join us at the City of Walnut Creek's Memorial Day event this year.

And we are grateful for his service to our nation for the joy he brought to so many of us.

And may his legacy continue to remind us of the courage it takes to stand for something greater than ourselves.

So rest in peace, Papa Jake.

You will not be forgotten.

Thank you.

And with that, we are adjourned, and I did not make the seven o'clock cut, so I leave.